Guild Wars 2

Toast.1495:

I like these ideas. A flashing blades that leaves a symbol that ticks blindness would be incredibly useful and I think it could be tuned to not be op.

Smite should have been symbol of smiting from the start. I think symbol of smiting giving might to allies or cripple or weakness to enemies would be in line with the other scepter skills.

Hopefully, the devs can agree that it’s a good idea. It’s been problematic for me, ever since the beta events, that these two weapons lack symbols. I’ve had to adapt, as I always adapt, but I don’t understand why these two weapons lack symbols to begin with. Inconsistency is ugly.

Right now, there are six traits that deal with symbols – three of them are minor traits, which means they cannot be avoided, in the Zeal line.

Now, this isn’t exactly a “crippling” thing. It just means that, if you’re going to pick Sword, Scepter, or even both (one in each weapon set), it’s generally advised to avoid the Zeal line as much as possible. It also prevents the three major traits associated with Symbols from being useful to you.

Again, not crippling. There’s other trait lines, as well as other traits to pick from, and obviously if you want symbols you could pick other weapons. This one little quirk, however, is the entire reason I have so far refused to use either weapon. It seems to me that lacking Symbols is holding these two weapons back.

But wouldn’t it be better, i.e. more flexible in regards to character building, if the Sword and Scepter each had their own symbols? It would also be more consistent.

Instead of replacing the skills these weapons have – why not simply add Symbols to the skills we already have? My specific suggestion is this:

• In the case of the Sword, cause Flashing Blade to put down a Symbol on the ground after you teleport. Generally Symbols give allies boons rather than giving allies conditions, so we could be lazy and just add Symbol of Wrath… OR a new Symbol could be added that grants Might to allies. Or, one could break from tradition, and instead of having Flashing Blade apply the Blind, have it drop a Symbol that Blinds enemies in it every second. Which option makes more sense, is more balanced, and keeps things “unique” for the sword… eh, it’s not for me to say. Latter option makes most sense to me, since Flashing Blade would not gain any extra effects, or lose any, beyond the ability to trait it with symbol-affecting traits, but that breaks away from what Symbols traditionally are supposed to do.

• In the case of the Scepter, a choice isn’t really as easy to pick. Skill 1 isn’t a chain skill, so no real room there. Skill 2 is a targeted aoe offensive ability – more often then not, you’ll be placing it on groups of enemies. Skill 3 is a single-target offensive ability – specifically applies to enemies, not allies. However… consider what Smite does. You place a little symbol on the ground where enemies take magical damage over time. That statement even has the word symbol in it. Perhaps Smite could instead be Symbol of Smite. Since you will typically be placing this on enemies instead of allies (except for nearby melee allies), let alone yourself, this Symbol could apply 1 second of Crippling to enemies every second – it could even still do the current Smite effect, of applying damage multiple times in a few seconds. Suddenly the Scepter is a good ranged kiting tool for Guardians (something they lack!), so long as you ignore the slow-moving projectiles. If that’s too much, it could, of course, merely apply Symbol of Wrath. At least then, if allies (including yourself) do enter and benefit from it, chances are there’s already enemies attacking them.

TL;DR – Sword and Scepter are the only weapons lacking Symbols. Add a Symbol to Flashing Blade and to Smite, each, in some fashion, obviously with appropriate number-tweaking for the sake of balance, and Guardian builds will become significantly more flexible.

So, for some reason, through all the Durmand Priory personal story instances in Lornar’s Pass, I don’t even get a prompt to join my friend. We can see each other just fine out in the map, and then when she pops into her personal story, nothing. She just pops in. No box asking me to join.

When doing my Order of Whispers stuff in Gendarran Fields, we do not have this problem. It’s specifically in Lornar’s Pass. =\

It’s been happening like this for a while now, I should add, not just for the past few days. Sometimes it does happen in other zones, but never to this extreme. It’s usually very sporadic.

It’s getting my friend angry enough to simply uninstall the game because of how many bugs there are. Because, seriously? Games that are this buggy aren’t fun at all.

I would REALLY like the ability to preview gear from the Trading Post before I buy it. =\

Yes, it sucks just as much for the really big weapons. That’s a problem with needing to be able to zoom in/out though, imo.

When we preview gear, can we please be shown a preview of the weapons unsheathed, being wielded in our hands, instead of dangling from our hips and clipping through coats so that they’re half-hidden?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitheism

Definitely fits much better than athiesm.

