AzuraJae.9246

Awesome, I'm just going to make a masterlist of everyone's findings at the top so we can compile what we find so far. I've been thinking about that, but I'm not sure what 3rd entity it could be. A nasty force even ED is afraid of? I wonder...

Oh really? That's cool! And creepy...I'm not so sure it's Almorra's ghost as much as it is Jormag taunting us for not being able to save her.

I've been wondering if other people saw the hallucinations around Bjora's marches. They seem to happen at random and are clientside (meaning you are the only one who can see them), but tend to favor certain places over another. I've personally seen: A crying norn woman around Claw's PerchA dark giant (same one you see in the last instance of the story) marching through Abberant ForestAn Icebrood Charr(?) that turns into a Cypress Sapling near a small camp to the west of the Northwest Svanir Camp (Not certain if it is an icebrood, but it is definitely a charr) / In this area, the tree that the Charr turns into also just randomly disappears and appears arbitrarily Untargettable Dead Bodies(?) just around?I tried to get screenshots, but I keep missing them. By the time I realized what I was looking at, they were gone. The only screenshot I have is of the Dark Giant marching through Abberant Forest (I've seen this particular one multiple times, might be less of the rare ones). The other ones I've seen I've only seen once and I am somewhat uncertain if I actually saw them at all. Does anyone else have any other hallucinations they've seen or have screenshots of? I wonder if the hallucinations mean anything or are there just to mess with us. Edit:MASTERLIST OF KNOWN HALLUCINATIONS: A crying Norn Woman around Claw's PerchA Dark Giant marching through Abberant Forest (Screenshot found)Almorra's Ghost that turns into a Cypress Sappling near a small camp to the west of the Northwest Svanir CampA moose mob that is on fire (?, Found by NorthernRedStar.3054, Sceenshot found)A Norn in fighting stance that appears somewhere along the South Edge of Svanir's Plateau (Found by Taelac.7036)A dead norn that appears in the path nearby the 'Investigating Massacre' Event by the Keep (Found by Taelac.7036)A norn spirit that sits on the hill north of Bjora's Keep (Found by Perihen the Thawk.9527)Male Norn tied to a tree south of Bjora's Keep ((Found by Perihen the Thawk.9527)This list excludes the hallucinations found inside the Raven's Sanctum, as they are triggered to happen once entering the trials.

I would love repise of the dark version of Fear Not This Night, but sung by Jormag.

While I do see some similarities between this single episode and the entirety of HoTs, I ultimately feel that it's going to go a different direction.Jormag and Modremoth use different tactics to get people on their side. Modremoth uses forced enslavement while Jormag rather converts people to followers (which is a big reason why some of the Svanir are not Icebrood yet). In a way, this makes it seem that Jormag has this superficial respect for it's minions, turning them to his side but not corrupting them right away (though he seems perfectly capable of doing by force if he wanted to). With the whole manipulating and whispers between the two, I think the fact that Modremoth and Jormag have such a different way of gaining control of people is what separates the two stories. Modremoth used force and a commanding ALLCAPS tone that enhanced his authority, he didn't really interact with the PC!Sylvari that much He did tug their leash and knock them around sometimes, but that was it. 'OBEY ME OR DIE' sort of schtick. Modremoth interacting with the PC!Sylvari also didn't feel very personal. In contrast, Jormag's interactions feel more personal because of the way Jormag speaks. Softer and warmer tone, almost kind: 'I can protect you...You're stronger with me. '; Jormag wants you to think he's the good guy while Modremoth is fine with you thinking he is a bad guy, but he's going to enslave you anyway. With Jormag, once your perspective has been warped and molded by the sweet deception, you've become just another blind follower to do whatever Jormag wants. Jormag is manipulating our perception to reality until we are no longer who we used to be VS Modremoth's powerful oppression erasing who we are forcefully.Because of this difference, the PC already seems to be under the influence of Jormag much quicker than Modremoth did the entire HoTs storyline. They were already considering Jormag's offer in the last instance. It would be cool if the future of the story did follow up on this concept and have us actually go to 'talk it out' with Jormag, but that only opens the loophole to being manipulated and deceived. And we're supposed to be going after Bangar, who is maybe being manipulated as well? What about this terrible thing that Jormag mentioned in the last instance? And some stuff people mentioned here like Jhavi being of Svanir blood.I do think the whole Modremoth comparison that PC!Sylvari made was just a nice callback. It's basically what PC!Sylvari said: "It's like Modremoth, but different."

