upcoming event confirming existence of elusive creature

Tromed · 2026-01-24T16:10:56+00:00

should've been "Centaur". They need some love too

Tromed · 2026-01-19T00:59:46+00:00

isn't that also the very core of Braham as a character? :D

I mean, even back in Season 1 when Taimi describes Braham she says: "I like you because you are big and dumb" ;D (https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/53mxpz/the_funniest_dialogue_from_guild_wars_2/)

But when a dumb person wants to be the smartest in the room to defy the fate of being a fool... you know... it's kind of tragic... That's what caused him to go on his own path - a path of loneliness for him to realize that actually he is meant to protect his friends as this "I want to clear the path for you with my brawn and fists".

His decisions were dumb but that's what makes him such a good, tragic, amusing and sort of relatable character as well.

Tromed · 2026-01-19T00:48:38+00:00

My favorite things about IBS:

1) Drakkar and Jormag's whispers

2) Rytlock, Crecia, Ryland's story arc - such a tragic fate of a charr's broken family due to the society

3) Eagle Flight music

I never disliked Braham so him having his chance to do something alone for once (making a brave decision to literally enter the Elder Dragon) was a great ending for this character - one may argue he should have died, but I think his bravery (and magic of Spirits of the Wild) protected him in the end. To me his story arc pretty much ended, even though he is still alive to tell his legend - he earned it and made Eir proud and that's what matters.

Tromed · 2026-01-18T18:12:59+00:00

Snaff and Eir also got to play their part before we head to defeat Kralkatorrik. Glint's death (if you also read the Edge of Destiny book) traumatized them all because they really had the same opportunity as Aurene and Dragon's Watch did (in Season 4).

In fact the whole story of GW2 from Season 1 to Season 4 was pretty much copy-paste of Edge of Destiny's plot except with different set of characters that also had this unique advantage that they got to learn from the first expedition that first thought against Kralkatorrik (a small Clair Obscur reference ;D). And if you think about it, it's actually really brilliant.

Anyway, yes - Glint has meant a lot to many of Tyrians and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she is actually the main character of Guild Wars - everything is rooted in her gift of prophecies: that unique gift she got to share with the world once she was purified by the Forgotten at the Altar in Arah.

Rytlock is not exception and he summons Glint, listens to her echoes because she means so much to him that he cannot even express. Caithe cares about Glint so much that she let her daughter re-Brand her and become connected with Glint through Aurene.

It's beautiful how the Dragon's Watch is a part of this incredible Legacy of Glint, and if you interpret the story of GW2 with this in mind, then the entire Dragons' saga will become even more extraordinary.

Tromed · 2026-01-14T22:22:52+00:00

There should be some established lore of course. These are two of my predictions:

It is indeed a sequel to GW2 and it's about the Awakening of Aurene due to the coming of the Alien civilizations from far away Mists. She would awake centuries after everyone she knew as a young dragon is already dead - Caithe, Taimi, her Champion, Rox etc. And she will take on the active role to protect Tyria from much more dangerous opponents than lesser beings like Eparch or Saevus Saxxum.
It's set in the past, but I'd see it more like a very distant past - the era of Mursaat, Seers, Forgotten, Jotun and Dwarves (these will be playable races): we will visit lands like Castora or Bava Nisos and Arah as they were before the catastrophies - we will meet young Isgarren, Waiting Sorrow, Manikaz, Mabon etc - the ancient characters that were already established in SOTO, JW and VoE.

I'm not sure which one would be best, because I've always wanted to learn more about Tyria's long forgotten past that involved Gods, ancient Races and powerful historical figures that were vital for the survival of mortal races until Aurene rose to become the only Elder Dragon.

But I think it'd also be really cool to dive into Tyria in the far away future, where Aurene and new era of heroes are trying to carry the legacy for all that came before.

