Guild Wars 2

I’d play it. Underwater zones are interesting for me. I’m 100% positive ArenaNet could tackle something like the concept of “sunken underwater temple” or “Mariana trench” and knock it out of the ballpark.

And in GW2 we don’t even need underwater-breathing buffs/items.

Maybe on my ranger, engineer or mesmer. It’s so painfully clear that ArenaNet released near-alpha skill balance of all the classes when it comes to water combat. The huge disparity of effectiveness (and the terrible synergy between land builds and water builds) really makes water content hit or miss solely on the whims of class balance.

PvP underwater combat has a lot of imbalances.

PvE I wouldn’t mind if they revamped underwater combat. Do things like have underwater utility/elite skills to compensate for the lost skills, and have more weapons to choose from than just 2 or 1.

Underwater combat needs a lot of work. Many aspects of “ground combat” don’t exist underwater, between the fact that half of your utilities are completely unusable and the fact that even weapon skills sometimes lack certain aspects that normal grounded weapons do (Guardian Symbols, Elementalist Auras aside from Fire field + leap finisher, ect). Not to mention a general lack of variety, with only a max of 2 weapon types usable for any single profession. And the fact that the balance overall seems off underwater, with some professions being great and others being quite lackluster (Engineer’s harpoon gun springs to mind as completely terrible, but at least kits can offset it). They really need to do a lot of cleaning up with the underwater combat in general.

Having more combo fields / finishers was a step in the right direction but its definately not quite there yet. Make all utilities work underwater (not a fan of the idea of underwater-only utilities personally), fix up the weapon sets to match the ground weapon sets a bit closer, add a few more weapons including preferably some 1H / offhand ones, and we’ll be getting there. Probably need to make an underwater trait tree since a number of traits flat-out don’t work underwater and you often need different traits underwater compared to on land.

Its kind of a catch-22 though, because while underwater combat does need a ton of work, a lot of people will see any effort put towards underwater combat as a waste. I remember when the patch notes came out for the patch that added all those underwater finishers / combo fields many people had the attitude of “LOL underwater improvements, who cares about those, what a waste of an update”.

All that said… I’d still play in a pure underwater zone even as the game is right now. I don’t abhor it like many people seem to, quite the opposite in fact. Despite the limitations I rather enjoy the underwater portions. I’ve always been a fan of underwater scenery so that definately helps, and even the combat seems decent enough. Plenty of room for improvement as above, but its still playable.

I enjoy underwater areas because they’re usually quite beautiful, and aside from some types of enemies (krait and Risen, mostly), underwater enemies are usually a lot easier to deal with than above water. Would I enjoy a completely underwater map though? That’s harder to say, but I’d certainly give it a go.

Flamenco.3894:

Would you play in an area that’s completely under water?

No, I wouldn’t ’cuz I hate underwater combat.

If not, what do you not like about under water combat?

It seems like everytime I’m involved in a underwater battle with what I thought was only 1 or 2 mobs, I end up having Jaws and all of his relatives swarming me.

An underwater map has the potential to be really beautiful to explore so I kinda hope they add one but I’m not a huge fan of the underwater combat to be honest. The fact that half you skill don’t even work is really annoying and I always get blindsided by mobs I didn’t see and get killed (though this my fault) so while I wold definitely explore it once or twice its not likely to be an area I return to regularly.

In my warrior sure #5 spear attack FTW.

In any other class probaboly not.

If they made it so all skills actually worked underwater i would be alot more open to underwater combat but the truth is 90% of the skills i set up my builds with dont work underwater and i dont like wasting skill points to put into skills i only use 5% or less of the time.

Passiflora.2047:

Nay of the Ether.8913:

Passiflora.2047:

. . . especially if my Necromancer magically became more fun to play underwater. But I guess I have enough fun on my Mesmer and Ranger underwater to make up for his lackluster performance. xD

You must be doing it very very wrong lol. Necro is one of the most powerful underwater classes :-P

Oh, my Necro plays well underwater, he is in fact my go-to character for the “underwater kills” daily portion. I love how durable he is! But for some reason, I just don’t have as much fun with him underwater as I do my Mesmer and Ranger. I can’t really pin down why though, thus my use of the word “magically” in my wish for it to be more fun. xD Maybe it is the lack of flashy spells like my Mesmer has, lol.