While I do think that's definitely a possibility, I'd still like to think it's some sort of foreshadowing of some kind. I mean after all, they went through all that effort in The Departing during PoF to change the player's name to 'Lost Spirit', which I would think is harder to do. I don't know much about programming, but in theory, it shouldn't be hard just to change the name of someone talking in text chat, just change the variable for text display.

Even if this is not the case, the Commander is still pretty special to Aurene. She cared enough for the Commander that she flew from Auric Basin to Elona to try save them from Balthazar. In short story Requiem: Rytlock, he akins Aurene to being like the Commander's daughter (and I'm sure the sentiment is the same from Aurene's side). I think she should be a bit worried if her 'parent' was getting manipulated by another Elder Dragon. And even if she doesn't care about the Commander anymore, since the Commander is still Aurene's representative in the world of Tyria, wouldn't she also be worried if the Commander is potentially making alliances and deals with another Elder Dragon (dialogue from the last instance of the episode)? I think she still has the same love for the people as Glint did before her, so even if the Commander isn't important, wouldn't she be worried if Jormag's going to ice a big portion of the people she swore to protect?

As a player who mains a Sylvari character, I liked that little detail. I wonder if there will any more future dialogue mentioning Modremoth, due to the similarities of a 'voice in your head'. I must say though, I like the differences between the speaking patterns of Modremoth and Jormag. Modremoth was forceful and his voice was loud and commanding. It was clear that he wanted you to think that he had the authority. His influence was oppressive, painful. Sylvari could completely lose themselves to him, the end result would be turning into a monster who had forgotten what they once were. It's painful and tiring to resist him, PC almost lost themselves just from getting closer to him. Jormag's voice is soft, warm, almost comforting. I think they want us to see them as their friend, or at least an ally. Instead of knocking you down and striking your mind with pain, Jormag manipulates you with frequent small bouts of psychological reinforcements, slowly warping our perspective until we are no longer ourselves. Jormag's end result would be us willingly ditching ourselves instead of being jacked out forcibly. I found it interesting that Jormag uses the voices and hallucinations of family/friends, people important in your life, etc. to belittle you and poke at your insecurities, but then uses their real voice to comfort you, like they're setting themselves up as a 'good guy' and that they only wants to help us. I think that's the reason why the last instance cutscene was so convincing. We've already been fed with whispers of Jormag showing some sort of 'concern' while our 'friends' turned their backs on us. TL;DR version of this is: Modremoth makes slaves, Jormag converts followers. I like the distinction. Also found out, that Jormag is manipulating certain NPCs in the Keep into walking out into the snow and dying, promising them warmth and peace. I stayed by an NPC's side as they froze to death. You can talk to them, and you can try to talk out of it, but it's a circular conversation. The only thing you can do is watch them die. NPCs are randomized, I saw a Sylvari get lured out and die. I somewhat agree that the voice isn't Jormag, but I'm not sure if it's Drarkkar. Could be, but I'm not sure. Going back to HoTs, whenever Modremoth speaks, the voice is titled as 'Voice of Modremoth' or something along those lines, but for some reason, the whispers are labeled as 'Unknown'. If we're so sure that it's Jormag, why is it still labelled as unknown? I think it's telling.

