Guild Wars 2

Well, we know now that Marjory’s new greatsword was a preview to Specializations. Some people speculate that Kasmeer’s “lie-detector”-ability in the living world was a hint at a mastery.

So I’m wondering…Marjory summons a bone bridge, Kasmeer bends the abilities of the mesmers portal…exploration masteries…

Will we actually be able to have some profession-related ways of exploring the Maguuma Jungle?
Will players get to do that in HoT? At least at specific “exploration-spots”?
Will Necros summon a bone bridge they can cross just before it crumbles?
Will Mesmers teleport over gaps?
Elementalists ride the lightning or transform into a gaze of wind to traverse?
Warriors make huge leaps or use a standard for pole-jumping?
Thiefs use a grapling-hook or shadow-step?
Guardians summon a bridge of light or summon a helpful spirit?
Engineers use jetpack-jumps or pop a self-unfolding clockwork-bridge out of a box?
Rangers summon a vine-bridge or use an animation similar to the gs-leap?

I would be thrilled with profession-specific exploration abilities, but until we actually get something to suggest the NPC abilities are anything beyond that, I’m not holding my breath.

I think it’s highly unlikely that there will be gap covering skills. They had these during Beta and they were changed to their present state.

Example: Ride the lightning, pre nerf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA0wv5bX8X0

if they do implement this i think it will be more of a ‘you can use this here’ kind of mechanic rather than, say, anywhere. Same reason they don’t allow gliding on older maps: it would break certain areas.

Though a neat function for future LS instances would be allowing you ‘professional skills’ parts where, if you’re X profession, you can have an advantage. (each class being allowed roughly once of this in a single season to keep it fair.) like, say, you’re being chased into a tunnel and, as a necromancer, you can raise a bone wall as ‘a trick you learned from the struggle with Zhaitan.’ things like that.

It would have to be limited to certain positions on the map or in the personal/living story, of course.

I just think it would be nice to have some profession-related interaction-possibilities with the world, aside from eles being able to throw a boulder like a meteor.

I remember the old Ride the lightning or the lightning teleport. I really liked to be able to travel the world in these interesting ways, teleporting or riding over huge cliffs…nowadays all the ele got is a modified shadow-step.

Often I just think there is so much potential to go a little deeper with world-interaction of professions or even races.
A warrior smashes in a wall with brute force, an ele attunes to earth and commands the stones away, a thief shadowsteps through, a mesmer teleports, an engineer plants an explosive to blast the wall away…

A thick maze of vines blocks a path: A norn rips the vines out of the way, a charr uses his claws or military equipment, a human climbs over the vines, an asura is just small enough to walk through the gaps between the vines or simply summons a massive golem to bash through the vines, a sylvari either communes with the vines or climbs over them.

I think that, so long as every profession has equal access to it, and that it’s restricted to certain areas, this could be a really fun mechanic. Maybe it’s even a type of mastery, where necromancers could gain longer bone bridges or mesmers can portal farther. It couldn’t be open like the old Ride the Lightning, as there’d be too many people breaking out of the maps and seeing weird things they shouldn’t. Like how people knew what the inside of Fort Trinity looked, even though it was supposed to be impassable through its gates.

Edit: alternately, it could be set up so only that specific profession could access the area for a specific ability, but that seems doubtful. Old posts about the game suggested that professions would learn new skills by travelling around the world (a necromancer can find an NPC ghost near Serenity Temple that no others can, although she doesn’t have much dialog) but was scrapped for… reasons I can’t currently recall.

NPCs often have abilities that PCs do not. Don’t sweat it.

It’s important do draw a line between NPC’s doing things players can’t do, and NPC’s doing things player can do, but better.

Also important, the line between combat abilities that might be brought into a profession for worldwide use, and exploration abilities that would – if given to players at all – more likely be masteries that can only be used at specific locations.

I do have to admit, the idea of profession-specific masteries is very appealing as a player, but from a development side, it would be a less efficient use of resources than making a smaller number of abilities usable by everyone.

Genesis.8572:

NPCs often have abilities that PCs do not. Don’t sweat it.

This.

Remember when Logan fought the Watchknight during Queen Pavilion? He was using skills that guardians couldn’t, like a variation of the sword 2 skill that took him behind the enemy.

