Guild Wars 2

This will probably get moved to the suggestions forum, but I really wanted this to gain some views from the most popular forum first. Mostly because I believe this idea could be game changing, and in a good way. My idea?

Interchangeable Weapon/Armor Stats

Concept: The idea is that players can right-click their armors or weapons and open up a menu, in said menu, the options for applying stats will appear, the stats will be limited to the item’s rarity +(exotic will have exotic stats, rare will have rare stats etc)_. The menu would be similar to the way the Makeover Kit works, just instead of cosmetic, it would be statistical.There should be a cost for doing this I believe, however since I’m not an economist, I don’t want to get into that.

Is this a good idea?: In my personal opinion, yes, yes it is. This allows for players to continue using the armor, or weapons that they enjoy, while also having the freedom to switch between build types and maintain the optimal stats for the build they have created. As of now, players need to acquire several sets of gear to appeal to vastly different builds, which can cost a ton of gold, which can discourage the idea of experimenting with new stats and builds. Having all these weapons and armors also makes it hard to store them, which means full banks, full inventories, and overall annoyance when it comes to management of both. It can also allow for players to feel like weapons are really personal, they can make them their own weapon in a sense, and not feel like it’s not the best one for the situation.

Is this a bad idea?: Maybe. Players can already change their weapons cosmetically through transmutation stones, so this system is, in a way, already in the game. However it is not as good as it could be. This could affect the economy negatively, since it would remove the gold sink of buying weapons and armor just for builds, but as I said I can’t speak for money matters. It could also be easy to exploit, if the changeable stats were not limited to certain areas etc.

General Suggestions for Implementation:

• Limit the ability to change stats to cities, such as Lion’s Arch, The Grove, etc.
• Make the cost low, to encourage players to experiment with new ideas a lot. Perhaps make the cost to change stats 5 skill points, or 20 silver.
• Make an “Are You Sure?” button. A pop-up that asks if you’re sure that the changes you’ve made are satisfactory, so that accidental clicks don’t screw up the change.
• Give background information on each stat, and what it does while in the weapon change menu. This will let new players get an idea of what each attribute means so that they can better understand how to add the points in.

For some reason the picture isnt showing up in the first post.

Upside to this idea. Prevents you from having to waste your time buying new armor.

Downside. Everything else.

However maybe a armorsmith could be used to fix it for a fee that could make the idea bit better.

Thumbs down.

Right now (aside from cosmetics) you run the different dungeons for different stats.

Currently, players are free to play around with different stats & builds in the Heart of the Mists before committing to dungeon running or crafting for a set.

In closing, reforging makes sense in a game with tiered progression, not in GW2.

It would accomplish the same objective, without messing with the economy, to give you a soulbound equipment locker to keep extra sets of gear.

If you just want to experiment without buying, you can already do it in sPvP.

Would completely destroy many of the loot and crafting mechanics. There are only ever seven tiers of items in the game (and the highest tier, ascended, isn’t finished being implemented) in addition to an eighth cosmetic only tier (legendary) and the currently available stat spreads exist for balance reasons.

Allowing players to just change stats on items would remove any utility in finding an equal item of equal tier, ever. They’d be worthless to use, and worthless to trade since nobody would need your items.

This is a bad idea in a game with an intentiaonally short and easy vertical progression. Acquiring sidegrades and cosmetics is the only thing that makes looting or trading actually worthwhile or rewarding.

Leablo.2651:

It would accomplish the same objective, without messing with the economy, to give you a soulbound equipment locker to keep extra sets of gear.

If you just want to experiment without buying, you can already do it in sPvP.

Except that that a set in SPVP actually produce higher numbers than a set in PVE.