Guild Wars 2

Burtnik.5218:

Oh look.. Ritualist thread n.493538923475824. Zzzzzz

Well that was productive conversation :p

Reserved for Lore and Traits (maybe)

Lore: Revenants have a natural tendency toward the mists; they are drawn to it, just as their power comes from it. Most Revenants find that communing with the spirits of the dead legends of Tyria comes easily to them, but attempting to commune with any lesser spirits was next to impossible – that is, until they met the spirit of a great fallen ritualist, who guided the Revenant down a path that was darker and stranger than any they had traveled before. Under this headmaster’s tutelage, Revenants learnt how to summon ethereal manifestations of spirits from the underworld to aid them in battle. These spirits brokered contracts with the Revenant – a brief respite from the gloom of that place in exchange for servitude on the surface of Tyria. Ancient, forgotten magics now in the hands of the Revenant, they found themselves able to more easily wield the power of the mists directly and, with the aid of the long dead, are able to command a presence on the battlefield the likes of which has not been seen in Tyria for centuries.

Ok, so I’ve been sort of brainstorming ideas about upcoming new specializations, and thought I’d share my idea for the Revenant one here to get some feedback. For me, the ritualist is a natural fit for the rev; lore-wise they aren’t a perfect math, but I’d rather have this thread be about my proposed ideas in general rather than whether or not the revenant and ritualist have enough in common to warrant a ritualist spec. Sorry if the format looks weird, I’ll fix it if I can. Obviously, idea is somewhat unfinished, but the core is there. Let me know what you think!

Revenant Specialization: Ritualist

Other Possible Names: Medium, Spiritualist, Channeler, Anchor.

Description: The Ritualist specialization grants access to the legendary ritualist Master Togo, the ability to summon bound spirits to the battlefield, and use of the scepter in the mainhand. The utility skills granted by Master Togo will be familiar in either name or form to many players of Guild Wars 1, and often have double effects that apply to both you and any spirits you’ve summoned.

Profession Mechanic:
Legendary Ritualist Stance: Invokes the power of the legendary ritualist Togo, changing your utility skills.

Additional Mechanics:
Spirit Binding: Grants access to profession-specific skill above your weapon skill bar (would appear to the right of Facet of Nature). This skill allows the Revenant to create up to three stationary Bound Spirits at your location. Each Bound Spirit has an auto attack with longbow range at a rate of 2 seconds and 20% chance of being a projectile finisher. Summoning a Bound Spirit has a 1 second cast time and acts as an uncancelable (I know, not a real word) upkeep skill that ticks at -1 energy, for max of -3 (for 3 Bound Spirits). Boons and conditions can apply to Bound Spirits, and they can be targeted by enemies, but cannot be summoned within radius of 180 of each other. Attempting to summon a new bound spirit when 3 are up causes the first to dissipate and a new third to be summoned at your location. Running out of energy while in Legendary Ritualist Stance or swapping to another legend causes all Bound Spirits to dissipate.

Skills:

Healing: Soul Mending
Heals you. For every summoned Bound Spirit, cleanse one condition. If no Bound Spirits are summoned, gain 10 energy (upkeep energy, not dodge).

Utility 1: Splintered Presence (radius 240)
Your next 7 attacks also deal damage to up to 5 enemies adjacent to your character. Your Bound Spirit’s next 3 attacks bounce between 3 enemies. For every Summoned Spirit effected, lose 1 tick of Splintered Presence on your character.

Utility 2: Quick Was Hamato (radius 600)
Upkeep Skill at -5. Gives the player character an urn to hold. Cannot use weapon skills while holding the urn. While holding, grant quickness, vigor, and swiftness to nearby allies (these boons would stagger on application, sort of like pulsing every other second. So second 1, you get quickness, second 3, you get vigor, second 5, you get swiftness, repeat. Should keep it balanced). Your Bound Spirit’s attacks inflict slow while holding the urn. You may drop the urn at any time, or force drop the urn when you swap legends or run out of energy. When you drop the urn, stun any nearby enemies.

Utility 3: Sheltered Union (radius 240)
Create an aura around each Bound Spirit that blocks incoming projectiles for 4 seconds. If a Bound Spirit blocks a projectile, when the aura ends, the Bound Spirit pulls nearby enemies. If no projectile is blocked, the Bound Spirits next 3 attacks inflict vulnerability and siphon health.

