Guild Wars 2

Albeit LSS2 hasn’t ended yet, and this might still be applied. I am thoroughly surprised about the lack of skill additions/ class’s having weapon use restrictions removed.
After two years of GW there was pretty much two new expansions with 4new classes, and a multitude of skills, not to mention the maps.

Am I the only one who thinks it is about time to add some more skill variety, whether that be utility of weapon skills.

I would like to see them add a new expansion as well.

I actually would like new skills but what I prefer more is new Weapon skills for each class.

Maybe even introduce new weapons like a Gauntlet weapon which can be used by Warriors, Guardians, Engineers, and Elementalists.

With Warrior skills focus more on fist fighting brawler style skills

Guardians being more monk protector like skills.

Engineers being energy gauntlet skills allow them to generate energy into their gauntlets and perform some technology themed attacks like placing energy fields to reflect range attacks or a more offensive AoE damage electric field that damage all enemies in the electric field and shooting electric shocks at enemies. Of course this weapon would have to go uner the Inventions section for its traits due to it’s technology nature.

While Elementalists use gauntlets as a new type of caster weapon allowing them to cast powerful range and AoE elemental attacks.

I still want melee longbow for mesmer.

I need it.

ANet pls.

dace.8019:

Don’t worry, this has all been advertised as something we can look forward to in 2013.

Lolol

yea we really need a new weapon for each class, it’s starting to get boring.

New weapons would be massive towards increasing diversity, followed by new elites, new utilities, and new traits.

Scythe as a melee cleave weapon for necro please.

I’ll give 5k gems for it… I promise

Off hand sword for thief,

And cross bows

I would love to see the Halberd implemented, swiss style combat !

Yeah I think more skills would be good.

I mean, I’d genuinely argue that since the existent skills aren’t balanced anyhow, and the speed of balancing is glacial at best, just add more. I didn’t truly like the GW1 style of balancing by throwing out so many skills that hopefully a handful are balanced in the end, but I’d take it. Right here and now.

My ideas for Mesmer:

• New type of skill, “Illusion”. IoL gets moved to it, add 3 more and an elite which is one. These give a temporary bonus and then have a downside after the bonus ends. In return, they have either large radii or short CDs.
• New weapon, Shortbow. A short-range ranged weapon (600 units) it excels in direct damage from a short distance and fire support. It struggles with having no inherent clone generation move on the weapon.
• New weapon, offhand Dagger. Specializes in overpowering enemies, offering high burst and good defence for short times, but comparatively long CDs. Phantasm is the one we get while downed, but after 3 backstabs it dissolves. Other skill is a move where we disappear and repeatedly appear, striking the enemy with our mainhand autoattack.

warrior and thief:
fist weapons! warrior will be all HULK! thief will be lightning fast like bruce lee

mesmer and necro:
scythe! slow PBAoE cleave type skills
(those 2 need some cleave love for PvE zergs)

engi:
make mortar an elite kit and rework it to be better!

ranger:
staff! more focus on control and support like viny roots and shielding walls.

i’m all out of ideas for ele though XD

I’d just like to be able to choose my skills for my weapon and not be stuck with the same 5 all the time. I’d be happy if they gave us 10 skills for two-handed, 6 for main hand and 4 for offhand to choose from

Carighan.6758:

Yeah I think more skills would be good.

I mean, I’d genuinely argue that since the existent skills aren’t balanced anyhow, and the speed of balancing is glacial at best, just add more. I didn’t truly like the GW1 style of balancing by throwing out so many skills that hopefully a handful are balanced in the end, but I’d take it. Right here and now.

My ideas for Mesmer:

• New type of skill, “Illusion”. IoL gets moved to it, add 3 more and an elite which is one. These give a temporary bonus and then have a downside after the bonus ends. In return, they have either large radii or short CDs.
• New weapon, Shortbow. A short-range ranged weapon (600 units) it excels in direct damage from a short distance and fire support. It struggles with having no inherent clone generation move on the weapon.
• New weapon, offhand Dagger. Specializes in overpowering enemies, offering high burst and good defence for short times, but comparatively long CDs. Phantasm is the one we get while downed, but after 3 backstabs it dissolves. Other skill is a move where we disappear and repeatedly appear, striking the enemy with our mainhand autoattack.

also for your dagger idear, if the rouge phantasm hits it stealths, will add more depth to fighting an off hand dagger mesmer.

