Guild Wars 2

Not necessarily: you can do wonders with just T2 and a little imagination… (Strider chest and starter hood – I was going for a poisonous look, I like how it turned out)

I’m sure people have said this before, but I really miss Build Wars 1. You know, the game where the skills you had in the latter half of your skill bar actually MATTERED and could be used more than once a fight? The game where your Elite skill really WAS Elite? The game where you could make your character do anything, literally, ANYTHING (admittedly, my Necromancer Flesh-Golemancer build was pretty useless, but it was fun! Same with my dual-wielding Ranger/Assassin. Actually, that wasn’t a bad build in NM)

Yeah. GW1 had a great model for skills. I think the lack of skills and synergy in GW2 is mostly due to the fact that the dev team from GW2 left ANet. Ah well, they’ve done a good job so far, there’re jsut a few areas they could improve on.

And that would be a problem how? I mean, coming from EvE Online, I think that having a few powerful Guilds fighting each other for resource-rich areas would change the game for the better, and the weaker Guilds that don’t want to try and push into that sort of high-level combat would be able to take much less efficient territories that have a lower risk of being attacked. Maybe even have territory Tiers, where a Guild can only ever attack territories in their Tier or higher?

But that’s just making it a lot more complicated, and, let’s face it, ANet probably isn’t even gonna read this thread I still think it’s a good idea, though, and it’d give Guilds another reason to compete as well as another arena to compete in.

melonLord.8712:

Yeah, please don’t do that.
Anet already clarified what they meant by using the environment long before the game released. If you were expecting otherwise, I say that’s on you for not looking into it. Its not that they failed to deliver, you just drew assumptions based on the small amount of information you collected on the game and were disappointed when your guess wasn’t right.

So, apart from being an kittenhole to me about my lack of information gathering (I’ll freely admit that I didn’t do too much research into GW2 before it came out, other than races and classes, but there was no need to be a kitten about it), do you even have ANY valid reason to not do that?

ANet seemed to want us to use the environment as a weapon. As it is now, we can’t. I gave a suggestion on how to do that.

That’s an interesting idea, actually. I like it a lot, it’d mean that a Guild Hall would be a large-scale undertaking for the Guild as a whole, not just a couple of Officers and the Leader, and it’d also give Halled Guilds a decent power boost in all other sorts of content without forcing everyone to join a Halled Guild for endgame PvE, sPvP or WvWvW.

The sPvP thing is a good point, though, and for the guilds that want to do sGvG, there’d need to be some sort of system so that one Guild couldn’t just sack a Hall when everyone in the other Guild is offline, or maybe just separate the GvG aspect from the various buffs in the Guild Hall?

My initial idea was actually to let Halled guilds stabilize larger parts of the Fractal though Guild Dungeon-type content, and then have that land give Influence returns over time. The GvG aspect would then become combat over the stabilized Fractal landscape rather than threatening the Hall itself.

Just tried this… Got a lvl 80 Exotic. With the wrong stats >.<

Now I need to get another Legendary.

WvW is a big part of the game, really? Awesome, I’ve been wanting to get into it but have been getting the impression that WvW was dead nowadays and is mostly ACvAC. ahem Sorry, off-topic.

Didn’t know that those were just ranks, that makes sense though. Still, there are non-armor-specific ways of telling what profession is what.

Warrior:
Guardian: Aegis, seriously, they have it up all the time
Ranger: Pets
Engineer: Kits – an Engi without a kit is an Engi who is about to equip a kit
Thief:
Mesmer:
Necromancer:
Elementalist: Attunement Bracelets

Which leaves only 4 classes as a complete mystery if you remove the armor factor. And, finally, the whole “guess what class the attacker is” game in WvW is only useful in 1v1 while roaming, cause for everything else, you’ve got Masterca- I mean The Zerg. Until ANet gets rid of The Zerg, knowing what profession your enemy is won’t help much, IMHO.

1) What ANet did in GW1 was to give anyone with a projectile weapon (not counting staff, I think, so Bow and Spear) range and damage boosts if they, to misquote Kenobi, “had the high ground.” Which was glorious in the Battle for Lion’s Arch, standing my Splinter Barrage Ranger up on the hillside and watching her rain arrows into the helpless Mursaat. While I agree that they have to do SOMETHING to prevent people from slaughtering mobs who can’t fight back (if the mob pathing can’t find a way to the character, have them teleport directly in front of them or something? Would be a nasty surprise if you’re trying to exploit-solo a Champion or something), they should also give the environment more interactivity.

