Guild Wars 2

If you’re commenting on the animations particularly, all the animations are placeholder at the moment – that’s been stated.

Quarktastic.1027:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Rich Fuel.7253:

less then 10 min he died im telling you

If it took you 10 minutes to kill a trash mob then he didn’t “melt”, you beat your heads against it for a stupid amount of time because he was too hard for you to determine the mechanics.

Remember you only have 8 minutes to kill the actual boss which has 10x the hp as the red boss.

Timers are basically DPS checks anyway. Besides, does anyone know the actual mechanics of the boss yet? I’m pretty sure they won’t be identical to the red enemy.

From what I’ve seen on Reddit, the final boss is just the other mini-bosses combined, and then given a multiplier of 10 – or so it seems.

Zetsumei.4975:

If you want people to take you seriously, play necro long enough to understand how ignorant it is to say ‘they have two lives’ or don’t comment on it at all..

Or Thief long enough to understand the true problems you could be having with sustain in fights against… well, anyone.

Tipper.6973:

Maybe one day there will be a Ritualist elite spec for the Revenant. I think it’d be sweet. Summon a bunch of chained up spirits, cast some lightning magic…

This would make a lot of sense, since it’s already rather apparent that the Revenant was influenced, at least loosely, by the Ritualist. Everything from the attire (i.e. both wearing blindfolds) to the type of magic each profession utilizes – a Revenant is really just a more well rounded Ritualist that’s better suited for Guild Wars 2 gameplay.

Even if you go in an examine the Revenant’s skills, Glint’s facets are quite obviously influenced by the old Ritualist “Item Spells”, except facets are more versatile – but at their core, both skill types engage a primary “passive” faze when triggered, and then upon triggering a second time, they evoke an active effect.

The same (being influenced by the Ritualist) is true throughout many parts of the Revenant’s core DNA.

I think it’s likely that at some point in time, we see more of the Ritualist’s influence brought to the Revenant – however, people have to remember that Guild Wars 1 & 2 are entirely different games, and some of the things we loved from the first game simply won’t work mechanically within this game world.

When most people talk about the Ritualist and how cool it was, and how they wish they could play one in Guild Wars 2, often times what I infer is that when they’re referring to Ritualist, what they’re really referring to is the popular “Spirit Spam” Ritualist – obviously utilizing spirits. I personally feel as though it’s safe to say that if that’s what people are looking for in terms of Ritualist, that we will never see that in Guild Wars 2 – at least in a form anywhere near that which we saw in the original games. The game is too different for the spirits to work the same way – for better or for worse, the active combat system has practically all but ruled that out. But, if you’re looking for many of the other areas of magic the Ritualist had to offer, most are at home in some way, shape, or form within the Revenant – or probably will be in the future I would suspect.

Astralporing.1957:

Al Shamari.7234:

But isn’t that the point? Raids are the one content type in the entire game that exclude a portion of players who aren’t ‘hardcore’ enough to earn their way to completing them – what would be the point if they were easy enough that Ascended gear wasn’t required, what would be the point if every casual player could walk in and have gear handed to them while breezing through the raid?

Then they would be gated by what they were supposed to be gated – skill. Grind gates are the worst kinds of gates there are.

Al Shamari.7234:

That’s not high-end, challenging PvE content – that’s a casual cake walk.

Ah, i see, so for you the challenge lies in having the right gear set.

I absolutely guarantee that despite anything Arenanet says, raids are possible in Exotic level gear – why? Because there are no hard coded mechanics that force you to utilize Ascended gear (e.g. agony). I’m sure that people will want to use Ascended gear, because it will make raids somewhat easier – but the reality is, that over time I’m sure a group will complete the raids in Exotic gear because all damage can be negated, and all bosses can be killed with enough time.

So nothing is being gated off via grind, nothing is forcing you to use Ascended gear – it will simply make the task easier, and if you’re not committed enough to get Ascended gear, good luck being committed enough to make it through the raid – because chances are, your level of commitment to one will affect your perspective towards the difficulty of the other.

eekzie.5640:

Al Shamari.7234:

eekzie.5640:

Al Shamari, they’ve already said that exotics were too easy to acquire and they overlooked that. Their response was ascended tier. They introduced it slowly over time, giving people plenty of time to adjust.

