Guild Wars 2

I made this thread a while back, and it really never saw any traffic from WvW players since it was in the suggestions section. I’d really like to bring this topic back up and see what WvW players think about it. I had some trouble with some classes, but lets brainstorm some more!

Original Post: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Class-specific-wvw-traits-and-abilities/first#post3297202

We have some very cool and interesting wvw traits now to choose from. But how about some that are unique to the class I am playing? Since Anet refuses to pool my 16 characters wvw ranks together into one account bound rank, EDIT: Account bound ranks soon!!! make it so there is a reason for me to play certain classes over other ones by giving them a specific wvw role!_

Some ideas:
(When I say things like “high cooldown” it means a number of minutes.)

engineer:
- commandeer and convert enemy siege when it hasn’t been operated by an enemy for 30 seconds. High cooldown.
- slowly repair siege, 1 piece of siege can only be repaired by 1 engineer at a time. High cooldown.
- higher tiers of the skill allow you to commandeer higher level pieces of siege, like trebuchets and eventually alphas and omegas.
- upgrade a piece of siege to superior (requires supply, but not as much as creating a new superior piece)
- ability to break down enemy siege into supply that can be picked up

Ranger:
- track enemy movements with your pets.
- additional points expand the range or effect of this
- detect traps, high cooldown
- pets, depending on type, do additional damage to walls, gates, npcs, siege. Example: Bears do more damage to gates, felines do more damage to npcs.
- special skills like sending a bird to blind an enemy siege operator for a short duration. player cannot be blinded again for a certain duration.

thief:
- spiking a player grants specific boons/buffs/effects to nearby allies. Changes depending on what class you spike. (similar to how steal takes unique skills from enemies depending on their class)
- drop a small supply trap when reviving an ally.
- steal has a change to steal (but not really steal, just create) siege blueprints or traps from enemies. (maybe from commanders!)
- require less supply to create traps.
- can have a supply, and stealth trap active at the same time.

elementalist:
- create temporary elemental siege weapons, high cooldown. Fiery rams that ignite gates, arrow carts raining lightning down, etc. Limited by area (example: only 1 ram can be placed on a gate at a time)
- create a large healing spring, 10 second cast time, immobilized while casting. high cooldown

necromancer:
- spike an enemy and create a temporary undead clone of them. Only able to have 1 undead clone at a time.
- temporarily “revive” and create undead npc’s to fight again for a brief moment. NPCs cannot be revived a second time with this skill. Tower/Keep lords and quartermasters/workers cannot be revived.
- while moving through the cloud of a trebuchet cow shot, become a poison “host” for a short duration, and spread it to more enemies in a small radius.

mesmer:
- create clones of allies, can only have 1 ally clone up at a time.
- create illusionary distractions, like a wall that makes the area appear to have no one in it. (think like a 2-way mirror) short duration, high cooldown.

guardian:
- Revive an ally faster, has an internal cooldown.
- Elite skill “Heal Area” heals downed players.

warrior:
- carry additional supply and grant it to teammates. Supply visible on warriors back so teammates know when a warrior has supply to share.
- deal additional damage to enemy siege with melee weapons
- ability to carry a banner buff on your back, either one from the warrior utilities, or something like magic find, hero’s, etc. SAMURAI!

Some of these may seem silly to you, so help me come up with some more ideas! I’m just coming up with these on the spot.

Only if they where utilities slot abilities that you had to actively choose to slot and not just “in edition too” abilities. Or for high cooldowns it could be a elite skill and use your elite slot. Of course they would be wve only and unslottable in pve for balance reasons.

Yes I would love that… I would also love some way to earn new weapon skills too, allowing an experienced player to really customize his or her weapon set and utility skills for their style of WvW play would be really great.

