Guild Wars 2

There should be a back item a player can equip in which a skritt rides on your back in a pappouse while wielding a cork-gun rifle and shooting at things behind you (non-stealthed targets only, of course, and it wouldn’t actually deal damage).

The fact that this is not already a thing is a testament to your gross incompetence and lack of vision. I hereby decree that you all be subjected to no less than 1000 lightning whip lashes or 3 swings from the sword of Johansen as punishment. For SHAME, Anet. I am disappoint. (other meme goes here)

There didn’t used to be much of an invisible wall (save for what appeared to be a minor polygon/art glitch with the collision box and the visual art) on the cliffside of south hills in the WvW borderlands. But right now, it’s an invisible wall big enough for you to fire a round so far away from the cliff that you have a full explosion radius in mid-air from either the west cannon at south gate or the mortar near the supply depot at south gate. This makes it impossible to use non-deployed siege to control the choke point on the bridge and comes pretty close to making those two pieces useless. Either move those pieces to a different location or fix/remove the invisible wall.

Off topic: (I’m still waiting of that craftable cherry bomb to flush down the mystic toilet…you guys on strike or something?)

Donari.5237:

Metal Maniac, as far as I know you can still use tonics and get Brawl skills with them. There are Forge recipes to turn Mystery Tonics into the specific one you want, check the wiki on your desired tonic for details.

Ah, Thanks.
This would explain why I’ve never found them, as I don’t buy BLK’s and rarely use the Mystic Toilet

Suppose if I start finding mystery tonics/keys lying around I’ll go ahead and convert them into something better. Seems a bit lame to convert two tonics into one, though. (shrug)

I’m posting this now because I’m hoping in the future the “Home Instance” will actually have a “Home” in it for the player. Marjorie and Kasmeer get a house but I’m a homeless hero? (profane gibberish)

Anyway. Even before an actual player housing system is put in place, I would like to see a system like this as a proof of concept:

Let me craft consumable items that I can activate in towns which I and other players can interact with. These items would be chairs, tables, benches, torches, carpets, throw-rugs, candelabra, standing easels with portraits on them, statues, tall mirrors, thrones, etc.
Light sources and furniture would be interactive. Players could sit down on a bench or at a table, snuff and light candles, etc.
The deployables would last for…I dunno…fifteen minutes to an hour? (shrug)
Each player’s number of currently active deployables would be limited so one player can’t come through and carpet bomb Divinity’s Reach with a thousand green wood tiki torches.

Naturally this means things like cotton, wood, leather, etc would be consumed more to create them. Fancier items and light sources could use dust and various types of ores.

The main hope would ultimately be to have this system get absorbed into a player housing system (in the home instance, or possibly just in any town), and/or into a guild hall system, where members of guilds could port into an instance where the guild leaders spend influence to furnish it in their own personalized way. The furnishings in these instances would be permanent until removed by the player/guild leader. But when the items are used in public open world environments, they are temporary.

It’s a rough cut of the basic premise, but I think it’s enough to work with. Oh. And if you do go through with something like this, do us a favor and don’t account bind every friggin’ piece of furniture. That’s gettin’ old. :P

Addendum: You could also throw in some deployable barricades for WvW trap vendors as a form of area denial. Pay supply to build some tetrahedrons and stone berms around supply routes and choke points and such that players would have to destroy or go around. But that’s a whole different ball game. (shrug)

“Transformation Charges”

You remember those tonics we used to get in the first couple months where you could transform yourself into a raptor or a hawk or what-have-you for a few minutes? I’d like to see those brought back using a system similar to the new Transmutation Charges. It would work something like this:

Unlock forms (skins) by getting achievements, buying them in the gem store, opening a black lion chest, etc. Every time you unlock a new skin, you get 5 “Transformation Charges”. You use these charges to transform yourself into a form that you have unlocked any time that you are not in structured PvP.
The transformation lasts for 1 hour or until cancelled by the player and cannot be cancelled by being struck by an enemy (like when you have a musical instrument out and a devourer pokes you in the shoulder and ruins your awesome solo). The transformation will also persist through death.
All skills (including downed skills) are replaced with non-combat skills or…maybe costume brawl skills? Anyway the point is you can’t fight normally.
Activating a transformation is done through the Hero Panel in the Wardrobe Tab (or a new “Shapeshifting” tab).
Additional charges can be bought for gems in packs of 5/10/25 or with laurels.

