Guild Wars 2

Okay, this is a way to bring back a little bit of the GW1 mercenary hero concept, but GW2 style. I think it works as a gem store purchase.

Basically, the default purchase buys an elite skill that is roughly as powerful as the charr warband skill, but with a longer cooldown. This is designed to make it very specifically not pay2win. The standard skill summons two random allies to come to your aid, with a default skill set based on each class.

However what makes this skill cool (and thus, gem-worthy) is that if you have any other characters on your account, then the skill will summon them instead. So, if you have one extra character, you will always summon that character, and one default. Two extra characters, you always get those two. Three or more, you get a random pairing. These characters use the default skills that correspond to their class.

Possible options, depending on coding difficulty:

1) Allow characters to be “flagged” so that you always summon them.
2) Use a default pattern based upon the actual main weapon of the character chosen. e.g. auto attack skill 1, with more complex tactics added as is available. If this is two complicated, just give them a default skin and weapon set.
3) If two takes too much time/resources to load, just have one ally show up.
4) The random allies could, feasibly, be characters that you have met in either personal story or living story missions, but I personally don’t think that’s hugely in demand.

I think this would sell to a lot of alt players who would like to see their characters work together. The randomness would also add to the fun of seeing who turned up to help you out. So long as this was kept as a weaker (or on par) skill than racial elites, this wouldn’t be pay2win, but would be a nice (largely) cosmetic addition to the game (like the Mistfire Wolf).

The idea of buying elite skills with gems is something I would not like.

The only reason I can condone it is with special offers, such as the deluxe edition of the game.

Perhaps with an expansion(like) content update it would be appropriate.
But just randomly adding (elite)skills to the gemstore is a trend I would disapprove of strongly.

eekzie.5640:

The idea of buying elite skills with gems is something I would not like.

The only reason I can condone it is with special offers, such as the deluxe edition of the game.

Perhaps with an expansion(like) content update it would be appropriate.
But just randomly adding (elite)skills to the gemstore is a trend I would disapprove of strongly.

I can see that, which is why I suggested making it intentionally weaker than the warband. Heck, the offer idea isn’t bad either (I wouldn’t want to see more than this elite in the store).

Of course, I’d love ANet to just give us this skill, but it means coding things that only really apply to alt players. It seems more justifiable to do this if there’s a gem cost to do it.

Actually, an alt player pack similar to the deluxe edition would be awesome. e.g. 3000 gems = 1 character slot, 1 bag slot for every character on account (mailed retroactively and on creation), 1 mercenary hero elite skill unlock, choice of one infinite harvesting tool for every character on account (mailed retroactively and on creation).

i don’t disagree with adding new elites and utilities, but having them added as a gemstore item would kitten people off.

flipyap.5789:

i don’t disagree with adding new elites and utilities, but having them added as a gemstore item would kitten people off.

I absolutely 100% agree for every elite except this one. I think the cosmetic bonus of having your alts turn up justifies the cost. Alternatively, they could introduce the standard “random NPC” version as an in game elite, and then the Alt skinned version as a gem store upgrade for it.

Of course, if they put this in without a gem cost, that’d be amazing too

i dont like this idea because i want more original skills, every profession already has a “summon an ally” elite skill and adding another one will not feel unique or special.

what we need in the department of new skills is hexes and enchantments like in gw1

Can I get one to summon my assassin from the first game? A bad kitten scythe-sin (pre-nerf) that could tackle just about anything with ease.

I might be inclined to pay gems for the ability to hire semi-competent NPCs for dungeons so I could solo them at my leisure rather than speedrunning them with hyper-caffeinated teammates. But anything that impacts my character’s basic abilities or game play mechanics should always be kept out of the gem shop.