I was excited when I heard about the combo mechanic, and how GW2 would let you use the environment as a weapon, but ANet failed to deliver. Give waterfalls, rivers and ponds constant Water Fields. Give campfires and lit torches a Fire Field. Let us actually interact with the environment, instead of giving us “Environmental Weapons” that are, for the most part, useless save for comedic value or the occasional Renown Heart.

2) I agree with this SO MUCH! When I used to play SWTOR, my favorite thing to do with my Jedi Shadow was to sneak up behind some unsuspecting droid on Coruscant and push him off the platforms into the great void below. I was really looking forwards to trying that in GW2, so imagine my disappointment when I Banished a poor, defenseless mob off a cliff and into an invisible wall >.< And the worst part is that, while we can’t do that to the PvE mobs, they have no such compunctions against us.

ANet, invisible wall is OP, plz nef ;3

3) I partially agree with this. The GW1 armor system was great, however that only worked because EVERY armor in the game was Soulbound on Acquire. More skins would be nice, but instead of removing the level cap on items (which would give other problems, i.e. level 2 characters walking around in full Exotics) a cosmetic armor tab (with no level requirement, maybe even no armor type requirement) would be nice.

4) It’s not really a “home” inasmuch as it is a personal instance where you can see how your actions have impacted on the world as a whole. Upgrading it would be difficult, time-consuming, and really not that big a thing. Other suggestions for Guild Halls are better, personal player homes shouldn’t happen in a game called Guild Wars (check out my GvG Hall thread for more of my opinions on the matter, and yes that was an absolutely shameless plug)

5) Agreed. More emotes would be nice, maybe an Order-specific one (/vigil FTW!), or emotes that you can only get through high-end Achievements.

6) Mounts are a bad idea because of the increased demand they place on servers. Already we have the massive issues with culling, and you want to increase that by adding in even MORE objects for the server to render? Don’t get me wrong, I LIKE the idea of a Sword/Shield Warrior riding an armored yellow Moa (it’d be even better with a lance, but meh) but if that would take away from my enjoyment of the game, then I’m glad they don’t do it.

Umm… Don’t the WvW classes have different names now? [Server_Name] Assaulter, or [Server_Name] Scout, that sort of thing? I mean, if worst comes to worst, just make the WvW things [Server_Name] [Profession], problem solved.

Just because it hurts the WvW people doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea as long as workarounds are put in place (and let’s face it, even if you see someone with light armor and dual daggers, you can’t know for sure they’re an Ele. If you see someone with medium armor and a shortbow, you have no clue if they’re a Thief or a Ranger. Heavy Armor with a Hammer? Could be either. Weapon choice tells you more about their play-style and how to counter it than what profession they are, IMO)

As an expansion of the pretty lackluster claiming system in WvWvW, as well as a sequel to the FotM, and the introduction of GvG, I think this could really work if ANet is willing to put dev time and money into it…

By researching the appropriate Architecture things (traits? Improvements? No idea what they’re called), a Guild gets the opportunity to create a Guild Hall in the Mists. They can spend Influence at the Stabilizer Golem to upgrade the Guild Hall until it becomes a functioning microcity.

As to the GvG, the way I saw it would be to let Halled Guilds attack each other, with the hope of being able to loot a facility from their opponent’s Hall (the more I think about it, the more I think that simply “stealing” Influence from the losing Guild would work too, but it’d have to be a substantial amount), with two rounds being fought, one at each of the Guild Halls (in case of a tie, both Guilds would get a small amount of Influence).

If people think that this is feasible and/or a good idea, let me know, I just feel that the technology that’s been being researched to stabilize the fractals should have some sort of actual use, I mean, isn’t that the purpose of the Living Story? So that we can feel as if our actions impact the game?\

Anyways. Read this, tell me what you think, tell the devs what you think, and yeah!

They could call them Transmutation Diamonds, and have them cost twice as much as a Crystal while being Gem-Store exclusive, and people would still buy them… Great idea, honestly I like it! I always wanted my caster classes to be able to have a medium armor look that isn’t HotW

I like the way they’ve kept the updates going, even though I’m a little disappointed by the Gemstore focus and childishness of a lot of the items (if you’re going to give us backpacks, make them cool ones, at least! I was thrilled with the FNF gear, cause that had a different look that was lore-friendly and looked like something people could actually wear. Riding clothes and Quaggan backpacks, on the other hand…)

I also agree that the temporary-ness of the updates should be removed: IIRC, the FNF periscopes are still there (at least they were a couple weeks ago when I last played my low-level Norn char), so why aren’t the FNF mobs? That would have actually made a GREAT update to the Personal Story, with an opportunity to go in-depth and discover why exactly the two groups were really cooperating? Also, the lava-dripping hands make me think of a certain type of enemy, and those Molten Gate things remind me of similar circular portal technology… My belief is that we’ll see a LOT more Molten Alliance peeps when we go after Primordius in the Central Transfer Chamber.

