#AND THE JACKAL MOUNT UGH

[blackbackedjackal]

GW2 is one of those games I've been playing for so long that it's just a comfort space for me. I love the game and I love talking about it, but you gotta push the hyperfixation button in my brain otherwise I'll hardly mention it.

[memoirsofratasum]

Aeromage Sanna: Whisper in the Dark

The flight of Bangar Ruinbringer has not gone unnoticed by the Pact. All three organizations have been combing the Far Shiverpeaks for his and his followers’ trail. Normally a charr army of even a moderate size would have left signs behind, but the weather is hindering the search. Back when I was in college for climatology, the extreme weather patterns that high in the range was considered a mystery as they didn’t follow the known formulas. I think it’s obvious in hindsight they’re due to the Elder Dragon Jormag.

The Vigil has a fort in that area of the Shiverpeak, Jora’s Keep, that I’ve heard members claim would be a good hosting ground for further searches. When Priory airships were getting fueled and prepped for colder weather, it seemed like a simple idea to use the fort to continue the search. I was assigned for the trip, as expected. Too much experience in wilderness search-and-rescue to be left behind. But I was surprised when Tarnn said he was staying behind. He was going back to Tarir to assist in translating some newly discovered Exalted glyphs, something he hadn’t worked on in years, and that it might help in getting a promotion to magister or an equivalent rank. I didn’t think anything of it at the time and wished him good luck. It wasn’t until later that it hit me that this was the first field assignment in who knows how long that we weren’t assigned together. 

We were briefed in the air. This was not, as we had suspected, about Bangar. The Pact commander had gone on head to Jora’s Keep, but instead of a warm welcome all they found was a dead fort. All of the standing Vigil members had been killed by one of their own. The normally observant Vigil hadn’t expected it and so they had no defense. To make matters even worse, General Soulkeeper was missing. Warmaster Jhavi Jorasdottir is the only known survivor and the Vigil needs to re-establish itself in the area. So the other organizations are helping them figure out what happened and get the Keep back up and running, especially important with the Sons of Svanir at their doorstep.

To say it was chilling might come off as a pun but that couldn’t be further from my intention. When we disembarked from the airship, the Keep had an almost haunted aura to it despite all the people rushing around. Everyone I passed during the briefing tour seemed to be slightly distracted, constantly looking over their shoulder or startling as if hearing something just out of range. The only person who looked to be fully present was Havroun Weibe, a servant of Raven. He isn’t officially a part of the Pact, but as Raven has a strong presence in the area he is highly respected. My own raven Stratus even emerged from his warm space in my cloak for a headscritch from the havroun.

After the tour, we Priory members were warned to not leave the keep without dispensation from our superiors and we were told to use question anyone who left the fort on their own. Apparently there has been an issue with people leaving their posts for the wilderness with only the lucky being found alive. At first it seemed to be desertion or an over-eagerness to take the fight to the waiting Svanir. But the survivors seemed delirious, saying they were being whispered too and watched. They say Jormag itself is trying to confuse our people in order to weaken us.

Because of this I wasn’t allowed to explore Bjora Marches liked I wished. A chance to study the extreme weather up here would have been a dream for college-me, and even though my career has changed to the medical profession, I was still disappointed that I was walled in. I was to spend most of my time cooped up indoors caring for the injured, the sick, and the cold. The buildings looked to be in disrepair despite having been fully occupied until recently. The wind whistled through the planks of the infirmary, sounding like whispers if you weren’t paying attention. It’s obviously ridiculous, it’s just the mind finding patterns that aren’t actually there.

