Celeste and Allona go on FOREVER about the finale to Season 2 … oh, and the cutscenes! My gods, the cutscenes! This show is basically one big spoiler…

Audio Version

What We Did This Week

 

Allona

• 
  
• Played PvP … once with some listeners! Got to Dolyak!
  
• Forgot to mention that over the break finished the Go for Gold achievement with Hunter!
  
• Tried to get some LW achievements done … didn’t get far. (pout)
  
• Fungeons, Fractals, Guild Missions, blah blah blah … BUT
  
• Played the Living World episode! jgrhviurtfybvnt 8yn gh .
  

Celeste

• 
  
• Played through living world story (got a couple of the achievements done too)
  
• Beat the big flower thing in silverwastes
  
• got to dolyak rank!
  
  • 
    
  • went from 35 to 42 on my thief
    
  
  
  

 

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Report from Lion’s Arch

 

Let’s Recap the update! 

Allona’s tip of the week: Turn off your mini pet when you start the finale.

SPOILER WARNING – You are warned…

 

Arcana Obscura

• 
  
• Gixx (paraphrased) ‘balthazar god of brutal dentistry?’
  
• The Priory Arcanist who envies Ogden b/c he is stone and never needs sleep made me giggle
  
• Ogden is quietly judging you. I want this to be a meme of some kind.
  
  • 
    
  • A: I giggled at that line!
    
  
  
  
• There were SO MANY weird, fan servicey, speculatory things in the Arcana Obscura instance
  
  • 
    
  • C: I LOVED THIS.
    
    • 
      
    • Closer to the Stars: The volume chronicles teh history of Cantha, and although the title and one passage make reference to the rite of Ascension, it does not cover the trials of the Forgotten or the divine fire.
      
    • Imbued of Spirit: This books discusses the theory that one can bind a ghostly spirit to a material object. It is unable to prove that it is possible.
      
    • No Skin Off My Back: The text of this book, written by a hyleck alchemist, describes in lurid detail how to extract toxins from hylek glands.
      
    • Elonian references galore, including one of the possible artifacts an Elonian Vase that appears be only a dozen years old being one of them
      
      • 
        
      • C: Sidenote I think the Jade Wurm was there along with Closer to the Stars as a bit of farce for the staff to say, “HA! You thought you were going to Canthaâ€
        
      
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• C: There were a few things that Ogden said that I found especially interesting
  
  • 
    
  • maybe it’s just because I hadn’t thought of them in this manner… “Are you familiar with ‘Ascension?’ Long ago, there was a process that allowed Tyrian humans to draw power from their magical benefactors [the six gods].â€
    
  • “There is a wax seal in this book, bearing a symbol [the forgotten seal].. If destroyed, it initiates a series of events… Hm. I’m not exactly sure what will happen.†Is he only referencing your interactions with Turai Ossa or is it something more?
    
  • “If I could impart one piece of wisdom upon you from this ancient noggin of mine, I’d tell you to be careful around anything ancient. Magic changes over time. Listen to your instincts.†I wonder if this particular piece of advice will be apt MUCH further down the line when we (eventually) beat up Mordy.
    
  
  
  
• C: We didn’t really get to interact with Turai Ossa (the cover story of it being an echo works well) but being able to stand next to him and have him TOWERING over my full height Norn was quite a sight.
  
  • 
    
  • A: I’m pretty sure that he’s voiced by the same dude who does Mad King Thorn
    
  
  
  
• C: Going through the rites of ascension felt nostalgic. SO NOSTALGIC. It would’ve been better if we’d gotten to go up against a doppleganger as well but I feel like the effect carried through very well.
  
  • 
    
  • REVISION: You can fight your doppleganger (it’s one of the achievements) in the old mirror if you go up to it with the divine fire! SO COOL. You also get a self style hair kit for doing it, which is pretty sweet. (A: EEEEEEEEE!)
    
  
  
  
• So if the ritual of getting divine fire is a one time thing (because the seal is broken) the only other time we’ll see it (after this story) is if we go through the real trials of ascension.
  

 

Pact Assaulted

• 
  
• C: Meh. About the only interesting thing that came from this was that Logan and Zojja were there and Zojja had a voice again and then they both learned about Brahm and his parentage.
  
