I originally posted this in the Suggestion forum, ( https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Buy-Commander-Abilities-with-Commander-Badges ), but it doesn’t really look like its getting noticed by the WvW community, so i’m gonna post it here and see what kind of feedback you guys give me.
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I had the idea of “Commander Badges” for a while, but never thought to suggest it because i never thought Anet would add a system like that. But seeing as they did with the Dragon Bash candy trade (1,000 Zhaitaffy for 1 Jorbreaker), I guess i was wrong. So, let us trade 1000 Badges of Honor to the Master Strategist and get 1 “Commander Badge”.
What can you do with a Commander Badge?
Well, my first idea would be that you can trade 10 Commander Badges in for a Commander Manual. If you like and want to support that idea of 10,000 Badges of Honor gets you the manual, please post here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Commander-Manual-why-not-buy-with-Badges/
Another idea on what Commander Badges can be used for is to buy Commander Abilities. Once you are a Commander, you get a tag, the ability to make a squad, and the ability to see how much Supply your Squad is carrying. That’s it. Different Commander Abilities will cost a certain number of Commander Badges. Yes, a permanent Commander Ability may cost 3 to 8 Commander Badges.
I have a couple ideas for some Commander Abilities. These ideas were inspired by another game.
- the names of the abilities suck, i know -
1) Commander’s Storm – This ability looks and acts exactly as an Air attuned Glyph Of Storms, only on a larger scale. It acts like siege, so it has a set damage range that is not affected by the Commander’s personal Power, Precision, or Crit scores. But the damage is the same as if casted by you average Elementalist. The range of the ability is 2400. The radius is 1200. It has the abilty to hit up to 50 enemies within the radius. Like Lightning Storm, it pulses in the area of effect for about 10 seconds and has the same density of lightning bolts strike, only in a bigger radius. Since the lightning bolts strike at random in the radius, it’s possible that certain enemies can be hit more than once, or not at all. The radius of the ability is enough to cover the courtyard of your typical tower. This ability can only be purchased by a Commander and costs 8 Commander Badges. Its a permanant ability. It can only be used if your Commander Tag is on AND if you are in WvW. It has a 6 hour cooldown. It also has a “Team Map Cooldown” of 15 minutes. Which means that if Commander Todd is on Eternal Backgrounds and uses his Commander Storm ability, all the commanders from his world on the same map have to wait 15 minutes before one of them can use the same ability on that map. This keeps commanders from bursting down entire areas.
2) All Seeing Eye – This ability is used while looking at the map. The Commander activates the ability and and his mouse cursor icon changes to a circle with a radius of 2000. He can then click ANYWHERE on the map he is currently on and that area is now “Seen” to all allies on that map for 3 minutes. All enemies passing through that circle will show up as red dots, stealthed or not, on the map and mini-map. This does not reveal stealthed enemies on your screen. You can cast this over enemies Keeps, Towers, SMC, etc, to see enemy troop movements. Or cast it over the Dredge or Orge Camp as a possible early warning system. This ability does not reveal enemy siege placements (that could be a seperate ability). If an enemy is using siege or a golem, they still show as a red dot, but its not known you are using siege. When a commander uses this ability, everyone on the map is notified of it, including the enemies (“A Green Commander has used All Seeing Eye”). This allows allies to know to check the map. It lets the enemy know that somewhere on the map, they are being watched. But enemies do not know what area is being watched. This ability has a 6 hour cooldown. It also has a “Team Map Cooldown” of 30 minutes. This ability costs 5 Commander Badges.
You get the idea. There could be a bunch of Commander abilities to buy. Commanders could converse and say, i’ll buy this, you buy that, or whatever. To keep Commanders from being too powerful over time, perhaps Commanders start out with 3 Commander Ability Slots. So if there are 10 different Commander Abilities and they own them all, they can only use 3 at a time. If a ability is on cooldown, they can’t “unslot” until its off cooldown, just like a normal utility on a skill bar. And maybe for 10 Commander badges, they can buy a 4th Commander Slot.