Guild Wars 2

I know the topic of underwater masks has been brought up many times. Right now in its current state, they are a hindrance on the player. They make no sense (other than the role playing concept). The logic behind them is flawed and create a redundancy in the gear. Underwater weapons work perfectly, because they bring new aspect to underwater battle (skills and abilities). The under water mask are just a lesser helms that replaces another helm…

This is what I propose.

1) While under water, you keep the benefit of your main helm (including the rune).

2) Remove stats and sockets from under water helms.

3) Add unique underwater aspects to helm
<For example>
>10% movement speed under water.
> Spear skills have 10% fast recharge rate
> 5% less dmg under water.

4) Can even go further and add different “breather inserts” (sockets) to the helms.
You can make helms purely ascetic. You can insert (socket) the unique inserts into them (10% swim speed, skills recharge rate, ect…)

Or, better yet, they stop being lazy and actually create useful underwater helms. It can’t be THAT hard, can it? I know when my pouch was bursting with Gold I tried to find a new underwater helm, only to discover they don’t exist.

Yeah but that makes no sense… replacing a helm with the same identical stats and runes as your current helm.

Aeros.2046:

Or, better yet, they stop being lazy and actually create useful underwater helms. It can’t be THAT hard, can it? I know when my pouch was bursting with Gold I tried to find a new underwater helm, only to discover they don’t exist.

That’s because they’re all account bound and have to bought from karma vendors. Granted the best you can get is a masterwork breather, but it’s still level 80 (can be bought from Gavbeorn Serpentslayer) and they’ll probably add more breathers later on, after they finish improving the rest of the game.

Remove or improve

I think they should just redesign the idea. As of now its a flawed game design.

Kusa.6438:

I think they should just redesign the idea. As of now its a flawed game design.

Why? As far as I’m concerned I use that spot as one more place to put an upgrade to get my 6 and open all the lines of the upgrade item. All of my gear (minus one piece) has Superior Rune of the Undead – One item has Superior Rune of the Necromancer. The breather is what gives me the 6th slot for the undead rune thus unlocking all the lines. Careful what you ask for. Of course, that could be altered to move the necromancer rune to the breather, but still that’s a big upgrade gone.

-Mog

Its pretty much a kick in the butt. “jump on in the waters great, only down size is where reducing your stats but not the enemies.”

Too bad you don’t get the benefits ( rune included ) of an aqua breather unless you are underwater, Mr. Mogturmen.

Wolfheart.1938:

Too bad you don’t get the benefits ( rune included ) of an aqua breather unless you are underwater, Mr. Mogturmen.

And likewise you dont get the benefit (including rune) of you normal helm when underwater

I’d settle for them just adding exotic aquabreathers if nothing else. Still nothing better than those masterwork lev 79 or 80 karma ones, and then there’s only a few stat layouts besides.

Mogturmen.2638:

Kusa.6438:

I think they should just redesign the idea. As of now its a flawed game design.

Why? As far as I’m concerned I use that spot as one more place to put an upgrade to get my 6 and open all the lines of the upgrade item. All of my gear (minus one piece) has Superior Rune of the Undead – One item has Superior Rune of the Necromancer. The breather is what gives me the 6th slot for the undead rune thus unlocking all the lines. Careful what you ask for. Of course, that could be altered to move the necromancer rune to the breather, but still that’s a big upgrade gone.

-Mog

You obviously don’t understand the mechanic of the water breather. You loose all the benefits of your main helm while on water including the rune. So the rune in your helm is gone and you only get 5/6 of the benefit of the runes… unless you have the same type of run in your water breather. So it’s not helping you at all. Just lowering your stats while underwater.

Kusa.6438:

Mogturmen.2638:

Kusa.6438:

I think they should just redesign the idea. As of now its a flawed game design.

Why? As far as I’m concerned I use that spot as one more place to put an upgrade to get my 6 and open all the lines of the upgrade item. All of my gear (minus one piece) has Superior Rune of the Undead – One item has Superior Rune of the Necromancer. The breather is what gives me the 6th slot for the undead rune thus unlocking all the lines. Careful what you ask for. Of course, that could be altered to move the necromancer rune to the breather, but still that’s a big upgrade gone.

-Mog

You obviously don’t understand the mechanic of the water breather. You loose all the benefits of your main helm while on water including the rune. So the rune in your helm is gone and you only get 5/6 of the benefit of the runes… unless you have the same type of run in your water breather. So it’s not helping you at all. Just lowering your stats while underwater.

Nice assuming I don’t understand the mechanic of the water breather. Actually I understand it just fine, in fact that is the reason I have the same rune on my head item as I do on the breather. To be honest, there are lots of limitations in underwater combat. My old build was very “Well” based which obviously does not work in water. I’m not a huge fan of underwater fighting to begin with. BTW: I Also understand your point. What would be nice was if the helm item still applied even under water that seems like the more correct fix to me.

If all your gear has Rune of the Necromancer minus one that has Undead, and that one is not the helm/breather, then how do you unlock the 6th bonus (line) of a set? People are assuming that you don’t know how aqua breathers work because in your original post you seem to imply that they have some sorth of benefit regarding runes.

Yes the breathers suck, dont even need to have it equipped to breathe. Problem is the 80 green crappy karma vendor one for each armor type is the worst. It either doesnt fit into your spec or has stats that are completely useless to your char.

I see them skipping exotic water-breathers altogether and making ascended ones. The ironic thing with this being that the agony resist would only apply in the underwater fractal, whose agony is basically nonexistent.

KrisV.5612:

Yes the breathers suck, dont even need to have it equipped to breathe. Problem is the 80 green crappy karma vendor one for each armor type is the worst. It either doesnt fit into your spec or has stats that are completely useless to your char.

I completely agree with this. I understand the concept of needing a breather to go underwater but, i too noticed that if you have no breather equipped there is no penalty to fight underwater. If you would risk drowning without the breather then, at least there would be a real point to it; for instance it could, technically, get broken in combat and force you to surface or die.

As it is, with the lack of exotic level breathers, it is just a nerf to your stats to be underwater.