Guild Wars 2

This topic contains a total of 3 suggestions. I’m not guaranteeing these are 100% original and I’m sure some of them have been suggested before, but here they are regardless.

Contents of thread:
I. Dungeon Backpieces
II. Starter Racial Armor
III. Title/Achievement Changes

I. Dungeon Backpieces

As it stands, dungeon backpieces are a little dull. They might be nice for anyone under 80, but at 80 they don’t really have a use. They suddenly become this ‘annoyance’ because they replace the loot bag you get from the boss encounters in a dungeon. However, what if they had a little more incentive to collect after 80?

• This first suggestion is to add interesting designs to the existing backpieces, adding more variety to the backpieces in game so you can play dress-up. The current backpieces would pretty much remain the same in terms of stats and levels and have a chance to drop from story/exp like they do, but when displayed on the character they would actually have something on their back to show off.

• Furthermore, a side idea to this would be to add level 80 rare/exotic quality backpiece versions. These in contrast would be exclusive to explorable mode and much rarer drops (perhaps a better chance at the final boss). They would also have their own designs (different from the story backpieces).
  • These backpieces could be ascendable, similar to the southsun backpieces, where there is an infusion slot (perhaps utility* slot). Adding more reason to run dungeons and adding another option for those who wish to make a move to fractals and need agony resistance.
  • Ascencion recipe could be something along the lines of: Backpiece, Gift of _ (500 dungeon tokens), X globs, [Now that we have 500 crafting, maybe something from there, such as 250 bloodstone dust, or 250 dragonite ore, etc.]
  • While this would be asking a lot, but a few different versions based on the different paths.
  • Flavor text relating to the dungeon. (E.g. “The remants of a destroyed flame effigy.”)

• Story mode backpiece ideas:
  AC— Ghostly Spineguard — Similar to the item’s icon, perhaps a jar full of glowing dust. As the player walks, a faint smoke trail floats out of the jar.
  CM —Bandit Spinguard -- Something along the lines of this (a tattered cloth, not a full cape.)
  TA — Forest Brace — As pictured, a palm leaf (?).
  SE — Revolutionary Flyers — A big stack of papers with a dredge on them, string holding it all together. Bonus points if the dredge has the caption “NO!” on it.
  CoF — Charred Backwarmer — I have no ideas for this one, maybe the flame basket the flamethrowers wear, or a flame effigy ‘spine.’
  HotW — ??? — I have admittedly never seen the backpiece for here, so I have no comment for this one.
  CoE — Fiber Splice — A tube with mentioned fiber in it, slung diagonally across the back. Would give off a purple glow.
  Arah — Risen Spineguard — A spinal cord with a few ribs and coral along it, dripping with water.

• Explorable mode backpiece ideas:
  (This is more of a list of possible ideas based on what is in a path)
  AC — A piece of the Ghost Eater’s hide, it would glow at night similar to the weapons, a rare Ascalonian Artifact
  CM — A bomb bag (different from engineers), golem parts that spark
  TA — A branch with a spider web and spider on it, an illusionary branch, a seed pod in a jar, a tangled mess of thorns/corrupted flower
  SE — No comment
  CoF — (As with the story ideas, flamethrower backpack and flame effigy spine), a crystal with chains
  HotW — No comment
  CoE — An alpha ooze in a jar, an asuran device with chaotic energy sparking in the center
  Arah — Chicken friend (in a cage)

(Backpieces continued)

• (Continuing from infusion slot ideas above) A guildmate had suggested backpieces be a bit more interesting, adding abilities to make them more unique [backpieces and amulets seem to be the more special items in the accessories slot]. It was suggested they be stat-less and instead have fun abilities.
  I am simply bouncing of the idea and thinking the dungeon backpieces could have utility slots. There are only a few utility slot choices (and I don’t think there should be tons of different infusion types), so perhaps the dungeons could have special utility infusion that do special abilities like my guildmate suggested.
  I know this opens the floodgates in a sense, allowing people to have 2 +20% infusions or +2 of the abilities I’m about to list, but maybe they could be turned into unique infusions — 1 type per…
  These infusions would be bought at dungeon vendors, laurel vendor, maybe a small chance in the dungeon itself.