The noise seems to be disturbing my patients though. Some ask me if I’ve heard someone speak, others just stare off into space, not aware of me trying to get their attention. I just need to remain calm. But that damn wind! I can barely hear myself think! The quartermaster tells me that there aren’t enough supplies to patch up the holes in the wall right now and that the stone surrounding the keep has been keeping the worst of the weather at bay and that it’s probably not wind I hear. I’m an elementalist, I think I’d know wind when I hear it! Ugh, I’ll just have to deal with it. The quartermaster wouldn’t have been so dismissive if Tarnn was here, I wouldn’t be so alone then. I’m kinda here by myself here in the infirmary. I mean sure, there are the other medics but they’re busy. And there are the patients but they come and go and aren’t really there. And- but I have Stratus. He starts getting flappy and cawing when my mind wanders like this, he probably wants attention. It’s nice to have him with me. But he’s still just a bird.

I try to ignore that whistling whisper through the planks as I work. I’m just feeling lonely and letting it get to me. Maybe I should reach out and get to know some people around the campfires. But all of these reports of people saying they are hearing voices is scaring me a little. If it is the Jormag mesmerizing them, what are they being told? To attack us? That already happened once. What were they thinking manning this Keep so soon with the threat still out there?

Maybe I should get out of here.

What the hell is wrong with me? I can’t desert my post. I’m needed here.

Only to wind up with a dagger in my back? It’s not like I don’t know how to take care of myself out in the wild, the cold wouldn’t be an issue. I would just need to get back to Grothmar Valley…

Grothmar? I’m not sure if I want to depend on the hospitality of the Blood Legion. The festival had been tense enough and they had been under orders to be friendly. Now? Forget it, I’d be skewered just for the sake of releasing pent up frustration. 

That whistling air is getting louder. I can’t think. It’s this damn infirmary. I need to get outside, too many walls around me. Just a few minutes, just enough to clear my head. That’s all I need.

It’s cold out. It’s always cold. There aren’t a lot of people on watch, most of them are by the fire. Pact and adventurers were streaming in and out of the gates on their colorful mounts. An asura in a parka wouldn’t be unusual. I don’t need to alarm anyone. It’ll be fine. It’s just for a minute.

I stepped out of Jora’s Keep for the first time since we arrived, but that whistling whisper in my ears didn’t go away. I needed to get further away. There is a well worn path and the sky is overcast so there isn’t any glare. I wish I could see the sky more clearly though, blue sky against the white mountains would be lovely.

Maybe a little further I can find a new angle to see from.

Snow is falling. I should reattune myself to fire to stay warm, or to water to equalize myself with the cold. But I don’t. I don’t know why. I feel like I can’t be bothered. I’m not going to be out here long anyways, what does it matter?

Why is it not quiet out here? Snow is supposed to be muffling, but it seems as if the whispering wind is louder than ever.

My head hurts. 

A small spell could fix that. But why waste the energy? It’s nothing to complain about.

It’s getting hard to see, a blizzard is starting. That’s fine. I’m an elementalist, I was born for this weather. I don’t need to see to find my way.

I can barely make out a small cliff face on my right and I feel as if I’m on an incline. I should turn around. Eventually. But not yet. I just got out here, and I haven’t found the quiet yet.

I trip on something hard and metallic. I catch myself on the edge of a stairstep. It was so sudden that whatever I was thinking about is gone completely. Looking up, I see the outstretched wings and well sculpted face of Raven. 

And suddenly a fog is lifted from my mind. Everything came back to me in a sharp painful focus. I had wandered away from the Keep, done the exact thing we had been warned about on the first day. The dragon must have gotten into my head, under my skin, and now I was out alone in the Frozen Pass. Thank Alchemy and the Six that by chance I literally stumbled into a Raven Shrine. Or maybe it wasn’t by chance. I don’t want to think about it. Already I feel warmer under the shelter of the wings. But I can’t stay out here, I need to get back to the fort, I’m needed there. If I can trust my bearings I should be at the Western Shrine. Jora’s Keep should be a straight line across the snow. My jackal could cut the trip in half and I’d trust her nose more than my sense of direction right now.

A familiar caw takes my attention and I see Stratus flapping frantically through the snow and into the shelter of the shrine. He fluffs his feathers a little when he lands on my wrist and wastes no time in claiming my parka hood for himself. I didn’t even realize he wasn’t with me, I had just left without a thought. He must have been following this whole time even though it was so cold out.  I guess I have two ravens looking out for me.