Though short, I actually found the atmosphere and the story really interesting. I've always been a person who enjoys dark, creepy themes like this, though I wouldn't give this episode a full 10/10 (maybe a generous 6.5/10?) , but still, nice visuals and feels. I really liked that Jormag was talking to us throughout the entire story and anytime you're on the open map. It just adds to the creepiness level. I don't know if it's the whispers that are getting to me, but I actually ended up thinking that Jormag was prettying convincing in the last instance. I feel like we should at least hear him out, but I feel like that's the first step to losing our bearings and joining his side. Though honestly, Jormag's offer was pretty clear, I almost wanted to believe him. Maybe a part of me already does (I imagine this is how the PC feels too). I was wondering this, but I don't know if I believe that the voice talking to us is Jormag. Back in HoTs, as a sylvari, whenever Modremoth spoke, it was a clear 'Voice of Modremoth' in the text chat, but here it is labeled as 'unknown'. If we're so certain that voice is Jormag, then why hasn't that changed? I don't really know how deep this deception goes, but what if we're talking to something pretending to be Jormag? What about Raven? How did his magic get 'stolen' by Svanir? Is he already corrupted and part of this deception? Another lingering thought I had was if Aurene has tuned into this. I know she probably is cleaning up Krakk's mess, but the Commander (player) is to Aurene to what Drakkar is to Jormag right? Wouldn't she be interested if Jormag (or whoever it is) is attempting to hijack her champion? She may not realize yet (too early, maybe), but judging by the Commander's reaction to the last instance offer (the delayed "...Right."), I can only imagine the whispering hijinks will only continue. Though, it might not be a good idea for another Elder Dragon to wage war against another...but then again, Jormag did offer an alliance of some kind? While this episode remains a lot to be desired, I hope the next episode would at least be just as dark, foreboding and creepy as this episode (though maybe a wee bit longer).

Hmm, if I were to describe it, if you use a skill, it takes a little more than half a second to a whole second for the action to take place. I usually have to end up spamming the key to make sure it registers, because sometimes it doesn't. I've never had the luxury of instant casting it always has a delay, depending on what mood swings my internet decides to have at the time. Recently its been gettinf worse with up to 1k ping and I have to relog. Playable, but not good for things like PvP where skill usage and timing is important. That's why with my second delay I like running away since its easier to time that, more than trying to time specific skills, don't think I can be as accurate. Until Oceania severs get introduced, at least. Yeah I do think it has to do with profession. I did this with both my Warrior and Mesmer with the Chicken method I described above. I'm sort of generalizing it, but there are probably specific profession tips for the fight, but I'm glad whatever method you chose worked out.

Since you sound like you know your stuff, your advice would work much better. Personally, I could never time my stuns or CC on time, maybe because I play with 200-300ping constantly since I'm in NZ and the servers are in Europe, so there's always a bit of delay when casting spells/skills. But maybe thats just a silly excuse in a futile attempt to defend myself and my strategy; Maybe you guys play with that ping and are good, I wouldn't know. I opted for a more 'complicated', but I guess 'easy to understand' (for me at least). By all means, both these two folks, Spiro and Maximus, sound very well informed, so if anyone does happen to read this post; perhaps refer to their method, which actually might work better for you, (which is probably the 'MLG; method that I mentioned,probably an easy as pie for them so it's not MLG, but it was difficult for me), but I couldn't do it xD Probably since I'm a garbage player I can't fight this garbage fight ><"

That's great! Once you figure out the rhythm this boss is quite easy actually. It's actually figuring out that's the hard part.

