Guild Wars 2

Heya everyone!

With the recent post: Pact Commander Mastery there was a big point mentioned in the video:

Permanent Swiftness: It comes with a 33% movement speed and a permanent speedlines effect like normal swiftness while in cities. (At least it was that way in the actual stream.)

I want to suggest a Toggle for the Permanent Swiftness buff that this Mastery gives to players! Due to…

• The Jumping Puzzles in Lion’s Arch not always needing swiftness given to them at all times – permanent swiftness would make things like Troll’s Revenge a ton harder!

• The visual effect spam! Imagine every player constantly having the weird speedlines as they move around the map. In the actual POI stream, having the Pact Commander Swiftness meant you constantly have the swiftness speed lines! This is a bunch of visual clutter that makes our characters look worse and can heavily intrude on yes, RP too.

• People don’t always want to run at full speed. While I don’t doubt that a majority of the time it can be practical, I often see people intentionally avoiding using swiftness buffs in cities to avoid the visual effect or to just enjoy the view more slowly.

I’m sure more people have personal opinions on this, but these are some of the biggest offenders.

tl;dr: Permanent swiftness gives an obnoxious visual effect and speed all the time that can ruin good views, make JPs incredibly hard, and would be VERY annoying for roleplayers. Can we have a toggle like the Mentor icon?

having something as an option rather than forced on you is just a good idea in general +1

oh is it automatic? I thought you had to talk to an NPC still, its just that their speed is increased. Or that you would have to toggle on your icon

Akamaru.7415:

oh is it automatic? I thought you had to talk to an NPC still, its just that their speed is increased. Or that you would have to toggle on your icon

You can toggle the speed buff. According to the blog, you have to have the Mentor tag on to have the speed buff active. I think the OP is asking for an option to keep the tag on but to disable the speed buff.

+1 more options is a good thing.

ImTasty.2163:

Akamaru.7415:

oh is it automatic? I thought you had to talk to an NPC still, its just that their speed is increased. Or that you would have to toggle on your icon

You can toggle the speed buff. According to the blog, you have to have the Mentor tag on to have the speed buff active. I think the OP is asking for an option to keep the tag on but to disable the speed buff.

No. In the video they had the speedbuff without the symbol on. If it wasn’t that way, everyone would toggle the mentor icon on just for the swiftness and the entire map would be little blips.

But we don’t have a toggle for the swiftness.

I agree there should be a toggle for the Speed Buff. One may not want to be ‘speedy’ when attempting JPs or Vistas.

It’s the one thing that makes me pause when considering this Mastery Line.

yeah turning off swiftness for jp’s would be great. I hope there is a toggle when the expansion is released.

Is this only in cities or anywhere? That suggests that if they blindly implement it, it will also work in wvw too.. #balance.

Zetsumei.4975:

Is this only in cities or anywhere? That suggests that if they blindly implement it, it will also work in wvw too.. #balance.

They said it would only work in cities. Seriously, I mean, think about it, it would invalidate so many traits and skills if it worked everywhere.

It would be a solution if you could click it off and only have it reapply if you rezone.

It only will work in cities so i s a good thing… im tired to talk whit the npc every time, in time u will see that is more beneficial… for what u need toggle , is like right now u go and talk whit the vendor if they will add toggle.. This feature is ONLY FOR CAPITAL CITIES not the entire world so is the best thing to remain perma.

A toggle would be best. I would prefer not to have to learn jumping all over again because I had a permanent speed boost on in cities.

I most definitely support a toggle of some sort.

I hate doing jumping puzzles with swiftness, makes everything much less precise. And while there aren’t a ton of JP’s in cities, there are enough that I’d rather just be able to shut it off when I’m doing them.

Toggle would be a great idea! I forgot all about JPs. That could be very…. very bad xD

Yeah I’d probably avoid the mastery despite its other advantages if the swiftness wasn’t toggleable
(I hope something similar occurs for the Chronomancer speed trait because I don’t want to have to switch builds and unequip shield and wells every time I want to go normal speed)

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

Yeah I’d probably avoid the mastery despite its other advantages if the swiftness wasn’t toggleable
(I hope something similar occurs for the Chronomancer speed trait because I don’t want to have to switch builds and unequip shield and wells every time I want to go normal speed)

At least that would just be 25% and would come without annoying speedlines all day! And you at least would have -kind- of a way to turn it off by switching masteries. Which is more than the Pact Commander mastery has right now!

+1 on this.
Also even with speed buff, please tone down or remove the effect.

Kidel.2057:

+1 on this.
Also even with speed buff, please tone down or remove the effect.

I must admit this is probably my main issue.

The RPers would rampage! D:

Bumping this up! I made my own thread on the subject, after HoT launched, and it’s a relief to see that people were already worried about the swiftness buff long before launch.

+1. This effect is not needed – we have plenty of other speed boosts in the game without visual effects. It is disruptive to RP, it’s visual clutter as the OP stated, and it serves no purpose.

Please either remove the visual effect, add a toggle to the mechanical effect somewhere (perhaps have obtaining the mastery give the character a “Commander’s horn” item that casts 30m of swiftness on his party when activated in a city, or the like), or refund the mastery for myself and others that request it. I RP a lot, and don’t need any of the Pact Commander mastery benefits – I would prefer not to have them than have this visual effect permanently on.

Can’t you just turn off the tag? I mean, if swiftness is damaging to your RP, is’nt a giant apple floating over your head like a lot more damaging to immersion in a visual sense?

PopeUrban.2578:

Can’t you just turn off the tag? I mean, if swiftness is damaging to your RP, is’nt a giant apple floating over your head like a lot more damaging to immersion in a visual sense?

The speed boost – and swiftness movement lines – are always on, whether you are wearing the tag or not. Anet, could we get an acknowledgement of this request, please?

I heartily support the idea of toggling the speed, but please don’t nerf the speed in any way for those that want to have it on, as I do. I have been working hard on my Pact Commander mastery to get even more speed in capital cities. Please don’t take that away.

Clearly, the speed has made Troll’s Revenge a little trickier in parts, but it has also made it easier in parts. I really enjoy doing this jp at speed. I was already practicing speed running it and this makes it even more fun.

On the swiftness lines behind the character – there’s no need for those when your baseline speed in cities is faster. Save it for special boosts to the baseline.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

On the swiftness lines behind the character – there’s no need for those when your baseline speed in cities is faster. Save it for special boosts to the baseline.

This. It’s a little confusing as the lines usually denote that you have the actual swiftness boon. Not a big deal as it only applies in noncombat areas (cities) but I don’t see the value in the particle effect for this.

Don’t suppose they’ve recognised this, have they? I’ve only just, accidentally, after avoiding getting this mastery for so long, gone and trained it.

It’s seriously killing my vibe. I don’t mind the speed boost, but the effect is, you’re right OP, obnoxious as hell, and it’s not even aligned with my human character model properly. As a chap averted to particle effects and one who enjoys having character who wear the more understated combinations of armour, it’s so hard to ignore.

Hopefully they’ll do away with the awfully tacky effect altogether, or just give a toggle.

I like the speedbuff and don’t want it turned off.

I think you missed the point, perhaps by not exactly reading was what written by anyone. The issue is with the associated effect, not the boost itself. As marginal as it may be, I’m sure people notice that 5%.

Speed boost: Fine
Speed effect: Tasteful to some; not to others. Customisation/toggling/removing needed