[Suggestion] Dragon minions

[Suggestion] Dragon minions

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: nopoet.2960

nopoet.2960

If you remembers Orr before they toned it down you know that place was dense with undead. I think the devs did that so that players would always feel the threat of being overwhelmed by enemies. This is an old zombie troupe. Alone zombies are weak but the threat multiplies exponentially the more zombies are around. Zhaitan is the zombie king dragon so thematically the threat of being overwhelmed by undead makes a whole lot of sense. However the devs eventually culled the number of undead roaming the zone (for good reason) and some of the magic that was old Orr diminished.

I think dragon minions are special and they look great visually but something more should be added to them to reinforce that these guys belong to the most powerful beings on the planet. With that in mind here are my meager suggestions :

Risen: Rework the risen so that when they die maggots or wraiths emerge from the corps. Big enemies like abominations will be filled with more maggots and more intelligent minions like wizards are more likely to be harboring wraiths. My objective here is two-fold 1) the threat of being overwhelmed if you are not careful becomes real again and 2) thematically I want to give the impression that you are fighting the seen and the unseen. Have you really re-deaded all undead or is there something about to jump out right behind you?

Mordrem: When mordrem die they should nourish their surviving allies. This plays off their plant based nature. Nothing truly dies it’s just recycled. Nourishment could come in the form of regeneration, condition clears etc. but the feel I’m looking for is almost the opposite of the risen. Where you get overwhelmed by lesser enemies with the risen the last mordrem standing has been seriously buffed by its fallen allies and is very dangerous. It should make you think about the order you kill them. Do you really want to save that elite for last?

Icebrood – Something a little different here. Players actually can get a damage buff for defeating Icebrood. The more and the faster you defeat them the more likely you are to get the buff let’s call it dragons rage. Dragon’s rage has one very importation side effect; your allies become targetable. So you have to be very careful not to burn down your allies as you are taking down the Icebrood. The meta here becomes about trust. Can you trust your allies? Can you trust yourself?

I have some ideas about the braded and destroyers but they aren’t any good yet. Can anyone help?

Edit:

Branded: The big concept about the branded is about transformation and resonance. So as you fight branded they adapt to your fighting style. So if you are criting often all of the other branded near them get a huge bonus to armor. If you do a lot of condition damage surrounding branded get resistance. So to counter this you need to bring diverse teams as a group full of zerks would not be optimal in this setting but hybrids would excel.

Destroyers- When destroyers die they turn into destructible statues for 30 seconds. The statues will crumble if the players don’t destroy them in that time. I don’t have a lore reason for this just think it would be really interesting way to add obstacles in the environment creating line of site issues and promoting moving around. Also could be very interesting tactically in tight areas.

(edited by nopoet.2960)

[Suggestion] Dragon minions

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: narwhalsbend.7059

narwhalsbend.7059

If you remembers Orr before they toned it down you know that place was dense with undead. I think the devs did that so that players would always feel the threat of being overwhelmed by enemies. This is an old zombie troupe. Alone zombies are weak but the threat multiplies exponentially the more zombies are around. Zhaitan is the zombie king dragon so thematically the threat of being overwhelmed by undead makes a whole lot of sense. However the devs eventually culled the number of undead roaming the zone (for good reason) and some of the magic that was old Orr diminished.

I think dragon minions are special and they look great visually but something more should be added to them to reinforce that these guys belong to the most powerful beings on the planet. With that in mind here are my meager suggestions :

Risen: Rework the risen so that when they die maggots or wraiths emerge from the corps. Big enemies like abominations will be filled with more maggots and more intelligent minions like wizards are more likely to be harboring wraiths. My objective here is two-fold 1) the threat of being overwhelmed if you are not careful becomes real again and 2) thematically I want to give the impression that you are fighting the seen and the unseen. Have you really re-deaded all undead or is there something about to jump out right behind you?

