Guild Wars 2

What if every 20 levels we receive an account bound book to unlock a (optional to use) new type of effect to apply (individually) in our weapons or even auras to our chars. I am talking about not very large, not too flashy effects, let the legendaries be legendaries

I know some people want a very serious, lifelike look for chars, thats why the use of this effects can be optional. Also, we can have an option in “video-settings” named “disable book auras, glows and trails” to disable these customizations so the user can choose if he want to see the effects from other players

Example:

book1 : unlock small weapon glow
book2 : unlock small weapon trail
book3 : unlock small particle on weapon
book4 : unlock small aura glow on char
book5 : unlock small trail on char movement
book6 : unlock small aura particle on char
book7 : unlock bigger weapon glow
book8 : unlock bigger weapon trail
book9 : unlock bigger particle on weapon
book10: unlock bigger aura glow on char
book11: unlock bigger trail on movement on char
book12: unlock bigger aura particle on char
book13: unlock pulsing glow
book14: unlock pulsing particle
book15: unlock pulsing aura
book16: unlock access to weapon glow tome 2
book17: unlock access to weapon trail tome 2
book18: unlock access to particle on weapon tome 2
book19: unlock access to aura glow on char tome 2
book20: unlock access to trail on char movement tome 2
book21: unlock access to aura particle on char tome 2

So a user with a level 80 char have instant access now to books 1, 2, 3 and 4 and have plenty of things ahead to unlock just by playing. Counting from now on, when any char reach level “100” the account will receive book 5, when any char reach level “120” the account will receive book 6 and so on

We can have tome 3, tome 4, holyday tomes, event tomes, etc

Who knows? maybe we can get lucky and see one book from a mob drop?

Of course, if someone is really in a rush to knowledge, this person can buy the same books, individually, with gems

To further increase the customization of our look we can have more magic books, each one giving us a color for the glow, trail or aura (Book of Fire for red, Book of Shadow for black, Book of Sky for blue, etc). Everyone can receive a free “Book of Light” for white color glow, trail and particles with book 1

We can have books like “Book of Ghosts”, a special effect that make the weapon semi-transparent, “Book of Darkness”, a special effect that make the weapon look like a black shadow, “Book of Thunder”, a special effect that make the weapon emit sparks, etc. Even the low level weapons can suddenly become epic with customization, we will need tons of transmutation stones

Caster Professions with the “Book of Mystic” can make weapons 100% invisible to look like the habilities come from their (open?) hands (only in pve?)

We can have a “Book of Necromancer”, “Book of Mesmer”, etc to change our main “signature” color of skills, change the pink color of the mesmer skills, the green color of the necromancer skills and so forth

We can see our book collection in a bookshelf like interface to keep track of the books we own

Examples of customization:

Necromancer with black flames particles aura on char, small pulsing green glow + bigger black trail on scepter, bigger dripping red particle on dagger

Warrior with small red pulsing glow aura on char, bigger red trail on char movement, bigger white fog particles on greatsword

Well, these special effects should be added with crafts.
And not the way only farmergrinder nolifers can get them…

Interesting what you say about crafting… Sort of a “inscription” craft?

About the “grind” I believe it´s hard to hit a “middle ground” where people think is “fair” to receive a reward. Some will say “too fast”, others may say “too slow”

The idea about using the excessive XP is: we can have one more reason to fill the XP bar after we hit 80 (Those who are not interested in more skill points may see little incentive to fill the XP bar again)

Let´s suppose we are trying to avoid pure RNG like the dye acquisition

What could be a good progression to receive a new, different book in this case? Every 10 levels? Every 5 levels? Maybe we can receive one each 20 levels and then we receive one new book at a different (constant) rate after 80? Maybe no books until we hit 80 and then we begin to receive them?

I think this is a great idea.

I don’t really want to see each and every player running around with huge auras of particle effects (it is bad enough in group events, I already can’t see what’s going on half the time) so I don’t necessarily agree with your ideas for specific blocks. But I’m sure people could think of other effects or benefits that come with these blocks.

Pixel, the effects can be subtle, not big and not obstrusive (nothing like the legendary greatsword trail). So many low level weapons have an interesting geometry and can become so epic with some colors and effects

ArenaNet, allow us to be creative

Yes, there’s some stuff that I can see being a real benefit without cluttering people’s screens too much – starting with dye jobs for weapons, or specific parts of weapons glowing in the dark (like crystals on magic weapons or Asura technology).