Guild Wars 2

On the looking forward for 2013 blog post there was mention of new skils, however 2013 has only gained one new skill and it’s pve only(the heal skill). In the recent pvp rewards blog post there’s mention of new healing skills that will be available in pvp too. Will we ever get new utilities/elites? Do people want new utilities/elites?

Of course we want new weapons/armor/skills/maps/modes/balance/classes/areas/races but all we get is LS

I think more Utilities will be the easiest, most wanted, and biggest impact to the game/community. They should prioritize it

Actually, I think most of the community would rather see you buff the numerous worthless utilities many classes have, rather than adding new ones and upsetting an already imbalanced game further.

Josh Davis.6015:

Way to go, Jon…making me look bad!

Aww, don’t be such a grouch! Oh wait…

As for the new heals, I’m sure this will be good for some classes, but on my thief, I feel like I already have some of the best heals in the game. It’s going to be tough to add something that will appeal to me more than Withdraw or Hide in Shadows.

P.s. I’d rather see more Elites added than either heals or utilities.

infantrydiv.1620:

Actually, I think most of the community would rather see you buff the numerous worthless utilities many classes have, rather than adding new ones and upsetting an already imbalanced game further.

Well, they’ve already been doing that. Remember Berserker’s Stance? It’s slow going, and they’ve found the time to also add in new skills.

JonPeters.5630:

Dahkeus.8243:

Josh Davis.6015:

Way to go, Jon…making me look bad!

Aww, don’t be such a grouch! Oh wait…

As for the new heals, I’m sure this will be good for some classes, but on my thief, I feel like I already have some of the best heals in the game. It’s going to be tough to add something that will appeal to me more than Withdraw or Hide in Shadows.

P.s. I’d rather see more Elites added than either heals or utilities.

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

venom heal?

Oh and I’m sure warriors would like a 2nd healing skill

Wondering if Mesmer will get a signet heal now! :o

Maybe it’ll be a low CD support heal, effectively allowing support healers! DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

JonPeters.5630:

The reason we went with heal skills first is that we actually believe this is the highest impact area for build diversity.

1) it is a small pool to begin with so adding to it increases choice by a large %
2) it sees a lot of use
3) it heals you which is pretty important

As time goes on we will also introduce traits, utilities, elites, and potentially other stuff.

Jon

Agreed, the two most impacful chages you can make to vastly improve build diversity and viability are adding new Healing skills (or improving current ones), which proved to be key in the case of the Warrior profession (see Healing Signet, the most significant and impacful change that vastly increased Warrior build diversity and viability as a whole), and improving (or adding new) Weapon skills, which was proven by the Sword/Dagger Thief’s significant effectiveness and performance increase after the changes and improvements to Flanking Strike.

The other contenders are obviously Utility skills, Traits and Elite skills, but those two I already named are above these in my opinion.

JonPeters.5630:

The reason we went with heal skills first is that we actually believe this is the highest impact area for build diversity.

1) it is a small pool to begin with so adding to it increases choice by a large %
2) it sees a lot of use
3) it heals you which is pretty important

As time goes on we will also introduce traits, utilities, elites, and potentially other stuff.

Jon

In GW1, choosing your elite skill was the hardest decision in the game because there were so many of them and they were all great. It was a lot of fun to see what kind of synergy you could get out of your elite skill. In GW2, the elite skill is almost chosen for you.

There is only 3 of them for each class and many are completely situational. This removes the element of surprise in any pvp sections of the game and eliminates the difficult decision making process that came with an elite skill

I hope the next time new skills are developed, many new and original elite skills are created first.

I like things even. When each race has the same number of racial skills for each type (1 healing, 3 utility, 4 elite) I’ll be happy in that area.

Then there’s also signets. At least 1 healing, 4 utilities and 1 elite for professions that have signets.
Mesmers could use a bit of condition removal on a signet. Maybe something that sends one of your conditions to an illusion every 10s seconds, and when used to heal, it also sends 3 conditions from you to a random illusion, or from your illusions to the next target to which they shatter.

As for the other utilities I’d start with a new one for each line that doesn’t have 5 of that type.
I’d love to see an arcane conjured weapon. Something like a rifle or pistol. A chaos/ghostly looking rifle/pistol that have arcane blasts as shooting animation. How cool would that be?

Anyways, I guess there’s still a long time until we start seeing more new skills or weapons.

JonPeters.5630:

The reason we went with heal skills first is that we actually believe this is the highest impact area for build diversity.