Considering you can do almost anything in the game and earn your way to crafting ascended gear, I really don’t get the fuss.

Re-read my post, we’re in agreement

I was just adding on to your post, not disagreeing :O

Touche!

eekzie.5640:

Al Shamari, they’ve already said that exotics were too easy to acquire and they overlooked that. Their response was ascended tier. They introduced it slowly over time, giving people plenty of time to adjust.

Considering you can do almost anything in the game and earn your way to crafting ascended gear, I really don’t get the fuss.

Re-read my post, we’re in agreement

Walhalla.5473:

Why do you think that Anet lied to us?

I believe they’re referring to the fact that in the past, the developers stated things such as “there will be no gear treadmill”, and then they released Ascended armor, which was met with a lot of disappointment.

They later admitted this was a mistake, and said it would be the final armor tier introduced to the game.

So, they essentially made a mistake at one point – although to say they “lied” is an exaggeration, since I don’t believe they ever said there would never be armor tiers introduced after the game was released, and it’s rather unfair to claim a single tier being introduced as a “gear treadmill”. But, I do understand why this is disheartening to people.

What I don’t understand is how this is still being held against them to this day? What are they supposed to do? Pretend that Ascended armor doesn’t exist, release all new content tuned for Exotic armor so that those wearing Ascended can literally blinding walk through content because of the stat increase?

Please, someone explain to me…

GuzziHero.2467:

Well, in that case, thanks to Anet for excluding more players. Looks like I’ll never see a raid then.

Please, please explain to me how you feel as though the content would be challenging while including the entire player base without excluding a single individual? I’d like to hear your logic behind this, because in my mind, these two things can not fundamentally coexist.

GuzziHero.2467:

So basically another thing that makes their lie about Exotic being final tier gear and usable for all content true.

I hope in the actual raid, Ascended is provided (if only for that instance), or basically it means that they are excluding a lot of players who don’t have Ascended.

But isn’t that the point? Raids are the one content type in the entire game that exclude a portion of players who aren’t ‘hardcore’ enough to earn their way to completing them – what would be the point if they were easy enough that Ascended gear wasn’t required, what would be the point if every casual player could walk in and have gear handed to them while breezing through the raid?

That’s not high-end, challenging PvE content – that’s a casual cake walk. You can’t have challenging content and expect the game to cater to your specific desires.

It doesn’t work both way – challenging content is for those who invest time into every facet of the game and need content to push themselves further.

Changer the Elder.2948:

Actually, you can skip it. As masteries are account-wide, it’s enough just for your first toon to breeze through the story part. For all the others, just enter the Verdant Brink from Silverwastes, as usual, and when you enter the “story” story (with Braham and others), simply go to character select and go back in. That will put you straight to Verdant Brink, with the story chapter appearing as an entrance close to where you are ported to. That way, you only have to sit through one story through all of the beta (to unlock the masteries) and all your other characters can just run through Silverwastes and hop straight to the action.

Alternatively, you can enter WvW on your beta character and when you leave WvW, your character will be placed in Verdant Brink.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

The reality we might face could look like this: New players are overwhelmed with the difficulty in the 1st HoT map. Metrics might say that people are killed too often.

But Verdant Brink, and more to the point, Heart of Thorns, are level 80 content – “new players” shouldn’t be here. These areas shouldn’t feel like Kessex Hills. Players that have made their way to Verdant Brink should have already worked their way through the personal story, they should have experienced dungeon content, etc. We might be able to make a fresh level 80 for the purpose of the beta, but the reality is that when the expansion launches, these “new players” won’t be there until they have a firm grasp on the game – so if it’s data that’s persuading these changes, Arenanet needs to understand that the data they’re looking it might very well be skewed in some fashion.

We shouldn’t be catering to a player base that wants to stand idle while playing a game that prides itself in having an active combat system.

sharkswithlazers.7632:

Please, this doesn’t need a petition, they know. No one is arguing that this content is satisfying. Just let them know on the forums that this is an issue. Petition just seems… overdramatic.