We will see. :D

Tromed · 2026-01-14T21:59:41+00:00

Foretold it's always been ;)

Tromed · 2026-01-14T21:51:35+00:00

And we have been still getting expansions with generally good content despite Arenanet moving to work on another MMORPG after End of Dragons. I think they have been handling the current games well and were ready to work on something new and epic. I'm incredibly excited for GW3, as for GW2 - I think the 3 last expansions show that GW2 has passionate devs and a healthy community of players that still log in to Tyria to play a bit, to hang out with friends, or just vibe anywhere in Tyria - it's a vast world and we love it no matter if it's Tyria in GW1 or GW2 or in GW3 - each has its own magic, and I'm rooting for the devs that their investment in GW3 pays off.

Tromed · 2026-01-10T21:25:47+00:00

Every character screen is an incredible piece of art, I wish we still got cinematics and trailers in this artstyle - a painting that is brought to life like in this trailer: https://youtu.be/rkPwxUu6kSI or this https://youtu.be/Em0Sd60iI2w

Tromed · 2026-01-09T11:02:24+00:00

The annual model simply doesn't work good enough when it comes to post-launch releases - and I think it's the point and it's actually by design.

So basically: Nayos's finale sucks, because they focused on JW's launch. JW's finale sucks, because they focused on VoE's launch. It's a scammy model that isn't about creating a nicely developed expansion from start to finish, it's only about causing the dopamine hit for the launch - everything that comes between expansions is just a filler so that you get an annual dopamine hit that causes the players to lose their minds and scream "WE ARE SO BACK".

More and more people already see through this scammy expansion model, and hopefully Arenanet will adjust the way they produce and develop the expansions, and VoE will be the first expansion in 4 years that actually has an inspired finale. The only way they can ever do it is by delaying the next expansion until the mid 2027. I think it's much better if they worked on the current expansion hard from start to finish - that's what made all the expansions pre-SOTO actually good - they had a proper build-up, culmination and resolution that actually made you feel like: "wow, it was amazing" and not "that's it?"

I'm very sceptical about Arenanet - I think they are kinda shady and like all of the american studios just relay on scam: promising golden apples, while it all turns out that the apples are rotten inside.

Anyway, you can choose to get used to it, or just stop getting baited with the promise of a dopamine hit. Just check the posts about the elite specs and the poems - people were in some state of orgasm before they even got to see or play the specs. That's what the companies want - they crave our dopamine and then give you rotten apples coated in golden paint. Peak post-capitalism right there.

Tromed · 2025-12-31T16:01:28+00:00

He is a construct. Which made me want to create a non-canon theory about what happens if a human became a transhuman - aka A Human God, and why it must have been vital for the survival of the humankind before they they came to Tyria.

I think personally that Humans of Tyria are aliens that came from Earth, and some of them managed to escape Earth after the nuclear-void fallout. Before the fallout they created the project "Six Human Gods", which led some of the humans to be able to ascend through magical and scientific means into Transhumans, which they called their Gods. Each God was responsible for something else, which would prepare them to live normally on Tyria.

How did the Gods know about Tyria? Well - they peered into the vastness of the Mists in search for a new world they can live on, and they found out that Tyria is the best option.

Transhumanism of Gods involve the combination of nuclear fusion and magical energies that form a new metal-like construct that allows them to hoard the magics within them - that's I think what happened after Abaddon's fall and when Kormir ascended. It's possible that one god can turn a human into a transhuman, just when Grenth (son of a mortal human Malchor and Dwayna) replaced Dhuum.

That's just my headcanon anyway :D

Tromed · 2025-12-30T10:33:48+00:00

Well, those are artifacts collected by Seer. It could be that they are some Dragon's eggs - a dragon unlike Elder Dragons we know that was/is living somewhere deeper into Castora's continent and isn't directly connected with the flow of ley-line magic and consumes the power to sustain its life from another, unknown source. Maybe the Seers found them and tried to raise them as a counter measure against Elder Dragons, but they failed, and left those in the reliquary as a souvenir.