So I finally finished up the Path of Fire story and I have to say it's quite interesting. I really didn't expect for the player to actually die; to think just a few missions earlier I said 'good thing we're the main character so we can't die'. Interesting route to take, I like it. But if I ever have to fight Eater of Souls again I would kill myself, seriously. What is up with this crazyass self-heal? And you have to solo-it? I should have asked Joko to just revive me as an Awakened. Anet, please nerf. I know you're trying to make the struggle to return to life a difficult struggle, but this boss is harder than the Blighted Pale Tree in challange mode. I figured out a strategy that seems to work and I want to share it knowing others are going to be facing such an atrocity sooner or later. There is probably a pro MLG way to do this, but I'm a nub so I did this the chicken way, which worked. IMPORTANT NOTES- If you haven't entered the afterlife or started the instance yet, be sure to equip all your boosters before you enter it.You can't use your inventory as a ghost. Speed Boosters are very much welcome. Optional, but not required. - Eater of Souls absorbs life from any of your allies. If you have friends in the instance with you or pets or minions, get rid of them before you battle.Ask your friends to stand at a distance so they won't get targeted by it or get them to kill themselves and remain dead, put your pets on passive, and de-summon any minions. I don't know if it steals health from Illusions, but if you're a mesmer, break your illusions as soon as you make them. Turrets are not affected. - Eater of Souls does it's BS Life stealing/Self Healing move roughly around every 20 seconds or so.When he's about to do it, he jumps at you. You don't have to know exactly when it is, but try to get a feeling of when it's coming. If you have friends with you, have them keep track since they won't be in combat. - Have some mobility moves, ones that get you from one side of the battlefield to another quickly, movement speed increase, and some stability.Optional, but not required. - Have some condition damaging moves.Not vulnerability, stuff like Burning and Poison. It comes in very handy. Optional, but not required. > Chicken MethodSo, what you're going to do, is every twenty seconds, in between the magical healing BS, you to dish out as much damage as you can possibly muster. Use all your conditions, Confusion, Poison, Burning, everything you can. Then you need to run for the hills as you see that orange circle on the ground indicating the jumping at you, use any speed boosting or mobility moves and get as far away from him as possible. He heals less if you are farther away. Stay away from him until he uses the stomp attack after. Then feel free to re-engage. The reason why I recommend stability is that if you get caught by his healing move, he drags you closer, or if you get caught by his jump, he knocks you over. With stability, you can ignore that effect. Rise and repeat until he ded. If you downed, just let yourself die and just do as much damage as you can using your first move, he can and will siphon health from your dying ghostly corpse. If you are a warrior, you can just get up and fight him for a few extra seconds until you die, but respawn as quickly as you can before he regenerates health from being out of combat. If you have Signet of Agony mastery, use that first to do a little extra damage and stop yourself from healing from attacks, then spam 1 until you're dead. > MLG MethodThere is a way to do this if you're really good at the game. I figured out that if you stun him or use any sort of CC when he's about to jump, you can completely cancel the entire self-healing process. If you have a lot of burst damage, you can probably burn him down faster than he can heal, but I'm not really sure what profession, skill, or build can accomplish this. However, this needs some practice to get used to the timing of his jumps and to always have CC available every 20 seconds and stability/speed boost just in case. Otherwise, it's back to square one at 100% Health again. I was never able to defeat him solely with this method, but I did manage to cancel his Self-Healing BS when I saw the opportunity. So that's how I killed Eater of Souls with the Chicken Method. If anyone wants to know, I killed Eater of Souls with my Sylvari Beserker with a Mace/Axe and Bow combo. I had the Healing Signet has my healing move for healing over time, Balanced Stance for stability and movement speed, Dolyak Signet for more stability, Bull Charge to get away and well-timed stun, and Rampager as my elite skill as extra stability and a way to jump farther away (also a nice way to stun if you plan to MLG it). I had originally started the fight as a Spellbreaker, since I was testing it out, but I realized I just wasn't doing enough damage and I needed extra Fire condition damage to out damage the little healing it could suck out before I hightail it out of his range. It's nice that the Bow Beserker Ability stacks the fire's intensity and since it follows you, it did some nice damage before I re-engage with melee. I was in a party with my boyfriend and we were swapping every instance or so, and he was so glad he didn't get to fight Eater of Souls and tagged along with me with my victory. He was the one who timed the self-healing BS and let me know when he was about to use it and to run. This whole instance was cool storywise. Though I wish my character got revived with some pants on.