The main reason I want this is because there was a spur of the moment joke I pulled on somebody that I wish I’d recorded, and currently there’s no way for me to repeat it because I can’t transform at will. I’d like to fix that.
I’d also like to bring back my goofy antics of transforming into an Owl and then throwing Molachev kittentails and Boulders at PvE enemies. Good times…good times.

I think a system like the Boost Enchantment Powder being used for extra items like what you describe here would be a better approach than a direct gem refund.

What I would like to see, though, is a gem store purchase refund system where if I spend gems on something and I’m dissatisfied with it, I can return it for a refund of gems from within the Black Lion screen. Like in the “recent purchases” tab, just throw in a refund option. It doesn’t have to apply to everything, but it should be there. (imo)

Basically. If I spent gems to get it and it turned out to be trashy, I should be able to get my gems back and return it. But if I didn’t ever spend gems to acquire the items I don’t like in the first place, I shouldn’t be able to convert them directly into gems. But it would be nice to convert them into something I’d actually use, which is why I say the Booster Powder approach would be a better approach.

I hate to flame you guys (hah. I’m lying. you know I love it! and I know you do, too :P).

But the frame drum? Well. It’s…quite daffy. Absolutely rotten, even. I mean you didn’t just drop the ball…you dropped it, deflated it, let a ranger’s pet run off and bury it, dig it back up and play tug with a quaggan with it, and then spit it into the mystic forge with three level 20 blues. It is now very soggy and plays like complete poopy. Listed below are the biggest issues I have with it in its current state. Have fun reading all the negative feedback, and give my regards to the old drawing board.

Issue 1) Strike timing is delayed by anywhere from 100 to 300 milliseconds. When you strike a drum, it plays sound immediately, not a quarter of a second later. This bug by itself is enough to completely destroy this instrument’s function. If you fix only one thing, it should be this.

Issue 2) Multiple random sounds per drum. Drums do not play more than one note at random (unless you’re so clumsy you miss bad enough to strike two inches from the rim, in which case that’s your fault, not the drum’s); they play one note, the same note, every time you strike them. So why can I hit just the 3 key and get up to 3 different sounds? Never knowing which sound is going to play and when? If you fix only two things, this should be the second.

Issue 3) Record loop has no visual indicator of where it is in the measure, and the metronome doesn’t always play. So you basically have no idea what the timing is actually like. It also doesn’t appear to start looping from the strike of the first note; it starts counting the measure as soon as you hit the record loop button. A measure shouldn’t actually start recording until I begin playing. This is why at rehearsals and in recording studios, the drummer gives a four count to the band before they actually play the song. The song’s timing is relative to the first strike of the song, not to when the engineer hits the record button.

Issue 4) There is no way to increase or decrease the tempo while in record loop mode. The loop has one speed/bpm and only one, making upbeat and offbeat songs pretty much impossible.

Issue 5) There is a skill lockout when you play too fast. Seriously. This is just psychotic design. I can spam flute notes all day as fast as I want, but a drum, the one instrument where fast, highly responsive play is essential, actively blocks you from playing it up to speed? You are hereby awarded one demerit.

Issue 6) Maximum repeated strike speed is abysmally slow. I can sit there and do E. Honda’s thousand-hand-slap on the 4 key and the fastest repetitive responsiveness I’ve gotten is 8th notes. EIGHTH NOTES!? Come on, now. Y’all are killin’ me here. I want to play “I wanna be sedated” not play like I’m sedated :P

Issue 7) There is no way to save a drum loop over the prefabs on the second page. There are 5 pre-recorded drum loops, taking up space on the skill bar, and I can’t substitute them for something that I’ve recorded, or even just something more useful. One thing you can do is just have skill 9 on the second page be the “prefabs” button, that when active, makes the prefabs (1 through 5 and the two “random solo” buttons) appear in place of the actual playable drum notes(that should be there but aren’t). Then you can change the “normal” skills that appear on the second page to something more sensible. Maybe use these to separate the currently randomized sounds that play when you hit the same drum over and over again on the first page. It’s not exactly saving your own pre-recorded drum solos and rhythms, but it would still be better than having all the prefabs clog up the second skill page.

I know it’s a lot to take in. But the way you get things right is by knowing when you get them wrong, and then making corrections as needed. I’ve been playing drums for sixteen years, and believe me when I tell you, there’s quite a bit wrong with the frame drum. I know this kitten’s not easy to do. I’ve also written code and script before. Simulating a musical instrument through a game’s skill interface has all kinds of restrictions on it. But after seeing what you guys were able to do with the flute, I know you can pull something off waaaaay better with the frame drum if you want to. Here’s hoping you do.