Honestly, I don’t think I play underwater frequently enough and on enough classes to have a firm grasp of which are the most powerful. ^^; For example, I don’t like taking my Ele underwater because he feels too fragile, but I’m sure someone will come and tell me that Elementalists are awesome underwater and I am just doing it wrong. xD

First let me say, the reason you don’t have as much fun underwater on necro is the very reason I don’t have fun playing my mesmer, guardian, warrior, or thief (out of water, except mesmer, which is mind-numbing easy mode above or below). It’s boring as kittens! It’s waaaayyy too easy and thus the challenge factor gets removed and we lose interest. I see you’re a challenge oriented person like me, so let me cover your 2nd point for ele: swap attunements ALOT. Even if you’re not spec’d for constant attunement swaps, you simply must underwater. Strangely enough, water magic hits almost the hardest underwater if you do it right, but you can’t rely on it alone. Use it to root your enemy with the ice wall, swap to fire, shoot a few fire globs, maybe a steam, then before all of them explode, swap to air, hit the shock box of fun, bubble them so they float and get stunned, few hits maybe, then blind with earth, throw on a few bleedings, back to water. This can be applied to nearly everyting underwater, with a few exceptions, sometimes you need to shatter the ice wall for more dps, or do a tad more fire. The key is to swap though, Then ele is cake underwater. Ranger is only good as a tank though, their UW dps is a joke.

Everybody keeps saying that Water (particularly Water 5) hits the hardest underwater, but my experience hasn’t matched this. Am I doing something wrong? How are you guys using Water attunement underwater?

i would love to see underwater improvement then i am more than willing to jump head first into any body of water

Flamenco.3894:

Would you play in an area that’s completely under water?

My ranger most certainly would! Rangers are a great underwater class

My guardian, not so much …

Yes. I’d be very excited to do so.
I would love to see the south of Southsun Cove expanded with a complete underwater map with a mere single safe zone.
It would be a good location for it, since they could make it a really beautiful underwater paradise.

Bring it on.

I think underwater combat is exciting, disorienting and fun. As it should be.
Most people hate underwater because they haven’t spend enough time in the water I’m thinking. It takes some time and effort to figure out your role underwater and build accordingly.

True, there a fewer skills available underwater, but any class can still do good underwater.

Siofra Crumble.2098:

I think underwater combat is exciting, disorienting and fun. As it should be.
Most people hate underwater because they haven’t spend enough time in the water I’m thinking. It takes some time and effort to figure out your role underwater and build accordingly.

True, there a fewer skills available underwater, but any class can still do good underwater.

I think many players dis-like underwater combat because they are still using lvl 6 aqua-breathers and weapons!

How many players use exotic underwater weapons with superior sigils?
How many players have a 7th superior rune slotted in their aqua-breathers to maintain the 6th bonus while underwater?
I think I must be the only one …

In guild chat last evening, a lvl 80 player just realised he was still using a lvl 24 underwater weapon … No wonder people find it difficult ..

bri.2359:

Siofra Crumble.2098:

I think underwater combat is exciting, disorienting and fun. As it should be.
Most people hate underwater because they haven’t spend enough time in the water I’m thinking. It takes some time and effort to figure out your role underwater and build accordingly.

True, there a fewer skills available underwater, but any class can still do good underwater.

I think many players dis-like underwater combat because they are still using lvl 6 aqua-breathers and weapons!

How many players use exotic underwater weapons with superior sigils?
How many players have a 7th superior rune slotted in their aqua-breathers to maintain the 6th bonus while underwater?
I think I must be the only one …

In guild chat last evening, a lvl 80 player just realised he was still using a lvl 24 underwater weapon … No wonder people find it difficult ..

Nope I do that occasionally, or sometimes if I don’t like the 6th bonus on a rune set, I’ll just use a divinity rune in my 6th piece and another on my rebreather. All of my weapons, once i get exotics, always have superior runes in them, including my underwater ones. Keeping your gear up to par is just as important underwater and a good point that most people over look. Also, lots of people forget you now fight in an extra axis plane, so you have to move up and down, not just strafe left and right. Getting used to ascending with spacebar is an extremely useful tip for underwater combat, and pretty sure there’s a descend hotkey too, but I usually use leap skills to get down faster so I don’t use it. Once i learned to use spacebar to ascend though, it made underwater combat 100x easier.