But I digress: I want the Living Story content to be more permanent. Think of all the people who might have joined after the Lost Shores and Secret of Southsun event, and have no clue why the Karka Queen is enraged, or who joined after FNF and wonder why some people have this bizarre “Volunteer” title…

I think that a pretty easy fix would be to stop players from being able to carry supply at all. Force them to hire a Dolyak from a place with spare supply (usually a camp), and then lead it to wherever they want to build. Once they get there, they’d have to interact with the Dolyak to order it to start laying down supplies, and if a single Dolyak can’t finish the build in one trip, they’d need to hire two or more, or else escort the first one back to the camp to get more supplies.

That would make the use of siege into a far more skill and coordination-based activity, since the Dolyaks would be vulnerable to player attacks. It wouldn’t completely remove the zerg (since you could have a whole zerg escorting a bunch of Dolyaks, admittedly), but it would slow them down a bit, and make them more vulnerable to well-coordinated small-group play (i.e. a small group of Thieves/Rangers taking out the Dolyaks while other characters try to distract the zerg)

If people think this is a good idea, let me know and I’ll make it a Suggestion If people think this is a terrible idea, let me know and I’ll refine it and then make it a suggestion ;3

Organized Groups = simultaneous soloing of all supply camps on a map = problem for enemy servers.

Small groups trying to kill zergs are doing it wrong, guerrilla harassment and resource denial should really be used a lot more often… The problem with a zerg is that it becomes a massive target screaming “counter me, counter me!” Learn from Starcraft, people. A zerg without supplies is a useless zerg.

I’m not a hardcore PvPer (never actually touched a PvP character in my life), but will check out the FSÆ one (have already applied, just hope they’re still in Eredon Terrace)

I don’t have any lvl 80 characters (I tend to los interst in games periodically is why), but have been looking into the idea of a WvW-exclusive character. I’d love for a guild to take me in (at least temporarily) and help me find a class/build/playstyle that I like, get used to the WvW metagame, and basically help me become decent at WvW. In the meantime, I would be doing PvE because why not? I also like to try out wierd builds and builds based off of fluff reasons instead of pure effectiveness, so a guild open to experimentation is a plus.

If you feel that your guild is what I’m looking for, and that you’ve got a slot open with my name on it, let me know!

I agree: hobosacks kinda fit with the whole “rugged adventurer” look that SOME Charr or Human Engineers have going on. Sylvari, whose clothes are made of plants? Asura, with their Tron lines and random hovering baubles? Norn, with their ornate knotwork?

DO NOT WANT HOBOSACKS. There has to be some way of getting rid of the hobosacks, ANet, please. I love using kits (carpal tunnel aside, the ‘nade kit IS a lot of fun) but I hate having to watch my character’s painstakingly chosen look get completely ruined by a Big, Stained Sack of Blobiness +1 whenever I take out my medkit or my ’nades or my flamer.

If people have trouble figuring out what kit an Engi is using, then they are utter kittens. Is a gout of flame rushing through their blob? Flamethrower. Are small explosions turning their zerg into an impromptu fireworks display? Grenades. Are bubbles of strangely-colored liquids splashing everywhere? Elixir Gun. Are barrels appearing from nowhere and exploding with the force of a speeding nerfbat? Bombs. The skill animations for each kit are distinctive enough that there is really no purpose to having the hobosacks in order to “tell what kit the engineer is using.” Honestly, since all hobosacks look mostly the same, it doesn’t even help!

TL;DR – Hobosacks need to go, people need to learn what engi skills look like if that’s the complaint.

Ah. In that case, the problem does indeed lie with ANet. I mean, if they want “control” to be a key feature of their anti-Trinity, but then they go and nerf the bejeezus out of it in the parts where you would really WANT it… I mean, I can’t be the only one who went, “wow, dungeons have a LOT of mobs that need to be killed one-by-one, wouldn’t it be neat if there was some way to make sure that we COULD take them down one-by-one?” GW1 was much more rewarding of actually planning stuff out in that regards. GW2 seems, to me, to be pure, twitch-based action. Kill it before it kills you, nothing fancy, DPS is king…

I dislike playing DPS. I’m sure some people love watching the big numbers tick away, or enjoy making sure everyone has those little buff boxes next to their portrait, but for me, controlling movement and the flow of combat is much more interesting. Until ANet makes that a real feature in PvE, I’m unlikely to play much GW2 at all.