Mono-element specs are suicidal.

Let the meta game evolve for a bit, and people will learn how to counter the current popular builds with ease. They’re really not THAT strong.

Zyph.8401:

I’m nearly to Arah and I’ve yet to see any indication that I chose Snow Leopard as my guardian spirit.

The third question doesn’t affect anything for any race. Human god, Charr warband body, Sylvari time of waking, Asura mentor, Norn spirit…

They do nothing. Purely for the aesthetic influence on the first piece in your “My Story” tab, and for those who like to RP. Well, there might be changes in a small handful of talk options here and there, but those are hard to find.

This game actually does have penalties for getting into a defeated or downed state.

Being defeated slowly breaks your gear, while being downed frequently causes you to enter the downed state with less and less HP until you go immediately to the defeated state.

Turtles All The Way Down.5608:

sliding goalposts fallacy. These confer an unfair advantage in pvp, period.

Not a sliding goalposts fallacy in the least. These buffs can’t be used in PvP. In order for it to be a sliding goalposts fallacy, you have to hit the goal to begin with. You kicked it clear the other way.

And in WvW, you can buy this buff all you want, it won’t make you win at all.

Kita.7819:

You guys really don’t get it?

Asura’s ears lift up when they’re excited. Their ears are like a dog’s tail. Its a physical embodiment of their emotions. Try making the scared emote next time you’re ingame. You’ll see your asura’s ears drop.

Or a dog’s ears.

Inscribed.1609:

They seem to care more about their family members the a Charr typically would.

When you realize that the charr view their warband as their family, rather than their blood relations, not really. Charr would do anything for their fellow ’band mates.

Did somebody come in here and actually say that charr are racist? Nonsense!

Even before the ceasefire they were perfectly willing to allow non-charr into the city, so long as they proved they wouldn’t mess with the charr.

Eliteseraph.4970:

Unfortunately the early levels of playing Thief is kind of hard. We’re really REALLY squishy until the later levels.

Playing a Thief at low levels is NOT hard. What are you smoking? I often tear packs of mobs apart. Sure, I run around all over the place, use my abilities smartly, but it’s really… not hard. Are we squishy? Yeah. Sure. But who the hell said I’m supposed to take hits? I do a prettykittengood job of avoiding damage with skills like Death Blossom, Cloak and Dagger, Daze Shot, Black Powder, and more.

I don’t care how much you like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air…

I feel that this dance was a terrible choice for the Norn. It does NOT fit culturally, and just makes them look… well, dorky.

I, along with many others, was hoping for techno viking. All hail the techno viking, defender of women!

Video James.9218:

I love the absolute flexibility GW2 gives the player. It’s one of the many things that make me consider this game the greatest MMO ever. But…
Norn Thieves?

How does that even work?

I just got into the game. My main is currently only level 10, but I’m absorbing a lot of information. So even I know this is waaayy too out of place.

#1. It defies their very concept of honor.

So why would that even happen? It’s so confusing! The incredible Anglo-Saxon style of culture that the Norns hold makes thievery near impossible. Not only that..

#2. They’re freakin’ huge.

How would a Norn sneak up on someone to either assassinate them or steal their stuff?

Discuss!

1: It ‘s not dishonorable at all. One of the Spirits they revere is Raven, who values cunning, deception, and other such skills.
2: Size isn’t everything. You can be large and be cunning and sneaky. You simply have to be aware of yourself and have control of your faculties, both mental and physical.

Zeathy.2810:

For those who do not remember, this is the giant wurm that you fight upon starting your journey. As I have defeated it many times now, I am confident when I say that its difficulty needs improvement. Defeating this creature is far too easy of a task. I am reminded of the battle in the Sylvari area with the same kind of creature. It is a near exact experience except that the Sylvari wurm presents a challenge and its knockback, if memory serves, was further. I understand that the first encounter should be a guaranteed victory as long as the player is trying. However, that doesn’t mean it needs to end only moments after having begun.

This experience could be a great one but at the moment is one of the more forgettable beginnings.

I find it hilarious that you think the Sylvari dragon thing is at all challenging, because it’s not.

They’re all at an equal level of being complete jokes.

spayced.2016:

But it’s one of the first fights since you start the game. Player don’t even know what half of their buttons do at that point. It should be fun and engaging, challenge can come after level one.

