Guild Wars 2

They say, if you don’t make your desires known, there’s no chance you will see them realized; so, here goes.

Considering several things – complaints about map size, low population, etc. – what might be fun, draw people back, and just be cool?

Gliding for WvW.

Considering the new vertical relief in the maps, just how much of a joy it is in HoT, and all of the creative ways it could be used, this just seems like a potential slam dunk win.

Two immediate obstacles come to mind:

1) Non HoT accounts
2) Towers and Keeps

(1) is actually the most troublesome. Gliding is very tightly tied to HoT ownership, and as a programmer, I can imagine all manner of complexity tied to determining in world if someone does or does not have access to the mastery.

Possible solutions are (a) give everyone basic mastery and (b) give folks with HoT access to their expanded masteries in gliding.

This would synergize with HoT in positive ways, give exposure by non HoT players to a fun feature, and create another reason to draw people onto the new borderlands maps. (sorry – I think EB and EotM should be kept as it is…)

(2) Yah, I’m already imagining zergs floating over walls into keeps. That said, I think there are mechanics that could be added with a modest amount of work to deal with that. (a) Perma-updrafts over structures – you cross a wall, you get locked into an updraft that takes you high enough you can’t survive the fall if you exit the glide. (b) in-place weapons that kill incoming hostile fliers © some other invisible wall mechanic that is transparent to missile fire but not players.

ON the plus side, the possibilities are almost endless.

Comment away…

It might be hard for developers to add air targeting to ground targeting, and I think that general feature would be required for proper balance.

Stonewall.6037:

It might be hard for developers to add air targeting to ground targeting, and I think that general feature would be required for proper balance.

Agree; I suspect they may already have the logic in the HoT code. I’ve been shot at by mobs when in the air.

Not going to happen unless they design the map with gliding in mind. Plus its so easy to create ledges so that going down a hillside is possible. It would add the potential to bypass combat areas as well. Consider the NW tower on alpine. Imagine if you had gliders. You could literally glide all the way to bay, bypassing the chokepoints, the camp, everything. If there was an enemy zerg there well gg you just avoided combat. I am not familiar enough with desert to compare with it.

I’m ok with this as long as there’s a counter, like an “anti-air” cannon that disables gliders on targeted players

would be hilarious to see players fall to their death after an attempted coup

Had the same idea, would really make the new borderland and probably eotm more fun. I don’t see neccessary on EB / old Borderlands for that. nice to have but would cause a lot of work to do.

But I don’t like tiring pve gliding mastery to wvw stuff. Everyone should have access to the same gliding abilities in wvw, so maybe just only basic gliding. Maybe also to updrafts if they will add some, which would really good for mobility, specially in the area of air element.

Also just a normal ranged attack should kock you out of the glider (at least for a few seconds) so ppl can’t just glide away from you while you can’t to kitten. Ok maybe a parachute could be opened so they don’t instantly die to fall damage. Something like that.

NeroBoron.7285:

Had the same idea, would really make the new borderland and probably eotm more fun. I don’t see neccessary on EB / old Borderlands for that. nice to have but would cause a lot of work to do.

But I don’t like tiring pve gliding mastery to wvw stuff. Everyone should have access to the same gliding abilities in wvw, so maybe just only basic gliding. Maybe also to updrafts if they will add some, which would really good for mobility, specially in the area of air element.

Also just a normal ranged attack should kock you out of the glider (at least for a few seconds) so ppl can’t just glide away from you while you can’t to kitten. Ok maybe a parachute could be opened so they don’t instantly die to fall damage. Something like that.

Tying to PVE mastery means just one set of mastery’s to manage; would be simpler to implement.

Wouldn’t provide special rules for anti-air; just let people use their own missile weapons (or melee if they are close enough…); make them usable in flight, so you could end up having running fights in the air. You get downed, you fall.