Elite: Spirit Rift (radius 240)
On player character’s location and at every summoned Bound Spirit, release a ball of mist energy that over 3 seconds slowly rises from the ground. After 3 seconds, the ball detonates, dealing massive damage and applying weakness and burning to all enemies in range.

Weapon Skills:

Scepter 1: Essence Strike (range 900)
Strike your foe with mist energy
-> Essence Smite (range 900)
Smite your foe with mist energy, gaining 2 energy (upkeep energy, not dodge)
-> Essence Sunder (range 900)
Sunder your foes with mist energy, burning your foe.

Scepter 2: Echoing Anguish (range 900, radius 240)
Ground targeted AoE. A large burst (blast finisher) of mist energy damages and confuses foes, followed by a medium damage burst that torments foes, and finally a small damage burst.

Scepter 3: Mist Ward (range 540)
Displace target (enemy shadow step distance 360) and apply cripple and weakness. Your next 5 attacks siphon health from foes.

*Balancing and numbers and such needs work, and I’m also working on traits, but again: let me know what you think of the basic concept. Thanks

Really loving the useful feedback here! I agree with a lot of what people have said. That said, here are my two cents on Revenant traits:

In general, weapons feel too tied down to one specific legend and trait line. Or, to put it another way, what if I want to use staff but don’t want to trait for Ventari to get the one staff-specific trait?

I’d really like to see some more generalized weapon/situation based traits; for instance, a trait based on wielding two-handed weapons to support a staff/hammer build. Anet has done a great job with a number of classes on building trait synergy across multiple trait lines using different weapons, and I hope to see that here.

Also, I notice a lot of clamor for adding another utility skill (or two) to each legend. While that is a nice thought,I’m not sure that will happen. However, perhaps they could have two versions of the same utility for each legend? You could have versions that reduce the range but up the damage, or swap out a condition for another one. This way, you don’t have to create brand new skills and Revenant players can still get a little bit of customization in their utilities. These should not feel like totally different skills and should do roughly the same thing – for instance, instead of a straight heal, opting for stacks of regeneration.

I love the Rev, and can’t wait to see it in all its polished glory

If you mean the jade daggers, I bet not. That would be like having Ventari’s tablet stick around after you swap

@ Kidel That makes sense. Do you think Glint might have a general trait for two-handed weapons? I wish there were more traits that directly effect the staff

Hmm I see a staff with Jalis working well, now that you say that. And with weapon swapping now a thing, potentially a Jalis/Glint with Staff/ ? & shield?

So I love the staff. I think it is an awesome idea, the animations are fantastic, and the feel of hitting things in melee with a staff is great.

What I am truly curious about is what makes the staff great when you separate it from Ventari. Is there even a reason to use the staff if you aren’t running the Ventari legend? I know that, personally, I’m not a big healer – I like to support the group, but not directly through heals. I really, really want to run a melee staff, though – is this feasible in the current set up?

A disclaimer: I’m not saying I dislike Ventari. On the contrary, I think it is a great legend, and a really fresh take on group healing with a unique mechanic.

PLEASE: This thread is not about dps, just about the animations. Save that talk for other threads

I really like the staff animations, but I have one small complaint: they are hard to see! The coloring makes the staff effects somewhat difficult to see – the clear-black line effects are really cool, but I feel like adding a splash of red or other color would really make the skills “pop”.

Hello all! Alright, I have a question. So, in the lore, when someone dies, one of two things happen: either they did enough heroic deeds for their soul to be released into the Mists, or their soul is trapped with their body forever. Am I missing something? Because this seems like, for most of the sentient creatures of Tyria, their souls are permanent trapped within their decaying bodies. (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Hall_of_Heroes) This seems really rather harsh, and I’d like to believe that the good people of Tyria deserve a better fate than this.

Am I missing something???? Or is the lore conflicting? Because, as far as I can remember, I thought that some stories in Guild Wars 1 talked about ALL souls going into the mists? I’m really not familiar with any changes to death lore in GW2, but any clarification would be appreciated!