1) it is a small pool to begin with so adding to it increases choice by a large %
2) it sees a lot of use
3) it heals you which is pretty important

As time goes on we will also introduce traits, utilities, elites, and potentially other stuff.

Jon

I think that this is incredibly subjective. Take warriors utilities for example;

• Banners = Passives you cast on the ground
• Shouts = Passives you cast
• Signets = Passives
• Physical = Only actual interesting skill type

Utilities should be prioritized first since they are the skills that players actually notice and make their builds around. Nobody makes builds around healing skills, except maybe Healway guardians. I’m not saying new healing skills aren’t needed or anything, but a lot of professions suffer from stagnant utilities, which doesn’t help when you play one of the pitifully weapon-less classes like Thief.

Though, I’m slightly dejected to be honest. I’ve been playing since BWE2, and I never played GW1. With all the talk about how often new skills were added to GW1, I was expecting our professions to have been much more developed by this point. It’s been over a year, and all we have to show for it is a single blanket-healing skill. New healing? Okay, ultimately its a good thing. But compared to what I’ve heard, and what I’m seeing now; I’m worried that you guys aren’t as creative as I’d been led to believe…

I hope the warrior heal is a shout which heals for like 3k but is instant and then can heal for more with vigorous shouts. And maybe gives stability too. I think warrior shouts need an aoe stability. Personally I would give it to the cure a condi shout. That would make warrior bunkers at least able to maybe compete with their guardian counterparts.

BobbyT.7192:

Oh and I’m sure warriors would like a 2nd healing skill

HA! So true.

If I give up my healing signet for anything I will be pleasantly surprised.

Hmm Josh, I’ve been letting a certain thread run wild for months now about an idea I had to improve a specific build type for thieves. Would it be possible to reply on this? Could even PM you on forums if its acceptable. Reaching anyone on this seems nigh impossible!

One heal skill remove all conditions and stun.. 0 casting time , 5 sec CD…. available to no one but me xD
Oh forgot to mention… infinite health regen too tyvm xD

Inc ranger Healing spirit.

LoreChief.8391:

JonPeters.5630:

The reason we went with heal skills first is that we actually believe this is the highest impact area for build diversity.

1) it is a small pool to begin with so adding to it increases choice by a large %
2) it sees a lot of use
3) it heals you which is pretty important

As time goes on we will also introduce traits, utilities, elites, and potentially other stuff.

Jon

I think that this is incredibly subjective. Take warriors utilities for example;

• Banners = Passives you cast on the ground
• Shouts = Passives you cast
• Signets = Passives
• Physical = Only actual interesting skill type

Utilities should be prioritized first since they are the skills that players actually notice and make their builds around. Nobody makes builds around healing skills, except maybe Healway guardians. I’m not saying new healing skills aren’t needed or anything, but a lot of professions suffer from stagnant utilities, which doesn’t help when you play one of the pitifully weapon-less classes like Thief.

Though, I’m slightly dejected to be honest. I’ve been playing since BWE2, and I never played GW1. With all the talk about how often new skills were added to GW1, I was expecting our professions to have been much more developed by this point. It’s been over a year, and all we have to show for it is a single blanket-healing skill. New healing? Okay, ultimately its a good thing. But compared to what I’ve heard, and what I’m seeing now; I’m worried that you guys aren’t as creative as I’d been led to believe…

Uh… Shouts give an instant effect when you push the button, like leap skills and dodges. How is that a passive effect?

Signets are both passive and active type skills. Even on the Warrior alone, you have an elite signet that you use almost entirely for its active.

ronpierce.2760:

Inc ranger Healing spirit.

dear god…

JonPeters.5630:

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

Oh, oh, I know! It heals the targeted enemy and gives them a massive stack of Confusion.

.

Khenzy.9348:

JonPeters.5630:

The reason we went with heal skills first is that we actually believe this is the highest impact area for build diversity.

1) it is a small pool to begin with so adding to it increases choice by a large %
2) it sees a lot of use
3) it heals you which is pretty important

As time goes on we will also introduce traits, utilities, elites, and potentially other stuff.

Jon

Agreed, the two most impacful chages you can make to vastly improve build diversity and viability are adding new Healing skills (or improving current ones), which proved to be key in the case of the Warrior profession (see Healing Signet, the most significant and impacful change that vastly increased Warrior build diversity and viability as a whole), and improving (or adding new) Weapon skills, which was proven by the Sword/Dagger Thief’s significant effectiveness and performance increase after the changes and improvements to Flanking Strike.