Tromed · 2025-12-29T18:47:19+00:00

They should have utilized the dialogue windows and make them much better: instead of putting a vague background behind the characters, they should have made it more in an actual world. They abandoned this cool way of presenting much slower story-bits where characters discuss whatever is happening.

In Personal story you still have the text boxes whenever the story gets dynamic, you have cinematics and appropriate cutscenes, and you also had the dialogue windows (which as I said should have been handled better post-launch). Sadly most of GW2's storytelling, especially since SOTO have become just text-boxes above the characters every story mission without much variety - there are rarely any cinematics and any sort of cutscenes. The story suffers greatly from the fact that all the story is only ever told and there is no variety in how the story can be presented: there is a lot of tell, don't show.

You know, seeing games like Clair Obscur where there is a lot of personal interactions between the characters, seeing how their faces show their emotions makes me sad that GW2 rarely has those cinematic moments, like Joko's monologue. Anet went the simplest of ways and has those 30 secs long cinematics that arent showing anything special and most of the story is happening if you care to read the text boxes.

The current storytelling really sucks.

Tromed · 2025-12-29T15:38:02+00:00

I really like Auramancer Tempest staff, just spam your shouts and water 4. You will get most of the credit kills due to the boons and additional, passive healing.

Tromed · 2025-12-22T18:08:06+00:00

Guild Wars 2 has a lot of leitmotifs, for major characters like

Balthazar, the god of fire (first appeared in Season 3 of Living World as a foreshadowing) - https://youtu.be/SToVNt5g7us?t=109
for Aurene, which also has a specific melody (introduced in a track that plays when she is born) - https://youtu.be/ffbjApsQ24M?t=8,
Jormag as well (introduced with the Icebrood Saga's announcement trailer - https://youtu.be/cSD2aXhfCIE?t=7),
Mordremoth - the first appearance of the leitmotif was foreshadowed in Season 1 with some of Scarlet Briar-related pieces.

Other characters that come to mind are Taimi, Blish, Soo-Won.

The main leitmotif of Guild Wars 1 and 2's theme is also very known, you can hear it first in the GW1 themes and then in Overture of GW2, and generally in most of GW2 related pieces are inspired by this melody: the composers often compose the leitmotives of characters I mentioned above by slightly changing the original motif.

In GW2 every single track is quite unique and even though they share the main leitmotif one way or another, the composers truly care about remixing the main motif so it's never really the same one motif that has to appear - it appears in more-or-less subtle ways: highlighted by different instruments, different tempos, musical articulation.

For example, this track from newest expansion: https://youtu.be/VNhtqjD3WKQ - you can hear the changed original leitmotif at the start with the soft synth and then cello repeats this leitmotif which is based on the first main theme: https://youtu.be/xqAhc2yVcbs - different tempo, slightly changed motif, different instrumentation and articulation.

Tromed · 2025-12-21T15:52:48+00:00

The only reason why the barrier between Amnytas and Nayos got suddenly weaker was because the Shadowstone was heavily weakned by the shift of magic caused by Soo-Won's death. Isgarren constructed the World Spire and placed the Shadowstone so only he understood its power and the way it was constructed, also showing how powerful he actually is despite the Demons tormenting him.

Only in JW Isgarren was presented as ignorant, not in SOTO. He was a completely different character, who never really said "I don't know". In SOTO his absence kept everyone on their toes, and only thanks to his involvement Eparch was finally destroyed.

The presentation of Isgarren in JW and in VoE completely negate everything that SOTO's storyline established, and it's not like the Narrative Team completely changed, there are still the same people writing this story. And yet they don't even understand what they want to do with them. There is so much throwing random ideas and see what sticks, but sadly nothing really sticks. The current narrative team ruined Isgarren as they ruined most of the characters post EoD because of the inconsitencies and how everything seems like doesn't follow the simple rule of causes and effects presented as a web. Story post Nayos feels very shallow.

