Guild Wars 2

So what were the reasons the desert borderlands were hated so much (at least I can speak for AG, donno the other servers’ opinions). For me it was that they were built for gliding, yet there was no gliding. So navigation was a kitten. Now I know gliding has the potential for major abuse, so these are my suggestions.

1. Add a gliding skill that uses the first 5 tiers of normal gliding mastery to the desert maps ONLY. That’s gliding, updrafts, lean techniques, stealth and infinite gliding. Also add some updrafts in strategic locations that we can use.
2. Add a couple of glider skills, similar to what we have at the Shatterer fight. Nothing fancy, just allowing for some air based combat.
3. A new siege weapon, an anti-air gun. Skill 1 has a basic fire on 1 target for dmg and vuln/burn (gotta think of the condi’s too). Skill 2 is a grapeshot that hits 3 targets, bleeds and maybe cripples. The skill mastery would go something like this: Lvl 1 increased range. Lvl 2 CD reduction. Lvl 3 new skill that removes stealth and prevents stealthing (maybe also cripples here?). Lvl 4 normal fire now does more dmg (and now does vuln?) And grapeshot hits 5 targets instead of 3. Lvl 5 has a new skill that can knock down targets, knocking them out of the air. I would suggest a long CD for this one, and possibly a sizable cast time or it’s a slow moving projectile.
4. A guild upgrade to add auto anti-guns to keeps. Nothing brokenly strong, but to prevent 5 man parties from ninja-ing forts left, right and center.
5. A warning indicator for enemies that they are entering protected airspace should they glide too close to a fort with said auto cannons. The normal siege guns must be manually operated of course.

Let me know what you think. I see this as potentialm to redeem those maps, habe some great air-air and ground-air battles but not make gliding too strong or completely useless IF the skills are balanced properly (which Anet have a knack for doing better at than most other devs I know).

no gliding no gliding and no gliding….

If anything adding gliding will make the maps even more hated than they already are.

If no gliding, then why do you hate the maps so much?

Personally I think gliding would add a lot more fun to maps that have 3 levels. And I forgot to mention, even non HoT owners would be able to glide once they have the skill.
They only downside of making gliding a skill is some players might not have it trained, but that’s where it comes down to the commanders making use of lieutenants and have a 2nd group that uses the road (and can make for some pretty interesting 2 pronged attacks on enemy blobs).

It was most definetly not built for gliding. Gliding is completely and utterly incompatible with WvW design for blatantly obvious reasons, the game has already been bugfixed for the flying dh/druid debacle.

I have no comment on the gliding, but no 4 already exists as a scribing item.

Point me in the direction of some place where I can read about said debacle.
For now though, I ask, “Did you read the full post?” Replacement of skills while gliding to something balanced, only for the new (well now old) desert borderlands, addition of siege to prevent gliding from being overpowered and naturally (I assume Anet as a collective to be smart about this) patch holes/areas where gliding can be dangerously exploited (the holes above lava keep for instance).
Gliding would most definately add more creative fights to the maps, assuming the players are willing to try them out and commanders make use of the terrain and new interactions with that terrain, an example on Anet’s side ia to allow stun breaks while falling, to prevent cliff golf (and there are many small changes in both the physical maps and players attitude towards the maps that would make these borderlands better to play).
Most importantly is having a beta and patching holes and bugs as they are reported.

tl:dr Gliding can make the maps way more fun if implemented correctly, balanced, bug sprayed, and they players/comms give it a shot.

Might I add the skill suggestions and skill progression is just a draft suggestion. Anet, fiddle and alter all you want.

No Gliding. Bad enough it’s in Core.

Ok, can someone explain to me WHY gliding is such a bad idea. What is it that others do not like about gliding? Pre-HoT everyone was hyped on gliding.

It adds a much more convenient way to travel on multi-leveled maps. Yes I know there is potential for abuse, but that’s why I said it would need to be balanced. That’s what beta and bugfixes are for.

