Guild Wars 2

Anet has stated that in GW2 they intended to make combat strategic, one way was by encouraging the player to use terrain to their advantage. Enter, the boomerang.

I propose a boomerang weapon, with the following potential attributes. 900 range. Character throws boomerang from one hand at a 20° angle to the side of the direction they are looking. The boomerang goes to 900 or whatever the target range is, sweeps over to a mirrored position 20° on the opposite side of the characters looking direction before returning.

This would create a unique and very interesting game dynamic. Instead of trying to line up enemies directly in front of you as you would with piercing attacks from a rifle or bow, you would try to get them to stand broad-side to you. This would new ways for the player to maneuver and attempt to manipulate the battle field. Also, if you were teaming up with a player that used a piercing attack, you could create a cross fire if your attack path was perpendicular to theirs. Team coordination for a higher kill factor.

I also propose the boomerang is both a main and an offhand weapon. If you dual wielded them, the main hand would fire at one angle, and the offhand at the other. This would create a very cool aesthetic appeal. You could have two boomerangs at opposing angles shoot off, and returned after crossing each others paths. It would look so cool! Add to that weapon effects and it brings it to a new level of awesome.

Since the boomerang is a weapon that requires some finesse, I suggest it is only used (at least at first) by rangers, thieves and mesmers.

Skins could be anything from the typical common practical variety, to ornate ones for mesmers. Thief themed skins could have sharpened blades on the weapon.

Your thoughts?

Boomerang does not return if it hits something.

[Bladetrail] greatsword skill from warrior. it returns after an hit or more. :P anyway a new weapon type… meh nah.

Wouldn’t that have to root you in place while you anxiously await your weapon’s return? And wouldn’t the auto attack be rather slow, since you lose your weapon, wait for it to complete its arc, do a fancy catch animation, then wind up and throw it again?

I have a hard time envisioning it as a main-hand weapon. Maybe an off-hand?

Either way, I’m doubtful we will see any new weapons added until they have exhausted all current weapons through new elite specifications. But Anet could surprise us.

I’ve said quite a few times already that, IF Anet finally decide to add more weapon types to the game, I hope they add Chain weapons and Boomerangs.

They are simply too unique and interesting not to have them, and far superior to any other weapon that will more or less be used the same as weapons we already have.

So I think your idea is great, OP. But I don’t think you should try to make the functionality of the boomerang too specific. In this game, weapons are first and foremost skins, and only on a second place, loose guides for the skills attached to them.

Think on the mesmer GS, or rev hammer. Weapon skills are not restricted to concrete uses at all.

So I believe is better to propose the boomerang:
1- As a more broad combat style: round, arcing trajectories that run across the field and came back to the player character, making positioning, timing and awareness very important.
2- And as an oportunity to develop skins: discs, stars, chakram, shuriken, kpingas, orbs, batwings… there is a lot that can be done with a weapon like this.

Interesting ideas on the weapon skins Ardid. Yes discs and magical orbs would be cool!

As for the weapon return, it could be handled in one of two ways: The more basic involves a weapon that automatically tracks your position so you will ensure you always get it back. This would likely be the default. Many skills currently have this behaviour. Otherwise, you could have it return to the position you originally attacked from, possibly gaining an incentive like a short lived boon for an auto attack if you were to catch it.

I believe the first method would be more useful, as it does not limit a player to be at that position while still giving a very unique weapon pathing option.

As for timings, this would be a weapon with a high velocity to cut down on the wait time for an auto attack. The frequency of attacks may still need to be on the lower end to give a good aesthetic, but I don’t think it would be too much of a problem. ie – the closer you are to your target the faster you could attack. This would give a nice option to players who prefer melee as the weapon would increase in effectiveness as they closed in to their target, and switched to a melee weapon. Once again, adding a new game dynamic.

Even if it was a slow weapon at longer ranges, given that this weapon promotes intelligent use of terrain Anet could implement weapon skills to further enhance this strategy, and reward the player for good use of positioning.

Greatsword, Dagger, Hammer, and Axe already have boomerang skills

lol no

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Ameepa.6793:

Boomerang does not return if it hits something.

You must not have ever played Legend of Zelda series. We can’t sit here and debate about true physics when theres magic in the game. Magic Boomerang, maybe? Though i don’t really care too much for a boomerang, however i’ve ALWAYS fancied a Whip weapon. Not the ele’s whip, but an actual wielded weapon. 1 handed weapon, dual wielded, medium style. I can see necros, thiefs, guards, hell even rangers able to use.

A whip would be a cool weapon too.

Going back to boomerangs, you could make a lot of really cool skins for them. Everything from traditional style wooden weapons, to metal ones with blades as wings, to enchanted ones where the middle part is an ornate metal piece with blades of fire shooting out at the sides. You could easily adapt this to different types of etheral weapons. Someone mentioned making a bat themed one, you could make winged weapons which would look cool.

I think the coolest would be the character holding on to the metal piece in the middle with blades of fire shooting out at the sides. Wielding it alone would look awesome let alone how crazy it would look having a flaming boomerang flying towards you! When you sheath it, the fire would disappear and you would simply have an ornate handle at your side.

More on time taken to attack, certain auto attack skills in the game already have upwards of 3 seconds per full attack cycle. I believe a 2 to 3 second trajectory for a full attack would work well. 1 second or so to travel out to its target at its maximum range, and 1 second or so to travel back. As mentioned in previous posts, one of the dynamics of this type of weapon would be that as range decreased travel time would decrease, thus increasing attack frequency. You could keep the base damage the same or reduce it to keep the DPS proportional. Maybe even make a minimum attack range to further promote the intelligent use of character positioning.