Guild Wars 2

This is something I’ve wanted since day one, when I realized we could (back then) preview Heavy, Medium & Light armor all at the same time. Now it just removes the other two armor appearances when you begin the preview process.

I would LOVE to put my Guardian into a trench coat because the appearance of my characters means a LOT to me… and I gotta be honest: a lot of the heavy armor in GW2 doesn’t really look that great to me – especially on the Asura (my favored race).

And you said it very well:
“Allow us to look how we want, without the silly restrictions that come from being a ‘Trinity Game.’ We aren’t a ‘Trinity Game.’ Why are we forced to remain locked to their core concepts?”

I absolutely support this idea. It’s been killing me trying to find gear that looks great on my Guardian despite my ill favor towards most heavy armor in the game.

Now of course one of the things people have complained about in the past is, “Well armor types allow us to easily figure out what kind of opponent we’re up against in WvW or PvP.” Yeah well, that can be easily rectified by Arena Net adding another feature into the game, which would be putting an icon for the person’s class next to their name above their head. Many (not all) players will have the “Show Player Names” and “Show Enemy Names” option ticked in their options menu so they know where the enemies are, but beyond a name and a health bar, there really isn’t anything there to offer what their class -might- be other than their armor. Therefore, if Arena Net added a white class icon (similar to what you’d see if you clicked on a player and saw their class that way), then it’d cease the need to look at only their armor to figure out what they are.

This would also help when you’re in combat and want to know what kind of classes are working alongside you without having to click on them all individually, but I digress. This is just one of those things that would help make the “armor appearance requirements” null and allow us more freedoms.

A million of the playerbase wants these changes in the future. You’re just +1 but you also have
+1 on this post (Even if its the same topic over & over & over again, gives weight to our cause!)

Nothing to add, great idea. +1

Mesmers wearing full metal armors, Warriors running around in magician clothers, is this artistic freedom for you?

Your argument that Warriors and Guardians aren’t aggro tanks and that other classes also can take hits like a pro is right, but how do you use this as a justification that for example a Necromancer should be allowed to wear a full metal armor? Where is the sense?

They are things which have it’s nature which should not be changed, I don’t want to see an Elementalist wearing a knight’s armor running around with a freezing aura, throwing fireballs and creating tornados. How stupid is that? Same for a warrior going to the battlefield with a big warhammer but a cloth armor…

To a special role the armor is an important part of it, why want people destroy this? Just accept the role of your character and don’t divide by 0.

Carlos.4371:

Mesmers wearing full metal armors, Warriors running around in magician clothers, is this artistic freedom for you?

Your argument that Warriors and Guardians aren’t aggro tanks and that other classes also can take hits like a pro is right, but how do you use this as a justification that for example a Necromancer should be allowed to wear a full metal armor? Where is the sense?

They are things which have it’s nature which should not be changed, I don’t want to see an Elementalist wearing a knight’s armor running around with a freezing aura, throwing fireballs and creating tornados. How stupid is that? Same for a warrior going to the battlefield with a big warhammer but a cloth armor…

The sense is that it’s how the players prefer to set up their characters. Ever played Dragon Age? There’s an advanced class that the Mage can get that allows them to wear heavy armor based on how much magic they have instead of how much strength, which you’d expect from a warrior. So why is that same idea not possible in Guild Wars 2? Why should you be forced to wear one particular set of clothing?

It’s like if you were an Elementalist, for example, and you wanted to wear leather gloves instead of cloth gloves, or no gloves. Why would wearing leather gloves make any greater difference than wearing cloth gloves? The point is you’re shooting fire balls at people, and I think people will focus more on the fire than they will on the attire of the person attacking them.

That World of Warcraft song “Big Blue Dress” comes to mind.

It’s all a matter of preference. Some classes, like Necromancer or Mesmer, might want to look more intimidating when they arrive to kill you, and there are several Heavy Armor set that would help with that. So if they want to dress up like that, why should they be denied that option?

You can make some -really- cool armor combinations by having the freedom to use whatever you want, such as a heavy armor chest with light armor leggings, or a leather jacket with heavy armor boots and gloves. It’s all up to the imagination in the end.

