Guild Wars 2

Caeledh.5437:

Arricson Krei.9560:

I just don’t see adding more AI skills into the game as a good idea (see Gyros), and I hope Anet sees this too.

Pet skills aren’t unpopular. Necro minions, ranger pets and mesmer illusions can be very powerful and appreciated in PvE.

Gyros were an unfathomable mistake though. Anet took their only immensely unpopular iteration of pets – guardian spirit weapons – and gave to them to engineers as an elite. It should have surprised no-one that they were just as unpopular.

You can’t keep them up enough to be truly useful and it’s just irritating having to resummon them all the time.

Yeah, pets/minions just need better utility and better controls.

logan.5846:

I don’t think they put any more thought into it other than picking a female npc to shoehorn in.

I think the whole concept of the Renegade would have fit warrior better.

First, there’s better charr for a legend, like Bonfaaz Burntfur, which has unique Flame Legion magic, and summoned the Searing, destroying Ascalon.

Second, there’s better female legends, like Varesh Ossa, who we should have gotten instead of Mallyx, since she has some personality to begin with.

I like the warband concept of the renegade a lot, but it could really fit any profession. I think it falls a bit short with the revenant, even if the final theme was fleshed really well.

Just remove energy altogether. It’s pointless resource management with no reward whatsoever. That, or remove all cooldowns, though that’s harder to balance for obvious reasons.

At the end of the day, revenant needs a redesign, because it has problems everywhere. Some ideas here.

I really love renegade, the weapon feels good, and the elite specialization concept of a warband leader works very well. Definitely in my top 3 of PoF elite specs.

My problem lies with the slot skills. They’re passive, spririt/totem-like minions, which is very underwhelming for the core concept, and doesn’t really add anything new to the profession.

I think renegade could improve a lot by changing the slot skills to actual active warband members, fighting by your side.

Their passive abilities can stay with them while they move, or they can be activated after being summoned (like necromancer’s minions, or guardian’s spirit weapons).

These warband members can be inspired by the existing skills, or even better, by different charr heroes from different ages.

Also, there’s something I dislike from both herald and renegade: The new mechanic skills are designed for the new legend, and don’t change when you switch legend.

This meant that the original legends got nothing new to play with, which was very underwhelming.

For reference, these are the renegade skills: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Renegade

What if we reorder the mechanic and slot skills a bit, and leave some minion-summoning at F2, F3, and F4?

This way, when you switch to Jalis, you can now summon ancient dwarven henchmen to fight beside you, with a new visual appearance, and maybe even different skills and effects.

Summarized:

• Turn renegade slot skills into minion skills, which can fight your enemies. Their current effects can stay while they’re alive, or be activated after summoned.
• Adapt the legend mechanic skills so that the other legends can summon their own minions as well, giving the original legends something new to play with.

I think this would make renegade much more fun than what currently is.

leviathan.2148:

It’s been 5 years and engi is still stuck with kits and p/p, nothing really changed. I don’t know about you, I want change. And as a mostly pve player, it’s the most noticeable for engi IMO.

Yeah, I pretty much stopped playing my engineer because it’s just boring after 4 years, and he was my main for PvP for a long time.

Core professions should be upgraded when elite specializations are released, too. Give us main-hand mace, an elite gadget, etc. Elite specs shouldn’t be the only new things every 2 years.

draxynnic.3719:

Lonami.2987:

draxynnic.3719:

Lonami.2987:

Well, unless they’re willing to remove the tool belt with elite specializations (which they shouldn’t, because it’s part of core) then we’ll never get new mechanic skills, and if we get them, we’ll be losing options in exchange.

There is precedent, however. Dragonhunter and necromancer both had their profession mechanic replaced by something that was similar but equivalent. Doing so with the engineer does have the additional wrinkle that replacing the toolbelt will influence skill balance (making skills with poor toolbelt skills more attractive while making skills with good toolbelt skills less attractive) – however, ArenaNet might consider this a good thing.

Personally, I’d prefer that the the alternative you propose. A lot of the toolbelt skills have interesting mechanics and simply wouldn’t work as the flipovers you suggest – to me, having an elite spec which replaces them would be better than removing them entirely.

Those are an upgrade, or a variation. You can’t really do that with all the skills of the tool belt. The only thing you get is new tool belt skills with the new slot skills.

If they ever want to use the mechanic bar for anything, they would need to nuke the tool belt, which would lead to many problems, since you would be losing so many vital tool belt skills.

Which toolbelt skills do you consider ‘vital’?

F1 usually supplements your healing. This can be substituted for by having the elite specialisation’s F1 provide a similar healing/survival effect. Medkit would be substantially disadvantaged, but it wouldn’t be hard to have a skill in there that’s roughly equivalent to the healing turret and Elixir H toolbelt skills.

The other toolbelt skills… none of them are vital. Really. Useful, sure, but a specific, fixed toolbelt for an elite specialisation could bring capabilities that compensate for the loss of the current toolbelt.

Personally? Maybe one or two skills, which could be easily adapted to the slot skill bar, or given to kits. So yeah, me, personally, I don’t consider the tool belt vital. That’s why I’m advocating for its removal, to be replaced with something better (probably won’t happen, but well, one can dream).

Other people could consider it very important, that’s why I added that note, to show that the tool belt can be removed without losing the tool belt skills forever.

RabbitUp.8294:

Lonami.2987:

RabbitUp.8294:

What would making kits into the profession mechanic accomplish? They are now additional weaponsets you don’t have to craft?

The problem with kits is how much overlap there is. Take the meta condi build for example, they use 4 kits, not because “kit too stronk”, but because all 4 have condi abilities.

Each kit should have a clear purpose, and as a result, you will have less reasons to slot all of them.

They say it’s hard to balance kits because it’s 5 skills vs 1. Luckily for engi, the regular skills come with a toolbelt, so they are 2 skills in one. Sure, kits have toolbelt skills, too, but balance them to be only complimentary to the kit’s use, while regular skills should have toolbelt skills as strong as the slot skill itself.

Kits take up slot skills, which should be used for actual slot skills. Also, there isn’t a fixed number of kits you can have simultaneously, so they’re harder to balance.

Yes, there is, it’s 5. And for every kit you take, you sacrifice 1 heal/utility/elite slot.

The problem in pve is that all 4 kits used are dps increases over any other utility you could take in their place. We don’t use them because they have 5 skills, we use 1-2 skills from every kit and drop it.

And that’s where the design problem is, that there’s so much overlapping between the kits when skills that serve the same purpose are found in 4 different kits.

If bomb didn’t do condi damage, you would take Rocket Boots, simple as that.

Kits need to have clearly defined roles and be much better, but if they make them better, then you will only use kits. That’s why I think kits will never be good as long as they’re still slot skills.

The first restriction we need is being unable to equip as many kits as you want, and the simplest solution for that is to equip them through the mechanic bar, in a limited number of slots (F1 and F2, for example). This way they can start balancing around everyone having 2 kits, instead of some people using no kits, and other people using 5 kits.

RabbitUp.8294:

What would making kits into the profession mechanic accomplish? They are now additional weaponsets you don’t have to craft?

The problem with kits is how much overlap there is. Take the meta condi build for example, they use 4 kits, not because “kit too stronk”, but because all 4 have condi abilities.

Each kit should have a clear purpose, and as a result, you will have less reasons to slot all of them.

They say it’s hard to balance kits because it’s 5 skills vs 1. Luckily for engi, the regular skills come with a toolbelt, so they are 2 skills in one. Sure, kits have toolbelt skills, too, but balance them to be only complimentary to the kit’s use, while regular skills should have toolbelt skills as strong as the slot skill itself.

Kits take up slot skills, which should be used for actual slot skills. Also, there isn’t a fixed number of kits you can have simultaneously, so they’re harder to balance. If you want good kits, they need to be more restrictive, and separate from slot skills, so those can be made better too.

It’s not just a balance problem, design-wise future elite specializations have more freedom too, and could open the way for new kits. And of course, you have more room in the mechanic bar for the functions of those new elite specializations. Scrapper could have pet-like controls for gyros, so they aren’t so terrible.

draxynnic.3719:

Lonami.2987:

Well, unless they’re willing to remove the tool belt with elite specializations (which they shouldn’t, because it’s part of core) then we’ll never get new mechanic skills, and if we get them, we’ll be losing options in exchange.

