Guild Wars 2

Support roles actually started to become more interesting with the release of Silverwastes. Now there were NPCs (bulls, fort lords, carriers) to keep alive… and it was important to do so. I could hop on my guardian, toss on cleric gear, use some of the healing based sigils/runes, and watch green numbers pour out in the thousands. With some well placed lines of warding, I could hold things off all day.

The best part was, I actually got rewarded for it… with a little chest in the corner of my screen. In a map where loot wasn’t based of tagging as many things as possible and getting loot form their bodies, you can play any role you want and still be rewarded for the difference you make.

Especially with the Salvation line for the new class (and some of the new builds you can make with the new specialization system in general), support builds have a much higher potential.

So overall, I’m very pleased with the direction things are going. I really hope the new maps will function like Silverwastes, in that I will be rewarded for my hard work, rather than how much AoE DPS I can do.

I also wish this kind of system could be introduced to the rest of the world… Not a change to the events or anything, but more reward from the completion of the event itself rather than having to pull out the guardian loot stick and spam 1. Focusing on keeping all those breserkers running around alive longer so they can focus on pouring out more damage can be a lot of fun.

I’ve also been wondering too if HoT is going to make support roles and a separation from “everyone needs Berserker” more demanding. I don’t mind carrying around multiple armor sets, it’s just the question of whether or not it’s worthwhile investing in support clothing (like healing + vitality or whatnot). I find myself running Fire/Arcana/Earth alot solo, and flipping back to Fire/Air/Water in dungeons. I’d also like to see condition builds become viable and even necessary for some fights to create a bit of diversity. (I’m only talking PvE content, I’m no expert on PvP).

I hope that ANet does use some of what they learned from SW in HoT. However, I hope they also fix two issues:

1. Chest farmers working at cross purposes to event completionists. If they’re going to implement things like bandit chest farm, then have it proc only in the blank spaces between area event cycles. This means both completionists and chest farmers would have the same goal — to finish the cycle, instead of farmers scaling events and ignoring them. While shard taxi is a work-around for this, it is imperfect.
2. Zone longevity. I’ve not been in SW for awhile, but DT, which also has a zone cycle, started suffering from reduced population once the SW came out and people had gotten what they wanted from DT. Anyone who takes their time in these zones or who are come-latelies suffer under this model. However, if Anet were to occasionally add new rewards to the zones, perhaps as part of the (maybe going to happen) LS once HoT’s been out for awhile, then we might see renewed interest in moribund zones.

I’d never go all out support, but a full on celestial gear set is actually quite nice to have in your bags.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I hope that ANet does use some of what they learned from SW in HoT. However, I hope they also fix two issues:

1. Chest farmers working at cross purposes to event completionists. If they’re going to implement things like bandit chest farm, then have it proc only in the blank spaces between area event cycles. This means both completionists and chest farmers would have the same goal — to finish the cycle, instead of farmers scaling events and ignoring them. While shard taxi is a work-around for this, it is imperfect.
2. Zone longevity. I’ve not been in SW for awhile, but DT, which also has a zone cycle, started suffering from reduced population once the SW came out and people had gotten what they wanted from DT. Anyone who takes their time in these zones or who are come-latelies suffer under this model. However, if Anet were to occasionally add new rewards to the zones, perhaps as part of the (maybe going to happen) LS once HoT’s been out for awhile, then we might see renewed interest in moribund zones.

Maybe they could introduce events that bring people back to specific zones and rotate them around to different zones every few days.

Something like help ____ area its being attacked by dragon minions, inquest, flame legion, etc….
Kinda like the scarlet invasions, but hopefully with better events and story.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

IndigoSundown.5419:

I hope that ANet does use some of what they learned from SW in HoT. However, I hope they also fix two issues:

1. Chest farmers working at cross purposes to event completionists. If they’re going to implement things like bandit chest farm, then have it proc only in the blank spaces between area event cycles. This means both completionists and chest farmers would have the same goal — to finish the cycle, instead of farmers scaling events and ignoring them. While shard taxi is a work-around for this, it is imperfect.
2. Zone longevity. I’ve not been in SW for awhile, but DT, which also has a zone cycle, started suffering from reduced population once the SW came out and people had gotten what they wanted from DT. Anyone who takes their time in these zones or who are come-latelies suffer under this model. However, if Anet were to occasionally add new rewards to the zones, perhaps as part of the (maybe going to happen) LS once HoT’s been out for awhile, then we might see renewed interest in moribund zones.

Maybe they could introduce events that bring people back to specific zones and rotate them around to different zones every few days.

Something like help ____ area its being attacked by dragon minions, inquest, flame legion, etc….
Kinda like the scarlet invasions, but hopefully with better events and story.

That’s not a bad idea.

Allusir.5630:

In a map where loot wasn’t based of tagging as many things as possible and getting loot form their bodies, you can play any role you want and still be rewarded for the difference you make.

I was thinking about this problem. One solution could be that you share in the tagging. Say you give might, you get credit for a percentage of whatever additional damage someone who gets might does… Mind you this might be too beneficial to support. You give 5 people might, those 5 people tag 5+ mobs…
In terms of healing, say a character takes a 100 damage and you heal them for 50, you then get credit 50 dps-es-equivalent-damage-credit on the mob that caused the original damage.

CureForLiving.5360:

Allusir.5630:

In a map where loot wasn’t based of tagging as many things as possible and getting loot form their bodies, you can play any role you want and still be rewarded for the difference you make.

I was thinking about this problem. One solution could be that you share in the tagging. Say you give might, you get credit for a percentage of whatever additional damage someone who gets might does… Mind you this might be too beneficial to support. You give 5 people might, those 5 people tag 5+ mobs…
In terms of healing, say a character takes a 100 damage and you heal them for 50, you then get credit 50 dps-es-equivalent-damage-credit on the mob that caused the original damage.

credit for DPS has always be a terrible thing… especially if you consider the fact that this is a “support” thread.