And if Arena Net were to allow transmutation stones to transmutate different armor appearances w/ stats kept the same, not only would their funds go up because of transmutation purchases, but they’d also likely sell a lot more gem store skins because people want to mix and match.

it would remove the armor skin problem, cloth is full of skirts while heavy is way to packed like a steel box.
if they really wanted to make classes unique they should’ve kept the profession specific armors, now it’s more a definition of heavy, leather and light rather then the class.
because of this the amount of armors to choose from is quite small, if only we had at least the amount of armors as we had in GW1 per profession type, the choice woul’ve bin 3X in size.

so +1 from me, i would love to have more options.

Carlos.4371:

Mesmers wearing full metal armors, Warriors running around in magician clothers, is this artistic freedom for you?

Your argument that Warriors and Guardians aren’t aggro tanks and that other classes also can take hits like a pro is right, but how do you use this as a justification that for example a Necromancer should be allowed to wear a full metal armor? Where is the sense?

They are things which have it’s nature which should not be changed, I don’t want to see an Elementalist wearing a knight’s armor running around with a freezing aura, throwing fireballs and creating tornados. How stupid is that? Same for a warrior going to the battlefield with a big warhammer but a cloth armor…

To a special role the armor is an important part of it, why want people destroy this? Just accept the role of your character and don’t divide by 0.

This is really where I land, as well. One of my biggest gripes with Guild Wars 2 is that there really isn’t much sense of Class-identity. They seem largely interchangeable, which is something I personally view as a pretty big negative. My Guardian doesn’t really feel any different than playing my Warrior, except that they’re different Races.

If anything, I’d like to see Class-exclusive sets of armor, to further instill the notion that each of these professions is “special” in some way, as opposed to it basically just boiling down to your Race alone.

One of the main problems in customization GW2 has is the coats/skirt/tails.

Scholars and Soldiers have them attached to the pants.
Adventurers have theirs attached to the torso.

This creates an annoying problem, in which you can’t have coats for soldiers and scholars, and can’t have skirts for adventurers.

For example, take the male Heritage Light armor. You can combine the torso with many armors, because it doesn’t have the skirt attached, and it looks like a nice jacket. But the pants look ridiculous with most other armors, because they come with the coattail.

What GW2’s customization REALLY needs right now (apart of dying weapons and back items and a wardrobe of sorts) is to make coattails optional. Something like this:

• Rework the model building so there’s a ‘coattail’ hard point slot.
• Split most the coattails from the soldier/scholar legs and the adventurer torsos, if they have any. Some could not be split, of course. Like pants that are just a skirt and underwear, or just a skirt.
• Add an option to the hero panel in the form of two checkboxes in the torso and legs.
  • Check the torso, the coattail of the armor set in the torso slot is used.
  • Check the legs, the coattail of the armor set in the leg slot is used.
  • Uncheck both, none is used.
    A checkbox would only appear for the piece in a slot if its armor set has a coattail that can be hidden. For example, female Cabalist armor would not be able to hide its coattail, as it’s just a skirt and knickers bloomers.

This would solve part of the problem with coattails, without mixing armor styles between professions.

This could be mixed with allowing cross-transmutation of helms, shoulders, glove and boots.

But I would not go as far as mixing the torso and legs, as they are the keys to quickly identify the armor type of an enemy. And armor types do make a difference in combat, I assure you. With my PvP engineer, using the flamethrower, it takes me 2 seconds less on average to kill a necromancer than a warrior.

+1 if we are only looking at the cosmetic side of armor and not taking in to consideration the stat variation between them. Mainly the armor stat.

sorudo.9054:

if they really wanted to make classes unique they should’ve kept the profession specific armors, now it’s more a definition of heavy, leather and light rather then the class.
because of this the amount of armors to choose from is quite small, if only we had at least the amount of armors as we had in GW1 per profession type, the choice woul’ve bin 3X in size.

And then we’d have people complaining that their elementalist can’t wear mesmer armor, or that their guardian can’t wear warrior armor. Their goal with armor classes isn’t to make each class more unique against every other character class (as it was in GW1,) but to make it more unique against each weight class while giving you more options within your weight. GW2 already has more options available to each individual profession than GW1 does, and your options are split into three restrictive categories instead of six (or ten, after Factions and Nightfall.)