Jenosavel, I gota say I agree with you. Personally, i like their wing-fin things, but they gota get rid of the human-like hair, and get rid of the long ears. Id like to see tentacles, ala Pirates of the carribbean Davey Jones. Just my opinion, and wanted to give Jeno some support haha Their lore is neat, and i like the idea of an underwater playable race, but they need a lil touch up.

Saint.4165:

I’ll go 7/10 cuz you got a legit ‘wtf lol’ outta me.

Mesmer named Spirit And The Wind

My second Mesmer (I literally can’t get enough.)

Hmmm I gotta say 6/10. Mostly becuase I’m a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to names, and that name doesn’t fit the lore (and it sounds like a Ranger name to me lol). Looks more like an awesome Kodan name to me instead

My Sylvari Mesmer is named Aegrahm and my Guardian is Baelfynn (wanted something that sounded psuedo-Gaelic for the both of them)

Hello all! So, hear’s the deal: I love GW2. I played GW for years, and have been playing GW2 since release, and love it. I have always been a big PvE player, but would like to get in to doing dungeons and fractals. I would like to join a guild that is lore-savy and full of people who simply just enjoy the game – no weird requirements, no min-maxing. I’m 22 and finishing a degree, so I don’t have time to be on every day for multiple hours, and I’d prefer to join a group that has a more mature (not saying that I’m mature by any token, but you know what I mean) atmosphere, but isn’t too serious. RP is not a must by any means, as I totally suck at it but enjoy it immensely. I don’t give a crap how many upgrades your guild has, so don’t bother spamming that at me. Just looking for a group to hang out and have fun with while playing my favorite game

Thanks for reading, and for your consideration!

BuddhaKeks.4857:

Aegrahm.4952:

Personally, I think a sort of terf war would ensue, in which both claim to have Tyria’s best interest at heart but come from different points of veiw.

I can totally see it, a coalition of humans and Quaggan waging war against the salad heads. They dared to insult Melandru, it’s time for some crusades. Deus vult!

Haha that would be great Honestly, I could also see the Pale Tree as veiwing Melandru (and the other gods) as foreign entities or seomthing like that. Perhaps stating that the gods’ meddling in affairs in Tyria is inappropriate.

First off, this is not a thread about linking Melandru to the Pale Tree or any such rubbish like that. What I want to start a conversation about is this: what would a conversation between the Pale Tree and Melandru sound like? What would they talk about? It is obvious that the Pale Tree has grandiose ideas about the purpose of her Sylvari children, and Melandru is seen by many humans (and some other races) as the embodiment of nauture. Personally, I think a sort of terf war would ensue, in which both claim to have Tyria’s best interest at heart but come from different points of veiw. Anyway, just thought this was fun to think about, and just in general it would be cool to see the human gods interact with the Sylvari and the Pale Tree. What do you all think?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Off the top of my head, I don’t recall it ever being said the nightmare was always present – after all, it was years until Faolain became affected by the nightmare, and same goes for Cadeyrn – these were the first two (known) Nightmare Court members, and neither were affected by a nightmare in the Dream of Dreams.

There is, as far as I’m aware, no indication for how old either the Dream or the nightmare are.

Furthermore, nothing says the Dream of Dreams doesn’t predate sylvari or the Pale Tree – given the White Stag’s ability to be within the Dream like the Pale Tree, I would argue otherwise. Furthermore, given the White Stag’s affiliation with the DoD, I cannot see the Dream being created by the sixth dragon.

O I would totally agree that the Dream predates the Sylvari. After all, the Pale Tree says she is only its caretaker (or something along those lines). And, the wiki states that “The Nightmare Court are sylvari who embrace the darkest parts of their nature” which to me suggests that the Nightmare doesn’t need to be a part of a Sylvari’s Dream at all for it to affect them. I think that Caderyn’s questioning of the Pale Tree is evidence enough to show that Nightmare Court-ish philosophy can be present without a seedling experienceing Nightmare in their Dream.

