Guild Wars 2

I know a lot of people are gonna be talking about all the technical gameplay adjustments and stuff, but I just want this thread to mainly focus on one little thing: the sound effects for the dragon hunter’s longbow. All Anet did was recycle the same old sound effects they’ve been using for the bow, and to me, it doesn’t really suit the dragon hunter at all.

Considering the fact that dragon hunters shoot what appear to be magic arrows, the sound effects should better reflect that. In my opinion, you should be able to discern the arrows shot by a standard archer and a magick archer like the dragon hunter.

Speaking of magick archers, here is a link to a video showcasing the Magick Archer vocation from Dragon’s Dogma. Now I couldn’t find a video demonstrating just the bow skills, so just ignore the dagger skills and focus on the bow. Those are the types of sound effects I was kind of expecting out of the dragon hunter, but to be honest, I’m not all that surprised that Anet just recycled the ones they already have…

Along with the sounds, I wish the visuals for the auto attack were a little more reminiscent of a magick archer as well. It doesn’t have to quite as epic-looking as the gif I attached, but something similar, you know? Something more than just coloring the arrow blue and calling it a day.

I gotta agree with this a lot, hopefully someone will listen

Ominous.7583:

I gotta agree with this a lot, hopefully someone will listen

We can only hope. My main concern is that Anet is gonna be so focused on the gameplay mechanics after this beta test that they’ll completely over look the seemingly “minor” aspects of it, like audio or visuals.

Don’t get me wrong, gameplay and balance tweaking are extremely important. This thread wasn’t made to downplay that. I just want to bring to attention that in addition to those tweaks, some aesthetical modifications would be greatly appreciated.

Changing up the sounds (and probably the visuals of the auto attack) will help give the dragon hunter longbow a more dynamic feel to it, like a true magick archer!

I agree. The sounds were the first thing i noticed.

[twang, twang, twang] I am so sick of hearing the twang of the bow!

Magical arrows require magical sound effects.

Sure, I’ll get behind this. I find aesthetics to be an important element, and this is an interesting point. Admittedly I haven’t played much dragonhunter, but I did notice that they just recycled the same sounds as the regular bow, despite being heavily influenced by magic. It seems… off because of it.

We’ll see if devs finds this to be important enough to address before the official release. I have a similar problem with the charr reaper’s greatsword auto-attack animation. It’s very ugly and sloppy-looking.

Hopefully Anet is gauging more than just balancing feedback, but visual and audio feedback as well and will adjust these kinds of things accordingly.

Arnath.2319:

I agree. The sounds were the first thing i noticed.

[twang, twang, twang] I am so sick of hearing the twang of the bow!

Magical arrows require magical sound effects.

Yes! This!

I feel like even the animations could use a spruce up but. . . the sounds are the worst. Save them ;_;

CandyHearts.6025:

Arnath.2319:

I agree. The sounds were the first thing i noticed.

[twang, twang, twang] I am so sick of hearing the twang of the bow!

Magical arrows require magical sound effects.

Yes! This!

I feel like even the animations could use a spruce up but. . . the sounds are the worst. Save them ;_;

yes. very yes. so much yes.

i know it’s just audio but they do make a pretty big impact on how a weapon feels. the recycled sound effects for what should be a magic bow (or magic arrows at least) makes it feel pretty underwhelming to say the least.

The worst is the sound when your auto-attack strikes 2 targets and procs the Cripple, it sounds like the Empower sound effect playing on repeat, incredibly annoying and out of place.

Another thing i noticed was that they said the skill effects weren’t completely final and that changes would be made. However it does not seem like they really made any changes to enhance the visuals of the skills.

They seem pretty decent as they are now but seem lacking in comparison to classes like reaper, tempest, revenant, etc

Was just thinking about this the other day. This spec definitely needs more visual auditory tweaks along with gameplay mechanics. I believe they mentioned something about this during the DH livestream, hope they certainly implement it.

Dragonhunter, bow…

Ah well, I’m not one for magic but that’s not a longbow that you guys need. It’s a greatbow.

