#ive tried to fix it before but i am just a solid chunk of awkward and stale

[icy-gendango]

Just hit 21k words.... feeling wild... have a drabbl

[xaeneron]

On A Star to Guide Us

  HELLO FRIENDS 

I once again live.  Sort of.  I’ve been busy and just haven’t had time to curate this blog, but I’m still here!  Sort of.  A lot of sort ofs.

This patch was a much-needed chunk of content and I’m glad that it’s finally out.  The chapter itself was pretty solid and I adored a lot of things about it, and Jahai felt infinitely better than Kourna did, both in terms of just map design and the associated achievements.  Ofc this release also had wing 6, Mythwright Gambit, which is exactly what my guild needed after months of twiddling our thumbs clearing 1-5 every week.

Spoilers under the cut even though it’s been almost a week, and a small note that I have a dumb comic in the works and hopefully it’ll be finished and up soon!  

On General Updates:

Xiuquatl looks fabulous (although huge) and I want it as well as flying snek friend.  Unfortunately I also made the Minstrel a day before the announcement because my buy order on the Bard went through and I was bored, so it’ll be a while before snek fren.  But I will get it!  I’m glad, as I wasn’t the biggest fan of Meteorlogicus.

Some of the bug fixes and QoL changes were great, even little things like adding items to stacks in shared inventory slots (I def had this problem so hype).

OH MY GOD SAMAROG’S CUTSCENE IS SKIPPABLE IT’S CHRISTMAS.

On Mythwright Gambit:

I have been so hype for this wing it hurts. ;A;

I love the atmosphere and the feel of the wing in general.  In comparison to the dreary, dark, overbearing feeling of Hall of Chains, Mythwright Gambit is downright whimsical.  I loved HoC, but I am also a fan of having lighter, more cheerful raid wings as well.

Zomorros is great.  Legit great.  I love that Glenna points out that he effectively kidnaps the party to fight Qadim for him and he just whines that she’s making it sound a lot worse than it is.  Zomorros pls

I actually really enjoy all of the encounters.  MG isn’t as difficult as HoC, but the fights are a good mix of unique mechanics and improvements over previous bosses.  I appreciate that they can’t be explicitly carried by a couple competent players, and that at least in some of the cases everyone needs to be doing something to contribute.  It makes the encounters much more interesting, and tries a lot harder to make everyone pull their weight.

The Twin Largos music is amazing.

Qadim’s fight has so many simultaneous moving parts and I love it.

Zomorros casually dual wielding two Eternities and then Bifrost + Shining Blade.  Never change djinn buddy.

On Jahai Bluffs and Sun’s Refuge:

Honestly I actually really like Jahai Bluffs.  It feels a lot better as a zone than Kourna did; there’s a lot of hidden little details and interesting things to go and find. Granted, Kourna is a battlefield wasteland and Jahai is part living beast and part temporal fuckery, but it just feels more complete than Kourna, and I am a fan.

The achievements are a big part of it, I think.  A lot of fetch quests for Sun’s Refuge, but at least there was a goal that felt reasonable, as opposed to the turret collections from Kourna that had to be started with just murdering Inquest until they dropped like 40 different blueprint parts.  (I’m sorry I’m whining about Kourna I’ll stop I promise).  Jahai’s achievements feel reasonable, which is a nice change.

??? is the best zone ever.  We might’ve stopped doing story entirely for like 20 minutes and sat there until we all got gold on Run Around for No Reason.

Have you ever noticed how soft Rytlock’s fur is? owo

I love the temporal splits.  I miss Jahai from GW1, but it’s a good mix of the terrain from way back when and how current events have been messing with time and space.

That Orrian poem and the surprise punch to the gut.  Thanks Anet.  I wonder what that comic I mentioned is going to feature

Sun’s Refuge is neat, although it annoys me a bit that the teleport isn’t straight to the center of the zone (although I suppose it’s probably coded to use the same entry point as just clicking on the portal).  It’s a nice little area with a lot of secrets and things to do, although it seems like Anet isn’t doing much more with it?  Which seems a little sad.

The desert fox friend is adorable and I spent a good 10 minutes playing catch with it. 

The requiem collections are actually pretty good?  The story for the elegy one had surprising depth and I enjoyed going through it.  

Although I am not a fan of farming mistonium (I’ll get it over time though so nbd) and idk what Anet was thinking with the nullification sigils, but ayyyy

Look! There’s Koss.  Koss is Boss.  Let’s hug Koss.  Now Koss is cross.

On A Star to Guide Us:

I continue to adore the male sylvari voice.  Ive just sounded so done when Taimi first called.  

Splat is a wonderful achievement that I got completely accidentally.  

I appreciate Utumishi’s title changing from “Grand Vizier Utumishi” to “Former Grand Vizier Utumishi” mid conversation.

Iberu.  Die.  Permanently.  Please.

Koss agrees.

I appreciate that they’re making use of Koss, particularly as an indicator that Joko is in fact dead (or dead enough that Koss feels confident walking around outside of his cave).  Also the “how does this new fangled technology work” moment with Taimi’s comm device.

Aurene being a pain in the ass teenager is hilarious.  Although we’ve probably exhausted all the indigestion jokes from eating an undead lich.

Braham being scared of spiders.  And Koss making fun of him.  And the achievement description literally saying “make Braham look good.”  Anet pls hahahaha

Braham in general tbh.  I did not expect surprise Eir cameo (and Snaff!  omg Snaff), and the awkward post-death heart-to-heart was...well, about exactly what it should have been.  Eir acknowledging that she hasn’t been there for him, and now can’t be, at least in the way he wants her to, was a nice touch.  Braham needs to grow up and accept things as they change, and seeing his friends for what they are is a good step to outgrowing his hotheadedness, which is one part defining character trait and one part something that can absolutely develop and change.

I appreciate that Braham had a moment of understanding that living friends are more valuable than trying to keep trying to fix his relationship with his dead mother, but that heart to heart with the PC was...awkward.  Nice, but a bit too squishy.  Also Ive is still mad at him because tiny salad holds one hell of a grudge.

Speaking of Eir and Snaff.  The cameo sequence into the Infinity War-esque I saw 14,000,605 futures bit was interesting.  I think the future-hopping was one of my favorite sequences of the story, but poor Aurene.  Lots for the babbu dragon; I don’t blame her for peacing out xD

The sniper instance.  It was fun and a nice change of pace, although at times trying not to get sniped was frustrating.  Also the number of people asking to be able to murder her instead lul

I know Anet wanted you to look at the visions and be like LOOK IT’S THE SAME WOMAN NOW but...eh.  I probably just wasn’t paying enough attention, but a lot of people in the guild got to the end of the sequence and were like “uh was I supposed to know who she was”

ofc Blish had to get nommed.  No body yet so we can’t confirm he’s dead, but ofc we had to have a point where we assume he is.  

Gorrik’s speedtalking blubbering reactionary attempt to avoid the fact that Blish is gone was a punch right in the feels.  His attempt to avoid acknowledging it to avoid the grief was incredibly sad.  I actually appreciated that a lot more than Taimi’s confession of remission because of Blish’s recommendation not to keep secrets.

Although Taimi’s confession was hella sad.  ;-;

Babbu teenage dragon come back pls