I may be totally biased, thought, because I am just hoping that the Nightmare has nothing to do with the elder dragons. I would rather see it as sort of an inherehant difficulty in being a Sylvari – they get the benefits of a collective conciousness, but have the risk of being drawn to darker things. If that makes sense at all lol I just think that, while your evidence is impressive linking Mordremoth to the Nightmare Court, it is all very circumstantial (and deep down I just don’t want to believe it haha)

Sorry to de-rail things a tad, but I’m a bit confused about something. If im reading the last few pages right, the 6th edler dragon is supposedly useing the Dream (in the form of the Nightmare) to corrup sylvari and Pale Tree-related things. However, any description of the Dream seems to suggest that the Nightmare has always been a part of the Dream. I’ve never read anywhere that the Dream ever existed without nightmare. So to me this either means that the Dream was created by the 6th dragon itself, or that the nightmare has nothing to do with the elder dragon.

Man, I really like the idea of making Greatsword #3 a blast finisher. That is brilliant and simple, and certainly adds a little more versatiliy to the skill without messing with cooldown, # of boons stripped, etc. That one improvement would make the skill so much better, imo.

Also, I think it would be cool (although, perhaps balance breaking) if the #5 wave reflected projectiles for 1 second as well.

This is a somewhat odd request, and I understand that there are probably a hundred others things that deserve attention before this. But I would love to see more race-specific dialogue, at least from major npcs. Personally, I loved when, for example, one of the Charr imperators called me a Sylvari (which I am) and I about squeed with joy. I really enjoy moments like that, and would love to see more. I’m sure it takes a butt load of work to implement, but in future exspansions and such, it would be great to see this. Thanks!

We have to help Queen Jennah find her cat.

Seriousness: I hope it results in the cleansing of Orr. I would like to see Orr zones instanced for players who have finished their storylines, getting rid of most of the undead and adding new mobs related to humanity, the forgotten, the gods, etc. Maybe add some tenuous human settlements? And make Orr somewhat nicer to look at lol

I’m sorry, but I don’t really understand this. Granted, the only race I’ve played to 80 is Sylvari, so I obviously have a bit of a soft spot for them in general, but I really like Trahearne. I understand if people are upset about his AI in partcular missions or something, but the character himself is awesome. I love that his purpose is to essentially cleanse Orr, and honestly I really like whoever did his voice acting. I mean, he’s been alive for 25 years, studying Orr the entire time (or most of it, at least). His story makes sense to me, I guess. Sorry I don’t mean to de-rail the thread, but I don’t want Anet to think that everyone dislikes him lol I mean, people are arguing that in the storyline, he is given to much attention and eclipses the player, but that in combat he does’t do enough damage and the player has to do it all. So in combat/gameplay, people want Trahearne to do it all, but then the player gets the credit in the actual story? I’m simplifying the complaints a bit, but really. Come on

Agreed! I especially love the Wintersday music. A really fantastic event so far, Anet. Well done!

Hello! Alright, so I’m not sure if this is a bug or if I’m just stupid, cause it happened so fast. But, during the Ossuary of the Unquiet Dead, when you have to descend into the lower chambers, I walked in and instantly fell through the floor with my entire party of npcs right into the middle of those queen risen spiders (which made any attempt to rez them by myself impossible). Again, I’m not sure if there is actually a hole up there, so I may have just been stupid and walked through it myself. Just thought I would point this out

EDIT: Ahh I just went back and looked, and there is a tiny hole. Dang. Maybe patch that up? lol

Thank you all sooooo much for your help!!!! Really appreciate it. I think I like Accelerant-Packed Turrets, seems really useful (especially if it works when you explode them yourself). I had no idea that metal plating was that useless, appreciate the heads up. I’m thinking that since I also use a shield that Energized Armor is the way to go. And Direksone, I like your build, I’ve just never been a fan of elixers (not because of the random component, which I really like, but the animations, which are just blah for me) so I dont have much advice to offer there. I would say that, sine you are taking a shield, have Accelerant-Packed Turrets gives you even more cc options, which is great for all aspects of play.

“Man I wish people overreacted more every time Anet says anything new”

Nokrum.4691:

Metal Plating isnt worth it. turrets will still go down to quickly. just try both

Really? Hmm. So what would I take in place of metal plating?

Hey guys and gals! I was wondering if I could get some advice on an engi build I’d like to play. I’m not necessarily looking to max stats or anything, I am just having trouble deciding between two traits. First off, I use pistol/shield, and all turrets (healing, rocket, thumper, and either net or flame depending) with supply crate as my elite.