What, you mean the three buttons you get from your starter weapon, plus the fourth one being dodge?

Yeah really hard for a new player to learn. 9.9

Warmage Timeraider.5861:

Meh, people complaining about racial elites strenght.. its an RACIAL skill… or as arenanet has always said it.. its mostly cosmetic and cool looking… its not supposed to be better then the professions elite skill

even though engineers elite skills suck so much that snow leopard actually is an improvement :S

The problem is that the result of them being “mostly cosmetic and cool looking” is that nobody will really bother to use them, because using them feels significantly weaker than using other elites – and it’s not fun to feel so weak.

Merchant Of Shadows.1526:

i hate when he’s on my team as an npc. he does NOTHING

So basically just like Kormir, complete with the irony that the hatred is entirely derived from poor game implementation, though from a lore perspective he’s pretty awesome.

Illushia.3721:

The Nightmare is not a Dragon. The Pale Tree is not a Dragon. The Nightmare Court want to spread the Nightmare to the Pale Tree to sway it over to their views. It has nothing to do with the Dragons.

Stop being so silly.

Fully agree with your whole post, but quoting this specific part for emphasis.

People saying that the Nightmare has anything to do with a dragon is practically saying that Gaheron Baelfire is a dragon. It’s a long stretch. It’s entirely a sylvari-specific problem, and neither the race nor the Court happen to be associated with the elder dragons.

Outside of, clearly, it being their destiny to bring about their downfall.

Just about every single line of reasoning that’s been used for why people have come to believe this is EASILY debunked, with just a little knowledge of actual GW2 lore.

They’re not all evil, but some of them have been truly deeply corrupted beyond all sense and honor. The stag personal story you brought up is supposed to represent that the core idea behind the Nightmare Court isn’t truly evil, itself. It’s primarily their methods that are evil.

Do Sylvari need housing structures? Think about it from their perspective and worldview.

Y u mad its vydia.6324:

What did I expect? A story that doesn’t revolve around feelings.

Umm… what?

This does not compute.

I… am not sure if you are genuinely asking this or not….

Dr Anthrax.4723:

The problem with this Steam race would be that they don’t fit into the existing lore anywhere…

They would fit just as well as sylvari. Up until GW2 started being developed, there was no hint of this race anywhere, and then a ton of lore was built-up for them. Out of nowhere, it’s decided that a magical seed, the origins of which we still don’t fully know, was planted by a human and a centaur, and grew into a great big tree that magically gives birth to plant-people.

Who is to say some asura or charr won’t invent some massive steam-person-making machine that ends up being self-aware… but unlike SkyNet, doesn’t go all genocidal on their creators?
I find that LESS ludicrous, frankly, than the lore behind how the sylvari came to be, since so much of their existence is simply explained away by magic. Especially since we’ve already seen signs of some self-aware asuran golems.

I really don’t see them as breaking the mold considering the level of technology that both asura and charr have shown. I mean, come on, there’s a charr in the Black Citadel openly pondering about using lightning for power, instead of steam, and they literally have huge tanks designed for war.

GADefence.5634:

" I don’t think any other MMORPG has done"

Didn’t DDO have warforged as a playable race?

A kitteny playable race, but playable none the less.

Eh. Any other memorable MMO then!

I dunno if this has been mentioned before, but I’ve been thinking of this for months… and now in Lornar’s Pass I find a whole bunch of mechanical steam creatures associated with a meta event, which the races of Tyria are struggling to understand.

Please oh please add a playable mechanical race based on this concept! It’s truly an exciting idea that I don’t think any other MMORPG has done, for playable races. Would truly help set us apart. Forget playing elves or undead or orcs, I wanna play a mecha race! Maybe something similar to this D&D construct race called Warforged.

The Eternal Alchemy is an ideology not a religion.

I just stuck with Ferocity, and am now full on Barbaric. :o

At least, with my Charr Warrior I did.

AuldWolf.7598:

@DrakeWurrum.6049

No. With how much I know about the charr at this point, I’m really not.

That’s like saying that the Adamant Guard wouldn’t give a darn about a human who’s being hassled and taunted by a gladium in the Black Citadel. You might think that. But if you hang around the Black Citadel, you’d find that this scenario actually plays out, and what happens?

The gladium gets chewed out for it, big time.