The other contenders are obviously Utility skills, Traits and Elite skills, but those two I already named are above these in my opinion.

Sword/Dagger thief was already a very good duelist build before they changed up Sword 3, it just took more precision to kill people than D/D or D/P did at the time. Ironically, it will be a weaker weapon set next week than it was before it was first buffed.

Adding more utilities to the game is a great idea. Healing skills though? Why healing skills instead of utilities that could be creative and useful? Building other classes around the warriors healing signet instead of just nerfing healing signet sounds like what this is to me.

I just hope the new healing skills won’t be completely useless cough antitoxin spray cough

risenlord.2035:

Adding more utilities to the game is a great idea. Healing skills though? Why healing skills instead of utilities that could be creative and useful? Building other classes around the warriors healing signet instead of just nerfing healing signet sounds like what this is to me.

Because most utilities are boring and worthless and one more of them would be a drop in the bucket compared to a choice of one new healing skill? They’d need to create at least a batch of 4 new utilities per class to turn heads.
The healing skills are by far the most exciting choice you can make. Utilities are as I said mostly boring/useless with 1-2 so overwhelmingly more powerful than the rest that they are on everyone’s bar, Elites are a massive, universally disliked disappointment compared to the GW1 approach, and weapons are mostly chosen for you anyway. There’s always exactly 1 good melee set per build (of which there aren’t many viable), and exactly 1 good ranged set.
So that leaves heal skills, which together with traits shake up my playing style the most. A thief with Hide in Shadows plays completely different from one with Withdraw, for example.
But yeah, I hope together with the new skills they also rebalance the other 3 heal skills. Some classes need it dearly.

Hi Grouch,

Who do I need to bribe to hook mesmers up with a movement signet? We are super slow out of combat and taking it would mean dropping a useful utility as traits cannot compensate (let’s not even mention that inspiration trait).

I have gold, girls, globs… all the good stuff… if you know what I mean.

I’ll take what I can get concerning utilities. I would rather have some cool new ability over another heal skill. It’s not a matter of right or wrong here just what I would rather have. I’ll take a new heal skill thats cool with me.

Very curious what the new ranger heal is and I hope it is interesting.

Heal as One is the single most boring healing skill in the game since all it basically does is heal you. Atleast when they changed that all ranger heals affect the pet as well (and this happened in BWE2 I think) they should have changed Heal as One.

But it stayed boring and unplayed for about 18 months.

cymerdown.4103:

ronpierce.2760:

Inc ranger Healing spirit.

dear god…

Deer God!

FTFY

“The reason we went with heal skills first is that we actually believe this is the highest impact area for build diversity.”

I am skeptical as a necromancer that I’ll be taking anything other than consume conditions.

JonPeters.5630:

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

So far, I find elementalists to have the most interesting set of healing skills. The glyph is very creative, the renewal involves risk/ reward, the signet demands some intense play, and pretty much all of them can be useful anywhere. I hope their forth healing skill won’t disappoint!

Meanwhile, I find Mesmer’s heals to be mostly niche. Mirror and Mantra barely see general use, even though they can be great in very specific situations. I hope their forth healing skill won’t disappoint!

Finally, unless you’re planning to add an even crazier healing skill, or tone down a certain heal, chances are, it won’t affect warriors in the slightest. I hope their forth healing skill won’t disappoint warrior players!

PUTTING PRESSURE ON YOU!

I wonder what the new Guardian heal is going to be. A shout heal or a mass healing skill would be nice.

JonPeters.5630:

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

I would love to see more of the existing thief skills usable underwater.

JonPeters.5630:

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

Inb4 roll and stealth.

JonPeters.5630:

Dahkeus.8243:

Josh Davis.6015:

Way to go, Jon…making me look bad!

Aww, don’t be such a grouch! Oh wait…

As for the new heals, I’m sure this will be good for some classes, but on my thief, I feel like I already have some of the best heals in the game. It’s going to be tough to add something that will appeal to me more than Withdraw or Hide in Shadows.

P.s. I’d rather see more Elites added than either heals or utilities.

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

Did you give them the Warrior’s Healing Signet?

I can’t imagine there would be any heal that would be more interesting to me than Consume Conditions for the necro… unless… it is a spectral or has something to do with life force!!!!
I still want a well elite though!