• A: I think the Pact could be a bit more tactical where they place their signal torches in relation to their bonfire thingies.
  
• A: I heartily recommend talking to all the named NPCs, there is some really nice exposition from most of them. In awesome particular: Logan mentions morale would drop if they didn’t go with the Pact as promised because they’re counting on us;  Zojja very pointedly starts ‘Ahem! Reminds me of …’; and he interrupts ‘Don’t even say it.’! (C: I didn’t see a lot of that, I guess it was after the exit option was available? A: Yup.)
  

 

The Mystery Cave

• 
  
• SO MANY THINGS HAPPEN.
  
• You emerge into golden ruins, that you have no idea how or why got that way
  
• There’s stuff inside like a sleep sack and the drinking area, what about the mysterious artifact at the doorway of the cave?
  
• We find out that the sylvari are of the dragon, Mordremoth, and that it was a secret told to Wynne and then to Caithe before Caithe killed Wynne out of mercy (to prevent her from being tortured by faolain)
  
  • 
    
  • C: Watching Caithe cry was ruined by my skritta claws
    
  
  
  
• Fighting mini mordy was fun and really intuitive.
  
• STILL. NO. EGG.
  
  • 
    
  • A: One word: Omelette. (C: Ascended Baby Dragon Omelette brings cooking to 500)
    
  
  
  

 

Post-Cinematics

• 
  
• The animation on Caithe’s face was pretty spectacular
  
  • 
    
  • The animations across the board were amazing!
    
  
  
  
• Killing Iconics…
  
  • 
    
  • C: I really don’t mind about trahearne though.
    
  • A: I think they’re downed .. but it never occurred to me they might be dead! I refuse to believe that,
    
  • the return of felicia day… only to see her die? maybe? seems kinda crappy
    
  • non-resolution of rytlock aside from the final sequence showing he’s somewhere alive
    
  
  
  
• Mursaat and a golden city
  
• rytlock appears to have come back and wielding either a stylized or improved sohothin
  
• racism is bad, mmkay?… poor canach. nightmare court sylvaris are bad too but I think we already knew that.
  
  • 
    
  • C: It also appears that Faolain ends up knowing Caithe/Wynne’s secret after all because we see her killing non-sylvari characters as a (possible) agent of mordremoth. it’s also possible that she’s just gotten more overt in her violence or as a response to the racism that all sylvari will be experiencing during the next storyline.
    
  • A: I figured that Mordy had access to the Nightmare Court and that’s how Faolain found out.
    
  
  
  
• biconics +canach +ZOJJA. (C: and YES HUNTER I’M RIGHT.)
  
  • 
    
  • TO BE FAIR: it could be that after zojja dies, taimi grows up and takes up zojja’s armor in a fit of revenge
    
  • A: We might be jumping a bit ahead in time, so a more grown-up Taimi would make sense.
    
  
  
  
• The music in both cinematics are great. The teaser especially! I teared up and got tingles! TINGLES!
  

 

Overall

• 
  
• C: I really liked how long the instances were. It felt a lot better than previous chapters in length despite that there were only 3 of them (for reference over half the chapters/episodes had 4 or more instances)
  
• https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/ Says Part 3 of Season 2 so I think we’ll likely get a chapter that’s nothing but resolution and/or follow up (OR I’M COMPLETELYWRONG, WE’LL SEE)
  
• There’s new dialogue in Lion’s Arch with Ellen, Evon, and Magnus
  
• The Golden Cave by Leif Chappelle is on SoundCloud! https://soundcloud.com/arenanet/the-golden-cave
  
  • 
    
  • A: It’s really lovely.
    
  
  
  

 

January 13th Release Notes

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-January-13-2015

Point of No Return

• 
  
• Heroes stand at a precipice as Tyria hurtles toward a point of no return. The Pact Fleet is poised to launch its assault on Mordremoth. The search for Caithe—and Glint’s egg—is narrowing, yet the future is uncertain. What answers will be revealed inside the cave?
  

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE

• 
  
• Mini Rox is now available in the Toys category of the Gem Store for 350 gems.
  