Galphar.3901:

I’d just like to be able to choose my skills for my weapon and not be stuck with the same 5 all the time. I’d be happy if they gave us 10 skills for two-handed, 6 for main hand and 4 for offhand to choose from

Nah, I think that’s an essential part of it. It gives each weapon a clear role to be balanced for.
It’s also important so that enemies can somewhat judge what skills you’re going to use.

Carighan.6758:

Galphar.3901:

I’d just like to be able to choose my skills for my weapon and not be stuck with the same 5 all the time. I’d be happy if they gave us 10 skills for two-handed, 6 for main hand and 4 for offhand to choose from

Nah, I think that’s an essential part of it. It gives each weapon a clear role to be balanced for.
It’s also important so that enemies can somewhat judge what skills you’re going to use.

No it’s ANet’s laziness that keeps us with skills bound to weapons. When GW2 was announced, ANet said they were dropping the second profession because it made it harder to balance. They just took it two steps further and limited the skills we could actually choose from, we had 8 slots in GW and now we have 5 in GW2 (Heal, 3 Utitily, and Elite).

I’d rather see our current skills and traits all made relevant before they send a shipment of new toys for us. A skill here and there doesn’t hurt though.

Galphar.3901:

They just took it two steps further and limited the skills we could actually choose from, we had 8 slots in GW and now we have 5 in GW2 (Heal, 3 Utitily, and Elite).

And this is a bad thing how exactly?
I mean sure I can’t prove that it’s a good thing, but you lament it as if it’s obvious that it’s a bad thing.

Carighan.6758:

Galphar.3901:

They just took it two steps further and limited the skills we could actually choose from, we had 8 slots in GW and now we have 5 in GW2 (Heal, 3 Utitily, and Elite).

And this is a bad thing how exactly?
I mean sure I can’t prove that it’s a good thing, but you lament it as if it’s obvious that it’s a bad thing.

It’s a bad thing because it limits build diversity severely. It’s why we have only 1 meta-build for some professions. When ANet announced GW2 they said they were doing away with dual-professions because of balancing issues. Fine, but not giving us some choice in our weapon skills didn’t give us fewer builds, it gave us the meta and NO diversity.

Galphar.3901:

Carighan.6758:

Galphar.3901:

They just took it two steps further and limited the skills we could actually choose from, we had 8 slots in GW and now we have 5 in GW2 (Heal, 3 Utitily, and Elite).

And this is a bad thing how exactly?
I mean sure I can’t prove that it’s a good thing, but you lament it as if it’s obvious that it’s a bad thing.

It’s a bad thing because it limits build diversity severely. It’s why we have only 1 meta-build for some professions and those are usually the professions that are on the bottom (Ranger and Necro).

Doesn’t really help create diversity because people will still be using 1-3 builds for depending on content, even some class barely had one build that was concidered meta in gw1

I like the idea of new traits that feel exciting when they’re slotted.

So many traits just passively do something really boring. I want them to change the way my 1-5 skills work — add a new dimension to my skills.

Right now traits are so lackluster in my personal opinion.

Polearms please!
Go shadow scythe mode for necromancer
Maybe an interesting mixed range/melee javelin technique for ranger
Hardcore halberd style for warrior
Something defensive for guardian (I really want 1-handed polearm with shield) with good offensive utility
A thief could wield it like a quarterstaff (kind of kills the dual wielding concept, but so does shortbow)

Honestly, I just want the first two lines above all else! XD

If you’re actually expecting Anet to add new weapons and skills when half of the existing ones are already useless then lol.

If they really wanted they could just give us alternative skillsets on existing weapons, which would cut out the work needed to model new skins, etc. but I honestly don’t think they’re interested in adding new game mechanics like they did regularly in GW1. Unfortunate but true.