My jackal doesn’t need any direction from me as she gallops for the Keep, the light of the Raven beacon directly ahead. In hindsight, it was obvious that Jormag was enticing me. I had assumed they used verbal words in the mind, that’s what others said it was like. But an Elder Dragon wouldn’t be confined to just one method. A subtle touch, non-existent wind just on the edge of hearing could keep anyone from thinking clearly. I shouldn’t blame myself for falling for it. 

We reach the gate and I’m prepared to answer to my magister about my disappearance, but I think I go unnoticed as the keep is oddly invigorated with a nervous energy, no one is standing still. Warmaster Jorasdottir is barking out orders to the Vigil members and the rest of us are trying to stay out of the way. The scraps I overhear is that General Soulkeeper has been found and the Vigil is going to “bring her home.” But no one is offering up any further details, just that it’s a need-to-know “Vigil business” right now and they’ll have an official announcement for the rest of us later. 

I don’t know what the announcement could possibly be, but it will be good to have Soulkeeper back. She’ll get everything back to order. 

[xaeneron]

On Path of Fire

I haven’t done one of these in a while (or rather I wrote them and then forgot to post them lel), so maybe I’ll actually post this one for the new GW2 expansion after spending the week running around.

Overall, I found the expansion to be pretty solid; the maps are beautiful, the mounts are hilarious and well-implemented, the story was interesting and decently paced, and I’m still experimenting with the new elite specs.  Massive spoilers below the cut!

Questions on anything I wrote, thoughts of your own?  Feel free to boop me; I know I wrote a lot.  

But really, don’t say I didn’t warn you.  There are a LOT of bullet points beneath that cut.  xD

On the maps

Obligatory: they are huge.  It’s fitting since they were designed against HoT’s verticality and more geared towards the use of mounts, so it’s more of an observation, less of a complaint.  There’s a lot of detail and a lot of little things here and there, and it’s incredibly fun to see what you can get away with using mounts to get around the terrain.

That being said I do miss the verticality of HoT maps.  Maybe a combination of both pls? :3

I kind of wish there were more large obvious meta events, but I haven’t gotten to see all of the sort of meta events that go on in the PoF zones. I do think the large metas add replay value, but again a balance is a good thing.

We spur-of-the-moment yolo’ed the Ruptured Heart meta with 11 people.  It was actually pretty fun.  Also so many cannonades ;-;

Hearts feel like they take just a little bit too long.  Some of them are amusing, but when trekking through zones doing map comp (or redoing hearts to get collection items) they drag on a bit.  Guild chatter about hearts was fantastic though:

“These nobles are useless.  What should I do with the chamber pot, throw it off the side or throw it at one of them?”

“I’m throwing flowers at people and making them happy?”

“Matchmaker heart best heart.”

Bounties are hilariously fun?  Sometimes you get unfortunate bullshit combinations of modifiers (anti-stacking fleas + pls stack in the bubble to actually be able to hit the boss mob, I’m looking at you), but overall they’re quite fun.  We spent a good few hours trekking through all five zones murdering things and getting murdered.

These actually look super promising for replayability; our goal/challenge as a group has always been to optimize and work together, so it should be fun to go track down bounties and see what kind of dumb shenanigans we can get up to.

I actually find these really fun in small groups of 5-10.  Zergs sound...unfun.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The caffeinated skritt is...kind of annoying.  Mostly because it doesn’t operate like the treasure mushroom in HoT and you have to be on the class you want the collection item on, and the maps are so large someone could trigger a chest and no one would be the wiser.

A tip though for people wanting to complete multiple collections: you only need to loot the last bag it drops.  If you’re wandering around with friends and they’re nice enough to chill at the bag, you can reload with other characters and grab the bag again for another collection item (until it despawns).  I have no idea if this was intended, but I burned a few TP to friends on this for the lulz.