JonPeters.5630:

Dahkeus.8243:

Josh Davis.6015:

Way to go, Jon…making me look bad!

Aww, don’t be such a grouch! Oh wait…

As for the new heals, I’m sure this will be good for some classes, but on my thief, I feel like I already have some of the best heals in the game. It’s going to be tough to add something that will appeal to me more than Withdraw or Hide in Shadows.

P.s. I’d rather see more Elites added than either heals or utilities.

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

In before it’s now a trap that you have to lay and run through to get the heal.

I really doubt adding new healing skills will have the largest impact on build diversity. Healing skills tend to be the least build defining aspect on the bar as they don’t carry much synergy.

Now more healing skills will add a bit of reach to what situations can be dealt with so basically help classes build more around a certain meta. Could be quite useful for the mesmer who has a number of vulnerabilities. But ultimately the healing slot is very interchangeable. We might see classes that had difficulty in a certain meta showing up but hardly new builds within the classes.

JonPeters.5630:

Dahkeus.8243:

Josh Davis.6015:

Way to go, Jon…making me look bad!

Aww, don’t be such a grouch! Oh wait…

As for the new heals, I’m sure this will be good for some classes, but on my thief, I feel like I already have some of the best heals in the game. It’s going to be tough to add something that will appeal to me more than Withdraw or Hide in Shadows.

P.s. I’d rather see more Elites added than either heals or utilities.

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

Calling it now:

Assassin’s Heal
Healing: 4344 (+0.6 healing power modifier)
- Shadowstep to your target and immobilize them for 2 seconds.
- Range 600

Rotates to:

Assassin’s Withdrawl
- Return to your starting location and remove one condition.
- Breaks stun

30 second cooldown.

The heal could possibly be done on the Withdrawl for a more interesting/risky dynamic.

Baron.8407:

JonPeters.5630:

Dahkeus.8243:

Josh Davis.6015:

Way to go, Jon…making me look bad!

Aww, don’t be such a grouch! Oh wait…

As for the new heals, I’m sure this will be good for some classes, but on my thief, I feel like I already have some of the best heals in the game. It’s going to be tough to add something that will appeal to me more than Withdraw or Hide in Shadows.

P.s. I’d rather see more Elites added than either heals or utilities.

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

Calling it now:

Assassin’s Heal
Healing: 4344 (+0.6 healing power modifier)
- Shadowstep to your target and immobilize them for 2 seconds.
- Range 600

Rotates to:

Assassin’s Withdrawl
- Return to your starting location and remove one condition.
- Breaks stun

30 second cooldown.

The heal could possibly be done on the Withdrawl for a more interesting/risky dynamic.

What about the opposite? The first part shadow steps you away (stunbreak), then you are healed when you shadow step back to your target.

Fourth.1567:

I really doubt adding new healing skills will have the largest impact on build diversity. Healing skills tend to be the least build defining aspect on the bar as they don’t carry much synergy.

Now more healing skills will add a bit of reach to what situations can be dealt with so basically help classes build more around a certain meta. Could be quite useful for the mesmer who has a number of vulnerabilities. But ultimately the healing slot is very interchangeable. We might see classes that had difficulty in a certain meta showing up but hardly new builds within the classes.

I couldn’t disagree more. I mainly play as a guardian (in every area of the game) so I’ll use a guardian example. The 3 non-racial guardian healing skills are: Healing Breeze, Shelter, and Signet of Resolve. Your choice of healing skill has a tremendous impact on how you play the class. It can change how you position yourself, when you move out of combat, etc. Playing using Shelter has completely different ramifications than playing using Signet of Resolve or Healing Breeze.

Shelter is both a healing skill and a means to completely mitigate all incoming damage that can be blocked for 2 seconds. You can use this skill to survive tons of stuff you wouldn’t normally be able to withstand. Strategically use it to heal or get past certain control effects. Signet of Resolve has the highest burst heal of any guardian healing skill when activated. It has the bonus of removing conditions every 10 seconds when in passive mode. And Healing Breeze allows you to directly heal allies in addition to healing yourself.

Perhaps it’s a bit much to say that people would create builds around just these skills but there are traits that can have a large impact on them (e.g., Might of the Protector in the Valor trait line grants you might whenever you block — combine this with Shelter when under heavy fire and you can gain 25 stacks of might in 2 seconds simply by healing yourself) and those can be a game changer depending on what you choose.