Here is a list of ideas I came up with from my guildmate’s idea. So far I find them a lot like runes, however maybe they would be low trigger chances, have internal cooldowns, give a tiny amount of damage,

AC-themed — Ghostly shield (1-2 sec invuln), Rock fall aoe, Laser shot, Ghost form (tiny swiftness buff)
CM- themed — Bomb (like engie), drop a turret, summon a thief ally
TA-themed — Vine whip, Tree ally, Thorn shield (bleeds enemies), spider allies, healing leaf (tiny heal)
SE-themed — Lava splash, summon singularity/spark ally, dredge ally, destroyer transformation (tiny might buff)
CoF-themed — Fire spray (flamethrower), crystal form (1-2 sec invul at cost of being stationary), summon imp
HotW-themed — corrupted form (tiny fury buff), ice block, throw snowball, icicle/blizzard aoe, summon totem (random buff)
CoE-themed — lightning overload (after gaining a 5 stacks of this buff in combat, shoot out sparks at nerby enemies), alpha ooze (small heal),
Arah-themed — summon tendril, drain life (it does some damage to the enemy and you get a tiny heal)

In-general:
Various elemental shields, different in design to what we see in game), they in contrast would ‘overload’ and shoot fire or chaos bolts out at enemies
Transformation buffs that grant a buff (tiny stack/small durations in contrast)
In-combat infusions that stack a buff style icon until they hit trigger points(like elemental shields)
Out of combat infusions that stack a buff style icon until they hit a trigger point (upon 5 stacks, you get a tiny swiftness buff, or invisibility for a few seconds [not stealth])
Infusions that trigger that certain hp percentages (granting 1-2 sec invuln or transforming)

II. Starter Racial Armor

We already see weapons that drop in game, related to the races (see: Asura/Glyphic, Charr/Steam, Norn/Shiverpeaks, Krytan), what about a set of armor based on that race that drops out in the open world as well!
Additionally, I would love if this set of armor was what newly made races had on when they started. I just find it odd that a Sylvari, Norn, and Human would be wearing the same type of cloth armor. To keep in line with how new characters are made, the new sets wouldn’t come with their helm, shoulders, or gloves, but the missing pieces could be found in those low level zones.

These are just some doodles I came up for starter ideas (just ideas!). I’m not fantastic at drawing and some of the stuff I was thinking of looks kinda meh. I was trying to keep it simple like what we already have, but I think I failed.
Norn Light/Medium: http://i.imgur.com/HUPazEg.jpg
Norn Heavy + Asura L/M/H: http://i.imgur.com/Sxd7oWR.jpg
Charr Light/Medium: http://i.imgur.com/KqzGdgn.jpg
Sylvari Light (Medium/Heavy?): http://i.imgur.com/7gK1QoL.jpg

• Norn — I was thinking wurm themed. Perhaps a bit contradictory because that’s what they are hunting. The armor is either reinforced with wurm chitin(?) or has metal wurm symbols.
  Light is a prime example of wurm symbols, shoulders and pants are wurms with a small cloth draped in the back, helm would be wurm circlet, or simply a metal circlet with a simple cloth draped around the head. Clothing is supposed to be fur lined with lots of loose looking fibers. (Drew a possible female variant with off the shoulder top)
  Medium I was thinking a scaled looking mask with a wurm holding the mask around (Same with shoulders). Plenty of wurm teeth buttons, chitin on the gloves, boots, and as belt.
  Heavy I was thinking a lot more chitin along with chainmail underneath. The gloves, boots, and helm have metal wurms circling around.

• Asura
  Light I was just going with what is already seen, colorful robes with patterns on them and jewelry.
  (I don’t like the medium I doodle, it looks like what we already see)
  Heavy again, what we already see. Perhaps a bit more new recruit in the sense some areas are just cloth/chainmail gaps.

• Charr — A lot of what I tried to keep in mind is from the Charr armor protest, so a lot of it is just inspired from concept art. All the armor has metal on it in some way, I don’t see why the charr wouldn’t add a little metal here and there even if someone is a light or medium class. This And this
  Light is a lot of tattered cloth, metal chains, scratched metal plating with spikes. The mask is metal with tattered cloth underneath to cover the muzzle and a small chain hanging on the side. The armor has a long cloth, think tabard, in the middle. Pants have metal on the side with tattered cloth. Gloves and shoes are scratched metal with tattered cloth.
  Medium is a pair of leather goggles/mask with a metal face plate. The side (jaw hinge) has a gear on it. A small metal chest plate strapped on the front with another gear icon, leather tunic underneath. Metal belt with another icon, partial metal skirt down one side with pants underneath. Boots and gloves intended to look like broken shackles, with a leather strap with a chain on the end hanging down.
  Heavy I had no real ideas for, but something like the concept art (again).