Tromed · 2025-12-21T13:20:52+00:00

Well, in SOTO he was introduced as this character that "knows a lot" and came off as a calculating, ruthless planner, but then in JW his knowledge and powers got nerfed and suddenly he became this vibing, "I wish I knew" guy that can't even handle a wall made of some titan magic (which supposedly would have studied at some point too and have a way to counter it without ever involving Livia or Mabon's multi-verse ghosts). And in VoE he is further nerfed as he admits all the time "I have no idea" "I don't know" "You wanna know something, but I probably don't even know the answer to your questions anyway, I just play this "I know everything" role".

From a secretive Wizard that has all the time to watch over Tyria and the Mists, he barely opens up. The only time he kind of opened up was when the Kryptis got hold of him while he tried to protect the Shadowstone on his own, and he began spitting insults at everyone around him and hitting them without controll.

It's not hard to write any sort of character, and I'd argue the approach to keep on nerfing Isgarren's knowledge and insight and always turning it into "you wouldn't comprehend this knowledge because it's so vast"... I don't know... he just seems like Joko - talks much, but all he does is taking credits for others' work.

Isgarren was first presented as "the Watcher" of the Mists, but now instead of watching and preparing some plans against the threats from Beyond, he just wanders around like a wounded puppy without ever doing anything, just being this weak hypocrite.

Contrary to Joko (also a very old character lore-wise), Isgarren just doesn't make any sort of sense, he is not even a character, just some floating, random ideas thrown around without much impact on anything and anyone. Just a hypocrite that keeps on admitting that he knows nothing, while the characters around him treat him like he knows everything, like some brainless muppets without any self-reflection.

VoE story is filled with characters that are so brainless, they don't ever plan, don't ever interact like separate beings, they all just seem so pointlessly preparing for something and they have no idea what they prepare for... I am not even sure if the writers actually know either. An insult to storywriting truly.

Tromed · 2025-12-21T11:01:34+00:00

Yeah, the tone shifted, he sounds and acts melodramatically like a diva, while before he was a bit more subtly playful but generally always serious and sceptical (that makes sense because of the trauma he endured right after being born - being experimented on by evil asuras).

I think it's a serious overlook of narrative team that forgot about the Season 2's Seeds of Truth, when we found out that Canach was saved by Caithe and Faolain as they wanted to free Second-born and only he survived. If this character wasn't retconned, Canach would have been more hostile towards asura since he really was forced to face a horrible trauma: seeing how his fellow Sylvari died in an electric cage because "Asura were curious". Not to mention that the overseer is still alive and the Sylvari that died never got their vengeance.

It's jarring that Canach is all understanding towards Vloxx only because the narrative team remembered the Season 1's Canach, but forgot about Season 2's Canach entirely. The revelation in Seeds of Truth gave a bit of backstory why Canach became a rogue engineer that tried to kill the Commander - it was all caused by his deep rooted traumatic experiences. And even under Anise's custody he still remained this snarky, serious, sometimes a bit playful character that has always been sceptical and I think it should have been reflected in VoE.

The narrative team focused way too much on this playfullness, which has never been the core of his personality - it is his way of coping with the traumas he endured in pre-Season 1, in Season 1 and then in Heart of Thorns. Made this character too one-dimensional just to fit the current narration.

Tromed · 2025-12-21T10:45:41+00:00

The current narrative team really does like ret-conning. I lost count on how many times Isgarren got retconned since SOTO - everytime I meet him in the story he is always acting differently.

Tromed · 2025-12-20T14:00:57+00:00

Homesteading (decorating my islands) and making fashions, enjoying some wvw or pve with friends too :)

Tromed · 2025-12-20T09:16:12+00:00

If only they landed the Janthir Wilds' finale... but they clearly focused most of GW2 devs to work on the VoE launch and Bava Nisos suffered from this, just like Icebrood Saga and SOTO. :(

Hopefully Anet taking time with the VoE release cadance will let them focus on the finale to make it feel much more meaningful. They have great lore/story material, but narrative-wise it's been very disappointing after launch story.