Sorry if you feel is sounds “overdramatic”, but a petition literally just boils down to a “request to do something” – which is exactly what we’re trying to do.

Shinobi.3240:

People are for sure overreacting.
The sky isn´t falling.
The concept of daredevil is really nice.
Don´t bash on Karl constantly.

There are just a few things that need to be done to make the daredevil work perfectly fine.

• Make the new dodges selectable stances. If they are swappable in combat than let them have a cost for swapping. 50 endurance or whatever. If the developers think thats to powerful just make them swapable out of combat only.

• Smoothen the new dodges. I don´t need super shiny animations. They should just work right in the first place. Cool animations would be nice but not necessary.

• Put a darkfield on staff 4 so we can use our whirl, blast and leap finishers. Will change a lot. Staff is missing a combo field.

• Put new grandmaster traits into the daredevil spec.

• Combine the condition removal on a successful dodge into one of the minor traits.

Tada …. all good again.

Thank you Karl for communicating with us that much.

Best regards!

Shino

But that’s the point, we’ve gotten no word yet that anything similar to any of this is happening – and those aren’t simple changes. If those changes don’t occur, we are screwed, and that’s what people are worried about. This, regardless of how you feel, is a big deal.

vanderwolf.7084:

The jotun were most likely never human looking, and have always looked that way.

While it may be true that they never looked “human”, they haven’t always looked the way that they do currently. According to the Guild Wars 2 Wikipedia page, they have become uglier – how much uglier is in question, but probably did look more human at one point in time.

“According to Durmand Priory scholars, they have become uglier since their civilization’s fall, based on Jotun relics.”

However, it’s unlikely that the Norn and the Jotun were once “one” like the OP states is plausible. The Guild Wars 2 Wikipedia page states that “…before their fall the Jotun and Norn were favored by the Six Human Gods”. This means that at the height of their existence, the Jotun and the Norn were separate races, which means it’s highly unlikely that they were linked, or that the Jotun “became” the Norn.

Zodryn.4216:

With these updates I think dash is gm worthy. I say remove the damage from lotus (there’s enough reveal on other professions now to catch a condi ghost easily), and give bound a little extra something and I fully accept them as gm traits.

You could still add an interface for selecting them out if combat for convenience. No reason not to, even if they stay gm traits.

Wait, so if they remove the damage from Impaling Lotus, what’s its use?

Karl McLain.5604:

Re: Dash update!
The original reason we had removed the extra distance on Dash was that we lacked the tech. Since that post, it’s been resolved. Thus, the distance of Dash is back, with a fervor. Now you’ll travel a full 450, up from the 360 previous (~300 base dodge), while moving at a faster-than-running speed. Swiftness duration increased to 10 seconds, up from the 8 we talked about originally.
This thing’s about solid movement, so we’re going to push it in that direction for this BWE. Please check it out and let us know how you feel about it. The animation’s going to remain as your character’s run for now.
We are aware that this new distance will cause some de-sync in synergy with Shadow Refuge, but feel that the open-field movement capability for daredevil needs to take precedence over this abliity. note: You can still dodge from edge-to-edge and remain inside the field, but it’s pretty tricky.

Karl man, I just want to say thank you for communicating with us throughout the day – this really means more than anything to me and makes me feel that regardless of the fact that I disagree with certain functionalities of the specialization, that it will get on track and head in the right direction.

I think I speak for a lot of the community when I say that consistent communication really is one of our largest desires.

Please, please keep this up – both throughout the next month and after launch. I feel as though because of the technical complexity of some of the specialization mechanics, as well as some of the changes that will need to be made at some point even after launch (e.g. animations) your communication is so important to us. So don’t fade into the background, give us regular updates and don’t give up on the profession.

From myself and everyone else, it means a lot and I know it’s hard work, but we’ll get there eventually! There’s a long road ahead of us, and I don’t think many of us are truly expecting everything to “be there” come launch, but as long as the communication is there, as long as our voices are heard, it gives us faith that we’ll get there eventually.