Gladium: “What’s your problem? I was only having a little fun.”
Adamant Guard: “When your fun disrupts my city it becomes my problem!!”

Human: “I never thought a charr would come to the aid of a human.”
Adamant Guard: “That has nothing to do with it, in this city, we all obey the same laws.”

The fact of the matter is that the humans are now allies, and according to the way that the charr military mind works, if your allies are in danger, you protect them. It doesn’t matter what race they are, it doesn’t matter if you like them or not, you’ll still do it.

So no, I’m really not giving them too much credit at all. The charr pretty much operate the same on a micro or macro scale, and the precedent is there. It’s just how they work. It’s not even about giving them ‘credit,’ really. It’s just about understanding how they think and what they would do in that situation.

I don’t doubt that some warbands would head over to help. Our own characters are a pretty heroic lot, after all, and they’re legionnaires.

But I doubt that the Legions would officially send troops over to help. Not necessarily because they hate humans, really, but simply because it’d be a “human problem.”

Zanjarah.9731:

I agree. It was a tremendous disappointment when you ended up with “Iron Legion Soldier” and “Iron Legion Marksman”.

Make it summon the sparringpartner only, and make him/her to be equal to the two currently summoned.
Heck, I’d use it just for Dinky’s oneliners, even if it sucked from a gameplay point of view.

Nonsense. I’d love to have Soure Doomsday at my side, or Elexus Shredskin! Clawspur may be badkitten but I wouldn’t want to go without the rest of my ’band either.

Because when you crit, you proc bleeds.

Gregam.6123:

AuldWolf.7598:

So, basically? I just know my stuff. It’s because I eat, sleep, and breathe charr.

Isn’t that rather unhealthy? They have a lot of fur… breathing problems and whatnot.

Anyway, Auld, your insight into the charr naming schemes are quite helpful and look well thought out. Thank you!

Sadly, I didn’t look at this thread before naming my charr. Her name is Dakna Sharpnose. By the modern naming convention her warband name is Nose… very unfortunate for the warband there.

Or you could just say “screw it” and stick to being in the Sharp warband. :P

Aaarrrggg.7415:

I have a bit of an easier time of it being a girl, so I don’t need to look for pants. That must be tough for you tom cats.

Psh. I’m a tom cat, and I’m fine with long coats and robes and such. Not to mention kilts.

(seriously, why does everybody call long garments “skirts” no matter what?!)

I just think the draping stuff looks terrible on charr in general. That being said, on my own Charr Necro, I really liked the look of the scholar gear on the karma vendor just north of black citadel, in Diessa Plateau. The one that’s a heart task?

I think it’s called Oldgate. Even though it’s got a hood, which looks weird with charr horns and ears clipping through it, it gives my charr a real sinister-looking appearance, so it works.

Eh. I think you give charr too much credit if you really feel that the Legions would send soldiers to defend Divinity’s Reach against centaur. :P

Fully agree that charr need to stop slumping so much. It makes them look like they lack backbone. Might make all these long coats look better.

We see it in the “cinematic” (if you can call talking heads cinematic) sequences. And we see it in concept art.

Grakor.3450:

DrakeWurrum.6049:

The problem is that “CHARGE!” is an old GW1 Warrior skill, so I doubt they’ll use that.

It is, without the quotes, also a current Warrior skill, on the warhorn.

I doubt that’s a problem, actually. There’s several traits/skill names that are used more than once between professions.

I guess with that in mind, simply renaming it to “CHARGE!” wouldn’t be entirely unlikely.

Charr are charr. What else do we need to know?

Broken tools! It pains me.

Devildoc.6721:

The term you’re perhaps looking for is misotheism, that is “God hating”. They believe the Gods exist, but deem them unworthy of worship and see them as forces to be opposed and harmed if possible. Misotheists see themselves as potentially harming Gods by not worshipping them.

This is pretty close to the truth, I think, as any thing else possibly could.

It’s still not quite accurate, though. It’s not that they don’t believe the Six exist, or the Norn spirits, or any other specific religious beings – they just don’t view them as gods. They’re nothing more than beings of great power, who can be killed like anybody else. They see no reason to worship such beings.

You can’t exactly be “god hating” if you don’t even believe the being you hate is a god, can you?

AuldWolf.7598:

Really though, why is this so hard to understand?

The charr say: “Faith is weakness, as gods are false. If any powerful creature ever posed as a god and tried to control us, we’d destroy it for the insult.”