As much as I agree, Rangers would be jealous, more than they already are.

Every person who’s tried DH would agree that, it’s not the fancy SFX and Audio but the mechanics of the class itself that needs improvement. The one thing that everyone has been saying is things are clunky – not audio enhancements and sfx.

Leviathan.6327:

We can only hope. My main concern is that Anet is gonna be so focused on the gameplay mechanics after this beta test that they’ll completely over look the seemingly “minor” aspects of it, like audio or visuals.

I certainly hope so. I can live without flashy pewpew looks and sound effects. I don’t need to look good when I beat down my enemies… I just need the ability to beat down my enemies!

Fortunately the class balance team and the sound team and the FX artists are all separate, so getting a little video/audio polish does not take time away from getting the mechanics getting tightened up.

We can ask for BOTH and the universe won’t implode .

Saiyan.1704:

As much as I agree, Rangers would be jealous, more than they already are.

Every person who’s tried DH would agree that, it’s not the fancy SFX and Audio but the mechanics of the class itself that needs improvement. The one thing that everyone has been saying is things are clunky – not audio enhancements and sfx.

Leviathan.6327:

We can only hope. My main concern is that Anet is gonna be so focused on the gameplay mechanics after this beta test that they’ll completely over look the seemingly “minor” aspects of it, like audio or visuals.

I certainly hope so. I can live without flashy pewpew looks and sound effects. I don’t need to look good when I beat down my enemies… I just need the ability to beat down my enemies!

That’s where our opinions differ, my friend (kind of). And be careful about saying “every person who’s tried DH would agree” because I (along with most of the other posters here) already refute that statement. I totally agree that the gameplay and technical stuff is very important in making the elite specialization worth playing or not. But that doesn’t mean the aesthetics are unimportant (I made that perfectly clear earlier). To me (as an artist myself), audio and visual effects are also very important in making a class dynamic and fun to play. Effectively killing enemies is great and all, but if it looks and sounds bland and mundane, it retracts some of the enjoyment from my gameplay. It works both ways, though. Great audio/visual effects with horrible mechanics won’t work either. I’m merely saying effort placed on both of these fronts would really help make this specialization stand out as something… well, special.

I’m not sure why rangers would be jealous, though. The audio/visuals for them look just fine, and it’s not like they shoot magic-infused arrows or anything.

Nike.2631:

Fortunately the class balance team and the sound team and the FX artists are all separate, so getting a little video/audio polish does not take time away from getting the mechanics getting tightened up.

We can ask for BOTH and the universe won’t implode .

Ah, now that is good news! And that actually makes total sense. I’d imagine they’d have separate teams focusing on different aspects of the game including one for balancing the core mechanics of the specialization, one for recording/implementing the sound effects, and one for creating the visual effects.

Okay then, this thread’s purpose is to safely give the artists some good ol’ constructive feedback without detracting from those who are focusing on the technical stuff. Thanks for pointing that out, Nike!

I agree on both counts (the sound and the visuals). I was hoping for something a lot more magical looking than what the current Longbow has. I mean, the visuals on the attacks other than the auto attack are decent enough at least, but the auto visuals are meh and the sound effects are pretty awful all around.

I’m hoping they’re still sprucing up that sort of thing, considering the devs have already confirmed that Tempest’s warhorn will be getting new sound effects. Please let Dragonhunter be getting improved as well!

Also, I’d like to specifically point out that the “boom” sound effect (AKA the same sound that happens when you use Empower) that happens when the arrow bounces is terrible. And makes no darn sense. And is really, really terrible.

I actually LIKE the sound from that bow! I’d say keep it as is!

Frostfang.5109:

I actually LIKE the sound from that bow! I’d say keep it as is!

No, Just no.

Frostfang.5109:

I actually LIKE the sound from that bow! I’d say keep it as is!