Thank you Karl, it means a lot – and like someone else offered, if you ever want a beer, give me a Paypal address and I’ll buy you a drink on me.

Shogun.7401:

Karl is actively communicating with Tempest community.

No love for DD.

See, and this is what truly upsets me – I understand there’s a long road ahead, I understand we might not see everything we need in place when Heart of Thorns launches. But the fact that we’re literally being left out here to rot truly upsets me, the fact that it’s painfully obvious we’re not being given the same care as the other professions is absolutely abhorrent. There needs to be communication, we’ve been ignored for long enough and it only continues to get worse. Even if you’re not making genuine progress, at least respond to feedback and give us your own thoughts.

I’ll take #35, thanks!

Darius.2651:

Let’s try and not repeat ourselves, it’ll just put the dev team off reading the wall of text.

At the same time, until the forums are changed in a way that allows the users to consolidate their opinions on feedback (e.g. an upvote button of some kind), we’re essentially forced to repeat ourselves in order to give the developer the understanding that it’s not a single person, or a small minority requesting these changes.

It’s a wall of text, yes – and I’m sure it’s disgruntling to read through. But, at the same time, it’s a necessary evil due to the fact that the developers do need to understand that these are changes a large number of Thief players are requesting.

Honestly, I’ll probably roll with Revenant – especially seeing the treatment they’re currently getting. Roy is really treating the profession with a lot of love and care. Shiro isn’t that far behind a Thief, as far as what I desire out of the class, and with the introduction of more challenging content in Heart of Thorns, I feel as though the utility the Revenant is going to provide will make the class very worthwhile to roll.

Anything in the open world can be farmed by Thieves, rather easily – since no open world content is challenging enough to pose a challenge to any profession.

You can farm meta-events in Orr and Silverwastes, since the Thief is absolutely wonderful at tagging events and has amazing mobility using the short bow. You can farm world bosses on a Thief, no problem. You can run dungeons with a Thief, since people become accustomed to the utility you provide.

As far as builds go, I typically run a pretty standard dungeon build in the open world (Deadly Arts, Critical Strikes, and Trickery) with D/D and SB. Sometimes I’ll swap it up to S/P for some cleaving. You could also run venom share, especially when you have a team and you’re doing Silverwastes events – it’s a good bit of fun.

Really, what I’m trying to say is… you can do anything you desire to do with a Thief, it’s not a problem in PvE. People still desire the utility you provide, you can quickly tag events, you have amazing mobility. Play the build you want, do what you want.

RunicAura.9860:

I wouldn’t say it has to behave exactly like the mantras. But I think that if I have a knife stashed on my body That knife will be there till I remove it or somebody takes it from me It wouldn’t vanish within a few seconds of my putting it there. Thus the thief loosing his knife in a short period after of time makes no sense.

Exactly, that’s what’s so weird about Distracting Daggers for me, the fact that it disappears not only seems oddly balanced (and for what reason?) but also, it’s entirely thematically incorrect.

Why go through the effort of creating an interesting skill effect/animations that gives us daggers attached to our arms, only to have the disappear if they’re not used fast enough. They’re not spirit manifestations, or magic-based weaponry. These are actual, tangible daggers, similar to a kit of some kind. Why do they just disappear without being used?

Yeah, I’ve only played Thief in PvP since launch, played two games with my Warrior today – who I just got to level 80 – and it was like day and night, holy hell. I did better spamming buttons (sort of) because I didn’t have my rotation dialed down, than I do regularly after playing Thief for years.

Personally, it’s not entirely the fact that Thief is “useless”. I think a large part of the problem is that the areas that were supposed to be the Thief’s “niche” are slowly being intruded upon by other professions – namely Mesmers.

I personally feel as though Thieves aren’t “horrible” by any stretch of imagination, but it seems to me that we’re losing our identity. I’m beginning to become confused as to what our actual place in the game is, is anyone else thinking this?