The charr do not say: “We believe in gods, we understand that there are powerful creatures who’re worthy of worship. We accept their existence.”

The former is atheism, the latter is not. The former is what the charr say, the latter is not. How… do people have issues understanding this? It boggles the mind.

Because they also don’t say that the Six that the humans worship don’t exist. They merely say that they’re not gods, and don’t seem them as worthy of worship.

AuldWolf.7598:

The charr reject the idea that gods, as others believe in them, can exist. They think that the very notion of an all powerful being to be worshipped is fallacious, they see trickery, and they seem just a powerful person or creature trying to control others. That is the same as atheism.

I don’t feel it’s the same. Those of us who happen to be atheist don’t believe in the gods that these others worship at all. If I were to admit that the Olympic pantheon actually existed, but simply say “Naw, they weren’t gods. They were just a long-lived and powerful species that died out years ago,” or even “Naw, they weren’t gods, they were just aliens, and we couldn’t tell the difference,” or even (like the charr) “They were just humans who fooled an entire people into believing they were gods,” I’m not saying that I don’t believe they existed. I’m simply denying their status as gods.

There really isn’t a word that describes that, as far as I’m concerned. In a semantic sense, atheism is “inclusive” of this concept, but there’s a difference between denying a being’s existence, and denying a being’s deity status.

As far as I can tell, if the charr were to encounter a legitimate deity, they would recognize its existence, though they’re unlikely to worship it. They have a very scientific approach to life, in that way.

Guardians don’t need to “have faith” at all. From the wiki:

Guardians specialize in protective and defensive magic. A deep sense of loyalty to their allies fuels their passion and power.

I guess you can call that faith if you want. And even then, it just says that it “fuels their passion and power” which doesn’t really mean anything, exactly.

As far as I’m concerned, Guardians just use defensive magic, and that’s all there is to it.

wertyuio.8630:

i can’t understand why you’d purposely avoid healing slowing, and condition-breaking, but okay. though i can agree with you that air is largely useless.

Ride With Lightning > Magnetic Grasp
It doesn’t have to hit with a projectile. Not to mention the fact that you never know when you might need one while the other is on CD.

Shocking Aura is also incredibly useful for self-defense, as well as for auramancers. I think Updraft is terrible, however, and Lightning Touch is underwhelming.

norael.2104:

Water is good for minor heals and freezing (slows movement and skill recharge).

And condition removal.

Apparently it’s officially a “bug” for Necros that Quickening Thirst doesn’t stack with their speed-increasing Signet.

Does this mean that speed increases really are supposed to stack? i.e. Windborne Dagger + Zephyr’s Speed

Also, I know for sure this is a bug: Lingering Elements is not correctly functioning for every Adept minor trait as it should. It seems to work for Soothing Elements, but not for Zephyr’s Speed (I think) or Stone Flesh.

I’ve also noticed that One With Air does not function at all. It won’t override the 10% from Zephyr’s Speed.

Did you even try to use a stun breaker? O_o

Do you even get any Vitality or Toughness? Any ways to apply Vigor to yourself? Or maybe gain Protection?

On top of that, the skill only stuns for half a second. Not joking, that’s the exact stun duration. The only way he could get in 9 slashes in that half second is if he’s also popped Haste, which means he now can’t dodge.

Hrm. Hopefully the devs pay attention to this and give the trait a bit of a buff. Otherwise, this trait will go largely unused.

Um, yeah, this idea sucks. If you build for Power/Precision, just don’t use Death Blossom?

Hell, even if you DO build for power and precision, it’s not like the condition damage is completely worthless, either. It’s just better to spend that initiative on CnD + Backstab.

Arcalas.9368:

STOP heartseeker spam then.

It’s not Heartseeker spam that causes it to miss. It misses when I use it exactly once to “execute” a low HP target.

Yeah, if you get killed by one of those burst Thief builds, you just need to get better. It’s not THAT difficult to survive if you just keep an eye out, in much the same way that when going into BGs in WoW, you need to keep on your toes to watch out for potential stealthing Rogues.

It’s more of a problem with camera behavior around walls than anything else. Cameras shouldn’t get “stuck” when they would otherwise be inside a rock. They should simply move through the terrain and make it transparent-ish so that you can actually see what your character is doing still.

At the very least, they need to allow the camera to zoom in to first-person perspective.