Mordrem: When mordrem die they should nourish their surviving allies. This plays off their plant based nature. Nothing truly dies it’s just recycled. Nourishment could come in the form of regeneration, condition clears etc. but the feel I’m looking for is almost the opposite of the risen. Where you get overwhelmed by lesser enemies with the risen the last mordrem standing has been seriously buffed by its fallen allies and is very dangerous. It should make you think about the order you kill them. Do you really want to save that elite for last?

Icebrood – Something a little different here. Players actually can get a damage buff for defeating Icebrood. The more and the faster you defeat them the more likely you are to get the buff let’s call it dragons rage. Dragon’s rage has one very importation side effect; your allies become targetable. So you have to be very careful not to burn down your allies as you are taking down the Icebrood. The meta here becomes about trust. Can you trust your allies? Can you trust yourself?

I have some ideas about the braded and destroyers but they aren’t any good yet. Can anyone help?

I think this would be an excellent way to liven the minions up, but Anet mostly likes to make the game simpler rather than harder. Your Risen idea reminds me of the Titans from GW1, where there would be a warrior, then it dies and becomes a necro, then it dies and becomes two smaller warriors. It was easy to become overwhelmed if you weren’t careful.

[Suggestion] Dragon minions

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Knighthonor.4061

Knighthonor.4061

The last idea would be exploited to harrass people on the Internet. .

[Suggestion] Dragon minions

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Menadena.7482

Menadena.7482

When did they tone it down? I have always ran into way too many undead there to do anything useful in Orr.

[Suggestion] Dragon minions

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: nopoet.2960

nopoet.2960

The last idea would be exploited to harrass people on the Internet. .

I’m not a lore junkie but I think of Jormag as the dragon most likely to give you a full set of legendary armor in exchange for some future favor. It would be a shame not to explore the themes of betrayal and redemption in a real and tangible way.

If Anet did this they would have to design it so that it should be exploited. Dragon’s Rage (damage and targetable allies buff) as I imagine it is a short, 15 sec max. But maybe Dragons Rage is only the beginning. Perhaps you can become a “fallen” hero. If you heavily damage or kill an ally under the effect of Dragon’s Rage you get a debuff called Hero’s Shame. When you have Hero’s shame on you you have no allies and can be attacked by everybody. If you kill enough Icebrood this goes away. If you kill players you get a condition/power buff called Dragon’s Pride and the Icebrood become yellow and players become red. Your character appearance also changes to resemble the Icebrood and you get Icebrood utilities. The important thing to note is that you can still fight Icebrood in this state though you will eventually loose the buff if you do.

OR if you don’t do any damage to allies under Dragon’s Rage you get a buff called Heroic Focus. Heroic Focus causes you to take less damage from player’s with Hero’s shame. If you rage again and heavily damage or kill a player your Focus turns to shame. If you avoid hurting your allies again you get a buff called Hero’s Fury. Hero’s Fury. Under Hero’s Fury you get a utility that can remove Dragon’s Pride.

So that’s a bunch of text but the big picture is: player monsters, getting pvp players out in the open world, role playing, and hopefully fun because it’s different than the rest of the game.

[Suggestion] Dragon minions

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: nopoet.2960

nopoet.2960

When did they tone it down? I have always ran into way too many undead there to do anything useful in Orr.

You don’t know the half…

[Suggestion] Dragon minions

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: nopoet.2960

nopoet.2960

I’m back had some thoughts about the branded.

Branded: The big concept about the branded is about transformation and resonance. So as you fight branded they adapt to your fighting style. So if you are criting often all of the other branded near them get a huge bonus to armor. If you do a lot of condition damage surrounding branded get resistance. So to counter this you need to bring diverse teams as a group full of zerks would not be optimal in this setting but hybrids would excel.

[Suggestion] Dragon minions

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: nopoet.2960

nopoet.2960

Destroyers- When destroyers die they turn into destructible statues for 30 seconds. The statues will crumble if the players don’t destroy them in that time. I don’t have a lore reason for this just think it would be really interesting way to add obstacles in the environment creating line of site issues and promoting moving around. Also could be very interesting tactically in tight areas.