While we’re still extremely mobile, other classes offer more mobility. Okay, so we’re primarily a single target spike, but slowly and surely, Mesmers and Elementalists are beginning to offer the same level of single target spike damage Thieves are capable of – even Revenants are looking as though they might be a viable single target spike profession, with the level of isolation mechanics Shiro offers. Okay, well we still have our stealth – but that’s being kitten ’d as well, it’s “OP” people said. So it was stripped away from us, made to be less formidable. Now, other professions (again, namely Mesmers) are being given stealth that, in many situations, competes with what Thieves are capable of. Stealth was our one line of defense as well, and now that that’s been toned down, we’re much more susceptible to damage than any other profession in the game. We had very little condition cleansing available to us, and an extremely low health pool, meaning conditions are extremely lethal when used against us. Well, that’s okay – at least our condition cleansing (or lack thereof) is on par with Engineers, right? Well no, that’s changing as well with the introduction of Scrapper – the developers felt as though Engineers needed a more sustainable way to cleanse themselves of conditions – and here we are, sitting by the wayside.

Thieves are slowly losing their footing in every area of the game they were supposed to excel in, and being surpassed in other areas that were supposedly designed as “counter plays”; we just get to sit back and watch while areas of weakness are buffed within other professions so they’re able to remain competitive, while we get three dodges that lack functionality and sloppy-seconds for our elite specialization animations and the developers call it a day.

Thieves aren’t inherently horrible by design, but we’re losing our identity. We’re getting stale, while other professions are not only getting their rough edges smoothed out, but given utility that encroaches on the few aspects of the game we’re supposed to remain the “best” at to make up for any hint of survivability or sustain.

Nike.2631:

Slowmelt.8547:

Nike.2631:

I agree they could have and probably should have done better, but lets not compare apples and plastic fruit that vaguely looks like apples. Because the two things aren’t even as similar as apples and oranges.

The point is reasonable.
The amount of time spent making a tonic that maybe 5% of the player population might ever SEE, never mind OWN, could be spent making one third of the animation needed for having the Daredevil actually FEEL like a martial character who is good at what s/he does.

Understand what’s involved. Borrowing and repurposing existing assets from the Monkey King tonic is a GREAT idea. But to do it would also require additional time/resources from the character art & animation team to ensure it works with variable bulk/height and to remap those actions for the other body-types.

There is very little time left on the clock before HoT launches. It’s not as simple as “you should do it.” It is much more “Is it even possible in the time remaining and what will get displaced/shoved back if we do?”

If they can fit it in, great. But it’s not like throwing a light-switch just because the tonic is done.

All of that is 100% true, but let’s keep in mind that they’ve already agreed to add a new, special dodge animation for the Revenant, purely because the players said “Hey, this would be cool” and they’re fine-tuning many more.

Now, that’s great – I’m glad the developers are open to such endeavors.

But, it also bothers me – because the Revenant are getting the treatment we need. Daredevils are in a much, much worse place, animation wise, than Revenants. Those time and resources would be better spent improving Daredevil, rather than just giving “bonuses” to the Revenant. We’re not in a good place, as far as animation is concerned. Where as Revenant truly is, they have some of the most gorgeous animations – so before they get a cool new dodge, purely because players think it would be neat, let’s actually fix a specialization that legitimately looks bad as far as animation is concerned.

IDICERI.4268:

Al Shamari.7234:

IDICERI.4268:

Awesome changes! Good to see this much progress in such a short time. Unfortunately some people can’t grasp this concept.

There’s no need to insult fellow players. I think you and I both know that people can very well grasp that these are good changes, nearly everyone has pointed out as such.

However, in the long run they’re not enough – they can buff the damage as much as they want, but that’s only a portion of a larger reason as to why people want to love playing this class.

Everyone is well aware that these changes are mostly positive, and it’s been noted that we’re happy Karl is communicating more regularly (keep it up Karl, please). However, there are many much, much larger changes that need to occur in order to keep Thief players happy, many of which have yet to even be addressed, let along worked upon – and that’s an issue. To say it isn’t is absolutely blind optimism and downplaying the importance of such changes.

It’s not that we can’t grasp that these are good changes, that’s absolutely insulting – it’s that these changes fail to address larger problems, larger problems that have yet to even be addressed, and that’s extremely worrisome for the player base.

