Guild Wars 2

So one of my favorite things when I do like a World Boss farm, is to party up with people, this has led to many great conversations and interactions. The problem is, besides helping get someone back on a map if they DC, there is pretty much no reason to do it. Whenever people call for LFG while waiting for a boss, it is almost always met with people saying there is no reason to do it, which to be fair, there really isn’t. Partying with people on a map to do an event really does help bring that interaction with the community though, like you are working together for the same goal. I had an idea to hopefully give an incentive for people to party up, that being a new central Tyrian Mastery Line.

No idea what to really name it, but for now lets just call it ‘Grouping’. To be honest, I got this idea partly from playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, which grants exp boosts and such when you party up with other players. My idea would have this mastery grant certain boosts and extra rewards to people who party up with members that have the mastery. I am really shaky on how many tiers I would like it to have, and what they should all unlock, but I have a pretty good idea what I think the last line should be. I think by the end, it would be nice if it granted each party member a boost to exp and karma for every member in the party, maybe like 2% for each player. On top of this though, a boost to magic find for each player, but also, have this Magic Find boost effect giant reward chest that spawn after killing World Bosses and such. I really like the idea that people that play together are rewarded for working together, but this encouraging players to group together can also help to get people to interact with their community, make some friends and feel like you really are playing with real people!

So what do you guys think, any ideas on how to improve this, or am I off the mark for suggesting something like this? What other rewards and tiers should be unlocked. Also, how should it work for squads? Have a higher cap on the boosts, or none at all? I for one am really looking forward to new Masteries, and I would really like to see partying up with people be something people look forward to doing. (Also is Anet even looking for suggestions on new Masteries?)

Actually if you group up you’ll automaticly share boons to those in your party, this lets you be super efficient stacking your Quickness, Might, Fury etc.

I have no problem with adding Karma gain for it though, I think it would be a nice way to incentivise people to form social bonds and new players questing together can form memories.

I think it should be kept to minor buffs though (2% Karma, 2% Magic Find, 2% Gold Find per party member sort of thing – no damage buffs).

I think its a good social idea.

Oh yeah, nothing do with damaging, but it would also help with leveling alts too! I like the idea of a bunch of guildies, or just random people in the starter maps partying up to get an exp boost as they level! It is a fun way for veteran players, who would have the mastery, interact with new players, party with them and show them around!

It’s an old never finished game but take a page from kFlyff. Grouping with people within the same map as you provided a 30% exp boost per player. Okittennowing anets flimsy buffs, see how many guard skills grant 1s of a boon. Whoodedodofucinghoo 1 entire second. Going by this is would expect a max boost of 5% per player in the map max of 5.

Oh I just realised if you make it a Mastery you’ll need to have level’d to 80 already, which kinda kills one fo the best things about it – helping new players get to know people.

So maybe just introduce it to maps < level 25 permanently and then add a Mastery to gain the buffs everywhere.

well see I think it would be ‘ok’ cause you would have the older players on their alts in the zone, interacting with newer players. But maybe something like from levels 1-15, you get an exp boost from partying with other players in the starter maps?

Doesn’t seem like a very good idea. The two outcomes are either meaningless tiny buffs or making partying mandatory. Neither is really desirable. If the only reason you are going to play with someone is because you are being bribed by the game then I think you should try to fix that instead.

I could see this Mastery be added to Core Tyria Masteries, however. That way, everyone has access to it once they reach Lvl 80.

Bonuses could be something like:

One for All (3 Mastery Point)
While in a Party, you and all Party members gain +5% to All Experience and Karma gain, as well as Magic Find. This stacks with other players’ “One for All”. In Squads, you may only benefit from 5 Instances of this buff, and may only affect up to 5 other players.

Altruistic Teamwork (6 Mastery Points)
Skills and Traits that grant Boons or Buffs to a maximum of 5 people now grant their effects to a maximum of 10 people, while you’re in a Squad.

Wolf Pack (9 Mastery Points)
Gain Enrage when a Party or Squad member is downed. Enrage increases Damage and decreases incoming damage by 10% for a short time. Enrage disappears once the Party Member is Rallied or Defeated. Enrage does not Stack.

All for One (12 Mastery Points)
While in a Party or a Squad, you may now achieve Platinum Award Level when completing Events, gaining increased rewards from completed events.
The Bonus to Experience Gain, Karma and Magic Find is increased to 10%.

Ignoring the specifics, this thread raises a couple of interesting ideas:

• Should the game offer additional incentives to join parties and/or squads?
• Should there be another Central Tyria Mastery?

For the first, no, I think there are already plenty of reasons to join up, including the OP’s main point: it’s a good way to meet people. Here’s the thing — the people I want to meet already join parties because of this; I don’t have a great interest in meeting people only motivated by rewards. (See also: all the threads about how there’s nothing to do in the game except grind out rewards.)

For the second, sure, I’d love to see more masteries. I just don’t see an easy way to add them to the game prior to an expansion.

TheSwede.9512:

I could see this Mastery be added to Core Tyria Masteries, however. That way, everyone has access to it once they reach Lvl 80.

Bonuses could be something like:

One for All (3 Mastery Point)
While in a Party, you and all Party members gain +5% to All Experience and Karma gain, as well as Magic Find. This stacks with other players’ “One for All”. In Squads, you may only benefit from 5 Instances of this buff, and may only affect up to 5 other players.

Altruistic Teamwork (6 Mastery Points)
Skills and Traits that grant Boons or Buffs to a maximum of 5 people now grant their effects to a maximum of 10 people, while you’re in a Squad.

Wolf Pack (9 Mastery Points)
Gain Enrage when a Party or Squad member is downed. Enrage increases Damage and decreases incoming damage by 10% for a short time. Enrage disappears once the Party Member is Rallied or Defeated. Enrage does not Stack.

All for One (12 Mastery Points)
While in a Party or a Squad, you may now achieve Platinum Award Level when completing Events, gaining increased rewards from completed events.
The Bonus to Experience Gain, Karma and Magic Find is increased to 10%.

The 5 target limit was largely due to server performance issues.

I can understand honestly that there would then be people partying just for rewards, and as such, the interactions still wouldn’t be there. Still, having some small incentive to party up and work together I don’t think would be a terrible idea. The rewards and buffs would have to be somewhere in between ‘not very noticeable’ and ‘never leave home without it’ in my opinion. Like they need to be a nice little bonus, and a push to get people into working in parties, but you aren’t really losing much if you just wanna solo and not interact with people.

But also, on the idea of veteran players helping out newer players, what about the idea of a mentoring mastery? The Pact Commander track really didn’t do it for me, so a mastery focused on helping out newer, or lower leveled players advance might be a nice touch? Like maybe a tier will give all lower level players in your party an extra effective level, like your mere presence is empowering them to do better. Along with an exp boost and such?

I could actually see this Mastery being called Mentor now honestly. It would obviously need rewards for the player with the actual Mastery as well? Maybe like extra resources while partied with a lower level character? Or gain a spirit shard whenever a party member gains a level? I’m not sure, but I love the discussion of new Masteries, like I have said!

There’s a big problem with what you’ve described: If you suddenly grant any kind of bonus to being in a party, then it’s going to disincentivize people from joining squads. Then what’ll happen is commander tags go back to what they were before: little icons on a map and nothing more. And now that people are finding good uses for squads (have you ever run DS and NOT seen 3 tags up?), I doubt Anet would take to take a step backwards.

Yeah I can see that happening, but what if it still worked, but the bonus still capped out at 5 players? So joining a squad would still give the bonus, but you wouldn’t be seeing people with like 100% boost to everything.