While this worked in, say, LOTRO and AoC, it was decided upon and implemented from the very beginning. To change from GW2’s current Transmutation Stone/Crystal system to a “Cosmetic Slot” system would require a major overhaul of the equipment interface.

I like the idea, but it’s not gonna work in GW2. I’m just glad I still have 10 Transmutation Stones saved up from map completion rewards and those wonderful, wonderful free Black Lion Keys you get from storyline (if you have that big a problem? Have a guildy run you through the storyline to lvl 10 when you get the first free Key, put that key in the Bank, delete the character and restart)

I used to be a huge fan of Global Agenda, a sci-fi , third-person MMORPG shooter. There were four classes: Medic (heals, support and, ironically, poisons), Recon (your average sniper, that everyone hated cause all the noobs picked it), Soldier (tanky as an Abrams, with awesome DPS), and Engineer (they had turrets with amazing DPS. They had med-stations with awesome heals. They had energy stations for awesome sustainability. And they had a robot arm to fix it all). The common theme amongst Engineer players was “a good Engineer can carry a bad team,” and certainly teams without Engineers were rarely ever successful outside of the really low-level areas.

Coming into GW2 from games like that, I was really excited about the Engineer class. I saw “turrets,” I thought, “cool, stationary defenses and mid-to-back-line support!” To probably misquote Thorin, NEVER have I been so wrong. Engineers play up close and personal, and lacked the area-denial I had been hoping for. So I turned to the only class that really had skills that seemed like they could help: Guardian.

Is a build (primarily for dungeon-running) focused around Staff/Hammer, Consecrations, and just generally “get off my lawn” abilities viable? Based on my GA experience, I’d say that being able to single-handedly cordon off a corner of the room to let the casters operate in peace seems incredibly useful, but I have no clue if that’s actually true in GW2, or if a build like that is even really possible to make.

Control was supposed to be one part of the GW2 anti-Trinity (DPS, Support, Control) but I don’t ever see any control or area-denial focused builds. If they don’t exist because people don’t like the playstyle, that’s fine cause I do, but if they don’t exist because they really aren’t viable, then I think ANet messed up in their design for GW2, but that’s for another thread if so.

Anyhow, a bit of feedback on “is this possible” and if so, “how” would really be great. Thanks!

Stealth, Clones/Phantasms, Minions, Ranger Spirits… Anything that gives a bunch of clutter is basically designed for PvP. I mean, really, does anyone think that MM necroes are even halfway viable in PvE with the current minion AI? Ranger Spirits, again, even less viable in PvE, and stealth is basically (AFAIK) only used to increase Backstab DPS.

Complaining that people are using these distractions for precisely the function they were created just shows a lack of thought about the design and implementation of the game as a whole. Solution to clutter in PvP? Sufficient application of AoE. Solution to stealth? Again, AoE.

As long as a build doesn’t ROFLBBQPWN everyone with little or no player skill and interaction required, I fail to see why it needs to be nerfed. Instead, builds need to be developed that can counter it. That’s what PvP build-creation is all about: you either run with a popular and effective build, or develop strategies to counter said popular and effective builds.

At least, that’s my experience from GW1, I haven’t actually done too much sPvP in GW2 but I doubt that it’ll have changed too much (build-wars-wise I mean, obviously there have been some massive changes to gameplay)

My bro and his guild ran with an almost-all Necro MM party in sPvP the other day, and they OWNED (the only reason they weren’t all Necros is cause the fifth person didn’t have a Necro character).

not sure if that’s relevant or not. Back to the topic…

Thank you, ANet, for keeping my favorite GW1 profession in GW2. I might not agree with the changes made (I loved GW1 MMs, and the playstyle in GW2 just isn’t the same without an army of gore-things following me around), but the fact that you kept the class is awesome in and of itself.

Thanks!

@ Risingashes

Honestly, I want to agree with what you say, I really do… But your ATTITUDE! That “Nope, I’m wright to put it here, anyone who suggests otherwise is mentally kittened, and I want the mods to have to move this to the forum where it is supposed to be, because doing that and trying to keep a neat, organized forum is a waste of everyone’s time” attitude… I’m sorry. I can’t help but to consider you a Grade-A kitteh.

ShiningSquirrel.3751:

AielloA.1629:

While I can understand the people who don’t want mounts, and I completely agree that mounts, if implemented, should NOT have any form of movement buff or anything (no flying, no faster running, etc.), I can’t see how just having a few lore-friendly mounts would hurt the game (I mean, how is it not awesome in every possible way to have an Asura going around LA on their own personal Transport Golem?).

