(GW2) Battle for Lion's Arch: Aftermath

This feels like a lull in GW2 content releases, though I suppose it's worth noting that most of the mechanical changes went to tweaking PVP/WVW. As far as PVE, there are really only two points of note for me:

1) Lion's Arch is a hollow shell of a zone, for now. With all the events wrapped up, but the city functionality not restored, it's a weird landscape of empty vistas and a couple new memorials. I suppose it fits the story, but it's strange to see so much "empty" space in an MMO (worse than my early experiences with Silithus by far). I'm sure that's a temporary situation.

2) There's a little wrap-up for the main NPCs introduced over the course of Scarlet's arc. I would describe it as "charming." It's nice. It also serves to fill people in if they missed the end of the Battle scene. It doesn't really offer anything new, though, save introducing Marjory's sister.

What it doesn't do is address any of what I perceive as holes in Scarlet's story, as previously mentioned. I guess that's just the way it is.

Comments

  1. tashiroMarch 20, 2014 at 10:21 AM

    It was charming, wasn't it? Haven't seen the memorials, going to need to look around a bit. They're adding new traits, and cleaning up the trait system some, which looks to be interesting at least. I think your thief's going to like the 'heal on a crit' thing, though.

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  2. marinredwolfMarch 20, 2014 at 2:29 PM

    Maaaaybe. Have to see what the end trait is for the other branches. Not that I mind the idea of healing on crits - in PVE, I like me some survivability, but one of the other options could be more appealing. Perhaps the single most exciting part of what's been talked about in the trait changes is the ability to reorganize points without having to pay. I've always wanted the option to experiment more, but having to buy a reset tome was too much of a disincentive. I've basically ended up setting traits and forgetting them. Rationally, I know there's some profession customization available there, but it's just been too much bother to mess with.

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  3. kyn_elwynnMarch 20, 2014 at 3:52 PM

    On the traits. Not okay with the way to obtain some of them. "Go out here and kill dude". If that trait becomes one of the most "in demand" for certain dungeons, that dude is going to be farmed and without a good respawn, camped.

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  4. tashiroMarch 20, 2014 at 4:33 PM

    I don't think they'll start having camping as a thing in GW2. As for farming, you'll only do it once.

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  5. marinredwolfMarch 21, 2014 at 6:09 AM

    Admittedly, that's the part that has me a little worried. It depends on how, exactly, it's done. The example shows unlocking of a trait for finishing the Gates of Arah event. That appears to be for a new grandmaster trait, but finishing that event is... a bitch. And it's unpopular enough that I almost never see it done on our server. It certainly isn't soloable in any practical sense. From the explanation, the actual achievements to unlock traits vary pretty wildly from exploration to dungeons to WVW, so some are sure to be harder than others. I wonder if people will be back credit - I've done the Arah event maybe once or twice, but would just as soon not do it again. On the other hand, it also says you can unlock the same trait by using a consumable book from a trainer. Buy an item to unlock the trait versus buying an item to reset traits. Long-term, I sort of feel that's a better option, but it depends on how costly the unlock books work out to be.

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  6. kyn_elwynnMarch 21, 2014 at 3:28 PM

    Mmn. They mention it being similar to GW1 sense of exploration (Without directly mentioning Elite Skill captures) but the difference in gW1 was .. instancing. You had the entire zone to yourself to try to reach the guy with the skill you wanted, and if somehow you botched it or had to leave, you could come back and the guy would be respawned. Over and over. You could run others to that guy to capture the skill in the same day.

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  7. marinredwolfMarch 21, 2014 at 4:17 PM

    The way GW2 shares kill credit, that's really the least of my worries. There's very little in the game that you can't accomplish purely because of competition for the kill. We don't have much in the way of examples yet, but if "everyone" wants to kill a certain world boss or something to unlock a trait, all they have to do is show up when the event is running and participate. If 100 people beat down on Boss X, they all get credit. Now, some events may be hard to pull off. The Gates of Arah example has a combination of age, reward, and difficulty that means it's fairly rare a sufficient group gets together to both with it - though if it unlocks a skill, that may increase interest, at least for a while, by increasing the effective reward. And occasionally you'll have a new, rewarding event (revamped Tequatl, for example) that will be so popular it leads to overflow issues and failure.

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