I’m sorry you feel insulted. My comment wasn’t directed at people who think the changes that were made are good. It’s directed at people who don’t understand that they made so much progress within a week and don’t have the patience to understand that you need time to fix all the issues that have come up with the Daredevil and the Devs are heading in the right direction. I should have made that clearer so people found it easier to grasp, in case it offended anyone, my mistake.

I don’t feel insulted, I just had a fundamental problem with the fact that you did insult other players.

Sure, changes take time – I think everyone understands that, for the most part. The problem is, there are fundamental problems with the specialization that have yet to even be addressed. That takes no time, it’s as easy as a response on the forum. Yet throughout this entire process, Karl has yet to say anything about these problems, which are something that the community has continually mentioned time and time again. Meanwhile, he’s addressing other problems. That leads myself and others to believe that these problems we feel are absolutely integral to the specialization are being ignored entirely, and that’s an issue.

Changes take time, we understand. But, the changes aren’t going to happen if the issues are being ignored and swept under the rug because the developer thinks the current state of the specialization is “fine” in certain regards, meanwhile the vast portion of the community disagrees. And there lies the problem – people are upset not because these changes are bad, or they don’t understand that changes take time, but rather than massive issues with the core flavor of the specialization aren’t even being addressed. They’re being ignored, the developer is reading critique and appears to be pretending they don’t exist – that absolutely, 100% alienates the player base and breaks down the trust barrier between player and developer, which is an important part of the the feedback loop. If trust between player and developer ceases to exist, the feedback loop because null because the player base doesn’t feel comfortable with the hands their suggestions are placed in.

IDICERI.4268:

Awesome changes! Good to see this much progress in such a short time. Unfortunately some people can’t grasp this concept.

There’s no need to insult fellow players. I think you and I both know that people can very well grasp that these are good changes, nearly everyone has pointed out as such.

However, in the long run they’re not enough – they can buff the damage as much as they want, but that’s only a portion of a larger reason as to why people want to love playing this class.

Everyone is well aware that these changes are mostly positive, and it’s been noted that we’re happy Karl is communicating more regularly (keep it up Karl, please). However, there are many much, much larger changes that need to occur in order to keep Thief players happy, many of which have yet to even be addressed, let along worked upon – and that’s an issue. To say it isn’t is absolutely blind optimism and downplaying the importance of such changes.

It’s not that we can’t grasp that these are good changes, that’s absolutely insulting – it’s that these changes fail to address larger problems, larger problems that have yet to even be addressed, and that’s extremely worrisome for the player base.

Karl McLain.5604:

Hey all,
here’s some other changes that happened today.

note: There was a bit of feedback that the auto-attack wasn’t up to snuff. We took a look today and decided that it was quite the case, being that damage on this weapon set is more localized onto the auto-attack.
Staff Strike: Increased damage by 5%.
Staff Bash: Increased damage by 18%.
Punishing Strikes: Increased damage by 20% per attack. Added a missile reflect skill fact.
Hook Strike: Increased damage by ~250%. note: The damage is still on the lower side for the weapon, but now deals more than practically zero. This ability is intended to set up high damage combos through crowd control, thus we’re trying to keep the damage lower than other from-stealth abilities.

Weakening Charge: This ability is now targeted, with the animation being cleaned up a bit. Distance traveled is slightly less, to increase the ease of landing multiple hits on a target. Reduced aftercast slightly (120ms).

Debilitating Arc: Included an evade fact. This ability continues to evade from the start of the ability.

Impaling Lotus: Removed the hidden initiative cost.

These changes definitely help out the damage aspect of the Daredevil, so we’re moving forward – but as people have talked about in this thread, myself included, can you address the animations for this specialization?

Why was the choice made to utilize previous animations for the specialization? Such as the idle staff animation being borrowed, as well as all three dodge animations? Every other specialization received new animations, and dodges are absolutely integral to the specialization as a whole – so why wasn’t more focus put towards these being fresh and interesting?