Huh? Okay, it sounds good for a ranger and a warrior, but the dragonhunter is a mage-type archer, so the recycled “pshew pshew” noise just sounds out of place. If his arrows are magic-based, shouldn’t they sound more… I dunno, magical? (that sounds really cheesy, but you know what I mean)

Someone posted somewhere that Anet stated the tempest definitely will get new warhorn sounds later on, so getting the same aesthetic tweaking for the dragonhunter’s longbow is not totally inconceivable.

Electro.4173:

I agree on both counts (the sound and the visuals). I was hoping for something a lot more magical looking than what the current Longbow has. I mean, the visuals on the attacks other than the auto attack are decent enough at least, but the auto visuals are meh and the sound effects are pretty awful all around.

I’m hoping they’re still sprucing up that sort of thing, considering the devs have already confirmed that Tempest’s warhorn will be getting new sound effects. Please let Dragonhunter be getting improved as well!

Also, I’d like to specifically point out that the “boom” sound effect (AKA the same sound that happens when you use Empower) that happens when the arrow bounces is terrible. And makes no darn sense. And is really, really terrible.

See? That’s exactly how I feel. I’m okay with the visuals on the other attacks (though I wouldn’t mind if these skills received further tweaking), but the auto attack visuals and general sound effects for all the guardian longbow skills are what’s really lacking. The auto attack could definitely use some sprucing up in both the visual and audio aspects. Again, it doesn’t have to be too over-the-top (it is just an auto attack after all), but it should still be discernible from a standard ranger or thief’s bow. And definitely change that “boom” sound effect. I’m gonna hopefully assume that’s a place holder sound because I’m hard-pressed to believe Anet would put that in and say, “Yup, that sounds great! Completely natural!”

And while we’re on the topic of sounds, I wish Anet would change the sound effect of guardian’s third sword skill. Does anyone else notice that they just kinda randomly threw in the chest-opening sound effect? Don’t know about you guys, but that always sounded out of place to me. They couldn’t just record a brand new sound effect?

Seabreeze.8437:

Someone posted somewhere that Anet stated the tempest definitely will get new warhorn sounds later on, so getting the same aesthetic tweaking for the dragonhunter’s longbow is not totally inconceivable.

I certainly hope so. Again, just look at how much visual/audio polish was put into the Chronomancer’s skills. And if the Tempest is gonna get an update to their aesthetics, the Dragon Hunter deserves the same treatment.

Leviathan.6327:

I certainly hope so. Again, just look at how much visual/audio polish was put into the Chronomancer’s skills. And if the Tempest is gonna get an update to their aesthetics, the Dragon Hunter deserves the same treatment.

i was just thinking how cool the chronomancer’s looks and sounds were. i’d really like to see the dragon hunter receive the same visual and audio “pop” that they do. they do seem a little underwhelming as is, so if the tempest is getting reworked a bit then the dragon hunters should too!

I wish atleast the autoattack, was some sort of magical blue arrow, like the one u see from the skill #5 shooted in the sky,

1. LB 2 feel needs more color, it’s very “transparent” lol,
2. LB 3 flies very fast so i guess that’s the main problem,
3. LB 4 and 5 are awsome,

Traps: dragon’s maw: well we know its awsome!,

Test of faith and Procession of blades seems like they use other animation from spirit weapons skills :\ they need some love

Virtues they are really good!, but if shield of courage was actually a shield would be sweet!
can’t complain for sound effects, those are really good!

Hm, doesn’t look like Anet did much with the Dragon Hunter except provide the class with better damage output. I mean, that’s great and all, but hopefully they’ll address some of the other concerns players have had. There’s still time between release (who knows how long though), so hopefully these are just work-in-progress updates.

And hopefully the team in charge of all the visual/audio editing will get the message that quite a bit of players would like to see these elements receive an improvement as well. Since it shouldn’t interfere with the team in charge of all the balancing issues, it’s feasible that all these improvements could be accomplished before release. It can’t take that much effort to change a sound effect… right?