Anyways. Final decision is up to ANet, if they don’t want to put mounts in they shouldn’t have to, and IDC either way.

Actually mounts would have a very noticeable, detrimental effect on the game.
Culling is already an issue in the game. You can be standing in a crowded area and barely see a fraction of the other players there. Now introduce another set of models that have to be rendered and you make the problem even worse then it currently is.
The graphic engine would have to do twice the work, generating models and animations for 2 models instead of just one for each player on a mount.

Game developers can pretty much do anything they want in any game, add any feature you could possibly think of.
But the draw backs are every additional feature takes more resources in the game. You have to make a choice sometimes, do you want a game with beautiful graphics and great game play with some features, or a game with cartoonishly low level graphics with all the bells and whistles. Do you make a game that can run on most of the computers out there, or only the high end ones so limit your market? Everything added to a game has some impact on playability, some features would be hardly noticeable, some would break the game for many players.

That’s actually a very good point, that I hadn’t thought about. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that WoW is a compelling argument for the “cartoonishly low-level graphics,” but am aware that that proves nothing. Like I said, I don’t actually mind either way, though, so carry on

Lord Krilik.3692:

“Sure, you’d probably have problems with clipping, but if someone chooses that look then that’s their choice and not the fault of the art department”

Um, no. Bad design shouldn’t just be shrugged off like that.

Most of your post I agree with, but this? If you had read my post, you would understand what I meant. When people can choose what their armor looks like, they can make bad decisions. A belt that’s designed to fit on a pair of skin-tight pants would definitely clip through a short, puffy skirt. And if the player chooses to have that belt and that skirt together on his leg-piece, then it’s that player’s choice, and he will have to live with it (or get the Tokens to re-create the armor piece).

As for the “already many looks” part, yes there are a bunch of looks already available, but I’m pretty sure all the Guardians who want to wear robes, all the Elementalists who want to look like they have armor, and anyone else who has tastes in gear not covered by the current armor sets (for example, remember that loading screen for that Charr land where they have the red-robed mage? Diessa Lowlands I think? I want my Necro to look like that, but there is not a single set or set combination that can give me that look. Or, failing that, Elite Luxon Necro armor from GW1) would love this.

I’ll admit that the coding would be tricky, but no more so than character creation really (actually it’d be easier than that, cause you wouldn’t have any sliders, everything would have clear-cut states: shirt 1, 2 or 3, design 1, 2, 3 or 4, etc), and the payoff would be great. They could even add some Gem Store-exclusive designs or meshes, if they really wanted to (the ability to add the Krytan skull belt to a chestpiece, for example).

I think that it’d be a great feature that no other game has (except for some single-player games, and even then it’s normally with lots and lots of mods. Or Spore, but that’s pretty much dead. And singleplayer), and since the theme for GW2 was basically “let’s try something new and interesting,” this’d be a good fit.

I’ve only read up to page 7 of this thread, might edit this once I’ve read the whole thing, but it seems to me the main arguments AGAINST Cantha are lore- and story-wise, that it wouldn’t work for non-human races and that we have to kill the Dragons first.

First, the former: how is the Dragon Empire gonna stop the Asura from going wherever they want to? There was once a functional Asura Gate right in the middle of Kaineng City. Asura Gate technology has advanced enough that Rata Sum could certainly attempt a remote-fix on the gate, even just opening it up briefly for a small Krewe to go through and set up a more permanent gate (escorting said Krewe would be a great start to the Personal Story in Cantha, hint hint), while holding off the Dragon Empire long enough to bring in the other Orders.

As for the Dragons: The only Dragon in Prophecies was the Oracle Glint. In Factions, we had the Oracle Kuunavang. Glint was the Champion of Kralkatorrik, a massive Elder Dragon of Crystal. Kuunavang? Is basically a long, sinuous, scaly sea-being (I know he’s based off an Eastern dragon, but the fact remains that with that kind of body, he’d do very well underwater). He could VERY easily be the current or ex-Champion of Bubbles.

And Ritualist for a new class wouldn’t work, it’d just be a reskin of Engineers really. Spirits = turrets, Ashes = weapon kits, and their other spells = Gadgets/Elixirs. That being said, I really would love to have a new class (a Medium-Armor-wearing caster is something I’ve wanted ever since I saw the Medium Armor style, even if they need another Heavy Armor class), and a Factions-esque expansion is the best way to introduce that.