Nothing I hate more than being underwater in this game, but an entire map would be interesting, especially after some underwater improvements. I’m all for the idea.

I would, but there is one major issue that needs to be addressed first.

When you go underwater, it remembers what skills you have equipped. They change automatically to what you left them as.
Your Traits do NOT.

This makes a large number of land builds totally broken underwater because some skills simply cannot be used.

If they allow different trait setups underwater I’d enjoy it more.

Yes please.
There is a large part in the left bottom corner,in the map of Tyria
that is covered by water.
I expect that at some point,they will release this as a mega
underwater area.
Underwater combat,is one of the strongest points of GW2.
I understand why players might feel frustrated about it,since
it is in many ways different than on land combat,and you
basically have to learn to play your class twice.

Nope. I stay away from water combat at all costs on every character I have. It simply is not fun. Making me completely change my playstyle to something that does not work with my build in any way, shape, or form is idiotic.

I’ve played 4 classes extensively now. Necro, Thief, Warrior and Ele.

I don’t enjoy underwater combat with any of them. :p

First; the weapon choices, and thus skills are too limited.
Second; 3/4’s of your utilities/elites don’t work underwater.
Third; Likely because of first and second points, creatures seem to take longer to kill underwater.
Forth; There is nothing underwater that I can’t do better on land. Except move in the z-axis.
Fifth; Skills (particularly with the Ele) often miss when you are higher or lower than the thing your are fighting, making for a frustrating experience.
Sixth; Travelling underwater feels slower, likely because you can’t see as much moving terrain.
Seventh; It requires a completely different playstyle and build, so without practice underwater you often have no clue what your skills do. However there’s no point to going underwater so there’s no need to practice currently.

Things Anet could do to make underwater more desirable.

1) Add more weapons and increase the number of current utilities/elites that work underwater.
2) Add perks when underwater. A permanent speed boost would be nice for one.
3) Make it so that we can review class specific (Necromancer) underwater skills in the Hero panel.
4) Lessen the number of cc’s mobs have. Fighting Krait underwater is a nightmare with the number of pulls/slows they have on seemingly short cool downs.
5) Add a point to going underwater. :p Currently there is no reason to. As in there is nothing I can get underwater I can’t get by doing the same stuff on land without the previously mentioned limitations to skills.
6) Add an underwater world boss or two with staged mechanics and dragon lvl loot. With actual repercussions to the surrounding land area should they not be dealt with.

I would play in an underwater PvE map, character dependent.

I probably wouldn’t step foot in there with my Elementalist. However, I’d have a great time with my Mesmer. Thief is debatable.

As an Engineer I say YES, since we are quite flexible and competent underwater. I’d also expect an Engisub to have some naval fights with.

I enjoy underwater combat, but I think a few things need to happen before we can have all-underwater zones:

• All skills need to function underwater. ANet needs to come up with ways to make them work. The limited builds underwater makes underwater combat less exciting.
• More underwater weapons. A third underwater weapon set for every class (and +1 for Eles and Engis) would be necessary to give enough build diversity.

Once those happen, then I’d love a full underwater zone in PvE and PvP.

It sure would be nice if, along with releasing an underwater map, they added more underwater headpieces. It may be a small thing, but the minor stat boost might help lower level characters have better early impressions of underwater and be less likely to hate the idea of an underwater map later on.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

First let me say, the reason you don’t have as much fun underwater on necro is the very reason I don’t have fun playing my mesmer, guardian, warrior, or thief (out of water, except mesmer, which is mind-numbing easy mode above or below). It’s boring as kittens! It’s waaaayyy too easy and thus the challenge factor gets removed and we lose interest. I see you’re a challenge oriented person like me, so let me cover your 2nd point for ele: swap attunements ALOT. Even if you’re not spec’d for constant attunement swaps, you simply must underwater. Strangely enough, water magic hits almost the hardest underwater if you do it right, but you can’t rely on it alone. Use it to root your enemy with the ice wall, swap to fire, shoot a few fire globs, maybe a steam, then before all of them explode, swap to air, hit the shock box of fun, bubble them so they float and get stunned, few hits maybe, then blind with earth, throw on a few bleedings, back to water. This can be applied to nearly everyting underwater, with a few exceptions, sometimes you need to shatter the ice wall for more dps, or do a tad more fire. The key is to swap though, Then ele is cake underwater. Ranger is only good as a tank though, their UW dps is a joke.