Another thing I think many people would like address besides the animations is the fact that this specialization requires a Grandmaster Trait, simply to unlock our specialization mechanic. Tempests don’t need to “unlock” overload with a Grandmaster, Berserkers don’t need to “unlock” rage with a Grandmaster, Revenants don’t need to unlock their elite legend with a Grandmaster, etc – so on and so forth. Dodge is not more “powerful” than any of these mechanics. When many players pointed out that it was unbalanced that Revenants could not access weapon swapping, that it kitten the profession regardless of having access to two utility bars, the developers listened and made the right change. This is a similar scenario, yet we’re not seeing it addressed. Not having access to a true Grandmaster really hinders the specialization, and puts it far, far beyond every other specialization that doesn’t require the same to be done.

A lot of players feel like this specialization is simply an afterthought. The lack of care put into the skill animations, gimping the class by requiring spec’ing into a Grandmaster to “unlock” its specialization mechanic, etc. It just doesn’t feel as though the same thought is being put into the Daredevil.

We’d at least like these two points addressed in some way or another – even if it’s “This is what we’re doing, and it won’t be changing”. Because, at least then, those of us who are waiting on this being addressed can move on.

Thanks Karl, I appreciate it!

Hey Karl, first off I want to say that I appreciate the work you and the rest of the team does – especially those of you here managing the forums, since I understand things can get a little tense. I personally rarely come here, because it can be a cesspool of overwhelmingly negative opinions at times.

But I’m here today because there’s something I’m truly concerned about, and maybe you could help me understand.

Why are so many Daredevil animations recycled? It’s actually really troublesome that I see this, especially when so many other profession specializations got new, amazingly animated skills. The Revenant has tome of the most gorgeous skill animations I’ve seen in a game, the Tempest skills are absolutely wondrous to look at.

Then, when I play the profession I main, the profession I see every single day when I log on – we get recycled animations slapped on. It screams lack of care, either that or that this is being rushed out the door. That doesn’t make me, or anyone else comfortable.

Part of the reason people play Guild Wars 2 is because it feels wonderful, it’s so fluid to play – and skill animations are a large part of that.

So, why is it that a specialization centered around movement and control gets existing animations slapped on top, making it one of the least fluid characters to play to date.

The dodge rolls are the main offenders of this, part of the reason the pacing is off is because you’re utilizing existing skill animations and pasting them on top of a dodge roll cycle – these should truly be individually animated. It’s unfair that we’re getting hand-me-downs for the profession we truly love. The way the Daredevil holds the staff is another obvious offender. It’s the same grip in which a Revenant holds a hammer, which not only looks wrong, but is fundamentally wrong as well. You hold a hammer with a certain grip because the weight is balanced a specific way, you need a stronger grip to ensure you can support the weight of the hammer head itself. No one would wield a staff the same way, no one.

There are just two obvious issues ruining this specialization for myself as well as other. As it stands, my comment concerning this is the most upvoted comment on the Reddit thread pertaining to these coming BWE Daredevil changes, so there’s evidence that people agree with me.

So please, Karl, I beg you to truly give the Daredevil the love it deserves, the same love each and every other profession got when they were given some of the best looking skill animations in the game. This specialization deserves better, and if it’s being rushed out the door, that spells a larger problem with the expansion in general. Every specialization deserves the same treatment, give this specialization custom, fluid skill animations and I guarantee you that regardless of balance issues, people will play it because it feels good.

Al Shamari.7234:

Although I’m personally not a fan of silly costumes (i.e. wings, ears, tails, etc), how exactly does it break immersion? They are just that, costumes, correct? We have the materials in the game to make such costumes, we have the fauna within the world that act as inspiration for said costumes, so how exactly does it break immersion within the world?

We have magic and machinery, guns and gizmos – why does a costume break immersion?

I mean, we’ve even had “Mini Pets” since the original Guild Wars – small miniature versions of various creatures, past allies and enemies. There’s no fuss about those breaking immersion, how are costumes any different from a lore and immersion standpoint?

You. I like you.

Thank you! Another thing I forgot to mention is that we literally have applications and events for costumes within the game – we actually have Wintersday, Halloween, the Queen’s Jubilee, and the Dragon Bash.

