Looking to the Future: Guild Wars 2

     So Guild Wars 2 is live and despite a few grievances (First and Foremost being the lack of Elonan locations on the US Server list) I absolutely love it. That said my brain has been musing over the future of Guild Wars 2 since The info first started leaking. I'm talking Expansions.

     For those familiar with the Guild Wars franchise you know that the world is set in Tyria. This includes the regions that made up the original game, the the continent Tyria which included Kryta, Ascolon, The Shiverpeaks, The Charr Homelands, and the Maguuma Jungle, and the continents of Cantha and Elona. We also know that most of the world is inaccessible in either game. We also know that the canceled Utopia expansion for the original series would have had a Mesoamerican themed region so a fair assumption could be made that the region still exists. We can assume that as we battle the Elder Dragons we will unlock more of the world. Kralkatorrik the Crystal Dragon blocks Elona. Jormag controls the Far Shiverpeaks. Primordius resides in the Depths of Tyria. While an unnamed dragon blocks sea travel to Cantha. Zhaitan dominates the rest of the sea with is undead armies from Orr.Thus battling each dragon would force us into new regions.Each would bring new adventures and cultures into the fold.
     Cantha:

• Possible Class: Monk - Monks would be a Scholar or Adventurer class with an extremely heavy Asian aesthetic, much like the rest of Cantha. They would have a similarities to guardians and thieves in their play and abilities. They would be able to use most weapons except firearms as well as a few spellcaster weapons such as focii and staves.
• Possible Weapon: Fists - melee option for thieves, rangers, warriors, possibly mesmers and elementalists. Fist weapons would have similarities to daggers and maces in their use and effects, but they could vary greatly from class to class, like axes. Warrior would be the most basic brawler type, thieves could be more like scrappy and dirty fighting, while rangers would be feral closer to there beast companions.
• Possible Weapon: Chakram - Magic mid-range option for Mesmers, Rangers, Thieves, Elementalists and Guardians- Now I know that chakrams were focii in the original guild wars but they deserve thier own place in my opinion. It would be considered a magic weapon but still very physical, similar to Kingdoms of Amalur's take on it, but more to the weapons original roots. Furthermore it would also include boomerang, shuriken, and throwing glaive styled models as well. Elementalists, Guardians, and Mesmers would be fairly traditional not only  throwing them, but channeling power through them as well. Thieves would focus on the shadow arts allowing for a lot of mobility and ninja style, while rangers would draw on the druidic powers we see hints of with spirit skills evoking nature with the attacks.
• Possible Race: Tengu - They were expelled from their from thier home, but that doesn't mean they don't want to return. Tengu are awesome and already exist in Guild Wars 2. The Dominoin of Winds could make a great home city as well. Furthermore they are the best suited to lead the return since they were the last ones outside of the region before it was cut off.
• Point of Entry: Sometime after Zhaitan falls. With the undead fleet no longer controlling as much of the seas. the "Unnamed" dragon could try to expand his hold possible creating holes that tyrian forces could slip through into Cantha. I don't see it opening before Elona since it provides the perfect staging point to enter Elona by sea since the Crystal Desert is controlled by Kralkatorrik That said it could occur after the Far Shiverpeaks, or the Depths of Tyria.

     Cantha was the first region to be revealed after Guild Wars launched. This stands as a reason for it to be and not to be the first region to be opened for Guild Wars 2. That said the fact the the fifth elder dragon is still unnamed moves it further down the list. Furthermore the last known emperors xenophobic polices creates a great subplot for Guild Wars players to explore. Next time I'll take a look at Elona and the Far Shiverpeaks.

