vocalthought4474: Glad to see WP on GW2.

mikalemadden1762: Any chance you'll do an overall review/post-mortem type video about Janthir Wilds now that it's fully over? Be interested to hear your thoughts on it, especially lore/story-wise

xuzhang9580: Regarding Absolution, being anticlimactic is absolutely a problem (the JW launch story ending feels more climatic than it), but to me that wasn't necessarily the biggest issue; my main problem with the patch is how it handled both new and preexisting lore.

The last patch did an amazing job at world building and enriching characters, but because nothing big happened, this last patch has a TON to go through and deal with. So Anet tried wrapping everything up with only three chapters, and it was rushed as expected. In particular, they introduced many new ideas but didn't give us the time to dwell on it or think it through, it's just "OK here's this new thing, now we have to act accordingly". It was like the Trahearne ritual at the end of Orr.

Then there's some old lore that got pulled into prominence in this patch, and the way they used these lore feels like... for a lack of better description, it feels like how Anet explained why Dragonstorm works. Like they just slammed everything together because they don't have the time to properly explain it, and while it's not necessarily destroying previously established lore, it's just weird and hollow.

Going from the lore-heavy Repentance to this has been very hard for me since Repentance handled lore very well, and I feel VERY disappointed by Absolution on its first day. But after a day or two and I looked back at the story, I think it's not the worst. Definitely not worse than Nayos if you put the problem of it being anticlimactic aside.

(Also I think this patch has major pacing issue, but I think that's best discussed after you've played the patch)

CryHeroCZ: I mean you see those trailer reacting videos like "you see what i see" but at least for me it is not the case! I love your deep analysis because i dont really see all those things you see! I played GW1 for some time (it is not that long ago i got my first gwamm) and i still dont see things there you know and see!

PS: my god that quaggan postman lol.

EddieQuezada: From the tyrian summit meeting everyone realizes you've been involved in every major world ending event.... Maybe you're the problem

kaponos: I'm going to take the novel opportunity to not be a complainy bastard for once in my life: I thought Absolution was fine.

It was no War Eternal, but it was certainly no Champions either. It was a perfectly serviceable ending given the scope of the expansion and the limitations of the post release team.

Could it have been more climactic? Yes. Were there things I wanted to happen that didn't? Yes. Am I disappointed about that? Absolutely. But it felt good to experience a GW2 story that knew its own bounds and stayed within them.

Janet has had a chronic scope problem for over a decade; there have been many times where they've taken on a story too big for their current resources and fumbled it. With JW it feels like they've finally learned to reign themselves in.

xuzhang9580: Well, the reason for Waiting Sorrow's departure has gone through many editions, and this idea of she was traumatized by Vass and Akeem's death, though first mentioned in JW launch story, was hinted at in SotO (or at least we can interpret the infomation in that way). One slight hint is in the Lonely Tower fractal when Dagda said that Waiting Sorrow was so shocked by Vass and Akeem's death that she wouldn't speak or move. But the biggest hint was from SotO's launch. Remember there's a series of books called "An Unofficial History of the Wizard's Court"? This is an excerpt from it:

"When I mentioned wanting to learn more of Vass and Akeem, her [Waiting Sorrow] expression went blank. She watched me for a moment too long before simmering into a quiet rage; not at me, perhaps, but I'd certainly struck a nerve. 'Wouldn't it be nice, knowing what they were like?' was all Sorrow muttered before taking her leave."

So yeah the trauma idea was there, but I do agree on Waiting Sorrow being unlikeable, she definitely came across as selfish for leaving the court and choosing not to help during SotO, but that's an old conversation.

EddieQuezada: This is what I've been waiting for!!!!

Aidkit5218: THE GOAT <3

broomemike1: Just watching the start, but I want to say that people who are already critiquing this patch are those who rushed it.

They'll always be less satisfied.

InkSpores: I think Absolution isn't the best but it's not the worst either. The map and concept there, I really enjoyed, but the ending did feel a little bland. However JW as a whole I loved. :) I'm a little annoyed that I never have a sense of what's coming at the end of these expacs, I'm not saying they need to tell us, but both SotO and JW have this problem of "And they all live happily ever after" and I'm left wondering what problems are still there for me to be intrigued by and mull over in my head while we wait for the next expac, I'd just like a little foreshadowing I think. HoT you were left with a grave victory that made you wondered what happened next, PoF had Aurene absorbing Kralk and Balth's magic and flying off, as well as the incoming storm, IBS left you wondering where all that magic went, so on and so forth. EoD didn't do this as effectively but still. As you said in this live stream it's hard to feel invested when it feels like there's no tension or anything drawing our eye. Unfortunately I think Anet is in the same boat as a studio, I think right now they're just telling us mini stories to conclude some of the mysteries, but have no direction or bigger thing they're building to. I may be wrong on that, but it certainly feels that way. I think the Tyrian Alliance would be a much more interesting plot point if it was progressively going to shit every meet up and we started seeing the splinters in the alliance already, or if subterfuge began to play a part, which I thought was going to be a bigger part in this expac with Malice and Caithe being at the forefront. I would have liked the expac to end with tension, that sure, we (insert spoiler here), but the divide in the room on what happened is PALPABLE.

I don't want to be all doom and gloom though, because I did really like this expac, I loved the cozy atmosphere, I loved building our rep with the Kodan and our wavering relationship with Stoic Alder, I loved Greer most of all. The way he spoke and his voice manipulation really made him feel otherwordly and a threat foreign to us.

I don't really have any pressing questions I can think of but in this livestream you imply not liking the charr and where they're at (I mostly agree), what do you think would make a good expac to bring the charr back as an interesting not-so-defanged faction? On that note, i'm glad I don't play charr as my main, I feel like a charr commander would feel VERY out of place in these two softer more emotional expacs.

Absolute-Nonsense-Talker: I am playing gw1 again

kairos1519: As to why Absolution is bad, remember how at the end of Nayos you were disappointed that Peitha didn't betrayed us, that nothing all that interesting really happened? Well, this patch is even worse, nothing interesting happens, we win, we have party, there is no cliffhanger, no stakes, no nothing.

Ezio639: Wait. So no release Stream? No New stuff or talk about the New Episode?

SmallFOV: All the spear talk here is giving me flashbacks to our buddy from Zeus lol

cobizig: Don't drink perfume wp

Sffaux: Can't agree more about how exciting new enemies are; it really adds to the sense of going somwhere new. PoF was my fave expansions purely for that sense of wonder and surprise at all of the things they added - secret mounts included! I really don't feel like I've had that since PoF at anything really. The Jade stuff was cool in EoD but mechy techy stuff isn't really my vibe (even though they looked great).

segmanYT: next expac title leaked: Guild Wars 2 - Mode of Maintenance

Fawstah: Janthir Wilds releases

Anise

Sammybree: Something I’ve been wondering recently, if GW3 is made by the same people…. won’t we just have the same issues in that game that we have in this game? Story wise yes it would be a clean slate but they kinda had that after the dragons all died.

Also wtf was the point of having Caithe and Malice in the beginning of the xpac that was pointless….

Jun 06 2025

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