Guild Wars 2

So here I go, presenting a few changes in mind to try to get some life and variety into the crafting and the reward structure. Assuming what we would like as endgame loot is along the lines of interesting looks as well as some challenge, let’s tackle the first since it’s by far the easier one to look at.

One: Revise the idea of enemy ranks. Legendaries should remain unique and special enemies, such as the World Bosses. I’d suggest ranking up those which are Champions to Legendary accordingly. Champions should be reserved for a few open-world monsters and not created through up-scaling events, though it’s fine if they remain for events focused on one sole “boss”. For example, we should see less Champion Icebrood Elementals due to events, but Gargantula the Champion should remain untouched, as should the Champions who don’t have unique names. Let Elites slide into the spot currently occupied by Champions in the event upscaling, adjusting the number so there’s roughly 3 Elites exchanged for every 2 Champions. This will not be a popular idea since it dries up the easy Champion flow for crushing an event with overwhelming numbers and forcing it to spawn Champions.

Two: For each Legendary or otherwise unique enemy, give them a weapon in accordance with their affiliation to wield. Example: Admiral Taidha
Covington uses a Pirate Weapon with a slightly different appearance or alterations to the model which are unique to her. Such as the blade being more polished and not dull metal, or gold inlays on the blade. The reason for this is twofold and important; it will give an impression these are not just tougher and stronger mooks, and it will also dovetail into the next point.

Three: Each of these Legendary or otherwise unique enemies now have a chance to drop one piece of their weapons, which is the part most changed to differentiate it. Take the example of “Taidha’s Sword” being gold-inlaid on the blade, which means she now will sometimes drop “Taidha’s Sword Blade”. You take it to a crafting station and can have it turned into a weapon by attaching it to a Sword Hilt crafted, along with some third or fourth component to make the weapon (Account Bind on Acquire). This can give people something to show off which should take only a moderate amount of time to refine through the the art department, as well as letting crafting get a punch in the arm to be useful. Each weapon type should have . . . minimal . . . seven of these weapons to collect and create.

Four: Refinement of Three, which is . . . to make it possible to acquire the NPC gear we see and can’t acquire. Such as, for instance, being able to get pieces derived from outfits we see. For what? Why, to make Outfits from! Four parts which can be collected (from defeating enemies or perhaps completing events and trading Karma to a vendor) and put into the Mystic Forge, dropping from those enemy groups to generate an Outfit. Such as being able to make a “Nightmare Courtier Outfit”, or “Bandit Outfit”. This is purely for the cosmetic-oriented players who also might enjoy getting something new to play around with.

I suspect these ideas could be interesting as a means of adding cosmetic life to the game, as well as adding a bit of complexity to event and enemy reward structure. Sure, it might not be a big massive change and possibly could be a fair amount of work, but it could be interesting to play around with.

I like the idea in general, but would ask for the following changes.

• With Ascended as BiS, there is already too much assigned to crafting for my tastes; ergo I’d suggest calling for a Legendary Foe’s weapon to maybe drop in 2-4 pieces that could be combined — and leave crafting out of the equation.
• While I’d like to see rewards shifted more to event completion instead of Champions, I am not in favor of reducing Champion numbers unless that happens — which I doubt ANet will pursue
• As for Elites… I’ll only be happy if ANet deletes every single one of them from the game. Every. Single. One.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I like the idea in general, but would ask for the following changes.

• With Ascended as BiS, there is already too much assigned to crafting for my tastes; ergo I’d suggest calling for a Legendary Foe’s weapon to maybe drop in 2-4 pieces that could be combined — and leave crafting out of the equation.
• While I’d like to see rewards shifted more to event completion instead of Champions, I am not in favor of reducing Champion numbers unless that happens — which I doubt ANet will pursue
• As for Elites… I’ll only be happy if ANet deletes every single one of them from the game. Every. Single. One.

First point, I can agree but the idea sprung while I was doing Wardrobe-fishing on my main character for skins I missed out on. So no real objections to that re-location . . . except it then might get a point where the parts don’t drop in sequence and people get stuck with parts 1-3 and can’t get part 4.

Second point, I just am fresh off the former CS farm where champions were a big thing to farm in defense events, and now Coiled Watch . . . I think it needs to be looked at carefully.

Last point . . . I REALLY like the concept of elites and would point them to a good replacement for champions in upscaled events. They were kludged into the game but they are, in fact, perhaps quite useful if ANet steps back and re-evaluates how the hierarchy goes.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Second point, I just am fresh off the former CS farm where champions were a big thing to farm in defense events, and now Coiled Watch . . . I think it needs to be looked at carefully.

Last point . . . I REALLY like the concept of elites and would point them to a good replacement for champions in upscaled events. They were kludged into the game but they are, in fact, perhaps quite useful if ANet steps back and re-evaluates how the hierarchy goes.

What I’d like to see is bags moved to event completion rather than Champs. That would remove the player base working at cross purposes (Champ farming by not completing events, or delaying event completion v. players wanting to complete events). If that were to happen, I don’t suppose that Elites v. Champs would matter. However, under the current setup, an Elite is an almost-Champ that drops garbage.