Traits are:

Firearms: 30
Precise Sights, Hair Trigger, Coated Bullets

Inventions: 20
Metal Plating, Reinforced Shield

Explosives: 10
Incendiary Powder

My question is what should I do with the remaining 10 points? I can’t decide between getting 30 in Inventions and picking up Rifled Turret Barrels, or putting 20 in Explosives and getting Accelerant-Packed Turrets. So, any suggestions? Thank you in advance for your help

Jelle.2807:

Yeah the whole humanoid shape thing doesn’t entirely add up with Malyck who looks just like any other sylvari but comes from a different tree. Chances of that tree being burried on a human graveyard as well seems slim.

Agreed. That whole human graveyard idea was only a theory anyway, yet its been around long enough that people think its the truth lol. The truth is, we have NO IDEA why the Sylvari are humanoid in form.

BrunoBRS.5178:

i’m more in favor of the theory that the sylvaris are more of Tyria’s answer to the dragons, like antibodies or something.

This is most likely, since the Nightmare court is NOT the true nature of sylvari without the tablet of Ventari. In the Sylvari storyline, you meet someone who was born of another tree, and he is nothing like the Nightmare court. Honestly, this whole Pale Tree = Dragon minion thing is quite silly, imo

So. From what I understand of the Dream, each individual Sylvari’s memories are basically added to the “pool” of possible knowledge that newborn Sylvari will have access too. From this line of thinking, it would seem to me that there is a possibility that any secret told to one specific Sylvari could then be passed on to any newly awakened Sylvari (and to the Pale Tree). Can someone help explain this to me, or am I correct in thinking this?

Mini Mac Daddy.6503:

play x-men then, i never said it wasent good idea, all i said was it doesnt fit the lore.

Lol I wasn’t disagreeing with you mate, nor trying to argue, just stating my opinion. No need to get defensive

Mini Mac Daddy.6503:

maybe a “force user” or “force of will”. theme as in the lore.

See, to me thats a bit too Star Wars-y. I DONT want it to seem like a Jedi knockoff lol if anything, I want it to be more of a Gambit-type proffession (X-men). Make it a medium armor class.

Mini Mac Daddy.6503:

saying Kineticist is really hard lol. cool idea but it doesnt go with the gw2 theme. and for the monk, not in gw2. every character is a support class, they took out the holy three (dps, healer, tank) for mmo’s, which is a cool idea but its very annoying at the same time. and what more annoying is that anet will never take any1’s suggestions, no matter how good it is. of all the suggestions on these forums, not 1 has been implemented.

Can you explain what you mean by “doesn’t fit the theme”? Do you mean it needs a better name? How about Anchor? And I have faith in Anet

AzureShiron.7658:

Alexander Quess.1932:

I disagree, next class needs to be monk.
Not the heal heal monk but the hit hit monk.
Even if not a Healing Class, it is still a classic GW1 character, which puts at the top of the list.

Weps: Fists(none), swords, focus, staves, knives
Builds: DOT, Cripple, Support
Armor: Light
Special: Chakra

I dont think they will name the class monk, as the stigma associated with the name, as well as people getting their hopes up.
Maybe after the Monk is released =D

Lol I get that the monk is a popular GW1 proffession. I remember playing it myself. It is not, however, the focus of this thread

Alexander Quess.1932:

I disagree, next class needs to be monk.
Not the heal heal monk but the hit hit monk.
Even if not a Healing Class, it is still a classic GW1 character, which puts at the top of the list.

Weps: Fists(none), swords, focus, staves, knives
Builds: DOT, Cripple, Support
Armor: Light
Special: Chakra

Maybe after the Monk is released =D

Well, the monk is already a part of the Guardian proffession, so I’m sorry, but I highly doubt you will ever get a proffession called “Monk”. I think a dev mentioned that at some point in the past, but I can’t be bothered to go look it up lol. However, many “hit hit” monk ideas could be implemented into the Kineticist very well, I think. Just sustitute Charkra for kinetic energy, maybe? I love the idea of some fist weapons being implemented for the Kineticist as well. I had wanted to put that in my original post, but thought that I should just stick with the current weapons to avoid confusion.