For comparison, I’m just going to look at GW1’s options for the six core professions. The actual math is a little more...complicated. (Warriors’ Silver Eagle set gives them an unusual number, Deldrimor armor isn’t a complete set, etc. Including expansion classes makes the comparison even more complicated, both in terms of pure numbers and in wrecking the basic terms of the comparison, given the extra years and player purchase price.)

Did GW1 have more distinct skins overall? Yes, but at the cost of fewer options for an individual character once you’ve created them. I might have 34x6 options if I make a new core-profession GW1 character, but that drops back down to 34 once I’ve selected a class. If I haven’t bought Factions/Nightfall/EotN, that drops down to...14 options for my level 80 character, say, a Necro. GW2 launched with 30 suits for a Necro to wear after choosing race (+5 options for the race you didn’t choose,) and order (+2 for orders you didn’t choose.) Without even counting Heritage Armor or Profane armor.

Guild Wars 2 trades higher numbers of overall skins for a higher number of options to you after you’ve created your character. I’m still restricted by weight class, which keeps soldiers from wearing dresses and casters from wearing full plate, but at least I’m never being told, "You can’t wear that because you’re one type of caster and it’s meant for another type of caster." This keeps weight classes unique while not locking people into one particular set of class-based armor. You might have fewer sets that make you shout "THAT is a NECROMANCER!" but you’re also not locked into "all necros are spikemonsters," "all female elementalists freeze to death in the snow," etc.

This has nothing to do with the stat differences/armor value differences between sets of armor.

I am literally talking about skins only. The artwork itself.

Redenaz.8631:

sorudo.9054:

if they really wanted to make classes unique they should’ve kept the profession specific armors, now it’s more a definition of heavy, leather and light rather then the class.
because of this the amount of armors to choose from is quite small, if only we had at least the amount of armors as we had in GW1 per profession type, the choice woul’ve bin 3X in size.

And then we’d have people complaining that their elementalist can’t wear mesmer armor, or that their guardian can’t wear warrior armor. Their goal with armor classes isn’t to make each class more unique against every other character class (as it was in GW1,) but to make it more unique against each weight class while giving you more options within your weight. GW2 already has more options available to each individual profession than GW1 does, and your options are split into three restrictive categories instead of six (or ten, after Factions and Nightfall.)

For comparison, I’m just going to look at GW1’s options for the six core professions. The actual math is a little more…complicated. (Warriors’ Silver Eagle set gives them an unusual number, Deldrimor armor isn’t a complete set, etc. Including expansion classes makes the comparison even more complicated, both in terms of pure numbers and in wrecking the basic terms of the comparison, given the extra years and player purchase price.)

Did GW1 have more distinct skins overall? Yes, but at the cost of fewer options for an individual character once you’ve created them. I might have 34×6 options if I make a new core-profession GW1 character, but that drops back down to 34 once I’ve selected a class. If I haven’t bought Factions/Nightfall/EotN, that drops down to…14 options for my level 80 character, say, a Necro. GW2 launched with 30 suits for a Necro to wear after choosing race (5 options for the race you didn’t choose,) and order (2 for orders you didn’t choose.) Without even counting Heritage Armor or Profane armor.

Guild Wars 2 trades higher numbers of overall skins for a higher number of options to you after you’ve created your character. I’m still restricted by weight class, which keeps soldiers from wearing dresses and casters from wearing full plate, but at least I’m never being told, “You can’t wear that because you’re one type of caster and it’s meant for another type of caster.” This keeps weight classes unique while not locking people into one particular set of class-based armor. You might have fewer sets that make you shout “THAT is a NECROMANCER!” but you’re also not locked into “all necros are spikemonsters,” “all female elementalists freeze to death in the snow,” etc.

if it was like GW1 you would have 3X more leather and cloth armors and 2X more heavy armors, don’t forget that every single armor type should be counted as much as the same armor class.
also, cool down man, no need for a tl’tr post……

Personally I’d just like more skins… all in all, dont really care about mix matching different armor types etc but I’m sick of all the coats/skirts/dress looking medium armors.
My main is a human thief and either you look like a hooker (cultural showing off your boobs or duelist tiny corset) or you run around in those infernal coats that dont make any sense for a stealthy/agile fast moving character in my mind, if I broke into someones house I’d leave the coat home and take a snug jacket.
Hopefully they’ll add more armor skins in the future though (maybe they’ll add ascended/legendary armors etc but who know) or add more continent flavored skins in expansions etc like they did in GW1 (assuming they’ll open more continents)

GW1 did have good outfits I almost forgot about it I think we need more skins and no town clothes

Do you consider what kind of nightmare that would be? First off yes, there are stat differences, and guess what… that has a factor with the look. If a Mesmer in WvW is suddenly running around looking like a warrior, what would that do to the way that character was treated by the enemy? Classes have class specific clothing for a reason. The only thing I agree on here is the dye factor for medium armor. So many colors look washed out and boring on medium armors. I mean midnight fire looks like a brown on most medium armor.