There is precedent, however. Dragonhunter and necromancer both had their profession mechanic replaced by something that was similar but equivalent. Doing so with the engineer does have the additional wrinkle that replacing the toolbelt will influence skill balance (making skills with poor toolbelt skills more attractive while making skills with good toolbelt skills less attractive) – however, ArenaNet might consider this a good thing.

Personally, I’d prefer that the the alternative you propose. A lot of the toolbelt skills have interesting mechanics and simply wouldn’t work as the flipovers you suggest – to me, having an elite spec which replaces them would be better than removing them entirely.

Those are an upgrade, or a variation. You can’t really do that with all the skills of the tool belt. The only thing you get is new tool belt skills with the new slot skills.

If they ever want to use the mechanic bar for anything, they would need to nuke the tool belt, which would lead to many problems, since you would be losing so many vital tool belt skills.

Revisiting the first idea, with some improvements:

Idea 1.1 – Kits in the mechanic bar

The basic premise is that the tool belt is removed for good, replaced by two F1 and F2 slots, where you equip kits. Weapon and device kit slot skills disappear, replaced by two new slot skill types:

• Mine: Works similar to traps, with a twist. Effect area is larger than activation area, so if you’re close to them and one of your allies activates it, you can get hit too. Additionally, mines are revealed if you walk inside the effect area, and you can attack and destroy them. Mine effects are inspired by the bomb kit, which is now removed.
• Signet: Passive effects, with an active skill option, which affects the engineer only. Some trait passive functions could be moved to them.

With that clear, there’s a total of 5 kits, one per slot skill type (elixir, gadget, mine, signet, and turret). Each kit would have specific synergies with its respective slot skill type, replacing each skill pf said type with new functionalities while you’re using the kit. Additionally, there’s 2 special kits, which can only be equipped in the F2 slot (so you can only use one at once) and don’t enhance slot skills in any way.

• Elixir – Elixir Gun kit: Instead of drinking the elixirs, you load them into the gun, providing new temporary random damage effects to your attacks with the elixir gun. Multiple elixir effects can be stacked.
• Gadget – Flamethrower kit: Replaces gadget skills with fiery versions.
• Mine – Minesweeper kit: Two-handed minesweeper tool. Lets you reveal invisible enemies, as well as detect and deactivate enemy traps. Designed to help mine management, including remote mine control, which lets you explode the mines manually.
• Signet – Grenade kit: Instead of applying the active signet effect to yourself, you throw packs with the same effects, that can be picked by any nearby allies. Inspired by the med kit, which is now removed, and tool belt elixir skills.
• Turret – Mechanic kit: Replaces the tool kit. Wrench in the main hand, and a welder in the off-hand. Designed to help turret management, including repairs. Instead of overcharging the turrets, you unlock turret detonation.
• Special – Energy Cannon kit: Replaces the mortar kit. Inspired by Horrik’s cannon, and this charr artwork. Slow fire long-range AoE damage. Slower movement when wielded.
• Special – Machine Gun kit: A huge gatling-style heavy machine gun, barrel included. Heavy ranged firepower when the engineer’s weapons aren’t enough. Slower movement when wielded.

With this model in mind, all elite specializations would provide one new kit to choose from. Some ideas:

• Remote Controller kit: Scrapper exclusive, helps with gyro management.
• Shock Gloves kit: For some technomage elite specialization. Huge robotic fists to punch stuff with.
• Mining Laser kit: For a miner elite specialization, channeled attacks that deal more damage with time.
• Missile Launcher kit: Homing missiles for an artillery elite specialization.

Weapon swap (plus new core weapons) could still be nice to have with this redesign, but it’s not mandatory for the idea.

Finally, the new kit mechanic would have its own options window, like the one rangers have for pets. In this window, you would be able to customize each kit by choosing different stats and skins, and turning on/off additional visuals like backpacks or masks included with each kit. Turret skins would be customizable from this window as well.

Let’s see if you guys came up with any new redesign ideas.

draxynnic.3719:

Lonami.2987:

They should redesign the profession to get rid off the tool belt, merging it with slot skills or whatever. Right now it’s restricting the potential of the profession and its future elite specializations.

It doesn’t necessarily affect the potential of future elite specialisations – a future engineer elite specialisation could easily have a feature wherein the elite specialisation has it’s own toolbelt skills rather than having those skills be determined by the slotted utility skills.

Missing out on the current toolbelt skills would be a sacrifice, but the only skill I can think of that would be rendered nonviable by losing the toolbelt skill would be the medkit, and that’s no great loss in its current state as it is (unfortunately).

Well, unless they’re willing to remove the tool belt with elite specializations (which they shouldn’t, because it’s part of core) then we’ll never get new mechanic skills, and if we get them, we’ll be losing options in exchange.

Personally, I would just kill the tool belt, and move kits there. F1+F2, choose 2 kits to equip there. Create a new turret kit, to improve turret management, and rework existing kits. Each new elite specialization could add a new kit as part of it, aside from other changes. Scrapper could add a remote controller kit to improve gyro control, too.

The decent tool belt skills can be saved for the new kits, for new slot skills, or merged with existing slot skills. For example, elixirs are drink in slot, and throw in tool belt. Make it so that you drink it, and then unlock the option to throw them, in the same single skill.

More ideas about it here.

Guardian has a ranged combat problem. Dragonhunter fixed it, but once you switch specializations, said problem is back.

They should upgrade core professions some day, and fix some of their problems, including this one.

They should redesign the profession to get rid off the tool belt, merging it with slot skills or whatever. Right now it’s restricting the potential of the profession and its future elite specializations.

Witch Doctor themes fit torch very well, with marsh wisps and whatever. Scourge should be mummy-inspired instead.

Parktou.4263:

At least gives us both mh sword and oh sword. That is all.

Couldn’t agree more. Dual-wielding swords is awesome, and we’ll never get it if we’re locked to main-hand now.

Until they add more ranged weapons to core, I will stick to longbow.

FranzM.1298:

This is just speculation opened up for discussion. Contains LS5 spoilers.

Wouldn’t it be the coolest thing if Revenant got pistol and Zinn as the legend some day. In which they turn energy into electricity. With a M.O.X. pet? Golem AI skills? Maybe something else.

Considering this is the Guild Wars 2 Lore class and it would be super awesome to control M.O.X. again, I missed that guy.

This is in reference to the leak of the alleged shortbow being used as the 2nd elite.

I would prefer those themes to be added to the engineer, to be fair.

Serephen.3420:

They should have gone with Pyre Fierceshot instead, that character was more of a legend in my books anyways, also it would match the renegade/shortbow theme alot better.

Nah, Pyre shouldn’t be a legend because he had no special powers. He was a normal dude, fighting some evil sorcerers. Kinda similar in vibes to classic sword and sorcery tales, like Conan the Barbarian.

If you turn Pyre into a legend, you leave revenant with non-magic skills? Then it’s lame and boring. If you give Pyre magic skills, then you’re ruining his character. And to be fair, any cool ideas you could make around Pyre would fit ranger better, because he was one after all.

They should have gone with a Flame Legion legend instead. An evil shaman, who can summon dark fire and Searing crystals. Some good condi spec with lots of burning.

Two new ideas, based on the complete removal of the current shatter mechanic:

Idea 3 – Role-based illusions

Phantasms now work as homing missiles, sort of. When you summon one, it has a goal depending on the skill. This goal can be running after an enemy and knocking him down, healing a downed ally, harassing an enemy for 10 seconds, or any other active action. Once the goal is completed, they disappear. They can be destroyed by the enemy, and there’s no limit to how many of them you can summon. Ideally, you want to destroy them before they reach you, because they can be really dangerous. In the end, phantasms are just projectiles you can destroy before they reach you, with the illusion part adding to the confusion. Phantasms are spawned using weapon and slot skills.

Clones work similarly to phantasms, but instead of having an active role, they react to certain actions. They follow the mesmer around, and wait for said action to trigger. For example, one clone might have a “reflect projectiles” role, and each time the enemy fires, it would reflect projectiles. Another might wait for you to attack, and copy your attacks. They don’t disappear until destroyed or resummoned. Clones are created using the new mechanic bar.