Anyways. Those are my thoughts for now, might add or remove some of them once I finish reading the thread.

First edit: the concept art for Factions was absolutely amazing, and my biggest problems with Factions itself was that I couldn’t look as awesome as some of the NPCs. For a game as concept-art focused as GW2 is, ignoring the whole design of Cantha is a pretty massive oversight. Fun anecdote: I almost cried when I found out that Shiro’s Armor in GW2 looks nothing like Shiro’s Armor from GW1. Fun Anecdote #2: I literally cried manly tears when I went to Ebonhawke for the first time, and saw the graves of Gwen and Keiran Thackeray (they were actually the cornerstone for basically ALL of my hero builds, I just loved the pair so much), not to mention Nicholas “the traveler” Sandford and Professor Yakkington (my eyes actually misted up as I was typing this, and I wish I was exaggerating).

THIS is the impact that GW1 has had on your players. We loved it so much that we eagerly grasp at ANYTHING that reminds us of it in the “sequel”. Apart from Thackeray: I like the guy, I understand his point of view, but he made the wrong choice.

To get back to my point for the first edit: Everyone who loved Cantha in GW1 would love to see it back in GW2, it could bring some players to GW2 who didn’t like the direction the game has been going, and since it’d be (probably) a lvl 80 zone, people wouldn’t have to go there unless they wanted to.

Second Edit: Finally read every post for 23 pages :p RE the lack of Dev response, that could be purely because they ARE working on Cantha and don’t want to ruin the surprise. After all, the recent expansions have been moving southwards and seawards, instead of southwards and desertwards. Since the only way to reach Cantha is by sea, and the sea routes have been blocked by Zhaitan, the Karka and various sea monsters… Zhaitan is dead, the Risen are now an unorganized zombie swarm. Lost Shores dealt with the Karka, and we’re headed back to Southsun Cove right now, to clean up the problems there. Once Southsun Cove is cleaned up, what’ll it be? That’s right, a nice port onto the wide open southern ocean. You know, the one that leads to Cantha?

TL;DR – Cantha could very well be the next major content update, and the dev silence on the topic is sorta hinting at that (if they weren’t doing it, there’d probably be a response by now – since they haven’t responded, it’s likely because they’re not allowed to talk about it due to secrecy).

Anyways. I now have to decide which of my chars to delete in order to make way for a Canthan-inspired character. And since one of them is my main, and the other four are all co-op characters… Anyone have a spare character slot they could lend me? ;3

Tactitian exists. It’s called a Charr Guardian. They can buff. They can debuff. They can summon their warband (NPCs). They can call down an Artillery Barrage.

On the other hand, the “Tactical Moves” are basically all PvP-centered, which destroys any incentive to play a Tactician in PvE.

Try again.

While I can understand the people who don’t want mounts, and I completely agree that mounts, if implemented, should NOT have any form of movement buff or anything (no flying, no faster running, etc.), I can’t see how just having a few lore-friendly mounts would hurt the game (I mean, how is it not awesome in every possible way to have an Asura going around LA on their own personal Transport Golem?).

Anyways. Final decision is up to ANet, if they don’t want to put mounts in they shouldn’t have to, and IDC either way.

This is an interesting idea, but it basically gives every class a weaker version of Attunements (and it gives Eles eight, read it, EIGHT different skillbars per weapon set!), so I doubt this is ever gonna happen. Nice idea, but would totally break some class mechanics, IMHO.

This could actually be awesome, and it TOTALLY fits with the setting. Destiny’s Edge, anyone? Where did they meet? FIGHTING AS GLADIATORS IN THE LION’S ARCH ARENA!

Anet, do this. Please. Maybe if all the cities have their own Colosseum even, and the enemies you fight are different in each one?

What I was thinking was that at high levels, people could trade in the high-tier Fractal things (I can never remember if they’re Vials or Shards or what, sorry) or stacks of Dungeon tokens for an Ascended Armor Token, which you could then use to get Ascended Armors (the way I see it, gloves/boots/head would cost 3 Tokens, legs/shoulders 4 and chest 5, but that’s just me and if the gear is Ascended then harder is probably more valuable, but that could just mean that each AAT needs more mats to make). There would be a vendor in each home city who takes the tokens and gives you Ascended-tier armor for them.