Hey all! First off, sorry this is so long. So, here is an idea for a new proffession. Let me know what you think! If people want, I can post skill ideas as well, but I’d rather see what you all can come up with

The Kineticist (masters of kinetic, gravitational, and sonic energies)

Class Mechanic: Equalibrium
As a Kineticist takes damage a charge meter fills up (each individual hit counts towards the meter, actual damage taken is irrelevant). There are certain thresholds that, when crossed, apply buffs to Kineticist damage. When the bar is empty, overall damage is slightly lower than average; however, if the bar is allowed to fill completely, a kinetic “explosion” (or something like that) takes place, damaging both the Kineticist and nearby enemies, as well as knocking them back. It also applies the dazed state to the Kineticist for 3 seconds. A Kineticist can only store a certain amount of kinetic energy, which is why it must be released every so often. Part of playing the Kineticist is knowing how to manage taking damage and either storing or releasing kinetic energy. Obviously, Kineticists excel the longer a fight goes on, building up kinetic energy for burst damage later in combat. Kinetic energy is slowly lost overtime while out of combat, but retained while in combat and not used up. This kinetic energy is used to both apply those buffs to damage but also to use common Kineticist skills (F1 uses up half of a threshold, F2 uses up a whole threshold, and F3 uses a threshold and a half).

Meter Example:
0- – - – - – - – - -1- – - – - – - – - -2- – - – - – - – - -3- -] (Breaking point)

0: Overall DPS is lower 1: Buff 1 2: Buff 2 3: Buff 3
than normal at this level

F1 Skill: Bio-Magnetism- A single target attack that pulls; Range 900
F2 Skill: Gravity Depression- A single target immobilize (3 seconds) that also causes weakness (5 seconds); Range 900
F3 Skill: Kinetic Tide- A damage dealing area attack that knockbacks nearby enemies and grants stability (2 seconds); Radius 300, Blast finisher

Weapons:
Two-Handed: Hammer, Rifle, Staff (as a melee weapon)
One-Handed: Mace
Off-Hand: Mace, Warhorn

The F1-3 skills would obviously have a cool-down. Anyway, I wanted to create a class that forced you to manage how long you were in combat, and actually turn taking damage into a good thing. I’d like to see some of the Kineticist skills do different things dependant on how many hits you take in a certain period, etc. I want this prof. to be great at controlling areas. For example, a cool skill type could be Gravity Depressions, which would be an area of effect skill that is ground targeted, and it pulls enemies towards it (or pushes them away) with every tick or something. I think it would be cool to have a cosmic theme with the skill set.Thoughts?

What about all the little forts and such throughout Caledon Forrest?

Whoa now, I love Trahearne. Where is this hate coming from?!?! He is my fav npc sylvari!!!

Reevac.1748:

The Fern mastiff runs in and attacks. It’s hp is decent so it actually stay alive for a fight or 2 till it poofs.

I have survived many time because of take root I love it. Not to mention boss sure love attacking the turrets which keeps them off me or other part members.

The healing seed turret is decent but can die really easily in a aoe fight, and like seed turrets mobs are drawn to kill them.

Fern mastiff is great. That lil guy has saved my butt many times, especially when I’ve been downed. As a mesmer, having that guy out, plus three illusions, is just awesome. I’d have to say that I am not fond of the turret utility, but Take Root is great too. Havn;t tried the others yet.

My sylvari’s name is Aegrahm, which I made up lol. I wanted it to sound Celtic or Gaelic, but didn’t want to use an actual Celtic name, so I hope it does the job. For inspiriation, here are some Welsh names that fit the bill rather well:

Aneirin or Aneurin(Welsh for “noble”)
Braith (Welsh for “speckled”)
Cadfael (Welsh for “battle prince”)
Cadoc (from the Welsh “cad” which means “battle”)
Drystan (Welsh form of the name Tristan)
Rhiannon (Welsh for “great queen”)

These are just some of my favs, there are a lot out there! And, as others have stated, check out some Arthurian names, along with Irish, Breton, and Pictish names. They are all great places to find some inspiration!

*I would like to point out, however, that most Sylvari only have one name, which is why mine is only called Aegrahm. So, if you want to fit the lore better, maybe try and stick to just a first name.

As of today, they are still not working together. That is literally the only complaint I have with the Mesmer proffession lol I hope it gets fixed quickly