The mesmer now has a new resource, that automatically increases in combat, even if you aren’t attacking. This resource is used to spawn clones. The shatter skills are now replaced by various clone-spawning skills, each of them spawning a clone with a different role.

This idea focuses (specially the clone rework) on action-reaction, and forcing the enemy to analyze what’s going on before rushing in blindly. Each clone would have precise tells to let the enemy know what it’s waiting for. In some way, clones would be like walking traps, waiting to be triggered by those who don’t pay attention. Those who do pay attention can trigger them the right way so their effect is wasted, or focus on destroying the clones instead

Idea 4 – Relics

The mesmer would get a new companion, similar to the ranger’s pet, except that it’s an inanimate object. The mesmer chooses which relic to summon, and then he can move it easily across the battlefield. Once he grows bored of it, he can shatter it, and summon another.

Each relic would have complex mechanics, and positioning them correctly would be the key to success. They would function similarly to Ventari’s Tablet, but without spending slot skills. You can teleport your relic easily around the battlefield, positioning it where its needed, but they won’t do anything until you use one of their three skills. Some slot skills could be used to boost relics.

Some relic ideas:

• Mirror: Skills reflect enemy projectiles, create clones of allies, or create phantasms of enemies.
• Black Hole: Pulls enemies close to it, repels enemies close to it, or absorbs the boons of nearby enemies and the conditions of nearby allies.
• Portal: Creates portal entry, creates portal exit, or activates portal. Portal entry and portal exit don’t despawn until the relic is destroyed or swapped away.
• Hourglass: Chronomancer exclusive. Saves point in time and lets you teleport back to that point, slows time for enemies, or fastens time for allies.

Illusions would still be around, but they wouldn’t be as important as they are now.

Just some alternatives to the current shatter system.

Another idea:

Idea 3 – Death Shroud replaced by minion-control

I really like the shroud mechanic, but I also feel like it steals the spot for what could be a better mechanic in the bigger picture. In line with some comments about the removal of shroud, what if we replaced it with a pet-like mechanic?

I wrote some ideas for a swarm pet mechanic in a potential future necromancer specialization (see here), but maybe they could be used for a reworked core profession instead.

The idea is simple:

• Ranger-like pet controls, except instead of a single allied creature, you control many of them at once. This mechanic is called swarm, and the allied creatures are called minions.
• The swarm has a core minion type you select just like rangers select their pet. These minions can be summoned easily with the mechanic bar skills, and you don’t need to spend slot skills to use them properly.
• However, if you wish so, you can equip additional minion skills in the slot skill bar. These allow you to summon more minions, either of the core type, or different types. Some traits can summon minions, too. All become part of the swarm.
• Minion skills would be replaced by glyphs, which would change depending on the selected swarm type. So, a skill like the flesh golem would summon a powerful minion, but its type would change depending on the selected swarm.
• Each swarm would have an ultimate skill, where the minions are sacrificed in exchange of a powerful effect, like summoning a single powerful minion, boosting the necromancer’s stats, etc.
• As for Death Shroud, it wouldn’t disappear. Instead, it would become a reaper-exclusive mechanic, and reapers would be able to choose between 3 different shrouds to play with.

Some swarm ideas:

• Bone swarm: Skeletal minions. They apply bleed on attack, and when killed explode and apply AoE bleed. Resistant to enemy conditions. Ultimate explodes all minions at the same time, dealing a lot of AoE damage.
• Flesh swarm: Flesh minions. More life, and more direct damage. Good for tanking and absorbing damage. Ultimate sacrifices all minions to summon a powerful fleshreaver.
• Putrid swarm: Rotten plague minions. They apply poison by puking at enemies, and leave poison clouds when killed. Ultimate heals the necromancer.
• Shadow swarm: Reaper-exclusive. Shadowy minions, like wraiths and ghosts. Apply chill and have good crowd control options. Ultimate increases Life Force, used to activate Death Shroud.
• Insect swarm: Exclusive for a desert-themed elite spec. Mummified insects of many types. Life-stealing abilities, plus blind. Ultimate hatches a cloud of flying insects that steal life in an AoE around the necromancer.

Swarm hierarchy:

• Peon: Small minions, the base of any swarm. They respawn on their own at a slow pace. You can use various skills to summon them faster. Melee.
• Grunt: Same as core, but larger and stronger. Summoned by utility glyphs.
• Hunter: Ranged attacks. Summoned by utility glyphs.
• Support: Support skills. Summoned by the healing and utility glyphs.
• Overlord: Summoned by the elite glyph. The Flesh Golem would stay as the flesh version.

Slot skills can be used multiple times to summon multiple minions of the same type, but there’s a maximum number of minions you can deploy. Once you reach the maximum, peons will stop respawning, and any further minions you summon will kill other active minions to take their spots, respecting the hierarchy.

Now, this is some classic necromancy gameplay I could get behind. The only downside is people who don’t like minions would have to live with them constantly crawling around them. I guess a solution could be to have a minionless swarm, where peons are support-only and can’t be attacked. Or give life force other uses outside the swarm.

The only thing that doesn’t really convince me about this idea is that it could feel too similar to the mesmer. Maybe the mesmer needs another rework, removing clones as a resource, and replacing them by something different?

Would love to hear about more minion ideas!

Two more ideas:

Idea 5 – Weapon centric layout

Every weapon would get new skills, designed around a legend. For example, swords would be themed around Shiro, with jade effects and such. Then, on top of that, your slot skills would be dependent on your active weapons, instead of a selected legend. The constant and “boring” black/red theme of revenant weapon skills would be gone, replaced by a unique theme based on each legend.

So you could say you now “unlock” or “harness” a legend by equipping specific weapons, instead of just equipping a legend manually.

Legend-swapping and weapon-swapping would be the same thing now, and the weapon skills of each legend would have a better synergy with their respective slot skills.

The legend and its slot skills would be determined by the equipped two-handed weapon, or the off-hand weapon. This means main-hand sword and main-hand mace would have different skills depending on the off-hand weapon and the active legend.

The legend unlocker weapons would be as follows:

• Jalis: Hammer
• Mallyx: Off-hand axe
• Shiro: Off-hand sword
• Ventari: Staff
• Glint: Shield

As stated above, main-hand sword and main-hand mace would change depending on the off-hand. Since revenants has some customization problems, I would give them main-hand axe and main-hand scepter too, for the core profession.

Equipping the same off-hand twice would lead to a repeated legend. In this case, swapping would reduce cooldowns. Playing as a single legend would be viable this way if you wish to.

If you want to take this last point further, each legend could be given an additional legend unlocker weapon, so for example, you can use scepter/focus as Ventari instead of staff all the time, but this could be a lot of work in the long run. Maybe limit this to just the two-hand users, to make things simpler. For example: Off-hand mace for Jalis, and focus for Ventari.

The final result would be something like this:

• Main-hand weapons: Axe, Mace, Scepter, Sword
• Jalis: Hammer, off-hand mace (5 total weapon combinations)
• Mallyx: Off-hand axe (4 total weapon combinations)
• Shiro: Off-hand sword (4 total weapon combinations)
• Ventari: Staff, focus (5 total weapon combinations)
• Glint: Shield (4 total weapon combinations)

It’s similar to the 4th idea, but much more limited. Customization could suffer a bit, but in exchange each legend’s gameplay would be much more robust. Axe, mace, scepter, and sword would get new skills with every new legend released through elite specializations.

Idea 6 – Legend boost

This is pretty similar to the previous 5th idea, except this time, the revenant has no legend by default.

In a normal situation, the revenant behaves like any other profession. Choose the weapons you want, swap between them whenever you want, and choose the slot skills you want, too.

The legend theme would be a temporary boost. Similar to warrior bursts, this unique skill would be determined by the equipped off-hand weapon (See 5th idea for details).

So, each legend would be a transformation, and who you can transform to would depend on the weapons you are using at the moment. Transforming would change both your weapon and slot skills. Transformed skills would be always the same no matter your selected weapons and slot skills, for adapting every possible combination would factor way too many variables in the long run, making it harder to balance and such.