I had a lot of GW1 feels running through these maps, especially going down to the Desolation and Vabbi.  I appreciate that these places still exist but have changed with the years, and it’s nice to see what happened.  

Although Vabbi is one weird-ass place now.

BUUUUUUT Zomoros’ lair was hilarious.

I haven’t explored for the sake of exploring in a very long time and it was really, really nice.

CHOYA PINATA.

On the elite specializations

I haven’t actually gotten to try all of them yet, but I’m also not super enthused about all of them (Spellbreaker, I’m looking at you).  Also a gentle reminder that my opinions are mainly based on my background as a PvE player and moreso as a raider.  Also they’re just initial opinions.  Opinions change.  

I started with thief (duh), and proceeded to do the entire story with Daredevil.  I’m not particularly a fan of Deadeye; I appreciate the archetype but I don’t really see rifle having a place with a game designed more around active response in combat.  Also as someone who still can’t shake the seaweed salad dance, rifle just feels really static and dull to me.  But we’ll see.  Maybe I’ll have to make the Predator hue. D/D Deadeye also felt strange, so idk.  But we’ll keep fiddling with it.

Mirage still feels kind of odd but I need to get poor Naois the spec since he’s actually specced for condi, unlike Eet.  It seems like an upgrade to condi mesmer, and the triple blink is hilarious.

I really hope Scourge ends up with some sort of place.  Initial benchmarks look hilarious (but then, so did Soulbeast/Weaver/Firebrand ones), but I took out Richter again for Scourge and I’m actually really happy to play him again.  It’s been so long ;-;

My brother told me, “do yourself a favor and put down a sand shade near some enemies, then press F4.”  I tried it.  I laughed pretty hard.

Weaver is so much button-pressing but it’s really fun?  I’m still getting the hang of it but I do like it a lot.  At least it’s more challenging than condi tempest. *grumbles eternally*

Soulbeast looks promising, although I hope it doesn’t lead to another “let’s use condi ranger/thief on absolutely everything” situation again.  The new pets are also...interesting.  

Although when it comes to ranger I’m a druid at heart, so we’ll see.  Not that I’m usually conscripted for DPS roles anyway

Firebrand looks silly.  And broken.  I’m all for alternative sources of quickness (and alacrity in the case of other specs), but I don’t really want to see raid meta go to 2x PS 2x druid 2x chrono 2x firebrand (or something like that) with only 2 flex spots.  That doesn’t sound fun at all.

Also I’m guessing Firebrand will be the first to get the nerfbat.  The damage numbers people are getting are bonkers.

And hey look, they got the nerfbat.  Down to 33-35k.  At least that’s better than 50k? Ugh.

Renegade feels pretty decent.  Revenant has always been in a weird “built around elite specs” class, and that hasn’t changed.  I’m not sure how I feel about condi rev being more of a thing and less of a meme, but ayyy

Holosmith seems like it would be a lot more relevant if the transform wasn’t currently borked.  Scaling damage to a level 76 fine weapon is...sad.  If it’s fixed power Holosmith could be something legit?  Maybe?  Overall though I like the theme and look of it.  Also lol lightsaber.

Spellbreaker I...idk.  Thematically I like it a lot; I was a big fan of mesmer and shut down mechanics in GW1 and I like the idea of Spellbreaker, but from a mostly PvE perspective, it’s just kind of...eh? WvW and PvP I see it being incredibly useful but with limited boons to nom in PvE it doesn’t really look particularly great (especially with condi berserker getting tuned through the roof).

On mounts

I keep dyeing them funny colors.  Yes Quill’s are all some shade of yellow.

I honestly think they were well done.  I was never a supporter of adding them to the game (not against, but not for them either), but now that they’re here, I’m pretty okay with them.  

I like that each mount is useful in some specific capacity - raptor for flat open stretches, springer for verticality, skimmer for no touchy floor, jackal for portals and evasion through high mob density areas, and griffon for the absolute lulz of flying.  