Karl McLain.5604:

Hey all,
I’ve passed it on to the audio team, where they’ve also been talking about making additional changes to the guardian’s longbow sounds. Thanks for the constructive feedback!
Cheers,
-Karl

Karl McLain.5604:

Hey all,
I’ve passed it on to the audio team, where they’ve also been talking about making additional changes to the guardian’s longbow sounds. Thanks for the constructive feedback!
Cheers,
-Karl

You mean we could be getting brand new sound effects for the guardian’s longbow?! THANK YOU, KARL!

Awesome, that’s good new Karl. Next step traits/virtues/longbow skills

Karl McLain.5604:

Hey all,
I’ve passed it on to the audio team, where they’ve also been talking about making additional changes to the guardian’s longbow sounds. Thanks for the constructive feedback!
Cheers,
-Karl

Thank you Karl!

edit,

did not see the stickied post. good to hear they are looking at some improvements. altho some of the replies there are really helpful too

Leviathan.6327:

And while we’re on the topic of sounds, I wish Anet would change the sound effect of guardian’s third sword skill. Does anyone else notice that they just kinda randomly threw in the chest-opening sound effect? Don’t know about you guys, but that always sounded out of place to me. They couldn’t just record a brand new sound effect?

I don’t play guardian all that much, but I did notice this, and it does sound odd. It’s awesome that they’re thinking about revamping some of the longbow’s sounds, yet I wonder if they’d alter anything else such as this…

Either way, it’s great news for Dragonhunters!

I thought the Dragonhunter trailer had great sound effects.

Just use those?

Arnath.2319:

I thought the Dragonhunter trailer had great sound effects.

You know, I only saw that trailer once and I don’t even know if I had sound on because I don’t recall hearing those sounds. It is pretty strange that they had these sounds already implemented, yet for the beta they changed them back to the generic ranger/thief/warrior bow sound effects.

To me, those sounds in the trailer are a little “soft” (I’d like them to sound more impactful, if that makes sense), but I would still very much like to hear those sounds than what we have currently. Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the sound effects themselves, I just feel they’re better suited for the other professions that don’t fire magical arrows.

Hm, they don’t mention any sound or visual updates to the Dragon Hunter for the next beta. Hopefully it’s either something that they didn’t list, or maybe it just didn’t make it in time for this upcoming beta event but it will be for the next one (or the official release if this is the last beta).

I suppose we’ll find out next week!

Okay, so the sounds are still the same in the second beta. A little disappointing, but I’m still holding out hope that the audio team is working on giving Dragon Hunters more dynamic sound effects, particularly for the auto attack.

Note: I know I’m bumping an older thread, but given we just had a second beta and nothing was changed in the graphic/audio department, it’s still relevant considering this thread focuses on the aesthetics of the profession as there are plenty of other threads focusing on the balancing/mechanics of it.

Y’know? I’d like to hear a some sort of chain SFX when you throw the Virtue#1 OR when you actually cripple someone with LB#1 (or some kind of noticeable sound when you cause cripple).

Ryuu.5608:

Y’know? I’d like to hear a some sort of chain SFX when you throw the Virtue#1 OR when you actually cripple someone with LB#1 (or some kind of noticeable sound when you cause cripple).

Right now when the autoattack bounce to another target there is the same audio feedback you have on the pulsing staff skill #4 which make no sense

AWESOME, now can we get better output from LB too? Seriously, LB auto should have burning like a Warrior has. We’re supposed to be THE burning profession.

DeWolfe.2174:

AWESOME, now can we get better output from LB too? Seriously, LB auto should have burning like a Warrior has. We’re supposed to be THE burning profession.

we used to be the burning prof. now there is war berserker

Tabootrinket.2631:

- (animation wise) I personally think that the longbow white arrows need to be way bigger. And by that I mean Javelin sized.
Right now shooting with the longbow feels like shooting with a nerf gun.

I pulled this from another thread, but I actually think this is a pretty killer idea. Anyone here play Monster Hunter? Those types of huge arrows would be cool, only… you know, more bluish and glowy.

Yes better sounds plizzzzzz :-)
This is all what we need…with cd reduction on shield.:-)
kthxbye