I’d not only argue that costumes don’t break immersion, they are part of the immersion. They aren’t simply an “add on”, they are very much built into the game and have been since Guild Wars: Prophecies.

We’re obviously lacking the information to provide a definitive answer, but my guess would be that it will be a more “support” oriented specialization, although “healing” is probably a bit of a stretch – seeing as Guild Wars 2 specifically lacks a dedicated “healer” specialization, and Arenanet’s intention does not seem to be to add one. Although, one could assume that if the Druid specialization’s primarily purpose would fall into a dedicated “support” role, healing will probably be a light part of that, but maybe not in the typical fashion you’re thinking of.

If we use the original Guild Wars as any inspiration – which I’m sure they’ll (developers) do to some degree – I suspect that we’ll see some combination of some of the Ranger’s “Nature Rituals” from the Wilderness Survival attribute (which will primarily act as offensive skills, such as “Winter” (Converts elemental damage to cold damage for creatures in range) or “Pestilence” (When any creature in range dies, conditions on this creature spread to any creature in the area with a condition) and provide AoE changes to the battlefield, shifting odds in the player’s group’s favor, or allowing certain synergies. Combined with this, we might see some more support oriented skills that draw inspiration from the Restoration Magic or Communing attributes that the Ritualist utilized in Guild Wars.

These are obviously just estimated guesses, and I’m also sure we’ll see skills that draw inspiration from the classic Druid abilities such as weather/element manipulation and the ability to control fauna and flora in the vicinity.

Although I’m personally not a fan of silly costumes (i.e. wings, ears, tails, etc), how exactly does it break immersion? They are just that, costumes, correct? We have the materials in the game to make such costumes, we have the fauna within the world that act as inspiration for said costumes, so how exactly does it break immersion within the world?

We have magic and machinery, guns and gizmos – why does a costume break immersion?

I mean, we’ve even had “Mini Pets” since the original Guild Wars – small miniature versions of various creatures, past allies and enemies. There’s no fuss about those breaking immersion, how are costumes any different from a lore and immersion standpoint?

Hey man, best of luck in your search for a guild. If you find something suitable, you should send me a message and let me know. We both appear to have similar requirements for a guild and we’re based on the same server – I have yet to find anything.

Still looking, so feel free to post or message me!

I’m not a new player by any means, considering I’ve been playing Guild Wars since “Prophecies”. But, I have just returned to Guild Wars 2 after a break spanning over a year. I’m currently in the process of leveling quite a few new alt characters while I ease back into the game.

Feel free to add me, hit me up when you’re online and we’ll do some questing together!

Hey everyone, I’ve recently returned to the game after quitting, roughly towards the middle of the Season 1 Living Story content release.

I recently began playing again on a casual basis and I’m looking for begin playing on a more consistent level – with the recent (today) patch, I figure this is as good of a time as ever to get back into the game, considering everyone is on a more even playing field with all the changes.

I’m looking for a guild that will help me ease back into higher level content while remaining helpful. I’m mainly looking to participate in things such as dungeons, fractals, and oven world PvE – but I do enjoy WvW from time to time as well. I’m also looking for a guild that will help me gain a better understanding of things such as: farming in The Silverwastes, crafting Ascended and other high level gear, etc.

Full requirements:

• Medium sized, looking for a guild with around 50-100 members
• Based mainly on Jade Quarry server
• Mainly North American players
• Focused mainly on PvE, with emphasis on guild events, dungeons, and fractals
• Extremely helpful, I might have quite a few questions for the first month or so until I get into the grind
• Active, I’d really like to see a large percentage of the players online on a weekly basis
• Some WvW focus, I’d love to be able form a small squad with guild mates and wreck some havoc
• Teamspeak or Mumble usage would be great

More about me:

• I’m 23 years old
• Based in CST timezone
• I try to log in on a regular basis, and play for several hours at least a couple times a week
• I’ve been playing Guild Wars for quite some time, even have thousands of hours sucked into the original series

I believe that’s it, if you have anymore questions, feel free to ask! If you’d like to invite me to join your guild you can send me a message or reply to this thread. Alternatively, you can also message me in game at “Al Shamari.7234”.

Look forward to hearing from you!