Guild Wars 2

So, Anet has updated the sickle animation twice now. What do you guys think about the variations that have come out so far? Are you satisfied?

Personally, I don’t like the new animation.

It still looks wrong, no matter how you look at it. First, why is a sickle being swung around like a golf club? Although it wasn’t a bad idea to swing in the opposite direction of a pick, the implementation is rough. Second, the spring is grotesquely oversize for harvesting; if I were planting a magic beanstalk, then maybe it would fit.

The timing issue and bugs have been addressed, but if that was all the Anet team needed to do they should’ve skinned a regular sickle and patted themselves on the back for a job well-done. Instead, they copied old animations to give the sickle a “special” animation. There’s nothing special about copied work, so it seems the development team just hasn’t put in enough effort to call this a finished product yet.

As it is now, the sickle is effectively a scythe. Going along with that theme, I like the idea of literally reaping heads of corn (Sorry, you can’t get the idea out of my head now—you’ll just have to start planting virtual corn). A scythe is swung in a diagonal motion. Heck, if that’s too difficult to engineer, a plowing motion would suffice.

Now, I sincerely hope the team either:
A. Further develops the sickle
or
B. Comes out with another sickle in the near future bearing a different theme, with an original animation.

Release (mining sickle with small spring): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZslBb43ySw
1st Update (harvesting sickle with small spring): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTeVWbsP-SU
2nd Update (hammer animation with big spring): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lwvVfe7mdQ

‘Meh’. As long as it functions properly, don’t care. Actually I would rather it didn’t have any different/extra animation at all. It serves its purpose as a convenience tool so you never had to buy another sickle or care about whether you have the right one equipped or getting out of combat so you can equip the right one.

I also wouldn’t have minded a simple skinned all-use sickle, but it seems like if they’re going to make it animated they should do it right.

I like the current animation (as well as the size of the special effects), although I agree that it’s more like a scythe than a sickle.

The scythe thing was a player suggestion. If you want to know who to blame just search the forum. :P

IMHO, the sickle is good as it is. I really like the current animation. Although one can say: Its super special ultra mega über chocolaty fudged awesome. But that spot is reserved for the prettiest of the 2 wing back pieces of the Dragon fest ^^.

Yes I know its a bit fanboy. But the reason why I am saying this is is I don’t know how much they even can improve the animation and I rather have them spent their energy on something else. Living story/ Expansion/ Maybe Ascended dungeon armor. 1000 tokens a piece.

I don’t care about the swing, but I do like the veins and water. Last iteration is definitively the best yet.

Couldn’t care less about the animations, I buy these items so I don’t have to worry about harvesting tools. I do think the pick is pretty cool, but I wouldn’t mind if they looked identical to the standard tools. TBH I’d rather have faster harvesting animations than prettier ones.

I really like it now. It’s enjoyable to use and looks decent, so I don’t see any real need for further changes.

I am also quite pleased with the current version. For me it is just a very large sickle, well suited to a swift single scythe motion, instead of having to crouch down and saw away. The special effect is now attractive and fun, almost on par with the molten pickaxe.

Well done GW team, hearing a major concern and responding very effectively in a timely way.

I like the new version.

I’m happy with it.

The animation still feels a bit off, I kinda have to agree with the golf club analogy. For the reusable mining pick, the animation looked fine as there’s a lot of ways to smash into a rock. The eventual axe animation will likely be easier to do for the same reasoning as the pick; there’s plenty of ways to imply the tree is being chopped at.

The sickle just feels awkward though and it’s a shame they keep recycling other animations through each change to it, rather than having them develop a new movement animation that better matches the flow of how harvesting plants works with the shape of that sickle. There’s a time and place where recycling animations can work out fine, but this is one situation where it’s not working out as well as intended.

It’s a scythe and yes you swing it similarly to a golf club. Once they made the handle long for the pickaxe animation it was no longing a sickle but a scythe and now it has animation closer to that.

I called it a golf swing, but in truth I was merely being polite. It’s an animation for a hammer. A golf swing would be more graceful.

I find the current animation to be very satisfying. Also as a sylvari main, it was a must-have

Golf sickle is hilarious, I liek it a lot.

Ensign.2189:

Golf sickle is hilarious, I liek it a lot.

Golfcycles