Guild Wars 2

You might agree that zerg combat feels dull at times, because you can simply drop combo fields or finishers almost anywhere on the battlefield and get consistent results. It might feel action-packed, but at the same time repetitive.

I suggest bringing out new weapons that improve the combat in zergs, and might be useful in massive boss fights or WvW. Generally, these zerg weapons have large cooldowns, but massive impact on the battle. Imagine the concept of staff for elementalist, but amplified. For example, off the top of my head, I can think of a new weapon called, let’s say, a Great Hammer (we’ve got great swords so why not great hammers). The great hammer’s number 1 skill has an animation and effect as the gravity hammer from Halo. The skill has a large AoE radius, and deals a great deal of damage per target. However, this skill has a 7-second cooldown. Wouldn’t it be fun to run into battle with a big hammer and smash a big group of enemies to death? Of course, this might seem overpowered, but remember the large cooldown. Perhaps you gain self-inflicted vulnerability after each strike for 1 second.

The great hammer’s skill 2 drops a large combo field of some kind. This skill inflicts 4 stacks of vulnerability on foes who walk through it. Of course, this skill also has a large cooldown.

I have some other ideas but I don’t want this thread to get too lengthy. I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination. I feel like I’ve pitched my idea pretty well. Basically, I’m suggesting weapons with skills with large effects in zergs but with large cooldowns. You must be careful with each skill that you use, because if you use them too quickly, you’ll be left with only your auto-attack skill to defend yourself with.

Are these ideas way too forward? Too crazy? What do you guys think?

Hrm…I’m not sure this would be useful enough. Is it intended for one-versus-many, few-versus many, or many-versus-many?

It sounds a lot like a weapon that basically has the same role as elite skills, of causing a large, infrequent disruption. (Some elites more than others; see Tornado, Tome of Wrath, Mass Invisibility, etc.)

Redenaz.8631:

Hrm…I’m not sure this would be useful enough. Is it intended for one-versus-many, few-versus many, or many-versus-many?

It sounds a lot like a weapon that basically has the same role as elite skills, of causing a large, infrequent disruption. (Some elites more than others; see Tornado, Tome of Wrath, Mass Invisibility, etc.)

This is mostly intended for many-versus-many. Alone, your weapon will do almost no good, since you can rarely place combo fields or perform finishers. You must rely on coordination, placing yourself in the right place to get the benefits of a blast finisher, etc. At times you may need to retreat for a few moments because your skills are recharging, unless you have a standard weapon set that you can swap to.

These weapons might be less practical to use if players don’t learn to use coordination. remember, my example of the great hammer was only a small bite of what I’m thinking.

Players should feel like they have an impact on the battle, laying powerful blast finishers, etc. at the right moment. The same weapon will never have both a finisher and a combo, to help prevent using the weapons outside of a zerg.

I’d rather increase the number of bosses with the number of players. They said it works like this but somehow they nerfed it

These weapons already sort of exist: Siege weapons.

Sure, these ideas could be viable, but only if these “great hammer”-style weapons were implemented so that they are only usable when your group is heavily outnumbered by an enemy group, and so they require strategic use to be effective.

Unfortunately, that is very unlikely, since ANet has stated many times that they don’t want to discourage people from playing together…

…so we end up with zergs, zergs, more zergs, and even more zergs.

If zergs could use them, these new weapons would just make the current ‘numbers-are-all-that-matters’ meta even worse.

Vick.6805:

Sure, these ideas could be viable, but only if these “great hammer”-style weapons were implemented so that they are only usable when your group is heavily outnumbered by an enemy group, and so they require strategic use to be effective.

Unfortunately, that is very unlikely, since ANet has stated many times that they don’t want to discourage people from playing together…

…so we end up with zergs, zergs, more zergs, and even more zergs.

If zergs could use them, these new weapons would just make the current ‘numbers-are-all-that-matters’ meta even worse.

You make some good points. These weapons might encourage bigger zergs. For them only to be used when outnumbered might remedy that.

I did hear that they have been working on adding new skills to professions. Perhaps this could be an elite conjure weapon for ele? Or maybe a revamp to Fiery Greatsword? Just throwing ideas out there.