This would reinforce the value of legends as a temporary boost to make a difference, but maybe leave the revenant too simple in a normal state.

Just some random ideas to refresh the thread!

castlemanic.3198:

…

My viewpoint of what elite specializations should be is slightly different from what we got with HoT. You could say it’s more ambitious. This is how I envision elite specializations:

• Upgrade/Variation for the core mechanic, when possible.
• New additional mechanic, separate from the upgraded core mechanic. This is the key of the elite specialization, and should change how you play it.
• The new mechanic, the new weapon skills, and the new slot skills need to have deep synergy, and work well with each other.

In other words, of all HoT elite specs, only the druid really satisfied me, in design terms.

Additionally, I’ll add that I would like to see core professions upgraded as well, giving customization options for the core mechanic. The ranger has multiple pets to choose from, why not give necromancers 3 different Death Shrouds to choose from too? Then add a 4th option with new elite specializations, instead of the all-or-nothing approach. Same for guardian with virtues, and mesmer with shatter skills.

The new additional mechanic doesn’t need to be 100% unique, either. Mostly because you can’t keep making new ideas forever, and some common ground could be interesting for gameplay. That’s why you see corsair with a ranger-like pet mechanic, scourge and swampstalker both with a swarm mechanic, or dervish with a necromancer-like Death Shroud mechanic. They’re the same, but with a different touch.

This approach can be specially positive for runes and other upgrades boosting said mechanics. A rune improving a pet or a transformation is only useful for rangers or necromancers, but if more professions get that as an elite spec option, you can devote resources to these ideas in a game-wide manner. You can also give said mechanics more important roles, like making 4 players with pets necessary for a raid boss, without needing 4 rangers.

Finally, by sharing mechanics across professions, you can devote more time to create new unique mechanics, because you’ll be able to reuse them later with other professions. See the swarm or relic mechanics, they could be pretty complex to develop, but since they’re used by multiple elite specs, they’re a better investment in the long term.

Note how my ideas have a deep synergy with Elonian assets, too. Most of the graphics needed would be reusable in the open world for other things. That’s why dervishes transform into djinns, because they’re cool, and because you don’t need a new model.

In the end these are just fan ideas, and explanations are nice, but don’t get too obsessed with viability from a developer perspective.

(There are also links in the main post, to threads focusing on each elite specialization idea)

castlemanic.3198:

mummy wrappings

Those are just a way of speaking, as to imply the scourge is mummy-like in theme. “Scarabs crawling from under the mummy wraps” sounds better than “scarabs crawling from under your dress”.

Xenon.4537:

Really love the occultist idea, though I would change glyphs to signets. Signets are actually rings imbued with magical power which fits nicely with the whole artifact idea. Also engineers are the only class without signets right now.

I chose glyphs because they have different versions depending on a secondary mechanic (attunement, astral form, and in this case, the relic), but anything could work as utilities for any elite specialization to be fair.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

The bottom line is this: Hype is nice, but we want results. Given what happened with HoT before and after, silence is the better course. The next expansion will make or break Guild Wars 2 . . . and there’s no getting around that.

Why they put themselves in this position in the first place, especially given their earlier success with a different model, is still beyond me. But here we are . . . and time will tell if they survive it. Guild Wars 2 is the MMO I’ve played the longest, and even I can see they’re in trouble.

Hype isn’t going to save them, but an amazing expansion might.

The question is, can they make an amazing expansion without proper community feedback? Looking back, I doubt so. I don’t think they even realize this, or they would have changed their ways already long ago.

The success of said new expansion requires sales to ex-players and new customers as well, and I don’t see them reaching anyone with their current approach to marketing.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the game will die. It will still be here, but it won’t be huge. It won’t grow. We’ll still have similar discussions in the years to come.

I hope I’m proven wrong, but it’s been 5 years of disappointments and clunky decisions already.

Amaimon.7823:

but on topic: They have made a statement once that the long hype of the previous expansion backfired so they don’t want to hype up coming content anymore. So now we get a week advance LS teasers, and we’ll get a trailer and a reveal sometime soon when they’re closed to finishing the next expansion. The lack of hype may be what’s killing the game, I don’t know, but the overhype we got last time almost definitely killed the game so I rather have this silence.

It backfired because the expansion was too small, and lacked many of the things they had promised. Start by not making promises you can’t fulfill.

TorsoReaper.8530:

This is just typical Anet. They only know Zero or 100. They don’t know anything in between. Look at leather, look at balance patches, and now look at the communications. It’s always either all or none.

Quoting for truth. It’s one of their worst attributes by far. They always take their decisions to the extremes, instead of searching the middle ground.

Ardid.7203:

The problem with HoT is people alerted about a lot of problems BEFORE Anet even publish the expac. They hyped, they showed, they received feedback, they barely took that feedback into account, then the failures were just what the feedback screamed about.

This is what made the most damage: to not complete the product, to not hear the critics on time, and to get out in the proper date, without the proper quality.

The new WvW Desert Borderland got a lot of criticism, and made it into release with barely any changes, where it flopped and pretty much killed what remained of the WvW competitive scene.

They fixed many things later, but it was too late. Stronghold and guild halls are other two big flops as well, close to complete disasters.

ArenaNet is terrible at marketing. They have a beautiful game with beautiful graphics, yet you can’t find anything showcasing it properly.

Their so called trailers are not trailers, but teasers, and show nothing but smoke. They’re completely irrelevant and a waste of time. Also, no new player can be attracted to the game by them, period.

We need what other games have: Full-on previews, weeks in advance, including a list of all the new stuff coming in with the patchs. New raid patch? Showcase all bosses and their mechanics, together with the new rewards. Show the world this game has content, and it’s worth playing.

But, but, spoilers!

That’s the point. When you save all the new content for day one, it’s old by day two and no one cares. If you show it one month before release, there’s hype for a month. There’s noise, discussion, theories, and there’s life.

Not only they’re wasting countless basic marketing opportunities, they’re also creating false expectations by leaving the community in the darkness. People start to make their own crazy theories and assumptions from datamined or out of context details, and when the patch hits and it’s not what they expected, then comes the backlash. Meanwhile ArenaNet is watching the world burn, without intervening to stop the false hype train before it crashes.

Ask yourself this:

Is this game worth your time, when you don’t know where you’ll be in a few months? Is it worth investing your time and effort to upgrade your characters, when you don’t know where and when you will be using them?

GW2 feels like a dead game, and the saddest part is that such is a false image, because it’s perfectly alive. At this rate, for how long?

Vegeta.2563:

Brimstar.9036:

Its the community who builds the hype. I do not fault the developers for trying to sell their product..thats silly and honestly unheard of. (Yeah lets not advertise this up so we dont sell a bunch of copies) makes 0 sense.

I think they are divided on how to approach this. On one side you have people saying.. “We want communication, what is going on with the expansion?”

Then the aftermath of once the expansion comes out.. “Hey why didn’t we get this, you said it was going to be in the game?”

So as they work on it, they are planning on announcing things that are actually going to be in the next expansion, instead of making broken promises.

Then don’t promise things you can’t assure will be delivered?

This is a game company, a business, not a bunch of kids in a basement. Businesses make promises, and fulfill them. Game companies should be no different, and shouldn’t be getting excuses from their very customers.

MrPinks.2015:

Lack of hype or lack of communication.
Is a big problem for content creators huge problem .
2 months of no solid think to talk about is a huge problems for content Creators. And if you think to yourself “who cares about content creators” than good luck promoting the game your self and keep the community interested.

This is a very important point, too.

costepj.5120:

Whatever a kittenatrice looks like, I’m sure I want one!

God kitten it, forum. I guess it’s “cokcatrice” for friends now.

OriOri.8724:

Would be nice to see more lore behind each elite spec for sure, but I don’t know if I’d say not having lore behind them is a flaw. One thing that I do think would really add to them (as well as the story of the next expac) though would be to have one chapter in the story be different depending on which base class you have. It could be the very first chapter, which would be a way to introduce the elite specs (something like “Oh look, I can do this thing to help. I should do this thing. I like doing this thing. I’m good at this thing. I’m gonna switch to doing this thing and call myself a XXXX profession now”), or it could be somewhere in the middle or end of the story.