I can always hope :p
Also, many underwater weapon skins can easily double as polearms, reducing their work. It would be like adding a new skillset to the spear, but bringing it from underwater to on land.

BobbyT.7192:

Doesn’t really help create diversity because people will still be using 1-3 builds for depending on content, even some class barely had one build that was concidered meta in gw1

Exactly. There’s always optimal builds, the only thing which changes is the number of sub-optimal builds going unused by experienced players.

I would rather see the utility bar expanded by two more skills so we can use more of the ones we currently have.

It really does not matter how many new skills we get if we are limited by being able to pick only 3. See healing as an example. The added heal skills did not add a lot to build diversity.

I don’t think healing skills were added to promote our class diversity as much as eliminate what anet viewed as an outdated system (heal tank dps). Then again, it doesn’t seem like things went to plan so its no shock that people are against it to this day. It has more to do with the content though than the class’s although both are certainly an issue.

babazhook.6805:

See healing as an example. The added heal skills did not add a lot to build diversity.

The consistent theme of the new skills is that they’re directly or indirectly related to dealing damage or attacking.

This was – IMO – less based on wanting some arbitrary amount of extra diversity and more on offering equal opportunities because some classes already had heals which indirectly work off getting attacked (Mesmer Mirror is an example).

i’d like them to start by making every weapon & utility line somewhat balanced first.

eg1: for PVP/WVW Ele glyphs, signets, and conjures all suck, have always sucked.
eg2: for WVW non-roaming, everything ranger just plain sucks
numerous other examples.

Don’t really want new skills to be honest. It’ll just lead to more balancing headaches.

scerevisiae.1972:

eg1: for PVP/WVW Ele glyphs, signets, and conjures all suck, have always sucked.

Ele glyphs and signets are very useful, you just gotta learn how to use them properly.

https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/145724/guild-wars-2-the-shaft.jpg

Jerry Attrick.5963:

When equipped you walk with a cripple

ThiBash.5634:

Don’t really want new skills to be honest. It’ll just lead to more balancing headaches.

scerevisiae.1972:

eg1: for PVP/WVW Ele glyphs, signets, and conjures all suck, have always sucked.

Ele glyphs and signets are very useful, you just gotta learn how to use them properly.

I do know how to use them properly; they’re just objectively worse than cantrips and arcane utilities. This isn’t controversial; it’s overwhelmingly the consensus position.

Some new elites would be nice. I still have yet to pick an elite on my guardian that wasn’t renewed focus :/

Warrior: “Watch yourself!”. Increase the toughness of your allies. [60 +3 per level (300 at level 80)]. Duration 15 seconds. Radius of effect 600 units. Max number of targets 5. Cooldown 90 seconds. (shout)

Guardian: Staff of Knowledge. Summon an arcane staff to support you and your allies. Every 10 seconds, it will cast empower (same might duration and stacks, just no heal). Cooldown 120 seconds. Duration 40 seconds. Command the staff to heal nearby allies and cure 1 condition. Radius of effect 600. Max number of targets 5. (spirit weapon)

Engineer: Carpet bombing. Call in a bombardment of attacks on a target area. Radius of effect 450 units. Number of hits 15. Radius of hits 120 Cast time 3 seconds (air strike does not arrive if interrupted). Duration 6 seconds. Cast range 900 units. Cooldown 90 seconds.

Ranger: Comfort animal. Heal (only) your pet. If your pet is dead, instead resurrect them to 33% health and double the cooldown. Cooldown 45(90) seconds.

Thief: Shadow form. Reduce the duration of incoming conditions and increase the duration of stealth skills. Reduce conditions by 50%. Increase stealth durations by 1 second. Effect duration 20 seconds. Cooldown 120 seconds. (deception)

Elementalist: Master of magic. For the next 30 seconds, swapping attunements lowers the cooldown of every other attunement by 1 second. (this does not effect the attunement you swap out of). Cooldown 60 seconds.