• Sylvari
  Light I was kind of going for a tuxedo sort of top (short coattails in front, longer in back), curly leaf strands. Something like a magician.
  Medium/Heavy I was going for something like the ranger concept artwork cough with a leafy bandana, maybe some tattered cloth here and there. Perhaps the chestpiece would look like a bandana or a tunic with tons of leaves that shows off at the bottom on males and females. Or maybe this could instead be worked into a heavy armor design with leaf chainmail.

• Human — Human would pretty much just need shoulder, helm, and gloves added.

III. Title/Achievement Changes

This is just a bunch of title ideas that may also come with achievement changes to reflect what is required for the title.

• PvP Titles
  Most of the achievements even available in PvP right now, give a title. Players can earn titles specific to their profession they play the most; Chapion _, which is earned from winning a certain amount of tournament games. However, while these titles are pretty cool, I would like to see one change, which will end up making the normal games achievements grant a title as well.
  This would mean that someone who plays an elementalist for example, could choose to be Chapion Magus, for winning 150 tournament games, or Magus for winning 200 normal games.

• Fractals Titles
  Dungeons reward Dungeon Master, why not something similar for fractals? (Please not “fractals master”) Perhaps there could be a “baby” version and a “hardcore” version so players could show off.
  The simpler title would be more along the lines of what we already have in game — waving to the giant, killing chickens, completing all the unique fractals, that sort of thing — simple. The other title would be more doing challenging things like we saw in aetherblade retreat (with baby mode as a requirement). Things like not getting hit by agony, killing things in a specific order, speedclearing, fighting bloomhunger with his spirits buffing him, etc.
  These set of titles would probably need to be on hold until the fractals themselves are tweaked.

• Dungeon Titles
  Similar to the fractal titles above, perhaps there could be a few titles for doing special challenging achievements. I don’t have much to say for this area right now, because the dungeons need to be adjusted for this kind of thing. However, should they fix the dungeons to where they provide more interesting challenges, perhaps special titles would be something they should add.

• WvW Titles
  These are perhaps the most grindiest, time consuming, titles in the game. Yakslapper alone was said to take 7-10 years I think I heard. My only question is, why aren’t these titles like the PvP ones? There is a PvP title that unlocks a new set of achievement tiers and a title with each milestone finished. Why not do similar for these titles?

Just to give an example, “Going camping” would instead grant a title upon finishing tier 3- 2.5k camps capped for (Raider), once reaching that point you would unlock the new set of tiers to finish and upon finishing tier 5- 100k camps capped you would earn Ultimate Raider.
Another option would be to give titles for ranking up in WvW. Perhaps not as goofy a system of titles like we see now, and not as many, but reaching certain levels or acquiring a certain amount of WXP would give you a title to actually choose from a list.

On a more achievement related note, adding achievements for winning as Red, Green, Blue. Holding a certain amount of Eternal, Home, or an Invader’s borderland.

• Personal Story Titles
  You get so many titles while going through the Personal Story, wouldn’t it be fun to actually show you’re the “Hero of Shaemoor”, what about a high ranking member of the Priory, or even the commander of the Pact?
  As it stands, these are titles that sound like they most likely won’t be put in the game, because titles are across all characters, not unique. Honestly though, I don’t see the problem since you can transmute any orders armor/weapons, as long as you have an alt that has unlocked access to that stuff. If some guy wants to be a Vigil member with “Lightbringer” so be it, there is no way to tell really. (Similarly if a Sylvari wants to wear a legion title). Really the only way to remedy it would be if it’s possible to make certain titles unique to a race or order.
  Something else that could be done is to add order flags to characters. Since world completion already does it, there should be no problem making order icons unqiue per character, allow someone’s main to show they are Priory, and their alt is OOW.

One final title idea is to make the final personal story quest more “flashy.” What about adding a title like “Zhaitan’s Bane” (this is the name for the slayer achievement, so maybe something else). It could have a fancy little chest as well that gives you some stuff.