Guild Wars 2

Man can you imagine the rage if one of the specializations for a class was a new water weapon..

Would be funny for those that don’t play the class, but a rage for those that do.
Unless they plan on fixing underwater combat.

Knighthonor.4061:

Man can you imagine the rage if one of the specializations for a class was a new water weapon..

Would be funny for those that don’t play the class, but a rage for those that do.
Unless they plan on fixing underwater combat.

First, there will not be, that’s not likely because UW combat is much limited and wouldn’t be useful in any major aspect of the game. Second, there ain’t anything to be fixed, 3D perception gets “messed up” underwater for most people but I believe it’s more of a getting used issue than anything else.

I foresee many angry Mesmers already. If they only get an off-hand shield (2 skills) while everyone else gets 3 or 5 new weapon skills, that would really be a shame.

Simple plan is to have at least 5 classes at 80 before this mini-expansion so you have a fair choice which character is going to be your new main..

Kaiyanwan.8521:

I foresee many angry Mesmers already. If they only get an off-hand shield (2 skills) while everyone else gets 3 or 5 new weapon skills, that would really be a shame.

Simple plan is to have at least 5 classes at 80 before this mini-expansion so you have a fair choice which character is going to be your new main..

So glad I have 2 classes left and one of them is a few levels away from max.

Valento.9852:

Knighthonor.4061:

Man can you imagine the rage if one of the specializations for a class was a new water weapon..

Would be funny for those that don’t play the class, but a rage for those that do.
Unless they plan on fixing underwater combat.

First, there will not be, that’s not likely because UW combat is much limited and wouldn’t be useful in any major aspect of the game. Second, there ain’t anything to be fixed, 3D perception gets “messed up” underwater for most people but I believe it’s more of a getting used issue than anything else.

I know something that need to be fixed, is to make it so all our skills work under water as they do on land…

Kaiyanwan.8521:

I foresee many angry Mesmers already. If they only get an off-hand shield (2 skills) while everyone else gets 3 or 5 new weapon skills, that would really be a shame.

Simple plan is to have at least 5 classes at 80 before this mini-expansion so you have a fair choice which character is going to be your new main..

We’ll have to see! First, many of the other specialization weapons haven’t been revealed. It’s totally possible that we’re not alone in our “two new unlocked weapon skills.”

Second, we still don’t have much info on how significant a specialization will affect the base class. I’m optimistic that between new utility skills, new healing and elite skills, the shield, and an updated class mechanic, we’ll feel just as ‘new’ as everyone else. I’m also keeping the hope alive that our specialization not only unlocks the shield, but alters a few of our existing weapon sets.

if it was a specialisation that allowed you to use an underwater weapon on land that’d be a different story and could be quite interesting

It wouldn’t really make sense to have a water specialization, unless everyone got one in a water expansion. If water stuff is touched at all by specializations, it will be along with everything else. I know you’re being silly, but it’s really separate enough that it would be pretty baffling.

This may not exactly be the place for it, but while we’re on the topic, I want to discuss the water content. I was really happy that Arena.net wanted to make it interesting in a way other games don’t, and wanted to make it fun by removing breath and stuff. I still find it pretty obnoxious, but I feel like they’ve got a pretty solid foundation, and only needs one or two more iterations.

Here are the problems as I see it:
Spatial Awareness
This isn’t something you can really fix, but it is a problem for some people. Having all three dimensions being relevant just doesn’t work for some people. I know several people who are incapable of translating that a 2D monitor is portraying a 3D space in their head, and have trouble in underwater or flying games. Ground content is mostly fine, even in 3D games, because only two planes ever tend to matter. You can’t do anything about this really, but it’s something to note.

Three Dimensions of Enemies
This is a bit tied into the first, but actually solvable. Even if you can intuit three dimensions in a video game, it’s still a lot to pay attention to, and sometimes there’s just nothing you can do. There are several places in the game (I’m getting horrible flashbacks to some place in Orr I think) where the enemy density is simply too high in the underwater content. On land, it might just take some careful planning, but with the extra dimension, it’s often not even something you can do anything about thanks to the placement of enemies and objectives. You very often get way more aggro than you can handle.

The solution to this would just be to be a lot more careful with enemy placement. Don’t place enemies three dimensionally all the time just because they physically can in water. Be careful as well not to over-saturate an area. A two-dimensional cross-section of the water shouldn’t look like a land encounter, because there are enemies above and below as well.

Nature of Enemies
In my opinion, most of the enemies encountered in or by water, by complete coincidence, happen to be some of the most annoying and frustrating in the game. One word: Krait. This is going to lead people into avoiding water content for reasons that have nothing innately to do with the water content itself.

Simply be more diverse with water enemies. Don’t make them all annoying to fight, and cut back a bit on the ones that are. There’s a difference between challenging enemies and just plain annoying ones.

Underwhelming Underwater Skills
I have no problem with underwater having its own set of skills to really make it feel like you’re fighting underwater. My problem is that underwater skills tend to feel awkward, unintuitive, or just plain ineffective. Two of the Mesmer spear skills take control away from your character and pull you in a straight line for a good amount of time, and you can only cancel one of them. I feel like someone had a little bit too much fun trying to come up with creative, watery things, and didn’t bother to make sure they felt fun and powerful. This is exacerbated by the above points. When you’re fighting more enemies than normal and they’re all annoying to fight, the last thing you want is a skillset that seems ill-equipped to meet that challenge (like an attack that attacks in a straight line when enemies are coming from all directions).

The first solution to this is to solve the previous issues. Cutting back on enemy density and making them less annoying will do wonders for the feel of the combat. I think doing a pass on everyone’s underwater skills to make them more exciting and intuitive should be done regardless, though.

I ended up writing more than I thought, but I really don’t think it’s that big of a deal. There are problems with the system right now, but I don’t think they would be that hard to fix.

Maybe if they put some kind of “radar” for your targeted foe? Increasing its size as you move closer? I don’t know… this deserves some kind of study to increase awareness. I loved UW exploration since day #1, it’s immersive and beautiful (Snowden Drifts <3).

Knighthonor.4061:

Man can you imagine the rage if one of the specializations for a class was a new water weapon..

Would be funny for those that don’t play the class, but a rage for those that do.
Unless they plan on fixing underwater combat.

give them a [summon aquarium] kind of skill and all the lol and rage would be reversed