Mesmer: Impaired Thoughts. The next skill your foe casts has an additional 15 second recharge on it. Range 600 units. Effect duration 10 seconds. Cooldown 120 seconds. (Manipulation)

Necromancer: Spectral Fog. Remove all your conditions into a fog. Enemies who enter the cloud are effected by those conditions for the remaining duration. Cloud duration 6 seconds. (only applies conditions one time). Radius of cloud 300 units. Cooldown 90 seconds. (spectral)

Thing about GW1, was the community was small, and they were trying to impress people with what they could create.

Now they have so much money coming in left and right, they have become lax and more than likely don’t care much anymore about impressing their playerbase.

They built a game they want to play, and now they sit back and suffer from EA syndrome while the gem store prints money for them and NCsoft.

I would love to see multitudes of weapons and skills added for each class, new mechanics, refine old mechanics. But after 2 years, I don’t think we will see any of it.

Considering Anet has talked openly about the adding of new skills, and weapon additions for classes, for a long time, I’d say it is fair to assume we’ll see them.
Is there a slight possibility that Anet is making a proper expansion, and plans to include these in it? yes, did Daniel Dociu mention in a random interview, before release, that they were already making the art for Cantha? yes,

Is the Vanilla skills/builds, highly catered to some rather than others, of course, anybody who has played GW, will agree that you had some builds that pretty much no one could run properly. Which means that some people will find vanilla builds easier than others, which is another reason for bringing out some new skills, or at least bring in some more viable elite skills

Anyhow, the lack of skill variety is definitely a reason that makes people leave GW2 for periods of time

Zietlogik.6208:

Thing about GW1, was the community was small, and they were trying to impress people with what they could create.

Hrm, really? GW1 always gets so much hype, and few ever talk about how rough and flawed the game was. True, it had lots of good ideas and concepts. But so few worked out well.

It’s no wonder that the game never took off that much. It was a good idea, but just needed more time.

The game is quite stale and I really wish they’d add new weapons and skills for classes to use. My only concern is the game is 2 years old and I still haven’t found a real reason for the entire Ranger class to even exist. It would be a shame to see other classes get new toys to expand on their playstyles and for Rangers only to get something to finally make them relavent.

I’m also concerned about how much worse balance will end up.

New skills would be great – but they should also be useful.

Remember that new healing skill we got with the Tower of Nightmares? – yeah the useless one.

If they add more skills ( and they will) they better make them worth the wait.

Also – new weapons would be fantastic – halebards, battleaxes are just two awesome suggestions.

Harper.4173:

New skills would be great – but they should also be useful.

Remember that new healing skill we got with the Tower of Nightmares? – yeah the useless one.

If they add more skills ( and they will) they better make them worth the wait.

Also – new weapons would be fantastic – halebards, battleaxes are just two awesome suggestions.

I wouldn’t mind having a bunch of niche skills.

After all, in the first guild wars, many builds ran around a few meta skills with additional niche skills serving whatever needed purpose.

Soilder.3607:

After all, in the first guild wars, many builds ran around a few meta skills with additional niche skills serving whatever needed purpose.

Yes, and from the perspective of long-term wanting new players or make existent players return this is not a good thing.

You end up with a ton of skills, for very little actual gameplay value per skill. It’d be more useful to have way fewer, way more useful and way more defined skills. Instead of having 7 skills to deliver some form of feedback damage to the target depending on X, Y and Z, have one. Just that one. Want to deal feedback damage? Take that skill.

Carighan.6758:

Soilder.3607:

After all, in the first guild wars, many builds ran around a few meta skills with additional niche skills serving whatever needed purpose.

Yes, and from the perspective of long-term wanting new players or make existent players return this is not a good thing.

You end up with a ton of skills, for very little actual gameplay value per skill. It’d be more useful to have way fewer, way more useful and way more defined skills. Instead of having 7 skills to deliver some form of feedback damage to the target depending on X, Y and Z, have one. Just that one. Want to deal feedback damage? Take that skill.

I’m not saying there should only be niche skills.

What I am saying is that there should be more niche skills than meta skills, as that is how I preferred it.

For example, in the first guild wars you were tempted to constantly create and change builds because of how many skills niche there were. Each one had its own small purpose and you never knew when it would come into play.

And I find it to be a lot more fun when you have a large, varying pool of skills to choose from.