9 + 99 = ?: A Reflection

Today I reading around the Hunter Blog-a-sphere when i starting thinking about why I created a blog in the first place. I started this blog sometime around my sophomore year of college. There where three things that made decide to give it a try. 1) I played WoW, which was the main reason I even read blogs back then. B) I was a hunter, ie the most dominant force in WoW blogging. And ɣ) I had recently switched over to a Rhetoric major, so it was a great way to just write. It was without question intended to be a mostly WoW blog but at that time I was also, finally, diving into D&D (Say what you will about 4e it makes a great starting point for anyone who wants to start playing) so at the time reading D&D books and playing WoW were the my main pass times. And I am a damage dealer through and through, the finesse type, hero of skill and all that. So I called my blog +9 Dexeterity, +99 Agility, 9 being my favorite number and +9 being 3 higher than the max magic item bonus in 4e and +99 being a nice junk of agility in WotLK I felt it summed up my play style fairly well. (Little did I know that Cata would make 99 agility look like Outland greens. I thought about changing the name to +999 but if figure the item squish'll happen eventually and I'll be all good again) At the time I played troll hunter named Squalstrider and a troll enhancement shaman Squalseeker, random alts here and there. At the time if i played a race it was required to have at least 22 base Agility. As a second rule you lose points if you don't have dark skin options for realistic skin tones or can't be a hunter, (blood elves almost got the boot, like gnomes before them) So i had trolls, and elves for all my characters, until the urge hit me to level a hunter of every eligible race. I went so far as to make them all on an alt server. Just before Cata hit had hand geared up Strider and Seeker and needed other stuff to do, so I rolled a warrior. Originally planned as and orc arms warrior I changed my mind when the troll druid stuff was announced. I had also written something one holy damage than made me want to level a priest but as a holy damage build. Before i realized it both of them were in the forties after only a few days of playing and that was all before 4.0 hit. When 4.0 finally hit I changed my goals in WoW, max level DPS of every class, and all trolls, save a Blood Elf paladin. This was facilitation even more so be the main thing I did on this blog. Armchair developing.


This blog's main focus sort of became meshing game mechanics and lore. Most articles are either all about lore or about using lore in game (the surprise loss of my thrown weapon in Cata was a knife in the back). But if I was going to try to mess with mechanics I need to be familiar with how ever class worked, part of that was reading, most of it was playing. I need to have a working understanding of other roles as well. If I was going to find ways to use lore to improve the classes I needed to know how they worked. I wanted a main hand strike for Enh shaman to fill the down time in the rotation at lower gear levels, a mastery for unholy DK that created pseudo-diseases on the target that, effective use of thrown weapons for hunters, various lore appropriate class options and various tweeks to give more options with little heavy change to any classes mechanics, (ranged enh with out changing the rotation). Game mechanics need to come before lore, but that doesn't mean you can't shape game mechanics around the lore. Shaman are master of elements, but each spec focuses on one in particular, why does earth get ignored as much as it does? if they are meant to use many elements then why is there only two frost damage abilities in the toolkit, and we need more totems. Thrown weapons are surprisingly iconic in Warcraft lore but they are summarily ignore, and now deleted, in WoW. These are the types of questions that made me write. When ever I wrote I tried to think of things from the perspective of some one who actually has to find a way to put this in game. I tried to utilize machanics already in place to make the ideas less daunting. Titan's grip, Eclispe, and Feral spirit where some abilities that i frequently referenced. I wrote not necessarily hoping some Dev would see my post and put it in game, though it would be nice, but mostly to see what other people thought, and possibly discussing with them on it. I always felt that feed back is the most important thing when doing creative work. It allows you to better yourself, but it also tempers you to understand that not everyone will like what you do. 


The blog wasn't only about WoW though, at least it wasn't intended to be. Character concepts for D&D and other things popped up from here and there, but a lot of stuff never made it onto the blog. For example I had a piece on using the Dragon Age II Companion system to explore knew ways to play the game, and my complaints with the treatment of ranged rogues in Dragon Age all together. I written a lengthy forum post on DCUO on ways to implement new weapon styles into the game. Submitted at least 4 powersets on CoH forums, and discusses possible weapons in guild wars 2. I've even created a few Pokemon that I'd love to see. Hopefully more of that will make it onto the blog this time around, but for know I'll just focus on actually posting.

Strange Habits

It's been a while since I posted anything, strangely enough I've written a few blogs in the past few months but completely forgot to post them. So I'm going to try to make an effort to post more often in the coming months. Expect to see my armchair developing and ideas for the future of WoW post MoP. Likely see some Guild Wars 2, Dragon Age, Borderlands, and a bunch of other games pop up as well. Expect to finally see some stuff pop up on the Axex' Den as well. Let's hope that I remember to write down all my ideas this time.

Stri'dah