(lifts beer bottle)
You have your orders, marines. Dismissed.

Edit: “This kitten’s not easy…” Huh. I don’t recall saying “kitten” there. I could have sworn I said “kitten”. Wait, you can say “mystic forge” but you can’t say “kitten”? What kind of bull kitten is that?

I think they need to drastically overhaul the commander Icons. I’m sick and tired of going into PvE and seeing a bunch of blue chevrons on the map from random people I don’t know. I would like at bare minimum the ability to turn them all off with a simple checkbox on my minimap. I don’t take orders from these people; why should their icons be cluttering up my interface?

Suggestion:
Add a “Commander Display” option to the game, possibly rolled into the Looking-For-Group tools coming up. It would be fairly simple. A checklist with various categories you could turn on or off under two tabs: PvE and WvW.

Under each tab, you would choose which commanders’ icons show up on your map.
All: Yes/No
Guild Commanders (only commanders in your guild will show up): Yes/No
Friends (only commanders on your contacts/friends list will show up): Yes/No
Squad (only the commander of your current squad will show up): Yes/No

If the “All” option is checked, the others are checked automatically, and all other commanders on the map will display. If not, you can toggle each of the subcategories on or off. For example, if I always want to see my Friended commanders and Guild commanders, I could check just those two boxes.

The idea above to change icon colors would roll into this neatly. Your current squad commander’s icon would be one color, commanders in your guild would be another, and commanders on your friends list would be another, while all other commanders would retain the default blue chevron. Hell, if you gave the icons different shapes, too, that would make them stand out even more…but I think color toggles will be plenty.

This would make organization and coordination a lot quicker and easier.

I also think there should be a “Commander” tab in the chat window. It would function the same as Map chat, except the only people who could type in it would be commanders who currently are in a squad. That would help people trying to coordinate a bit, too.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

It is currently nearly impossible to form an orchestra how ever. Because the flute tunes are impossible to synch up, especially with lag and such. So if the dev team has any ideas on how to make that work, that would be a great future addition. I can already imagine having a whole bunch of instruments all playing together.

A potential solution to the synching problem is to do this:

When they update the pause function to where it is a keypress for number 0, instead of having it be an interruption of a note, it should be a note itself, which is silent. Basically, instead of a “pause” it would be a "rest’. That way, everyone with a flute who wants to play in an arrangement can all “ready their instruments” by just pressing 0 and they won’t make any noise. As long as they keey hitting 0, they will stay in the “ready” state and jumping into the song would be instantaneous.

As for lag…well. It’s the internet. Not a hell of a lot you can do about that, unfortunately.

…also. I know this thread is about the Flute.

But is there any chance you could also remove the 2 minute timer on the unbreakable choir bell? I mean…why is it even there?

(edit edit delete repost rinse and repeat)

Ugh. Okay.

Anyway. After reading Cody Crichton’s announcement that skill 0 will take the place of the current pause function, I’ll just say, “thanks”. That’s exactly what I would have done.

Skill 0 was annoying enough as it was…what with accidentally hitting it when going for an octave change and throwing your flute half way across Malchor’s Leap in the middle of a song…so converting it to replace the pause function actually solves two problems at once.

Simple and elegant. Taz like.

Thanks.

I’ll still continue raging at you out loud in the mean time, however. If I don’t my adrenaline will dissipate and my build won’t work anymore…so, FEAR ME!

To Original Poster:
I don’t know how viable it would be to move to a districting system for explorable zones at this stage. Although, it’s worth considering as a companion piece to the proposed “guesting” system, whereby you can invite players from other servers onto your own. Rolling the “guesting” system and the “overflow server” system into a single mechanic might accomplish what you’re talking about with districting.

Rambling Section 1:
I think another problem is the lack of incentive for replayability of zones. The daily achievement system seems to be well-intentioned, but the way it’s implemented is a little too generic for it to really serve as a method to reinstate de-facto grouping (which is a core concept of this game). I think having the dailies re-worked might help encourage people to re-play old zones, moving the population around the maps more and increasing the chances of them running into other players and helping with map content.

Example: Take the 5 dynamic events requirement out of the daily achievements and replace it with something else. Instead, make the 5 dynamic events be a per-zone repeatable daily. In other words, do 5 dynamic events today in Wayfarer Foothills, and you get a small daily reward. Do 5 dynamic events in Snowden Drifts today and get another reward. Do 5 dynamic events in Dredgehaunt Cliffs today and get another reward. You can’t do the same map twice in the same day, and the rewards are smaller than map completion or the account-wide daily achievement chest. Something along those lines.