I keep getting the “mount doesn’t render so your character model is riding away sunk in the ground while your camera remains in place” bug (I think it’s attached to trying to mount up before things are completely loaded), and while it’s funny, it’s kind of frustrating.

Mount swapping is a bit awkward, although binding each mount to its own key helps a lot.

I appreciate that the starting mount (the raptor) is still relevant even when you pick up the other three (four), as it’s definitely the fastest mount on flat ground and it’s improved leap is hilariously long.

Also it’s a giant scaly puppy so I have no problems with this.

The springer is hilarious.  And super terrain-breaking.  High cliff?  No problem, bunny hop.  Core and HoT map comp probably just got much, much simpler.  Also JPs that don’t have mount restrictions.

The skimmer is adorable, and riding it around is strangely...calming?  idk.  Also as one of my guildies put it: “maybe this is Anet’s answer to underwater combat: glide right over it.”  rip.

Of the four core mounts I think the jackal (blink doge) is my favorite.  It has a gorgeous design and the blink/portals are super cool.  Although the blink can get a bit titchy if you’re trigger happy with the jump button.

Of course I have the griffon.

IT’S SO FLUFFY.

I think it handles a little strangely (esp when you can’t dismount quickly, although you can divebomb), but it’s pretty solid.  And adorable.

250g was entirely worth it.

Also that Tahlkora cameo hit me right in the feels.

On the story

I’d get here eventually!  Eventually...;-;

All salad-shaped biases aside, the male sylvari VO is still my favorite and no one can convince me otherwise.  There was a good amount of sass, seriousness, and everything inbetween.  Ive is one to take everything with a “hahahaha you’re kidding what am I doing here help,” so overall the voice acting and dialogue fit him fairly well.

I’m a little disappointed by the lack of race-specific dialogue.  Humans don’t seem to have any special dialogue with or concerning Balthazar, and everyone else doesn’t really have a chance to comment as an outsider.  I know it’s more work and I still enjoyed the story as is, but it would have been a nice touch.

Like Ive would literally not give a shit about half of the things brought up.  Not because he doesn’t care about others, but because he has no clue what anyone is talking about.

This was particularly funny with Joko in the Domain of the Lost, because his whole tirade about the PC not knowing who he is could quickly be shut down with “I’m a salad, I have no idea who the fuck you are.”

The “decisions” were interesting, although unsurprisingly they had very little impact on the game as a whole (maybe in the future?  Doubt it).  I did appreciate that depending on the order the “decide on Amnoon’s independence” steps are done in, the dialogue changes.

I admit that I’ve gotten a little less partial to Taimi as she’s edged closer to Deus Ex Machina territory, but her dialogue and conversations (both with the PC and with others like Phlunt later on) are quite funny.

I wish there were more Vlast/Gleam before he died.  It’s sad that he showed up and just...died, but I can understand why they chose that path as well.  

Although some of that was my own fault; the chapter with the Exalted and Vlast’s upbringing I got supremely distracted by the jumping puzzle and spinning around on my new skimmer.

Still.  More Vlast!

RYTLOCK.  RYTLOCK WHY.  Nice job breaking it hero.  Surely you would know better than to accept help in the Mists from a random shackled man who CONVENIENTLY knows how to relight your magic sword.  Sigh.

I thought a lot about the Herald of Balthazar after finding the notes in Night of Fires.  I went back to it after talking to my brother and came to a very similar conclusion as a theorizer on the GW2 subreddit.  If that theory is true, that makes me very sad.

Pls say it’s true I like gut-punch feels.

Speaking of gut-punch feels, The Departing was amazing.  It was super disorienting not having access to the inventory or the minimap, but it was a very well-done instance and I enjoyed it immensely.  I appreciated that they stuck to the “you lost your name and purpose” thing to the point of replacing your character name (including in the hero panel) with Lost Spirit.

Balthazar murdering the PC was pretty neat. 

Also Aurene showing up exactly on time was both cliche and NO BALTHAZAR BAD STAY AWAY FROM BABY DRAGON. 