Letting Mesmers look like a warrior, or a warrior look like an ele is not only a bad idea, it’s a game breaker. Ele walks into a group, group ignores them for the most part as being an easy kill, suddenly a tanky class is in the center of a group hacking away and no one knows the better.

When start war wearing robe and thief plate armor i leaving xD

For those wo argue:

We don’t say Warriors needs to wear paper armors or wizzards a plate armor…
No… All we wish is to give us armors that include some of the elements from different armors. For example, your warrior could handle a stylish tabard, my ranger could handle some metal plate built-in, and his elementalist could handle some leather reinforcement. This IS actualy in the game in a minimal, and well hidden.
Just look up what the armor’s visual materials are.

[ While in my MMO design the armors have differently balanced same stats that supports playstyles, not classes, it is nor likely to happen in the close feature. ]

GW1 disables costumes in PvP, no need to bash it without thinking about what each individual wants.

Whats wrong with a elementalist wearing a full metal suite? Heck, I have been trying to get that look, the closer I have gotten is dredge, Vigil and a little of Kodan.

I do agree with the OP, I doubt it will ever be implemented but we can only hope.

PS: I dont want to wear a full-metal elementalist. In fact, quite the contrary. I play sylvaris and my favorite armor in the game is the TA heavy, which doesnt even look heavy at all, thats what i wear on my guard, thats what I want to wear on my ele.

I don’t know the problem… you guys are just telling me that my plate armored warrior has to tank more than my cloth covered necro. But guess what, it isn’t the case because my warrior is full zerker and shouldn’t be ignored when running straight into your group, but yeh – keep focusing my bunker necro because he isn’t armored so he must be squishy. This role-distribution is bullkitten, this is GW2 not another game where plated buddys are the tanks and archers the top killing-machines. My leather-armored ranger tanks a lot more than my canned guardian.

And yes, every class fits for every kind of armor:
(Just something wihrring around in my head)

Elementalist:
medium: Shaman
heavy: Elemental Knight

Warrior:
light: Squire
medium: Mercenary

Ranger:
light: Druid
heavy: Warden

Necromancer:
medium: Plague Speader
heavy: Deaht Knight

Guardian:
light: Priest
medium: Aprrentice of Virtue

Thief:
light: Tramp
heavy: Warmonger

Engineer:
light: Machinist
heavy: Sapper

Mesmer:
medium: Conjuror
heavy: Illusionist

+1 for the Thread

I like “butt capes”

I’d be fine with this if there wasn’t any mixing of armor types as that can be very wierd.

Weapons are another thing, I think everyone should access all types of weapons, i want my necromancer to use my chirotophobia sword.

It would be nice, if they gave us a larger variety of armor styles. Actual pants for some armor types, and actual tops (read: not tunic-buttcape combos). But they don’t.

If they cannot do that, the least they can do is give all classes access to all the artwork for armor and allow us to choose what artwork we like best.

I cannot possibly see what the reasons for them not allowing this would be.

We would have to have more transmutation stones, and likely people would spend tons of money on gems for fine transmutation stones for level 80 gear.

This is never going to happen.

One of the reasons is different armor classes clip like hell. When the game launched you could preview different types of pieces together, and admittedly you could do some cool combos, but like I said before, it would clip like hell.
This was as an issue that ANET took seriously so much so that for a while you couldn’t preview any type other than your own while they worked on a solution, and the solution they found was the current, you can only preview one type at once.

What Shirk.6421 said is another story, you’d basically had a base class (Ranger, Warrior, etc) and then an advanced class (that would depend on the armor type you choose).

With ANET working on adding new skills, this would be a great opportunity for it.