Obviously Cultural would be easier for the Anet team, but custom armor would be even more awesome (I’ve been looking and looking for a trench-coat-like Light Armor for my Human Necro, and haven’t found anything that doesn’t look like it was either made for Mesmers or Norn, but that’s really kinda irrelevant here): you could choose the design of each piece (say, long sleeves/short sleeves/no sleeves/elbow gloves and shirt/bikini top/corset/open jacket with coat-tails/no tails/butt-cape for the chest, that sort of thing), add on various accoutrements (armor/padding/gems/jewelery/pouches/belts/weapons/etc.), and then choose a design (knotwork/embroidered/plain/ragged/patched/etc.), and whatever you choose, that’s what the final armor piece ends up looking like. Sure, you’d probably have problems with clipping, but if someone chooses that look then that’s their choice and not the fault of the art department.

Anyways. Those’re my thoughts, if anyone has constructive criticism, support, or even a different idea as to how this might work, go right ahead and post it (the more people reply, the more the Devs realize that people want new armor skins)

Runa Irongaze – she’s an Engineer who lost an eye to Issormir, and replaced it with a small device of her own making. Gives me an RP reason to wear that awesome engi monocle, too

Gunnar Lundgren… Don’t get the reference, but I like the first name. Surname seems a bit too Germanic to be a Norn name, but it has a nice ring to it nonetheless. 8/10

Sigrid Stormblade, nee Earunsdottir, is my current Norn… Sigrid “Halfblade” if you want to mock her (and by extension die)! She’s a female Norn Ranger, only recently had her mother’s greatsword reforged (got cut in half by her rival at a recent moot) and is clamoring to regain some of her lost glory. By killing a giant earthworm made of ice and spikes. Yeah.

Also: Freya Earunsdottir, Sigrid’s youngest sister. I could go on and on (I’m an RPer, I gave her a family and a backstory, so sue me ;3)

And now (sorry for the triple names, you only have to rate one if you don’t want to do them all though!) Maddi Fairtongue, Sigrid’s older sister, second-oldest of their family. Apprentice Skaald (so basically a Guardian ;3), who uses a sword and focus.

Hmm. I’m pretty sure that I tended to walk around with at least 12 minions at all times, as long as I had enough corpses (i.e. six).

But I do see your point, and in retrospect I should’ve thought my argument out a bit more. GW1’s mechanic worked because the game was based around groups of players/NPCs working together. So it didn’t matter if a Minion Master didn’t have any corpses at the beginning of an area, because as soon as his party killed one or two enemies, the MM could start building up to critical mass. But with GW2 being a lot more solo-friendly, corpse-based MM would be a LOT harder to use.

I think my main issue is that I can no longer have an army of identical minions following me. And also that bone minions look stupid. That aside, they really should’ve given us a utility skill to heal our minions somehow, if they weren’t gonna give them health regen.

I would also like to point out that Flesh Golems do indeed have health regen when you’re out of combat, it’s just that they don’t recognize “out of combat” as fast as our HP pools do. So it might just be a case of being patient.

I don’t feel at all like a Necro.

I actually disagree about the minion appearance issue most of you seem to have, as I think they look adorable, but I do miss the GW1 style of Necro. There, we really were an anti-tank class. Well. Sorta. Blood Magic Necros, played well, never died although they walked a razor’s edge between life and death (Blood Pact until you were at really low health, then Grenth’s Balance on an untouched target. Gimmicky, I’ll admit, but fun as hell. Until you got Dazed). Curse Necros could debuff the bejeezus out of anyone (although I think Mesmers might have been better for pure degen, but I’m biased as I never liked Curses). And then the Minion Masters. Oh God, the Minion Masters.

Walking around with about 15 walking corpses (nerfed now, thanks a lot ANet) was a great feeling. Just wonderful. I actually made it all the way through the Factions campaign with the starter armor set, because Minion Masters NEVER got hit if they were doing it right (didn’t hurt that all the Factions missions had a large supply of convenient corpses lying around). My party would outnumber the AI in basically every fight. All I needed to do was watch the minion count, and summon replacements whenever they died. There were SOME parts of the game that were hard as a Minion Master (blasted Celestial Kirin and their Ray of Judgement spam >.<) but for the most part, I really felt like an all-powerful lord of the dead.

Also, the profession armors. You could actually LOOK like a Necro in GW1, because all the armor you could get was designed with a Necro feel to it. None of that frilly Mesmer bull or overly-revealing Ele junk, Necros had spikes, blades, high collars and awesomeness.

TL;DR – ANet should’ve made GW2 Necros like GW1 Necros.