I acknowledge that not all classes have quite the same play style options surrounding their choice of healing skills. In those cases, I think those classes need to see some changes to those skills to make them more viable in different situations.

JonPeters.5630:

Dahkeus.8243:

Josh Davis.6015:

Way to go, Jon…making me look bad!

Aww, don’t be such a grouch! Oh wait…

As for the new heals, I’m sure this will be good for some classes, but on my thief, I feel like I already have some of the best heals in the game. It’s going to be tough to add something that will appeal to me more than Withdraw or Hide in Shadows.

P.s. I’d rather see more Elites added than either heals or utilities.

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

Ok, so, the rumored heal is a venom. If this rumor is false, then I guess I’ll eat my words, but if it really is a venom…I’ll never use it. Here’s why:

A venom heal only really makes sense on a venom build and venom builds are just weak. You have to sacrifice good utility to take venoms (AoE stealth, stun breaks, etc.) and in return, your attacks do condition damage.

If you want me to start considering venoms, then put some decent utility on them like a stun break or a gap closer. Or at least boost their damage so they can compete with a D/D damage build in PvE.

Dahkeus.8243:

JonPeters.5630:

Dahkeus.8243:

Josh Davis.6015:

Way to go, Jon…making me look bad!

Aww, don’t be such a grouch! Oh wait…

As for the new heals, I’m sure this will be good for some classes, but on my thief, I feel like I already have some of the best heals in the game. It’s going to be tough to add something that will appeal to me more than Withdraw or Hide in Shadows.

P.s. I’d rather see more Elites added than either heals or utilities.

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

Ok, so, the rumored heal is a venom. If this rumor is false, then I guess I’ll eat my words, but if it really is a venom…I’ll never use it. Here’s why:

A venom heal only really makes sense on a venom build and venom builds are just weak. You have to sacrifice good utility to take venoms (AoE stealth, stun breaks, etc.) and in return, your attacks do condition damage.

If you want me to start considering venoms, then put some decent utility on them like a stun break or a gap closer. Or at least boost their damage so they can compete with a D/D damage build in PvE.

Thats the reason why I keep suggestign that Anet should finally redesign the thief by improvign them with INTEGRATED Venoms that can be used with F2-F4, to let them also have an influence on the weapon skills, being duration based and not hit based like the venoms work currently.

That way would thiefs become finally alot more unpredictable and would receive alot more build diversity. It would be such an easy way for Anet to make thiefs more nostalgic through implementing more old GW1 assassin skilsl within the through the venoms influenced changing weapon skills.

It would give also Anet the option to completely remove all of the current obsolete venom utility skills and especially the useless elite venom to replace them with more useful new utitlity/elite skilsl for the thief.

Orpheal.8263:

Dahkeus.8243:

JonPeters.5630:

Dahkeus.8243:

Josh Davis.6015:

Way to go, Jon…making me look bad!

Aww, don’t be such a grouch! Oh wait…

As for the new heals, I’m sure this will be good for some classes, but on my thief, I feel like I already have some of the best heals in the game. It’s going to be tough to add something that will appeal to me more than Withdraw or Hide in Shadows.

P.s. I’d rather see more Elites added than either heals or utilities.

Oh the new thief heal is going to mix some things up for sure!!!

Ok, so, the rumored heal is a venom. If this rumor is false, then I guess I’ll eat my words, but if it really is a venom…I’ll never use it. Here’s why:

A venom heal only really makes sense on a venom build and venom builds are just weak. You have to sacrifice good utility to take venoms (AoE stealth, stun breaks, etc.) and in return, your attacks do condition damage.

If you want me to start considering venoms, then put some decent utility on them like a stun break or a gap closer. Or at least boost their damage so they can compete with a D/D damage build in PvE.

Thats the reason why I keep suggestign that Anet should finally redesign the thief by improvign them with INTEGRATED Venoms that can be used with F2-F4, to let them also have an influence on the weapon skills, being duration based and not hit based like the venoms work currently.

That way would thiefs become finally alot more unpredictable and would receive alot more build diversity. It would be such an easy way for Anet to make thiefs more nostalgic through implementing more old GW1 assassin skilsl within the through the venoms influenced changing weapon skills.

It would give also Anet the option to completely remove all of the current obsolete venom utility skills and especially the useless elite venom to replace them with more useful new utitlity/elite skilsl for the thief.

You know…I like that idea.

ronpierce.2760:

Inc ranger Healing spirit.

BobbyT.7192:

venom heal?

people are so smart!