Rambling Section 2:
Alternatively, I hate to say it, but the game would probably be better off with something similar to the Zaishen Missions from GW1. In starter towns and in Lion’s Arch, every week have an envoy from some group come to that town. Speaking to that envoy will give you the weekly in-context world bounties, and you can do those bounties once per character at any time during that week. In other words, a guy in Black Citadel will give you the weekly bounties for Charr territory, and those bounties will be dynamic events. So over the course of that week, whatever zone those bounties are in, the population for that zone will swell, increasing the chances of players who are going through those zones for the first time to get help, or just other people to play the content with. Does that sound an awful lot like “traditional questing” where a guy will have an exclamation point over his head? Yeah, probably, but the bottom line is that system worked, and it still does. As long as you provide good context for why those quest-givers are there and why those bounties/events/quests for that week are what they are, then you still accomplish the same thing as dynamic events where John Q. Farmer comes running up to me and asks for help.

I say “weekly” because the problem with the Zaishen Mission system in GW1 was the time constraint turned them into errand-quests where everyone would do the ZM/ZB for that day and then after that day, the same content was barren, leaving people playing it as part of a regular playthrough to Koss-Hench it. Slowing the rotation down to weekly will hopefully avoid a zerg-spike where for a single day an area is booming, but then goes back to being a ghost town.

In Summary:
Whatever they do, they need to think carefully about the rewards system they offer. There are a lot of people blaming Fractals of the Mists and Legendary Weapons for the mass migration of players to one type of content. If that is in fact the case, then putting rewards for doing old map content in the game which can serve as a reasonable downgrade alternative to actually doing Fractals or Dungeons or whatever will probably be the only way to pry players away from that content and get them back into the zones.

I hope they do something, though. It’s pretty kitten depressing to see [Group Event] Big kitten Dragon Has Landed and is Kicking Your kitten #8230;but there’s only you and three other people in the entire zone, effectively putting the content out of reach.

In Divinity’s Reach, any time I’m at the storage and guild storage building, the ambient audio from NPC’s keeps playing the same sound over and over again.

For example:
I will hear a woman yawn/moan like she is stretching her arms.
I will then hear the exact same sound a few seconds later, with a minor randomization in pitch variation (she will moan slightly higher/lower in tone). Then again, and again…and again.

Another example:
I will hear a woman say “Nah. Uh-uh.” as if she’s disagreeing with someone.
I will then hear the same effect a few seconds later, again with minor variation in pitch.

This happens consistently. As in it will always happen 4 times for every sound.

As a modder for other games, I know exactly what’s causing this:
There are multiple placed instances of an ambient sound object. That sound object has a list of sounds which it will play at intervals determined by an integer value and an attached variation range (play a sound every ten seconds, with up to two seconds plus or minus to randomize when it plays). There is also a pitch variation range for each of those sounds (play this sound file, with a pitch of up to -2 to +2 in octave).

But what is MISSING from these placed sound objects is an instruction set to randomize which sound file gets played at each interval. They always play their lists in chronological order with no randomization. In other words, when the first placed object gets on the “lady yawning” sound, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th are also all on that same sound file. Not only is this annoying spam, but when the sound file mentioned above is in the list, it sounds like there is an orgy going on at the guild bank.

Solution: For each of the placed sound objects, add a randomization routine to the beginning of each interval. If there are 10 sound files in the sound list, have the computer roll a random integer value between 1 and 10. Then build an if-statement block telling it to set the variable for the sound played to match a sound file in the list according to the number which corresponds to it.

Now. Get down to the programming dungeon and tell those bloody peasants to get crackin’ }:-D

So. I had a very goofy idea and wanted to share it. Here it goes:

Chef (400)

Recipe 1: “Orrian Cookie”
Cookie Dough
Bowl of White Frosting
Chocolate Bar
Orrian Truffle

Recipe 2: “Double-Stuffed Orrian Cookie”
Orrian Cookie
Bowl of White Frosting

The name is simply a play on “Oreo” cookies. The bonuses don’t really matter; they can be just about anything. Although, I think a 100% chance to gain swiftness when you kill a foe would make sense, since I don’t think there is a level 400 consumable that does that yet. That or a swiftness when you dodge boost with an endurance recharge buff.
(shrug)

I figure the only distinction necessary between the two items’ effects would be the regular cookie lasts for 15/30 minutes while the double-stuffed lasts for 30/60 minutes, but gives the same statistical boosts. Seeing how all you need to craft the ‘upgrade’ of the two is another bowl of white frosting, which is an easily produced item.