Soilder.3607:

For example, in the first guild wars you were tempted to constantly create and change builds because of how many skills niche there were. Each one had its own small purpose and you never knew when it would come into play

Yet nearly everyone just googled the optimal build and played that.
Which makes sense, not counting the underdog players (though I’m one myself, pretty bad actually, I can’t stand playing what other people consider the “normal” spec) using anything but the calculated optimal is just intentionally losing.

I might not entirely agree with the logic (I don’t like it when a class is completely simmered down to core skills, which is also why I hate MOBAs, where usually everyone has the same static set), but in general it’s sound. WoW tried not doing it, and then they switched to removing niche, and … in comparison it shows improvement. It’s not a perfect solution, but better than the direct opposite, of which GW1 was a very extreme case.

In short, due to /google, the benefit of non-optimal abilities is for underdog players to challenge themselves. Little more.

Its in my opinion about time to add more stuff to the game. New weapon types or assignable skills for the weapon you carry, spreading existing weapons to more classes, and new skills in general AND proper balancing. Yea much asked but i personally get sick and tired to NEED to run very specific builds to do stuff. To experiment arround is almost a sin these days. Run a darn meta build and DONT you dare to not go zerk (if you pve) and if only a SINGLE point of dps is missing you are not usefull\wanted\allowed to even breathe and thats about it. As for pvp i cant talk much as a “scrub” who dares to dont run a meta build. Seriosly.. balancing should be priority, balancing and making ALL skills and weapons equally viable for each class, same for skills, runes, sigils so that people are allowed to play how they want and make up their own creative builds to tackle situations their very own way without getting ridiculed. Also enemies should get get abilities that stuff like full healer and support builds are needed to even do defeat them proper.
But yea thats just the opinion of a “scrub”.. nothing more

for me, the defining characteristic of the 1st game was the flexibility of the class/skill system – the mix of primary class mechanic + secondary class + wide variety of skills was awesome – there was always something new to try/theorycraft.

I don’t think this game has anywhere near the same depth.

With the exception of mesmer and necro (and possibly engie, which i don’t have an 80 of), every class has 1 maybe 2 builds that are so much better than everything else they have — in general, intra-class balance IMO is really bad and I really hope they divert some serious resources to trying to bring (intra-class) balance up to par.

usernameisapain.7163:

Am I the only one who thinks it is about time to add some more skill variety, whether that be utility of weapon skills.

Having zero flexibility on our weapon skills means we’re locked into the same five skills forever. This is particularly frustrating when a skill is designed for a game mode you don’t play (i.e. a PvEer gets limited/no use out of Hunter’s Shot). I’m ready for a customizable weapon skill bar. I’m ready for new utility skills. And I’m ready for entirely new weapons being added to the game. I’m looking at you, two-handed axe. It’s past time for you to make your debut.

NinjaEd.3946:

Some new elites would be nice. I still have yet to pick an elite on my guardian that wasn’t renewed focus :/

Warrior: “Watch yourself!”. Increase the toughness of your allies. [60 +3 per level (300 at level 80)]. Duration 15 seconds. Radius of effect 600 units. Max number of targets 5. Cooldown 90 seconds. (shout)

Guardian: Staff of Knowledge. Summon an arcane staff to support you and your allies. Every 10 seconds, it will cast empower (same might duration and stacks, just no heal). Cooldown 120 seconds. Duration 40 seconds. Command the staff to heal nearby allies and cure 1 condition. Radius of effect 600. Max number of targets 5. (spirit weapon)

Engineer: Carpet bombing. Call in a bombardment of attacks on a target area. Radius of effect 450 units. Number of hits 15. Radius of hits 120 Cast time 3 seconds (air strike does not arrive if interrupted). Duration 6 seconds. Cast range 900 units. Cooldown 90 seconds.

Ranger: Comfort animal. Heal (only) your pet. If your pet is dead, instead resurrect them to 33% health and double the cooldown. Cooldown 45(90) seconds.

