Guild Wars 2

As the underwater fight was announced I was ecstatic! You dont have to surface every few seconds to breathe, you get new skills and weapons, and the water worlds are beautifully designed.
Unfortunately, the enthusiasm faded away very quickly. The underwater combat has so much untapped potential that it almost breaks my heart. Instead of a three-dimensional, action-loaded combat mode with room for tactics , most fights are boring and take up too much time. Lack of equipment and choice in the skills do not make you want to fight under Water, There aren’t much fights under water and the few there are are often left aside. Most players prefer restricting HotW tokens to 60/120 a day then clearing all three paths, it seems a waste of money to buy Exotic spears / tridents / harpoonguns. A vicious circle.
I don’t like under water combat either, don’t get me wrong. But i’d love to like it, it could be awesome!
So I thought about how to make underwater battles feel appealing once again and decided to share my ideas with you.

Exotic respirators
Currently there is only one green respirator at level 80 for each armor class and no selection at the stats. Basic requirement for a review of the underwater battle, of course would be that this is changing. Exotic respirators for dungeon tokens with the same stats as for the armor, craftable respirators with the usual prefixes, or even a few exotic respirators at the temple merchants. For starters, there wouldn’t even have to be loads of stat combinations, the selection of what you have for guild backpacks would be enough as long as you have exotic respirators. Later, you could then extend the offer to other stats and maybe skins.

replace locked skills
Some skills work at the bottom of our lakes and seas, others are locked and not available for this battle mode. This is quite a shame as one has a smaller selection at the skills, and, on top of that, some classes have more skills under water than others. It would be ideal if the skills that do not work under water would be replaced by other skills that can be used only under water. Thus, the balance would be favored between classes and you would have more choices.

separate/own Skilltrees
If, as an example, one plays as a Necro builded entirely on marks and / or wells, he can’t do terribly much under water. An engineer who enjoys playing elixir gun and towers on the surface, prefers possibly grenades under water. Unfortunately, both can’t be covered with one single build.
Therefore it would be useful in addition to the possibility of different utility skills to allow players to also define the traits for the underwater fight separately. Maybe you could even set up whole new traitlines designed to fight under water, just one or two.

More underwater battles
Another important part of a remake would be that more underwater fights find their way into the game that aren’t as easy to escape as the ones now. Southsun Cove could get a new submarinal area with new events and opponents. A new dungeon whose paths are entirely or at least for the largest part under water would also be a possibility.

exploit all three dimensions
The underwater battle provides room for more dynamic and action-heavyer combat by exploiting the possibilities of three-dimensional movement.
For example, you could have to swim through a hallway with holes in the walls where eels emerge, biting you for massive damage. You would have to avoid those fissures by swimming up or down while moving trough the valley. There could be a kind of maze with currents as “jumping puzzle” element.
A boss could be a giant turtle with an indestructible shell, sitting on a rock. In the first phase, one would have to kill adds / sub bosses or defend a point against adds or procure objects somehow and get them to one point while the boss rains death upon you with a destructive ranged attack which you would have to dodge. In the second phase, the turtle then rises from her rock and swims through the area, revealing a soft, vulnerrable belly. Only attacks from below are not blocked by the shell and damage the boss, the players are forced to watch their positioning.
Or there could be a kind of jellyfish / octokitten boss whose tentacles emerge from the floor and trash around, forcing players to dodge. (Yeah, again. Making you dodge is important for any dynamic and action-loaded combat mode.)

reviewing existing underwater battles
Another component of the reworks, and probably the most important and most logical first step would be to make the existing underwater fights more interesting and dynamic, thre-dimensional.
Skills such as the 2-skill of the Guardian / warrior spear should be adapted so that they no longer miss when it is used under / over an opponent. Although three dimensions are available , you are forced to move on a two dimensional plane to be able to use your skills.
The final boss from the second path in the Honor of the Waves could also throw his mines in a few rows on various heights in (more or less) rapid succession, forcing players to adapt their height to avoid beeing hit. Or he could throw the mines in a kind of barrage / explosion so one has to seek cover behind the numerous bars and braces in the room.

This is as far as my thoughts on a possible rework of the underwater battles go. Do you consider it appropriate? Are there any suggestions?
Maybe my suggestions are completely useless, ArenaNet has already proven to be more creative than I could ever be. But I hope that the underwater battles will be given more attention and love in the future, they could be such an awesome feature that makes Guild Wars 2 even more unique.
Especially since you finally would have the feeling that it is worth getting Kraitkin or Kamohali’i Kotaki, wich are two of the best Legendaries in my opinion.

if i could financially support this, i would xD. an overhaul and polishing of the underwater combat system is desperately needed.