I think they don’t have regen because ANet figured that they didn’t need it, since Necros can just call up a new one for free when they die (not considering CD, ofc). Also, in GW1 minions had constant health DEGEN. Like the minor-trait Jagged Horror, for that matter. So it was a chore keeping your minions alive, if you were that kind of Necro (I would NOT recommend it… I used to play that way, until I accidentally one-shotted myself with Blood of the Master :P)

Honestly, I think that ANet should’ve left well enough alone, and kept the minion mechanics like they were in GW1. Get rid of DS maybe, and make the new Necro mechanic “Corpses.” We could’ve used them to heal (Putrid Feast or whatever it was called), to deal damage (Putrid Explosion), or to create minions. The one-of-each-type limit would’ve been removed (except for Flesh Golems), and the Death Magic line could’ve been rehashed so that people would focus on one type of minion like they did in GW1. We could’ve seen Necros running around with armies of minions again, instead of a paltry six (you used to be able to chillax with FIFTEEN MINIONS in GW1. Maybe sixteen if you had the Superior Rune, I’m not sure. Although it seems ANet nerfed that recently. I think they just don’t like minions)

But then again, I’m also irrationally upset that GW2 doesn’t have Elite Luxon Armor for necroes, so maybe I should stop whining and play GW1 for a bit to get it out of my system :P

Ah. I just realized that the last five in NM was actually a relic from when I had Rampage as One as my Elite. I decided to leave it on for the Toughness, and also cause I don’t think any of the second Major Traits in BM are that useful for my build. And with the gear/runes I have, it looks like I’ll have Regen up more often than not.

I took the feline pets because, from what I could tell, they have the highest DPS, which is what I need my pet to do. I might play around though.

Anyways, here’s my latest, updated build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQJARTjIVV2NWKWo2Bi2DN1fO9PkePDU5/Mm6kZLA-jAyAotAROAIQQZxioxW3KiGryGT9SEVbyLiWNA-e

And yeah. The positive energy here is a nice break from the Engi forums… Although I’m the first to admit that they do deserve their QQ, based on how they have only one or two build choices at end-game. But I really don’t want to speak about that now

Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMMQNBhODbEpqyOySxC1OQ0ewJLpp/h07Z4/QdxUnIB-jwgAEIEJCTjAA-e

I have no idea if this would work, and want some feedback. The basic idea behind this build is that I tank, while my pets deal the damage. I started out with another GS Ranger build I saw, and have made a couple changes to the traits and utilities.

If people could give me advice on how to optimize the build, and what sort of gear/runes/whatever I should go for, that’d be great. Thanks!

This might not be a good idea, but I think that having race- and class- specific Epic lvl 80 weapons (not quite Legendary-tier, but requiring a similar level of investment) would be a lot of fun… Maybe even race AND class-specific (like, a Charr Engineer being able to make a Charr-Engineer-only rifle, or a Norn Ranger making a Norn-Ranger-only axe)… Something that would increase our immersion in the game world (I personally dislike a Sylvari with any gear that isn’t Sylvari cultural and/or TA) would be awesome. Thanks!

Right, so it was me who misunderstood the class mechanic. Thanks to everyone who posted, imma give Necros another chance

On the other hand, my point about GW1 Necros is still valid T_T Ah well.

Could someone please tell me how to get past the fact that ANet seems to hate Necros? I seriously think that they do! Necros in GW1 have been seriously nerfed (remember running around with a horde of pathetic minions at your beck and call? Well, now that horde has been cut by a full THIRD. And they’re still all individually pathetic. So MM sucks now, Blood Magic was never particularly useful, the only viable Necro is a Curses Necro or a BiP battery T_T)

And now we have Necros in GW2 who have been nerfed to patheticness. Death Shroud? Awesome ability, lets you take hits and hit back like a truck, only… It has become impossible for a necromancer to use it viably in any difficult encounter (which is where you need it!) Reason? The skills we USED to have that gave us enough Life Force to use it, no longer give us Life Force, or at least not in anywhere near the amounts they had been giving it to us. So we now have to rely on killing mobs for Life Force. But once the mob’s dead, WE DON’T NEED LIFE FORCE ANYMORE!

It seems like a serious design flaw to make a class mechanic where we can only use it once every 8-9 enemies, as opposed to Warriors who liberally build up and use their adrenaline, Guardians who can pop their Virtues at least once a fight, Mesmers who spam the heck out of their clones, Thieves who build up initiative regularly and have skills that give massive boosts to initiative levels, Engineers who can use Toolbelt skills without any constraint other than CD, Rangers whose pet is always with them, and Elementalists who can swap attunements multiple times in the same fight, if conditions are right.

For every other class, the class mechanic is an integral and useful part of their build. It just seems like the Necro mechanic was thrown on as an afterthought. Please show me how I’m wrong, because I love the Necro and don’t want them to be so spectacularly useless!