Regardless of where it is, I do think it would add a lot to the story. It would provide a real reason to repeat it on different characters outside of just getting more weapons for a collection. If done correctly, it could also provide a way to add a bit of background lore (but probably not as much as some people would prefer).

It’s not hard to give them a bit of backstory, and it’s better for marketing overall, instead of making them pop up out of nowhere. New allied and enemy NPCs should use the new elite specializations before we do, too, sort of a preview.

I don’t like race or profession centric story instances, I’d rather get a bit of each but available to all characters no matter what.

Quiksilver.5786:

This is so rich. Even if any of these don’t make it out in the actual expansion, I would love the new elite’s to become sub sources for great lore i.e, direct from gw1 inspiration. As a gw2 novice, I aways hear many people referring to the first game when it comes to new content ideas, it being as one of the best games they’ve played and from the many kinds of lore I’ve heard and even classes out there, its no telling why.

Though a question of originality, having gw1 lore inspired elites will sure serve all the nostalgic fans out there but also I believe would help weave the two games together, a nice reminder that the two are not completely separate from each other and would surely enhance the gw2 world building.

These elite suggestions are the best I’ve scene: because yea you’re right. The classes don’t just come out of nowhere. And having this kind of theme would really do the exact opposite of limiting play style and imaginative gameplay. In fact, I believe it would give more incentive to create more diverse and very creative theme/gameplay for future elite specs as new expansions will (hopefully) be released in major regions of the greyed-out map, and this is a seemingly great a way to flesh out lore from the past and enlighten GW franchise newbies like me ^^

Thanks! All elite specializations can get some background with a bit of effort. It’s a pity HoT elite specs got no lore at all, when it would have been so easy to link them to the various factions involved in the storyline (Like a Zephyrite and Exalted background for tempest, daredevil, and herald).

Sartharina.3542:

We’re not going to be getting new weapon types, especially not for single classes. Of course, Dervishes and Scourges could use Greatsword and Hammer, respectively.

Unfortunately, spears are strictly underwater weapons.

Why not? There are no sacred rules regarding this. You’re locked in the past ^^.

It’s probably a bomb upgrade.

Back when SAB was released, not sure if W1 or W2, people datamined a list of icons including many unreleased upgrades.

My top bets:

• 1: Abaddon’s Mouth at the Ring of Fire islands.
• 2: Somewhere in Ascalon, involving Foefire ghosts and/or branded.
• 3: Underground location, with chak and destroyers.

Continued from above

Guardian – Sunspear

The original Order of the Sunspears was slaughtered centuries ago, but some of its surviving members have preserved their paragon arts in secret. Sunspears wield two-handed tridents, and use boon banners. Their new mechanics are new wing virtue skills, and the Ascension, a boost transformation that temporarily boosts their stats and unlocks new boosted virtue skills. Their role is at the front lines, as a boon support spec. (Dragonhunter virtues would be updated to replace Wings of Virtue by something else)

Revenant – Hierophant

Abaddon fell centuries ago, but its servants still dwell in the shadows, led by a new generation of margonites. Hierophants wield an off-hand torch, and use Flame Legion magic by channeling the legendary Flame Legion Imperator Bonfaaz Burntfur. Their new mechanic is the relic, a summoned object linked to the active legend: Apocrypha, Tome of the Rubicon, Shiro’s Blades, Ventari’s Tablet, and Searing Cauldron. These relics unlock new devastating powers for each legend. Their role is at the back, as ranged DPS. (Ventari’s Tablet would be removed from the core profession, replaced by less-annoying to use skills)

Warrior – Corsair

The pirates of Elona are a military power on its own, famous for their skills at naval combat. Corsairs wield pistols in both hands, and use tricks. Their new mechanic is the kittenatrice, an exotic pet, half a combat rooster and half an annoying parrot. They’re specially skilled at killing other pets, and coordinate their attacks with their master’s trick skills. Instead of using multiple species of pets, the corsairs customize their pet slot through different types of combat armor. Their role is at the back, as ranged DPS and crowd control.

So, those are my ideas (With links to main forum posts with more information). Feel free to improve them, or make new ones yourself! (Don’t forget to link threads if you have them too)

Whatever happens, I hope the second generation of elite specializations isn’t another random mixup of roles with no attachment to the world whatsoever.

I think one of the biggest flaws of the first generation of elite specializations is that they come out of nowhere, and most of them don’t even fit neither the story nor Heart of Maguuma. They have no lore, and don’t feel special or unique, just some random skills here and there. Not cool.

So, let’s assume we’re going to Elona next, and this time, elite specializations need to be themed on the new continent and cultures. They could have a lore introduction or not, what matters is that there’s a bond between them and the new content.

What’s your pick? Go wild, infinite budget. Only requirement is to make them Elonian elite specializations.

Few ideas:

Elementalist – Dervish

Since the Six Gods are gone, the mystical dervishes of Elona have reverted to praying to the wind and the earth. They wield two-handed scythes and use mantras. Their new mechanic is the Djinn Form, which transforms them into a djinn and locks them to the current attunement. They have four forms, one per each attunement, with different roles. The transformation replaces weapon skills as well. Their role is at the front lines, as a tank+DPS spec.

Mesmer – Bladedancer

When Vabbi fell, many of the former jugglers and dancers found themselves at the front lines. Bladedancers wield axes in both hands and use tricks. Their new mechanics are custom dodge abilities, as well as a special vortex skill which changes depending on the main-hand weapon, and lets the bladedancer unleash a whirlwind of illusory weapons against his enemies. Their role is at the front lines, dancing through their enemies as a pure DPS spec.

Necromancer – Scourge

Half-executor, half-priest, scourges are the best of the best among Palawa Joko’s forces. They wield two-handed greataxes and use mantras. Their new mechanic is the swarm, a group of pets that can be manually controlled. Undead sacarabs, scorpions, and locusts crawl from beneath the scourge’s mummy wrappings and funerary mask, feasting on their master’s enemies’ flesh. They also have a new Scourge Shroud, which transforms them into a nightmarish insect lord. Their role is at the front lines, as a pure DPS spec.

Engineer – Occultist

The ancient tombs of the Primeval Kings hold many secrets, including ancient artifacts and technologies that escape mortal comprehension. Occultists wield a staff and use glyphs. Their new mechanic is the relic, an ancient artifact which can be manipulated with the staff and the glyphs. Floating astrolabes, energy hypercubes, demonic gatekeepers… Dangerous toys in dangerous hands. Their role is at the back, as a support and ranged DPS spec.

Ranger – Swampstalker

The heket frog-men of Elona are renowned swamp hunters, and the toxins they impregnate their weapons with are among the world’s deadliest. Only a few survive their training and become swampstalkers. They wield one-handed spears in both hands, and use venoms. Their new mechanic is the swarm, groups of snakes, pocket raptors, crabs, piranhas and more, that can be selected instead of the classic pet. Venoms are shared with the swarm creatures, making them even deadlier. Their role is at the back, as a ranged condition DPS spec.

Thief – Sharpshooter

An offshoot of the original Order of Whispers, sharpshooters are a small group of deadly snipers. They wield rifles and use gadgets. Their new mechanics are the overcharge skill, which temporarily boosts initiative regeneration, and the lockdown skill, which changes depending on the main-hand weapon. The lockdown skill has a long channel, and grows in power as the channel goes on, consuming initiative. It’s a high-risk high reward skill, which can be easily interrupted, but can deal a lot of damage if you’re greedy and hold the channel till the end. Their role is at the back, as ranged DPS.

Continues below

Maces with nunchaku skins are the way to go, in my opinion.

alain.1659:

Avatar should be something like necro shroud from the beginning. Skills and numbers should have been adjusted according to this. And I still think it should be converted to a shroud-like mechanic with proper traits. Anet said they were going to change the nature of the druid profession in one of their patch notes, so that would be a reasonable change in my opinion.

This. Current avatar is so short it is pretty much a button spam. You can’t even read what glyphs do.

Nerf avatar and make it more tactical, with a less spammy role.