Thief: Shadow form. Reduce the duration of incoming conditions and increase the duration of stealth skills. Reduce conditions by 50%. Increase stealth durations by 1 second. Effect duration 20 seconds. Cooldown 120 seconds. (deception)

Elementalist: Master of magic. For the next 30 seconds, swapping attunements lowers the cooldown of every other attunement by 1 second. (this does not effect the attunement you swap out of). Cooldown 60 seconds.

Mesmer: Impaired Thoughts. The next skill your foe casts has an additional 15 second recharge on it. Range 600 units. Effect duration 10 seconds. Cooldown 120 seconds. (Manipulation)

Necromancer: Spectral Fog. Remove all your conditions into a fog. Enemies who enter the cloud are effected by those conditions for the remaining duration. Cloud duration 6 seconds. (only applies conditions one time). Radius of cloud 300 units. Cooldown 90 seconds. (spectral)

All Great ideas! This would really make everything more interesting…. And I think we need some elites with a lower cooldown

scerevisiae.1972:

I do know how to use them properly; they’re just objectively worse than cantrips and arcane utilities. This isn’t controversial; it’s overwhelmingly the consensus position.

A character from a fantasy novel once said: “Most people would say so. Then again, most people are idiots.”

People think they’re useless because nobody’s using them because they’re useless because nobody’s using them etc.

ThiBash.5634:

scerevisiae.1972:

I do know how to use them properly; they’re just objectively worse than cantrips and arcane utilities. This isn’t controversial; it’s overwhelmingly the consensus position.

A character from a fantasy novel once said: “Most people would say so. Then again, most people are idiots.”

People think they’re useless because nobody’s using them because they’re useless because nobody’s using them etc.

Mate, it’s really not that complicated. No one’s using them cause they suck.

(in wvw/PvP)

Holl.3109:

NinjaEd.3946:

Some new elites would be nice. I still have yet to pick an elite on my guardian that wasn’t renewed focus :/

Warrior: “Watch yourself!”. Increase the toughness of your allies. [60 +3 per level (300 at level 80)]. Duration 15 seconds. Radius of effect 600 units. Max number of targets 5. Cooldown 90 seconds. (shout)

Guardian: Staff of Knowledge. Summon an arcane staff to support you and your allies. Every 10 seconds, it will cast empower (same might duration and stacks, just no heal). Cooldown 120 seconds. Duration 40 seconds. Command the staff to heal nearby allies and cure 1 condition. Radius of effect 600. Max number of targets 5. (spirit weapon)

Engineer: Carpet bombing. Call in a bombardment of attacks on a target area. Radius of effect 450 units. Number of hits 15. Radius of hits 120 Cast time 3 seconds (air strike does not arrive if interrupted). Duration 6 seconds. Cast range 900 units. Cooldown 90 seconds.

Ranger: Comfort animal. Heal (only) your pet. If your pet is dead, instead resurrect them to 33% health and double the cooldown. Cooldown 45(90) seconds.

Thief: Shadow form. Reduce the duration of incoming conditions and increase the duration of stealth skills. Reduce conditions by 50%. Increase stealth durations by 1 second. Effect duration 20 seconds. Cooldown 120 seconds. (deception)

Elementalist: Master of magic. For the next 30 seconds, swapping attunements lowers the cooldown of every other attunement by 1 second. (this does not effect the attunement you swap out of). Cooldown 60 seconds.

Mesmer: Impaired Thoughts. The next skill your foe casts has an additional 15 second recharge on it. Range 600 units. Effect duration 10 seconds. Cooldown 120 seconds. (Manipulation)

Necromancer: Spectral Fog. Remove all your conditions into a fog. Enemies who enter the cloud are effected by those conditions for the remaining duration. Cloud duration 6 seconds. (only applies conditions one time). Radius of cloud 300 units. Cooldown 90 seconds. (spectral)

All Great ideas! This would really make everything more interesting…. And I think we need some elites with a lower cooldown

That was most certainly my aim^^ I know ele has that problem as does engineer and guardian really needs something other than renewed focus (books are not that great).

Definitely need new weapons and elites. Would be interesting if they can make certain specs that they seem to be working towards work, like siphon necro or condi guardian.