Rytlock’s a warrior that uses a pistol off-hand (and no, it is not Hidden Pistol – he doesn’t leap and he holds it the entire time).

I really doubt that everything we see NPCs do is a hint to future stuff.

I would be HIGHLY impressed if there were profession-specific masteries, especially if there were exploration ones that allow you to unlock secret locations and loot for yourself and teammates.

Electro.4173:

I would be thrilled with profession-specific exploration abilities, but until we actually get something to suggest the NPC abilities are anything beyond that, I’m not holding my breath.

It would be fun, mostly because I have an alt for each profession. Would probably negatively impact those with only a few alts. Unless each profession has functionally similar exploration abilities, in which case it kinda remove some of the appeal of it. With the removal of the trinity we basically see that ANet basically wants to move away from the “LF guardian spec XYZ” style issues, but it does to an extent leave some profession builds kinda same-y. Unique exploration abilities wouldn’t have much of an impact on combat, so at least the core experience wouldn’t be impacted but could add interesting dimensions to map exploration a bit more profession uniqueness. However we’d still see a host of “ANet wants me to level a ranger for map completion! QQ” threads jumping up.

aiming a shadowstep through a gap isn’t going to happen. faking a shadowstep from a fixed spot to another fixed spot (like kasmeer does) could work though.

that said, i doubt any masteries will have “profession flavor”, because it would have to be fairly similar for all 9 (like a reskin of the same ability).

BrunoBRS.5178:

aiming a shadowstep through a gap isn’t going to happen. faking a shadowstep from a fixed spot to another fixed spot (like kasmeer does) could work though.

that said, i doubt any masteries will have “profession flavor”, because it would have to be fairly similar for all 9 (like a reskin of the same ability).

Well, if we get that kind of thing, that’s probably how it will work.

Like, you have a mastery the lets you cross certain gaps, and the actual effect depends on the profession you are playing at the time, something like

Mesmer: Portal
Thief: Shadowstep
Ele: Rock/Ice Bridge
Necro: Bone Bridge
Engineer: Rocket-propelled jump
Guardian: Bridge of Light
Warrior: Grappling Hook
Ranger: Carried by a large bird/Vine Bridge (if Druid)
Revanant: something appropriate

If you make the location profession-specific, then you’d probably make the effect something that anyone can use or take advantage of (i.e. Warrior leaves the hook in place for the next x seconds/users, Thief shadowsteps anyone within a certain range ala Caithe in episode 7, etc)

Foefaller.1082:

BrunoBRS.5178:

aiming a shadowstep through a gap isn’t going to happen. faking a shadowstep from a fixed spot to another fixed spot (like kasmeer does) could work though.

that said, i doubt any masteries will have “profession flavor”, because it would have to be fairly similar for all 9 (like a reskin of the same ability).

Well, if we get that kind of thing, that’s probably how it will work.

Like, you have a mastery the lets you cross certain gaps, and the actual effect depends on the profession you are playing at the time, something like

Mesmer: Portal
Thief: Shadowstep
Ele: Rock/Ice Bridge
Necro: Bone Bridge
Engineer: Rocket-propelled jump
Guardian: Bridge of Light
Warrior: Grappling Hook
Ranger: Carried by a large bird/Vine Bridge (if Druid)
Revanant: something appropriate

If you make the location profession-specific, then you’d probably make the effect something that anyone can use or take advantage of (i.e. Warrior leaves the hook in place for the next x seconds/users, Thief shadowsteps anyone within a certain range ala Caithe in episode 7, etc)

but there’s a difference between a teleport (scripted or not) and spawning a bridge you can walk over. one generates a physical object, the other doesn’t. either everyone has a teleport analogue, or everyone has a bridge-like thing (which would be pretty silly for most professions)

Genesis.8572:

NPCs often have abilities that PCs do not. Don’t sweat it.

Like Traherne’s multiple flesh wurms and 6 flesh golems?

I want 6 flesh golems that will join me in a lively line dance.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Foefaller.1082:

BrunoBRS.5178:

aiming a shadowstep through a gap isn’t going to happen. faking a shadowstep from a fixed spot to another fixed spot (like kasmeer does) could work though.

that said, i doubt any masteries will have “profession flavor”, because it would have to be fairly similar for all 9 (like a reskin of the same ability).