• A new Mordrem weapon set is available from the Black Lion Weapon Specialist for the limited-time price of 1 Black Lion Claim Ticket. Tickets and ticket scraps can be found in Black Lion Chests.
  
  • 
    
  • A: The staff is really bad ass, and I can see how the aesthetics could definitely appeal to some players, they aren’t my cup of tea.
    
  
  
  
• The new Ghostly Mail Courier mail carrier is available in the Upgrades category of the Gem Store for 500 gems.
  
• New exclusive colors for hair and eyes are now included in Total Makeover Kits, available in the Services category of the Gem Store for 350 gems.
  
  • 
    
  • A: Of course. I just used a kit last week (grumble grumble)
    
  
  
  

 

Ask an Asura

 

Ask an Asura, Ver. 2 – Expansionish?

Dear sensational Celeste and electrifying Allona,

Lately there’s been much hype over the idea of a full-fledged expansion to the game. However, I don’t think Arena Net is really planning an expansion in the traditional sense of mass content being added all at once. While they’ve never spoken out against the idea of an expansion to the game, they’ve never shown great interest in the idea either.

While many of the recent changes to the leveling and reward systems in the game could point toward an expansion, they could also be used to help streamline the delivery of a more frequent and expansive living world model of content delivery. The current model of Living World requires that you be at the games maximum level to access and the new Dailies system could be easily adapted to new content being added through the living world.

Arena Net has prided themselves on the idea of changing how an MMO updates and progresses and a traditional expansion to the game really does not stay true to that idea. My thoughts on this may not be correct in the end, however I don’t feel like the idea of a larger-scale living world should be taken off the table just yet.

Is it possible that Arena Net has, instead of focusing on one massive update for the entire game, been working on a continuous, year-long session of living world content that, when concluded, would equal the amount of content contained in an expansion? I’m referring to dungeons, raids, armor sets, zones, maybe new race(s) and/or class(es) and a faster release cadence. 

Again, thank you for the show!!

Tyboltâ€

 

Listener Tip

@troubledtoast says: Cheapest way to do daily exotic: using a low lvl Artificer to craft luck. Final form of luck is exotic and gives 200 luck.

 

Tales of Tyria

 

RandommUser puts together a really cool s2 mashup of wallpapers!

http://randommuser.deviantart.com/art/Guild-Wars-2-Living-Story-season-2-wallpaper-507012401

• 
  
• C: very cool looking! Dual screen friendly!
  

 

Hype train takes off at 150bpm

https://twitter.com/John_J_Ryan/status/555008738147696640

• 
  
• C: I know this is an older video but I still giggled at it
  

 

Asuran Colleges Wallpapers

http://freezinglotus.tumblr.com/post/107591353714/so-these-are-the-three-colleges-from-the-asuran

• 
  
• A: The typeface rubs me the wrong way, but other than that, I love these! (I am a font snob though)
  

 

Heart of Thorns (The Romance Sim)

http://elianaofshiverpeaks.tumblr.com/post/108060827636/gw2-heart-of-thorns-dating-sim-notice-me

 

Super spoilers on reddit leads to comedy gold

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2sb3rl/mega_spoiler_alert_sorry_i_just_had_to_talk_about/cnnt865

Plobmaster94

So we were right all along from the start… the Pale tree is in fact Mordremoths champion and Sylvari were created to be his minions. God damn I LOVE THIS GAME!

Edit: ALSO WHAT ABOUT THAT [bleeeeep] EPIC ENDING CUTSCENE, guys i literally got shivers while watching it, this is so awesome i have no words. I love ArenaNet and i love the Guild Wars universe and i want to thank them for all this EPIC story telling and an epic game they have given us despite all the bad things that constantly appear on the forums. Thank you for the best years in my life and here’s to many more!!

• 
  
• C: This was a pretty epic comment from wulfgarion :)
  
  • 
    
  • mordremoth – “the pale tree never told you what happened to your father”
    
  • trahearne saladwalker – “she told me enough, she told me you killed it”
    
  • mordremoth – “no, I am your father”
    
  • salad screams
    
  
  
  

 

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If you’ve got a burning question for our Ask an Asura segment, please let us know!

 

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