Well, I do not consider myself a highly skilled player, but I suppose that could be a factor. I feel bad admitting it, but I pretty much just facetank most underwater stuff on my Necro without thinking about it much. ^^; And thanks for the tips for playing Ele underwater! I used to think my Ele was pathetic, but after I started to get the hang of attunement swapping it got a lot more fun. I just need to get used to the underwater versions now. Time to head over to Lake Deathtrap in Caledon Forest for some practice!

Yes I would play in an Underwater Map. However, underwater maps are too glitchy at the moment. There’s too many places the devs neglect which allows the player to access out of bounds zones, areas with an “underwater sky”, warps to underwater the map, and areas with odd lighting.

I main ranger and rangers murder underwater so yeah.

I love going underwater but i hate fighting underwater creatures, something about it is meh.

I love the underwater parts of the game. GW2 is much better underwater than any other game I’ve played.

There are definitely some class balance issues. Rangers and Warriors are great underwater. Some of the best ranger pets are underwater pets. Necromancers are seriously nerfed, all the best skills aren’t useable.

I’d like to see an underwater dungeon. Well at least a dungeon with over 80% underwater sections at least. Water Fractal and HoTW p2p3 doesnt really cut it for me.

PvP won’t work for obvious reasons.

PvE is too far separated from on-land PvE to be feasible. I loved the underwater zones in WoW but I don’t think that Arena Net can pull that off, their system flopped incredibly hard.

Yes. Yes I would.

I don’t know. I’m hydrophobic so I certainly wouldn’t do it alone, but my main is an engineer, so that sort of offsets the crushing horror of being beneath the water a little. As long as it doesn’t look like the waters of Orr, I think I’d be okay.

But underwater combat really is terribly unbalanced. When I was doing map completion in WvW, I would occasionally get little groups of people chasing me. Whenever possible, I would try to lead them into the water and kitten them. As long as there wasn’t another Engineer after me, I could kill up to six people following me and chase off even more, thanks to Grenade Kit and Elixer X. Eles die really quickly to this. I’m the one benefiting and even I don’t think it’s very fair, but I do it anyway to save myself armour repair costs until it gets nerfed or everyone else gets buffed. I’m hoping for the latter. As it is, a bit of advice: don’t follow an Engineer into water.

It would also be nice if ground skills either became projectiles (like grenades), or bubbles around your body. I’ve tried to fire off a Super Elixer in UW combat and it just flew off somewhere into the distance.. If it became a bubble around my body, I could swim to my team mates to heal them. Actually, being able to target people for heals and elixers in the water would be really, really helpful. You could probably only target one person at a time, but it’s better than what we have now.

Dingle.2743:

(He’s suggesting I’m a horrible, horrible person… better act the part.)

- Underwater maze now has currents that force players in certain directions.
- Currents will change paths periodically
- The maze now contains doors which can only be opened from one side
- Opening these doors will change the current as well

Everybody, enjoy your new underwater puzzle. We strongly believe that this will provide appropriate challenge for the average player, and will be watching it closely to add more features if necessary.

Swimming down the wrong corridor randomly spawns 5 (new, “exciting”) veteran Krait Nimross, a Champion Risen Megalodon, a school of Ancient Barracuda, or 10 Risen Putrifiers. You have no way of knowing which.

Yes, I would love a completely underwater map.

I have always loved underwater combat, its a lot easier than land combat.

I know some people hate underwater but I have never personally understood why? The only big differences are you have completely 360 degree movement, you can swim to the surface to gain health and you can’t fall from a great height and die. Oh, and the best no stupid jumping puzzles or terrain you got to jump over…

Heck no. Thieves only have 1 skill underwater and no elite skills.

If they revamped underwater combat, I’d consider it.
As it stands now though, absolutely not. Too many classes have similar mechanics, not enough utilties, some classes have more than others for use underwater, as well as elites.

Yes. I absolutely adore water combat.

Only with my Ele or my Engineer, some classes are just terribly clunky underwater.

EDIT: Actually now that I think about it I probably would with my Warrior too, the spear gun plays just like the Rifle except underwater. Practically has the exact same burst skill.

How about adding major check boss rewards to the underwater fights.