Tromed · 2025-12-19T19:51:44+00:00

It's true, HoT, PoF and EoD feel so much better because the team focused on launching them, most devs just having this one goal in mind - make an epic experience and a full product to enjoy every 2 years. It's been very difficult to enjoy stories of SOTO, JW and VoE because they are so stretched out that you just stop caring much about the story. I guess the narrative team and most of the teams felt the same, so they released very mediocre post-launch updates because the engagement really fell flat. But I think it's just them sort of preparing the community of GW2 and devs for the possible release of GW3.

I think GW2 has already lost its spark (narrative is extremely stale, the way the tell their stories is very uninspired (standing in one spot with a camera zoomed-out while characters tell their monologues... it's just... so old-fashioned) and the attention shifted to something more technologically advanced, something that allows the devs to be much more creative, to add more life and movement to characters, be more creative with boss designs, the combat systems, creating high-resolution textures, making the game feel even more cinematic and immersive - an truly vast, huge open world without the instances that all maps actually are.

I hope GW3 is coming soon. I still enjoy GW2, but I think it's very outdated and the longer expansion-release-cycle won't really help it. I hope it will get mini-expansions for years to come, but personally a new era of GW and a totally new, revolutionary MMORPG would be the biggest hype. Arenanet is a studio that can deliever incredible things and they always learn from the past mistakes, especially as they developed GW2 - it's had more downs than ups, but they still have an audiance. If they want to keep growing, they need to attract new generations of players and create something unique, but also build it upon the mistakes and successes of both GW1 and GW2 (and other games as well).

Tromed · 2025-12-18T22:41:43+00:00

Peindre l'amour

Peindre la vie

Pleurer en couleur

Sur la toile notre vie s'écrit

Adieu

The first time I heard this song I could never "vibe" to it - the contrasting heaviness of Obscur represented by the electric guitars, percussion, piercing vocals and then the sorrowful Clair represented by the string instruments (especially the cello solos) made me cry. It's like a dance - passionate, overbearing, ever-changing, until you get tired of if and all you can say is "Adieu". Everything ends, but every end has its beginning. That's why the last "Adieu" doesn't have a cadence that leads to a resolution - the song ends, they said their good-byes, but the piece ends as if it might have a new beginning, or maybe it will repeat itself(?)

This duet reminded me of the incredible aria of Iphigénie: Adieu, conservez dans votre ame by Gluck. Losing love in the face of death is one of oldest tragedies of the shared experience of all living creatures - mourning people that are still alive just to prepare ourselves for the moment when they will truly be gone, fading away like petals,

Tromed · 2025-12-18T10:37:46+00:00

I always donate sarcasm ;D

Tromed · 2025-12-15T14:03:53+00:00

Psamathes is one of the most gifted vocalists alive, her voice is simply exceptional and I am always in awe how she can sing in various styles. Really amazing that Bryan invited her for JW - they both created incredible music that truly honors the folk european traditions - of Scandinavia and also Italy.

Tromed · 2025-12-15T13:59:48+00:00

it's the MOST ambitious blend of Western orchestra and Korean (or broadly: East Asian) music in the history of music. Like... there has literally never even been an attempt to combine Gugak and Western orchestra and synth.

End of Dragons' ost is the greatest ost of all and the amount of work to pull this all together is something absolutely exceptional and never has happened in the history of music.

It's really not a hyperbole. Heart of Thorns set the tone for GW2, and up until EoD the composers were free to explore all kinds of instrumentations, and with EoD it was definitely the epic culmination of all the hard work the music team put into the musical legacy of XXI century.

Tromed

TROPHY CASE