Hierophant

• Imperator Legend, based on Bonfaaz Burntfur, the charr leader who summoned the Searing, and is still respected by all charr legions.
• Flame Legion magic, focused on conditions, specifically burning and blind.
• The new mechanic is the relic, a pet-like object that enhances the active legend, providing new skills. Every legend has one.

Relic ideas:

• Shiro’s Blades (Assassin)
• Ventari’s Tablet (Centaur) (Redesigned from the original)
• Aprocrypha (Demon)
• Tome of Rubicon (Dwarf)
• Searing Cauldron (Imperator)

For more information, read this thread.

Right now, this is the base health distribution across professions:

• High: Warrior, Necromancer (19,212 hp at 80).
• Medium: Revenant, Engineer, Ranger, Mesmer (15,922 hp at 80).
• Low: Guardian, Thief, Elementalist (11,645 hp at 80).

I think many of the classic profession problems come from this distribution.

For example, shouldn’t mesmer be glassier than elementalist? Would engineer work better in the higher tier, where there’s only two professions anyway? Shouldn’t revenant be glassier than guardian?

Of course, should this change everything would need to be adapted and balanced properly, but don’t worry too much about that now. Maybe health (and armor) shouldn’t be the only thing to be different between professions. How about adding more base damage or concentration to those who have fewer base health?

Maybe it could be interesting to change base profession stats with elite specializations. For example, make reapers tankier, and give druids extra healing power.

Opinions?

Tempest idea

Feanor.2358:

Lonami.2987:

I think the strongest point of the elementalist, skill variety thanks to attunements, is his weakest point as well, from a development perspective. Weapon skills take four times the amount of work, and the profession suffers because of it.

I would hate to get more off-hands with future elite specializations, so, what if we removed that variety, replacing it with something else that can be easy to upgrade?

We would normalize weapon skills through attunements. This would mean that a weapon skill has the same mechanic across every attunement, with similar base stats as well.

It would kill all the fun of playing Ele.

Don’t you think the combos between sequences and channels would compensate for that loss? At least attunement switch would serve a purpose other than just switching skills like an engineer.

New weapons and weapon swap would be added as well.

MyPuppy.8970:

Maybe start with something simple, and give eles (and every class) the same total numbers of base stats. Eles could have maybe more concentration or whatever, i don’t really care having lowest hp/armour, but the points lacking need to go somewhere else.
Yeah I know we have twice as more weapon skills than other class, but they’re already balanced around that fact.

I think base health by profession is what needs to be adressed first.

The elementalist is right now at the lowest tier regarding health, with mesmer at the medium. Maybe it’s me, but mesmer sounds glassier than elementalist to me. Engineer, guardian, and revenant could use some repositioning as well.

ArchonWing.9480:

Unfortunately, we have neither the population nor the resources to branch out like that. Maybe if we had a firmer foundation years ago, but you can’t turn back the time on these things.

Your only real hope is, yes, to make new funky events for EOTM but I am not sure where the interest is there, plus that map sorta sucks.

Or maybe we could screw around with DBL more; I’m sure people won’t mind…… Maybe?

EOTM has nice things. I specially love the Overgrowth Keep, with the multiple floors, and the layout of bridges and walls of Frostreach is pretty awesome as well.

One of the major things I dislike from WvW is that buildings are too empty and simple. I want some complex structure, either in WvW, or in some new game mode, like battlegrounds.

Orpheal.8263:

I support this idea, sounds fun, nice and well thought out and woudl be the missing good hybrid between PvP and WvW I guess that anet tried to make with Strongholds

Stronghold was a mistake the very moment it became 5v5. It wasn’t going to compete with Conquest in any way, and should have been 10v10, full MOBA, WvW-lite.

Bhima.9518:

I absolutely support these ideas. I was never a big fan of 5v5 conquest that GW2 seems to love so much. I know its the new MOBA-esque thing to do, but its just not that fun as it ends up being mostly a 1v1 or 1v2 fight on the map. Your battleground ideas take from games like WoW but add quite a new spin to it that would be very unique and could tie well with this game.

I hope someone at Anet cares about this type of pvp playstyle but I think they have decided to die on the sword of 5v5 conquest.

I think both can coexist perfectly. Conquest should remain the competitive mode with individual rankings, and battlegrounds should be less serious, focused on fun first, and have guild rankings.

I think our main problem with general PvP in this game is that it takes itself too seriously, which is not bad, but we need dumb moments and explosions as well. For example, most FPS games have the serious competitive mode, and then a crazy Team or FFA Deathmatch mode.

And yeah, you have fun in the competitive mode, but sometimes you want to disconnect and shoot missiles to the faces of your friends. It’s another kind of fun, but it kinda works as an introduction to competitive, since it’s so dumb and random being a bad player isn’t punished as much.

Personally, I often have more fun with dumb and random game modes where balance is thrown out of the window, and no one is safe.

Continued from above…

Dominance

All across the Mists, timeless battlefields are still burning, frozen in place. Endless struggle with no end, waiting for brave heroes to rise victorious and break the cycle.

This mode combines Conquest elements with King of the Hill elements, with a special emphasis on fights. Two teams face each other in battle, competing to be the first to capture the entire map or to score the most kills.

• The map has a total of five capture points. They take longer to capture than Conquest points, and require multiple players at once. Four have a normal size, and require at least 2 players, while the fifth is larger, and requires at least 5 players.
• Maps take place in complex environments, like urban battlegrounds or dense forests. Specific locations across the map can give clear advantages to melee or ranged combat. The environment is highly destructible, and repairs are not enabled.
• Specific siege weaponry is available and plays a key role for ranged combat. Siege bundles are limited in number, and can be picked at the starting location. Siege weapons are deadlier hidden or placed at vantage points.
• Players can respawn at the starting location, or at any point they have captured, as long as it’s not under attack. Respawn is wave-based, with all dead players respawning at the same time.
• All deaths, by other players or by the environment, qualify for the score.
• Victory is achieved by the first team to capture all five points or score the maximum kills before the timer runs out, or the team with the most kills when the timer ends.

Some environment ideas:

• Burning City: An urban environment, where you can enter the ruined buildings. You can navigate the map through the streets, the roofs, or the sewers. The buildings can be further destroyed by siege weapons, and collapsing pieces damage nearby players. Burning debris can block routes as well.
• Swamp Ruins: Hard to navigate, pools of stagnant water slow you down. Local creatures can attack lonely players, slowing them down even further. Climbing ruined towers and treehouses is mandatory to scout the nearby terrain.
• Monastery Peak: Vertical map, with bridges and stairs linking the different buildings. Every few minutes, a snowstorm hits the exterior, impairing visibility and applying chill to unsheltered players. Falling down can be fatal.
• Dark Mine: Some zones have natural light, but most of the mine is shrouded in darkness. You need to light fires to see properly, or hide in the shadows to ambush the enemy team. Mine equipment is active, and many of the tunnels have railways with moving carts, that can crash into your squad if you are careless. Drills can be activated to open new tunnels.

This game mode is similar in gameplay to some classic FPS games, and encourages ambushes and strategic approaches. Scouting and knowing the environment is very important as well. A melee fighter will perform better inside smaller spaces with close distances, while a ranged fighter will have an advantage at open spaces with ground obstacles.

So yeah, just three random ideas for some good battleground gameplay. I would say 10v10 is an ideal number of players, and would follow compositions similar to those of raids. The size of these maps should be roughly 1/3 of a normal WvW map, with multiple floors when needed.

These wouldn’t replace World vs World, but provide an alternative gameplay to it. I feel like WvW has just too many things going on, and too many playstyles to cater, and adding new modes could give WvW more freedom for a clear direction. Also, one of the biggest disadvantages of WvW is that you can spend long times with no action, while battlegrounds would provide instant action easily, just like PvP, but with larger parties where teamplay combat really makes a difference.

Should battlegrounds make it into the game (dreaming is free) WvW could grow into a new direction. Alliances instead of servers? Guilds having bigger control over captured buildings? Shorter matches?

Looking forward your opinions!

Continued from above…

War Hall

Some guilds have claimed their own territory inside the Mists, restoring ruined fortresses into majestic war halls. Stable staging points inside the Mists provide multiple advantages for the Mist War, but they also provide an easy target for rival guilds, which can at last take revenge on a more personal level.