SUPER GOD.6857:

Ok, can someone explain to me WHY gliding is such a bad idea. What is it that others do not like about gliding? Pre-HoT everyone was hyped on gliding.

Yeah, hyped about PvE gliding. Not WvW.

It’s actually quite simple. It’s a rule that all of WvW would have to follow in terms of keep, tower and terrain design, every little square meter of the maps have to take into account gliding. A rule that Alpine, Desert, EB and EoTM does not follow in the slightest today. For PvE maps it didnt matter – getting somewhere you arent supposed to is irrelevant. In WvW, it’s absolutely critical for it to be playable. It doesnt matter how many AA cannons or new siege you add (something we pretty much universally dont want as WvWer want more player fights instead), it would still be wide open to exploit. Something as simple as a player being able to bypass a bridge guarded by an enemy player by gliding from a cliff nearby render that entire concept of two players meeting in a choke obsolete.

Basicly, if gliding is to be a part of WvW, we need entirerly new maps designed for it. All of them. And that isnt just a “suggestion for desert”. That is an entire new game. If Anet want to do that then sure, it might be great.

Some people do not read properly it seems…
I stated this is a suggestion for the desert borderlands only. I know all the other borderlands would have to be reworked if they had gliding in them. That’s why I’m not suggesting they bring it into those borderlands, only the desert ones.

As for the AA cannons, they are simply there to prevent abuse within the desert borderlands. There’s still plenty of open space for player-vs-player combat, both with and without gliding (not to mention EB would still have its simple yet effective ground-only combat). The player may not be able to bypass that bridge because the enemy player can potentially shoot him/her down. The choice the player has to make is, “Am I stronger fighting in a chokepoint or out in the open?”

Gliding would not remove combat encounters in the game, only serve to change how some are played out (Adding more flavour).

SUPER GOD.6857:

Some people do not read properly it seems…
I stated this is a suggestion for the desert borderlands only. I know all the other borderlands would have to be reworked if they had gliding in them. That’s why I’m not suggesting they bring it into those borderlands, only the desert ones.

As for the AA cannons, they are simply there to prevent abuse within the desert borderlands. There’s still plenty of open space for player-vs-player combat, both with and without gliding (not to mention EB would still have its simple yet effective ground-only combat). The player may not be able to bypass that bridge because the enemy player can potentially shoot him/her down. The choice the player has to make is, “Am I stronger fighting in a chokepoint or out in the open?”

Gliding would not remove combat encounters in the game, only serve to change how some are played out (Adding more flavour).

Could gliding be fun? Sure, but it would not save those maps. Also, a bunch of attack skills would need to be worked on to accommodate for flying targets.

Most players didn’t like the maze like style of the maps because they were not designed for mass combat. More players here prefer open spaces for the “blob” experience and the desert maps took away 75% of this style map for them.

Desert will get an overhaul and be rotated back in at some point. Maybe gliding will be introduced someday in WvW, but that’s last priority at this point.

Kanebrake.6192:

If anything adding gliding will make the maps even more hated than they already are.

humm deppens how it is introduced…. i think there are always several good solutions fo revery problem, and deppends how much mechanics Anet wants to add to the game besides placebos and win/win gimmicks…

I dont think this is gimmick, imo it is fra from it, but a tool and wvw needs tools not gimmicks plcebos like Anet like:

Glidding could be a cool and unbalanced thing, imagine a tower, that could access to new skills, to allow players scouting the map, dropping flags that can be seen by the commanders on map, for 3 seconds that flags would unveil the detected blob (game is all about skiless blob anyways) on minimap like sentries do.
To stop using glidding skills the scout had to return to the tower disable it, only 4 spots could be avaliable on that tower.

And the scout would be rewarded when dropping flags on detected groups:
-Wxp for each enemy detected, golems add more wxp.
-tempory flyign buff
-money
-rng of some kewl chest.