And how about this – new WvW skill upgrades directly related to air movement and combat, purchased with WvW ranks? 5 points to activate basic gliding… might look something like this:

Gliding – 5 ranks
Use of updrafts – 8
Speed Control – 13
Stealth – 21
Infinite endurance – 34

You could have an anti-air track as well, which might look like this
Targeting – 5 Missile weapons you control can hit flyers
(including siege)
Reduce Endurance – 8 Hits you make reduce flyer endurance
Cripple – 13 Your hits knock people out of glide mode for 2s;
If you ground, you are stunned.
“Radar” – 21 You can see/track stealthed flyers in range (similar
to HoT mastery’s which let you track invis mobs.)
Shoot Down – 34 Your hits take people out of glide for 30 seconds
(similar to reveal invis mechanics)

Consider also, any control effects (stun, launch, immobilize, cripple, chill, slow) would knock someone out of glide mode as well.

As much as i dislike the new maps (mainly because they are too large), they really look like they were designed with gliding in mind.

They should just have an event with gliding and see how it plays out.

Towers/keeps fix if gliding is added:
Invisible walls

Gliding for all in wvw fix:
WvW Gliding Mastery (Only good for wvw maps.) -Spec into it as you do with wvw xp points. Basic gliding for non HOT accounts, and expandable mastery for HOT accounts. Could be simple things as gliding quicker, using updrafts, ect…

That is the only thing I can really think of if they keep the “new” maps that might even make players not avoid the new maps all together, as movement around the map would be increased speed wise.

Gliding – 5 ranks
Use of updrafts – 8
Speed Control – 13
Stealth – 21
Infinite endurance – 34
You could have an anti-air track as well, which might look like this
Targeting – 5 Missile weapons you control can hit flyers
(including siege)
Reduce Endurance – 8 Hits you make reduce flyer endurance
Cripple – 13 Your hits knock people out of glide mode for 2s;
If you ground, you are stunned.
“Radar” – 21 You can see/track stealthed flyers in range (similar
to HoT mastery’s which let you track invis mobs.)
Shoot Down – 34 Your hits take people out of glide for 30 seconds
(similar to reveal invis mechanics)
Consider also, any control effects (stun, launch, immobilize, cripple, chill, slow) would knock someone out of glide mode as well.

Im not sure how I feel about knocking people out from gliding mode. (As they would almost instantly die anywhere on the new BL’s.) However for the most part I like the idea of the mastery.

I’ve thought about this, too.

How about for paper towers/keeps the defense for keeping gliders from flying in would be players actively defending with ranged weapons and ballistas? The map is too automated right now, some active play would be nice.

For upgraded towers/keeps add an automated ballista that acts as an anti-air turret, allowing less active defending the longer you keep it. Say the AA-turret acts like the current ballista skill 2, an AoE bleed that could knock gliding enemies (and zergs since it’s AoE) out of the skies.

It’d add a high risk (falling, splat, dead) – high reward (skip gates/walls) play style to the map through gliding.

If Anet would make that, this would truly show publicly how poorly their combat is designed. A lot of skills don’t work as intended, and if we would enable gliding in WvW this would show true face of the game.

No.

I despise the need for gliding in PvE. In no way do I want it in WvW.

I think gliding would fit for EotM but not for eb and the bl wvw. Now i do feel that there needs to be a mastery system for wvw becuse there a lot of pointless exp in wvw atm there got to be something to use it for.

Jski.6180:

I think gliding would fit for EotM but not for eb and the bl wvw. Now i do feel that there needs to be a mastery system for wvw becuse there a lot of pointless exp in wvw atm there got to be something to use it for.

You know WvW had a mastery system before PvE had it, lol.

I also fail to see why EoTM would be fit for gliding, its much flatter than desert border. It would also give SW a considerable advantage in getting out of their keep while SE is completely kittened being on low ground and north cant even use it around their keep.

Short answer: NO.

It would create so many problems, probably allowing players to “glitch” into enemy structures and so on. The game engine also really isn’t suited for aerial combat.

Just give us the old borderlands back. They had much more reasonable distances between the objects and much more action! The maps should just serve as a foundation to have fun and fights on them. Now the new maps take first priority over other things, creating huge speed bumps and environmental hazards. Moving from A and B should not require any gimmicks nor be the main issue. Enemy players should be the main issue!

And with those on WvW we could no longer scream “this is sparta” while pushing enemy groups of the cliff.
…every one would start gliding :|

Although could be added glidding vista on the air castle when player could mantain itself scouting while flying like a air bender o.O