Idea looks nice, however this might actually introduce a more heavy profession preference as there already is at the moment. Arena Net however was talking about adding more skill, what they actually already made a start with with the toxic alliance living story and this might be a very interesting way to actually do that for wvwvw.

few points on the things you say for elementalist:

elementalist:
- create temporary elemental siege weapons, high cooldown. Fiery rams that ignite gates, arrow carts raining lightning down, etc. Limited by area (example: only 1 ram can be placed on a gate at a time)
- create a large healing spring, 10 second cast time, immobilized while casting. high cooldown

10 sec cast time+immobilize? You want us poor elementalist to die??? While we are trying to save the team? there is not a single skill in the game with that cast time, so this field should be very op if it would be placed. Like full health every sec, see where I’m going? That would be massive imbalance. Beside this would be a skill for a support ele and supports ele’s are using staffs, and geuss what is on there, right. Healing rain and geyser.

morrigana sedai.2091:

Idea looks nice, however this might actually introduce a more heavy profession preference as there already is at the moment. Arena Net however was talking about adding more skill, what they actually already made a start with with the toxic alliance living story and this might be a very interesting way to actually do that for wvwvw.

few points on the things you say for elementalist:

elementalist:
- create temporary elemental siege weapons, high cooldown. Fiery rams that ignite gates, arrow carts raining lightning down, etc. Limited by area (example: only 1 ram can be placed on a gate at a time)
- create a large healing spring, 10 second cast time, immobilized while casting. high cooldown

10 sec cast time+immobilize? You want us poor elementalist to die??? While we are trying to save the team? there is not a single skill in the game with that cast time, so this field should be very op if it would be placed. Like full health every sec, see where I’m going? That would be massive imbalance. Beside this would be a skill for a support ele and supports ele’s are using staffs, and geuss what is on there, right. Healing rain and geyser.

It’s just an idea, I had the hardest time with ele and mesmer ideas. Everything just has to be balanced, if it’s very powerful, it should have a high cooldown and be hard to pull off (in my opinion) Come up with some ideas for ele

Given the state of general class balance in the game now and over the past year, I do not think Anet should attempt to add more abilities that will require balancing.

The classes are in such a miserable state right now I can’t imagine adding something like this at this time. ANY changes to classes like Warriors, Guardians, and Necros that don’t outright eviscerate them would be met with hostility.

I like the idea, but until the classes are in proper working order it’s not something we need.

Something in the style of these would be pretty cool.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Allegiance_skill

Of course the balance would have to be different, and maybe it would be WvW only, but I like this kind of skill rather than an elite style one with a huge cd.

Having played all classes, often, and with most builds, I can honestly say that the class balancing isn’t as bad as most people make it out to be. It’s actually pretty good. It’s a game of counters, and people who don’t know the mechanics of theirs opponents class will most likely get their butt kicked, as it should be.

Sure some are a bit weaker than others, but not enough to warrant a lot of the balancing hate.

This is a great idea if you balance the traits against the (by design static) profession metas. I.e., everyone but warriors and guardians would get palpably better traits than the latter two to make them more desirable on the battlefield, especially the two most forsaken professions engineer and ranger.
As long as it doesn’t provide combat advantages but instead only interacts with WvW mechanics (i.e., very basic example, a thief being able to steal a supply). It would actually be pretty exciting if engineers were truly the best, well, siege engineers.

hm interesting idea’s I was thinking about these a bit back.

Jamais vu.5284:

As long as it doesn’t provide combat advantages but instead only interacts with WvW mechanics (i.e., very basic example, a thief being able to steal a supply). It would actually be pretty exciting if engineers were truly the best, well, siege engineers.

I agree, I don’t want any of the skills to translate over to PvE, and I don’t want them having an effect on builds. Your profession traits, build, weapons… none of that should benefit or be hindered by your WvW profession points. By keeping them their own thing, balancing them shouldn’t be nearly as difficult.

When I read the first descriptions of engineers before release, I expected something very very different. Engi is one of my mains now, but I would like to see them be more of a sapper in WvW.