Guild Wars 2

Sooooo having just done the torch runs (which were very fun mini mini puzzles – thnx Anet!) and getting this account wide torch I thought to myself "how cool would this have been if it was also a weapon?

I don’t mean a free torch offhand weapon or new skin for them either. I mean it could simply be the first ever “universal weapon”. What is a universal weapon you may ask? Well, a weapon usuable by all classes (main hand weapon not offhand) that each and every class all has the exact same skills for.

If we think about it so far the only real good use for this item is for the LA pirate JP and possibly that one mini dungeon where you have that big dark room with the attacking skelks. Being this is not a weapon right now it has very little (if any) use in either of these places.

Besides that, it would just be a cool new nifty weapon for ALL classes to play with. Oh, oh, oh and it would make that torch 5k kills achievement a lot easier too!

Thoughts, ideas for the skills that could be added if this was made possible?

My ideas would be it’s a 1 handed weapon so we would only need 3 skills, auto would just be a simple swipe burning attack, skill 2 could be like a fire-eater’s spitting out fire short ranged attack and I have no idea for skill 3.

Just imagine we could have dual torches with this weapon!. :P

PS, please do not send this to suggestions, it’s more for discussion on said item rather than adding anything major new to the game as such…

I wouldn’t want a “universal weapon” added to the game.

Once one shows up, I’d lose hope in ever getting unique weapons added to the game, because its MUCH easier to add universal weapons than class-specific ones.

Why add Spears with unique movesets for Guardian, Necro, and Ranger when you can just add a basic Spear for every class to use.

Even minus the “slippery slope” style argument, it’d feel cheap to have a universal weapon in a game which is built around the idea of every class using weapons in their own way. Using it would take away part of your professions’ identity, which I wouldn’t like much personally.

Using a torch as a mainhand weapon would seem kind of silly to me as well. I know there are torches in the game you can use to stab enemies already, but those are environmental weapons and typically not very effective. To me it would be silly to see someone running around slashing at enemies with a torch.

As for it needing to be a weapon to be less useless… meh. Its still more useful than many of the other non-gear rewards from events (like Marjory’s Journal) and maybe it’ll become more useful in the future as well.

I think things like this would be a cool way that we could obtain and learn a new weapon set.

Electro.4173:

I wouldn’t want a “universal weapon” added to the game.

Once one shows up, I’d lose hope in ever getting unique weapons added to the game, because its MUCH easier to add universal weapons than class-specific ones.

Why add Spears with unique movesets for Guardian, Necro, and Ranger when you can just add a basic Spear for every class to use.

Even minus the “slippery slope” style argument, it’d feel cheap to have a universal weapon in a game which is built around the idea of every class using weapons in their own way. Using it would take away part of your professions’ identity, which I wouldn’t like much personally.

Using a torch as a mainhand weapon would seem kind of silly to me as well. I know there are torches in the game you can use to stab enemies already, but those are environmental weapons and typically not very effective. To me it would be silly to see someone running around slashing at enemies with a torch.

As for it needing to be a weapon to be less useless… meh. Its still more useful than many of the other non-gear rewards from events (like Marjory’s Journal) and maybe it’ll become more useful in the future as well.

I don’t see any issue with “universal weapons” or any such similar ideas being that we still have different utility skills and traits per the classes anyways. Besides I would not expect such weapon types to become too familiar or even really considered to be a serious choice as a weapon.

The point being of this thread was once I had equipped the torch and saw the 5 blank slots on the skill bar it just didn’t look right and thought there should be SOMETHING there and thus this idea was born.

Btw you really can’t say “to me it would be silly to see someone running around slashing at enemies with a torch” considering offhand torches probably DO have such skills already, maybe you just don’t see the animations happen because tbh offhand weapon animations are rather lacking from what I have seen so far…

None of the offhand torches have slashing or stabbing moves.

Ranger Torch has a torch throw and an attack that uses the torch to light the ground on fire. Mesmer Torch has an attack where you disappear in a ring of flames and a Phantasm. Guardian Torch has an attack that surrounds your body in flames (and a chain that lets you throw the fire off as a fireball) and a fire breath attack.

Torches aren’t meant for stabbing and smacking enemies, so to me at least it would be odd to see them used for that. Which is why Torch is a good offhand-only weapon, it can be used for secondary attacks but not the typical attacks.

Different strokes and all that, though. That’s just my opinion, I know a lot of other people say screw realism and let me cut people with torches, its just a game.

Electro.4173:

None of the offhand torches have slashing or stabbing moves.

Ranger Torch has a torch throw and an attack that uses the torch to light the ground on fire. Mesmer Torch has an attack where you disappear in a ring of flames and a Phantasm. Guardian Torch has an attack that surrounds your body in flames (and a chain that lets you throw the fire off as a fireball) and a fire breath attack.

Torches aren’t meant for stabbing and smacking enemies, so to me at least it would be odd to see them used for that. Which is why Torch is a good offhand-only weapon, it can be used for secondary attacks but not the typical attacks.

Different strokes and all that, though. That’s just my opinion, I know a lot of other people say screw realism and let me cut people with torches, its just a game.

Well who said anything about cutting? This would primarily be a burning type condition weapon. So they would have skills revolved around that. Anywho this was why I asked for suggestions from others.

Apart from all that thanks for your feedback thus far.

I don’t know how anyone can think a “universal weapon” would be a good idea.

Exhibit A: Almost every heart bundle item in the game. :P

Not a big fan of these universal weapons either, but this torch really could´ve used at least one of the features of that torch used in the jumping puzzle of the north-western Dredghaunt Cliffs.

I wouldn’t mind, provided the torch was more like a bundle that you pick up around the world, kind of like tree branches or whatever. Not good enough to replace an actual weapon – so there’s no temptation to use these to implement an overall universal weapons system (which I would hate), but good enough that if you were caught out by a pesky skale in the dark room, you could quickly hit it, do some damage while you swap to your regular weapons.

Or even just have some silly moves that aren’t for attacking – torch flare so it temporarily casts a wider radius of light or something … just some flavour skills so we don’t look at an empty skill bar would be interesting.

But ultimately, I’m not really fussed about this.

And no one is complaining that the torch doesn’t look anything like the beautiful golden image with blue flames.