This, like a few other story missions later on, is super awkward to do as a group.  It’s supposed to be rather personal, and so the not-instance owners are reduced to buffing wisps (like later on in the thrall party instance, not-instance owners are just awakened thralls), and idk I was lucky I was instance owner but that seems rather :|

Ive had a lot of feels hearing everyone’s voices again.  Also the feels of him not exactly remembering everything and having to follow his purpose through his own memories and not quite remembering everything.  Including Trahearne.  

Also tfw the story mission is essentially Full Circle (as a sub-section of Closure) with a bit of bonus Balthazar.

Joko is being very obviously set up as a “you left me in a cage I swear vengeance rahhhhhh” villain.  Or Anet is going to pull a fast one and he will never show up again, which would be hilarious.

Bonus feels for everyone else surviving and Ive being the only one dead (think Eet).

Backtracking slightly, I’ve never liked Kormir.  I still don’t like Kormir.  And the human gods are miserably terrible people.  At this point there’s not much questioning as to whether or not they exist, but with the extent of their influence, their decision to just kind of peace is...rather appropriately god-like, for better or for worse.

Seriously though, gods pls.  I can see some of the logic of “world will be destroyed anyway if god attempts to fight god,” but surely there are other things that need be maintained.  

Also I like how Kormir notes that Balthazar had been stripped of his powers, and yet he still curbstomps the PC (unless it was entirely the imprisonment in the Mists that just locked his powers away, but Kormir’s dialogue suggests otherwise).

I would kill for a library like that.  Seriously.  So jelly.

The “let’s disguise ourselves as the Archon and go and convince Palawa Joko’s army to fight for us” part was so incredibly stupid that of course it worked.  We spent the entire time laughing at how incredulous it was.

The battle at Kodash Bazaar was actually kind of awesome?  There was stuff everywhere and my only inclination for the first part of the instance was “go hit things.”  

It was incredibly weird to just have Sohothin for the entire instance.  Yes I’m aware I could have dropped it.  But it was hilarious in a Caladbolg sort of way.  With less idiotic knockback, and more 300s cooldown skills.  

AURENE.  Balthazar stop hurting my dragon >:(

Also because he just yolo killed her other brother before she had a chance to meet him in person?  rip.

Although now that I think about it, how would that meeting even go?  Talking to the Exalted indicates that Vlast was isolated and not well-acclimated to the world around him, so by the time they realized he should be interacting with other races it was too late for him to form any empathy for anyone.  His dialogue seems to imply that his motivation was simply the fulfillment of a goal; he seemed far more interested in fulfilling his legacy as Glint’s son than the reason why she needed him and Aurene to do anything in particular.  He doesn’t really have a reason for what he’s doing, he just does.

Aurene is implied to have an empathic link with Vlast similar to her connection to the PC, but idk, it just seems like any actual meeting between the two of them would just be incredibly awkward.

I very much enjoyed both the penultimate and ultimate fight against Balthazar.  Also because if you turned around, you could see Kralkatorrik’s massive face just chilling in the sky because oh shit angry elder dragon.  It was...quite something.

I understand the PC’s current caution about killing elder dragons because of magic imbalance, and I also understand the need to stop Balthazar from being a total moron.  I also understand that there’s not much you can do to stop a mad god besides killing him (since those with the means to imprison him decided to float on).  But uh.  I’m not sure what anyone expected would happen if you kill the god who absorbed two dragons’ worth of magic with another dragon just chilling nearby.  Surely Kralkatorrik absorbing everything and flying off into the sunset while extending the Brand wasn’t a surprise.  

Seriously though what did you think was going to happen.

Baby dragon absorb magik and is not quite so baby anymore.  Aurene come back I miss you already ;-;

I commend you if you actually read all of that.  xD

Overall, a solid expansion with quite a bit of content.  We’ll see how replayable it ends up being as time goes on, but I am still quite amused by it and have plenty to do as it stands.  The story was fairly solid (although sometimes strange with questionable logic, as always), and I’m looking forward to where they take it with LWS4.