Well, if we get that kind of thing, that’s probably how it will work.

Like, you have a mastery the lets you cross certain gaps, and the actual effect depends on the profession you are playing at the time, something like

Mesmer: Portal
Thief: Shadowstep
Ele: Rock/Ice Bridge
Necro: Bone Bridge
Engineer: Rocket-propelled jump
Guardian: Bridge of Light
Warrior: Grappling Hook
Ranger: Carried by a large bird/Vine Bridge (if Druid)
Revanant: something appropriate

If you make the location profession-specific, then you’d probably make the effect something that anyone can use or take advantage of (i.e. Warrior leaves the hook in place for the next x seconds/users, Thief shadowsteps anyone within a certain range ala Caithe in episode 7, etc)

but there’s a difference between a teleport (scripted or not) and spawning a bridge you can walk over. one generates a physical object, the other doesn’t. either everyone has a teleport analogue, or everyone has a bridge-like thing (which would be pretty silly for most professions)

May I ask why?

I mean, sure, there could be a possible exploit or clear advantage of using one method over the other, but that does not necessarily preclude never letting anyone ever use a skill like that. I mean, there are skills (Warrior’s Sword 2 and Engineer’s Rocket Boots and Rifle 5 come to mind) that can be used to make long range/percision jumps that are definitely beyond what is normally possible, but they’re still in the game (probably because their not beta RtL level of broken)

Ultimately, it’s up to Anet and the amount of time/resources they are willing to spend to make it work to their level of satisfaction. If nothing else, I would love nothing more than, during PS/LS missions from now on, that the next time an NPC of my profession goes “Let me (do something that my character can’t normally do)” I get the option of saying “No, let me do it.” …and actually do it.

Foefaller.1082:

BrunoBRS.5178:

Foefaller.1082:

BrunoBRS.5178:

aiming a shadowstep through a gap isn’t going to happen. faking a shadowstep from a fixed spot to another fixed spot (like kasmeer does) could work though.

that said, i doubt any masteries will have “profession flavor”, because it would have to be fairly similar for all 9 (like a reskin of the same ability).

Well, if we get that kind of thing, that’s probably how it will work.

Like, you have a mastery the lets you cross certain gaps, and the actual effect depends on the profession you are playing at the time, something like

Mesmer: Portal
Thief: Shadowstep
Ele: Rock/Ice Bridge
Necro: Bone Bridge
Engineer: Rocket-propelled jump
Guardian: Bridge of Light
Warrior: Grappling Hook
Ranger: Carried by a large bird/Vine Bridge (if Druid)
Revanant: something appropriate

If you make the location profession-specific, then you’d probably make the effect something that anyone can use or take advantage of (i.e. Warrior leaves the hook in place for the next x seconds/users, Thief shadowsteps anyone within a certain range ala Caithe in episode 7, etc)

but there’s a difference between a teleport (scripted or not) and spawning a bridge you can walk over. one generates a physical object, the other doesn’t. either everyone has a teleport analogue, or everyone has a bridge-like thing (which would be pretty silly for most professions)

May I ask why?

I mean, sure, there could be a possible exploit or clear advantage of using one method over the other, but that does not necessarily preclude never letting anyone ever use a skill like that. I mean, there are skills (Warrior’s Sword 2 and Engineer’s Rocket Boots and Rifle 5 come to mind) that can be used to make long range/percision jumps that are definitely beyond what is normally possible, but they’re still in the game (probably because their not beta RtL level of broken)

Ultimately, it’s up to Anet and the amount of time/resources they are willing to spend to make it work to their level of satisfaction. If nothing else, I would love nothing more than, during PS/LS missions from now on, that the next time an NPC of my profession goes “Let me (do something that my character can’t normally do)” I get the option of saying “No, let me do it.” …and actually do it.

a teleport only allows one player through. a bridge is a mesh that allows players other than the caster through, unless other people can’t see the bridge, in which case you’d see a player “flyhacking” around when they’re actually walking on top of an invisible bridge that only he can use.