In this mode, partially inspired by Tower Defense and Tug of War modes, the first team assaults a fortress defended by the second team, with the final goal of killing their lord and capturing the throne room before the timer runs out.

• Supply plays a key role in this game mode. It’s generated by Supply Generators, similar to those in the Edge of the Mists. Players need to take supply directly from them, and then spend it on repairs, siege weapons, or allied troops.
• NPC troops will lead the front line, and both sides need to watch out and make sure their own troops aren’t overwhelmed, else they are overwhelmed themselves later on.
• General World vs World rules apply, with a major exception: Recapturing doesn’t heal structural damages.
• The attacking team achieves victory by slaying the enemy lord and capturing the throne room before the timer runs out. The defending team achieves victory by surviving until the timer ends.
• Two different types of queues: Mercenary and Commander.
• Mercenary queue has no predefined leaders, and each team has to improvise. Players can queue as parties or individually, and the matchmaking will group them together until the two teams are complete. Think of PvP hotjoin and solo queue.
• Commander queue has a clear leader, and you join with an organized squad. Additional players can be recruited through LFG. This queue also has a league system, where guilds compete against each other, unlocking bonus upgrades for their guild halls, as well as unique decorations and trophies available only to the best. Think of PvP team queue.
• Each guild can unlock its own war hall, for use in custom games and commander queue. Guild War Halls can be customized in multiple ways, including fortress layout, special effects, guard equipment, lord abilities, and more. The attacking force can be customized as well.

Types of objectives:

• Supply Generator: Can not be captured, but can be destroyed, stopping the production of supply until the owning team repairs it. While destroyed, the enemy team can take supply from it too.
• Building: Capture point inside. Has own gates and walls, and can provide access to upper sections of the war hall.
• Plaza: Large capture point. Open space with barricades. The throne room is considered a plaza.
• Hall Gate: Capture point in the inner side, automatically destroyed if captured by the attackers.
• Hall Wall: Can not be captured.
• All guards need to be killed before the objective is captured.

Usage of supply:

• Both teams can spend supply on repairs and building siege weapons, similar to WvW. Supply can be spent on troops too, which work differently for each team.
• The troops of the attacking team spawn endlessly from their base, from three different points with three different routes of attack. Spawning facilities can be upgraded to spawn more troops, like in a Tug of War game.
• The troops of the defending team need to be spawned manually, placed above walls or inside controlled objectives, like a Tower Defense game. Once they die, they don’t respawn.
• Both teams start with a basic number of troops. Note that troops can’t control siege, only players can.
• Additionally, both teams have three long-range heavy cannons, that can reach any point in the battlefield except the spawning positions and the supply generators. Loading and firing them consumes supply.

This game mode works as a WvW-lite, with an additional layer of management, and the satisfaction of a long siege, including the joys of artillery fire for one side and slaughtering an endless stream of enemy troops for the other.

Continues below…

So, what’s a Battleground?

An instanced PvP match where two teams of players face each other. Just like conquest, only that with larger numbers (10, 20, 50), and additional mechanics, or instanced simplified WvW.

In GW2’s case, these battlegrounds would offer endless possibilities. These are just examples for three potential game modes:

Loot the Vault

Deep inside the Mists, inside sealed cursed vaults, ancient and terrible creatures guard chambers full of gold, gemstones, and powerful artifacts. Many foolish looters have breached into them, never to return, slaughtered by monsters in the darkness, or stabbed in the back by their own comrades.

In this revision of the classic Capture the Flag mode, two teams compete against each other to be the first to hoard the biggest pile of stolen treasure.

• Vaults can be represented by multiple locations, like crypts, lairs, dungeons, temples, mines, etc.
• Treasure is represented by bundles of different values. A wooden chest full of gold pieces, an ancient tome of forbidden magic, a sack of glowing gemstones, an intricate diamond vase… Some can be heavier, slowing you down, and others can be cursed and injure you while you are carrying them.
• Treasure can be acquired from treasure chambers, the enemy camp, or from the ground. Crowd control and death make you drop the treasure to the ground, where it can be taken by other players or even monsters. Delicate treasure can be broken when dropped.
• Enemy monsters plague the vault, and you’ll have to face them as often as the enemy team. There’s also several powerful bosses as well, and defeating them unlocks new chambers, full of valuable treasures, or maybe nothing but more monsters.
• The vault is full of traps, which you can deactivate and reactivate at will, trapping enemy monsters and players; or maybe your own team, if you’re careless.
• Victory is achieved by the team to hoard the maximum treasure before the timer runs out, or the team with the biggest pile of treasure when the timer ends.

Some unique mechanic ideas for each map:

• Crypt: Coffins can be found across the entire map. They can be opened, spawning monsters, treasure, or nothing at all. Nearby damage can break and disturb the coffins too, so tread carefully.
• Labyrinth: The layout of the map changes every few minutes, with walls moving, trapping players and opening new sections.
• Temple: Two powerful invulnerable bosses patrol the map, killing players indiscriminately.
• Lair: A powerful beast lies in the middle, guarding a pile of treasure. The beast can be killed, but it’s too dangerous, so instead part of your team can distract it while the rest steals the treasure.

The charm of this game mode is to sabotage the enemy team as much as possible, stealing their hard-earned treasure from their base, setting up traps, killing them in the middle of a fight against a boss, and more.

Continues below…

Straegen.2938:

I would love a tournament where all our gear gets disabled for a week or two and we have to use what we find in WvW during that time.

That’s a pretty good idea, actually.

In one hand, it would give players a new goal, locked to WvW only, and prevent needing to PvE to get stuff for WvW.

Gear that is hard to get at PvE could be easier to get at WvW, since being usable in WvW only, it wouldn’t affect PvE at all.

So more like a gear split, where gear is reset every season.

What about removing initiative?

Kinda crazy out of the blue, but think about it. The nature of thief is spam-ish, and a lack of proper cooldowns forces you to use the same skills over and over again. Then when something is too good, they nerf it, and the backlash is heavier than nerfing a skill in any other profession. Additionally, so much freedom can make thief boring and repetitive.

Still, thief gameplay should be about being agile and quick, so how could we represent that without initiative?

My “Master of Knives” idea in the first post (Remove steal, and replace it with a few knife-themed skills, simple stuff, not a lot of damage, designed for combos and utility) could bring enough variety to make thief a whirlwind of different skills, but with initiative gone, we can take it further.

We could replace initiative by a new combo system where cooldowns are removed when you are performing adequately, for example, so skill is rewarded instead of spamming.

Each successful special action could reduce cooldown by a few seconds instead, too. Things like reflecting an enemy attack, either by normal skills or a knife skill. Or dodging successfully an enemy attack.

I don’t know, I don’t have it clear enough, but I feel like finding a way to make thief reward skill and discourage spamming and smashing skills randomly would make the profession better in the long term.

Maybe removing initiative isn’t the answer, but reworking it to punish wasting it.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

• There are no “original prices” for primary stat infusions; people have bought them at a variety of values to their account.
• A lot of the same people who have multiple toons with AR+150 also have maxed-out luck, so converting to luck would be worse than useless; it would actually create an inventory management issue in addition to destroying value.

Lonami.2987:

Original prices are vendor prices. Even if you bought them with coin, those original material prices are still the same. +3 infusion will always be x2 +2 infusion and x4 +1 infusion.

There are no “original prices” for AR+1 infusions. The market price of any AR+x infusion is based on the cost to make them, which is identical whether crafted or purchased from a vendor. 50% of the components are thermocatlytic reagents with a fixed vendor price; the other half is AR+1, which has a market price. At current prices, basic infusions amount to ~50% of the cost of AR+7|8|9|10|11 infusions.

In other words, there’s no “original price” for infusions; it’s all market price and, under your proposal, AR+1 would cease to have value.

Lonami.2987:

Also, I suggested using something like luck, as in a system example, not converting it to luck. Editing it to make the point clear.

I don’t think you realize just how many AR+1 would be introduced to the game by swapping to account bound AR. QT’s recommended arrangement (twelve AR+9, eight AR+7) requires over 2,800 AR+1 and over 2,800 thermo-cat — that’s over 100g worth of value (~50 from AR, ~50 from themo-cat, not including any alt weapons.

Let’s assume for the moment that there is anything that ANet can offer for the agony that would satisfy people with multiple toons geared with AR+150, that’s still 50g per toon per person from the thermo-cat alone. What do you think that’s going to do to market prices on, oh, everything else? And just wait for the whining from those who don’t own excess AR, when they find they can’t compete on prices from the suddenly (ahem) infusion of gold.

tl;dr no, it’s not that simple.

I think you missed my entire point where +1 agony infusions would be used for a luck-like system of accountbound agony progression.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

• There are no “original prices” for primary stat infusions; people have bought them at a variety of values to their account.
• A lot of the same people who have multiple toons with AR+150 also have maxed-out luck, so converting to luck would be worse than useless; it would actually create an inventory management issue in addition to destroying value.

Original prices are vendor prices. Even if you bought them with coin, those original material prices are still the same. +3 infusion will always be x2 +2 infusion and x4 +1 infusion.

Also, I suggested using something like luck, as in a system example, not converting it to luck. Editing it to make the point clear.

Just change agony infusions to consumable agony essences, and transform agony into a system like that of luck. Then ascended armor’s advantage could be the exclusive ability to extract runes without destroying the armor, using repurposed infusion extractors.

As for primary stat infusions, most of them can be refunded for the original prices. Those which were obtained through loot instead of vendors can include an extra compensation equal to the vendor ones of each stat. Aesthetic infusions could then be moved to the wardrobe, and become easier to equip/unequip too. Wardrobe auras would have a lot of gem store potential as well.

It’s not so hard, really. You’ll find other multiple similar suggestions all across the community.

Agony and infusions are a mistake, and the sooner you remove them the better. More of the same regarding aquabreathers, which should be transformed into a glider-like system.

Obsidian Sanctum should be expanded, and made its own distinct larger map. Nothing but terrain, to let people play Guild vs Guild freely.

Then they can add dungeon-like sections, where factions run against each other to complete jumping puzzles, kill raid-like bosses, and whatever.

Other sections could include small arenas, where each team owns a small castle, and uses cannons to fire at each other.

The idea is to make it a sandbox for WvW players, where they can do whatever they want.

When we discuss WvW, it’s always go left or go right, but what if we had different WvW game modes?

The current maps all follow the same structure for scoring, capturing, etc. New game modes would change the core of WvW, using classic or new maps, in shorter or longer matches. Some examples:

Demolition

In this mode, your goal is to destroy enemy buildings.

Damaged walls and doors don’t get repaired once the building changes owner. Building siege and repairing is now free, but takes considerably longer.

The score is determined by the value of each captured building, with towers having a higher value than camps and such. Sentries give points too.

The first team to capture 2/3 of the map’s total capture value wins. If the timer runs out, the team with the highest score at the moment wins.

Annihilation

Your main goal is to kill enemy players.

Dead players can’t resurrect normally. Respawns are in waves of 5 minutes, and with each respawn, killed players get a small stat boost.

The score is determined by the faction with less casualties. The team who reaches 1/6 of total casualties wins. The key is to kill and not get killed. If the timer runs out, the team with less casualties wins.

King of the Hill

There’s a building or position in the middle of the map (Stonemist Castle could work). Each team scores points by holding it out. Your goal is to capture it and hold it as long as possible.

The first team to hold it for 20 minutes wins. If the timer runs out, the team with the most points wins.

Overwhelmed

One team begins with the entire map captured. The other two teams are friendly with each other, effectively making the match a 2v1 situation.

The overwhelmed team has 10 minutes before the enemy can attack. Their goal of the is to be holding at least one building when the timer runs out.

An alternative version of this game mode could see the overwhelmed team rotate each 30 minutes.

Horde

All siege weapons are removed, and players can now destroy doors and walls with their normal attacks.

Body blocking could be enabled as well by default. Alternatively, players could be allowed to build barricades to form choke points.

Artillery

Normal combat damage is slightly reduced, making fights take longer, and siege weapons, now free and easy to deploy, are the main way to deal damage to enemies. Siege range is greatly increased as well.

Paratrooper

Gliding would be enabled, and players would be able to build platforms to throw themselves into the air.

The ballista attacks would get a new effect where they disable gliding for a short amount of time. Hitting gliding enemies would make them fall to their deaths, effectively making the ballista an anti-air weapon.

Bad Weather

Heavy rain, heavy sandstorm, mist, etc. Weather effects that affect visibility.

Could include random damage effects as well.

Infestation

Wild enemies appear often across the map, and sometimes even inside the captured buildings. Clean them out or risk them weakening your territory, and even killing your lords and turning the buildings back to neutral.

Alternatively, this effect could only spawn every few minutes, across the entire map, forcing players to stop fighting each other to defend their buildings, or use this opportunity to attack their enemies while risking losing their own territory to the monsters.

Just some ideas. Obviously, they’re pretty basic, but you get where I’m going. Some of them can be combined with each other, too.

These game modes could rotate weekly, daily, or hourly. They could be applied exclusively to Edge of the Mists, as to not disturb classic WvW gameplay.

To be fair, I think ritualist should be the 5th core legend. The revenant needs more skill variety, and going by numbers, it’s far far below the rest of the professions.

In general I just wish the revenant had been focused on original ritualist much more, instead of being a nostalgia dump :/.

I think we already have an engineer minion elite specialization in the scrapper with the gyros. We don’t need another one, at least not without scrapper getting a decent redesign.

Golemancer would fit better with a transformation-based elite spec, where the engineer transforms into a golem suit, which can equip kits too in its own manner.

I would remove the tool belt, and replace it with two kit slots. Kits would then be removed from the slot skills, and replaced by mines/traps or whatever.

F1 + F2, customizable kits. Then every new elite specialization unlocks a new kit you can choose from.

For things that used the tool belt, like the turrets and gyros, I would make new kits, designed just to manage said elements.

More redesign ideas here.

To be fair, I would just transform gadgets into signets.

So, you have this perk, and can overload it for a boosted effect.

So, the way to fix raid exploiters is to give them another title, for free?

• Some players get a title by exploiting, when you couldn’t get it by normal means.
• I don’t see how a title is a problem, when you can buy runs anyway, and only a few got it by exploiting.
• For some reason, it’s a BIG problem.
• Instead of banning the exploiters, they wait 3 weeks and screw everyone else by adding a new title, that kills the prestige of the previous one.
• Everyone who got the prestigious title the right way is screwed, and exploiters aren’t punished in any way.

If this was such a big deal, BAN EXPLOITERS, don’t reward them further with another extra title. And if you can’t punish those who deserve it, don’t punish everyone indiscriminately just to save face for something that wasn’t even a problem to begin with.

And by the way, lot of the game would welcome titles, and even achievements, yet duplicating a raid title is much more important. It’s like “Twice-Told Legend” all over again, a minority complaining about a non-problem, and getting rewarded for it, while bigger issues and larger groups of players are constantly neglected.

Achievement points and titles are in a sorry state, and things like this only make them even a bigger joke where nothing matters and nothing is valuable.

Top top it off, the new achievement name “The Real Raiders of Tyria” is just cringeworthy and disrespectful.

Well, dual axes could be cool if you focus on some kind of jester/dancer/juggler elite spec (an idea here, called bladedancer). It’s just about finding the right theme and reason.

However, I fear we’ll be getting some dull and lame forced role stamped over the mesmer just for the sake of it. The leaked information on elite specializations sounded very very awful.

I just want some pure dps mesmer elite spec. That’s all.

Also, daily reminder that main-hand pistol should be added to the core profession, not an elite spec.

I think the ritualist will eventually make its way back into where it belongs, the revenant.

I wish it was added as a core legend, but it will probably be saved for an elite specialization, which is pretty depressing, considering how core revenant is missing so many skills and how ritualist should have been the first and most important legend to begin with.

Xenon.4537:

Zenith.7301:

… I think they cannibalized ritualist into the revenant…

Why do you think this? Did you play ritualist in gw1? I’d genuinely like to get to the bottom of this common opinion.

All the core themes are there. If that’s not enough, you can always look at the revenant’s PvP title: Champion Ritualist.