That about does it.

Mallis.4295:

Go to the jump puzzle in WvW. Go up to the area above the very first ledge you go onto. When someone walks onto the ledge jump down and knock them off of the ledge.

This doesn’t really have anything to do with what I’m talking about.
The subject isn’t “there are no places anywhere in the game where you can use DFA for anything, not even a laugh”.
It’s “DFA’s counterintuitive design limits its potential uses in combat, and it’s inferior to other traits in a sustained fight. Giving it some minor role in sustained combat would improve it.”

Cogbyrn.7283:

If you have Short Temper slotted, you get absolutely nothing against classes that don’t have a block or who aren’t specced into blocking.

If you want PvE optimization, you take Berserker’s Power and call it a day. Or you take Powerful Banners to plant in AoE. If you’re concerned about condition removal in something like sPvP, you take Restorative Strength. If you want to be able to dive around in sPvP or WvWvW and take less damage/potentially set up a knockback, you go Death From Above.

Every decision you make in this game makes you sub-optimal in one category or another. You pick and choose what you want based on your playstyle. I go Restorative Strength in sPvP, Death From Above in WvWvW, and Berserker’s Rage in PvE.

Death From Above is part of your tool kit. You use it when it’s needed, and have it handy when it isn’t. The trait is about preparing yourself for certain situations so you can use those situations to your advantage.

I have no idea why you’re fighting so hard to convince anyone that DFA needs to be changed in any way.

The point is that DFA has too few applications, and in the limited circumstances where it’s applicable, it doesn’t lend enough benefit in comparison to another trait. All those traits can be used in sub-optimal conditions to at least lend some benefit during a sustained fight. DFA cannot.

The knockback from DFA shows that there’s an intended use for it in combat. But that intended use is one-shot only, and any attempt to make it multi-use in a fight requires you to take yourself out of the fight to get back to a place where you can use it, making you even less effective. This makes it counterintuitive in its design, and a high-maintenance/low-payoff utility.

As far as short temper goes, it’s also limited in where its functional, but it’s easier to control it when it does have a function, and it’s not as limited as DFA. If you’re in PvE and you know there are no blockers, you just don’t slot it. If you know what enemies block and which ones don’t, you slot it and use target selection to optimize it. In WvW, the math is on your side; if you have more than a few enemies on the screen, it’s very likely that at least a couple of them will be able to apply blocks to themselves or even to all their nearby allies. In those circumstances you can control its mechanics from within combat, and for a sustained fight. The difference between the two is one requires overly specific circumstances to be rendered useless, whereas one requires overly specific circumstances to be rendered useful, and even in those circumstances, it’s barely more useful than another trait. One poorly timed jump or run-in with someone who has stability, and your trait slot is completely empty, and stays that way. With the other traits if you make a mistake or are countered, they can be used again.

@Haette
It’s CC is pretty much only ever used once per fight, and you’re at the mercy of the terrain to even get an opportunity to use it in the first place. Once that initial CC is used, you’re effectively left with an empty trait slot until the battle is over. It’s barely applicable anywhere outside of WvW, and in PvE it’s pretty much only used for exploration.

As for “plenty of other traits that do that”, that’s exactly my point; DFA is inferior to every other Tier 1 strength trait in sustained combat. I don’t think that should be the case for any trait. Giving it some minor form of long-term combat flexibility is all it would take to expand its number of applicable situations.

As it stands now, if you have DFA slotted and find yourself in a fight that lasts more than a minute, you’re sub-optimal because it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll have an opportunity for its effects to trigger again. So there should either be some more controllable effect that can play a role in extended combat, or the benefits of that single-use spike-launch should be slightly more rewarding. This should at least be the case in PvE, since that’s where the trait’s design seems to have the fewest benefits.

@Cogbryn:
I never said it (or that all traits for that matter) had to have grave importance, just that it’s not viable in sustained combat, and that it should have some function for use in an actual fight. As for fixing ‘many people’s concerns with the class’, their concerns are theirs, not mine; I’m talking about one specific trait as it compares to other traits in the same trait line at the same tier, not trying to “fix” the whole class.

@Vain:
WvW seems to be the only place that there’s much use for this trait (at least the trigger effect). I don’t think that should be the case. And you do actually have to keep the trait on the whole time that you’re in combat. You can only change it once you’re outside of combat. My whole point is that the trait is nearly functionless while in combat, and it shouldn’t be. Even if the function is fairly minor, it should be present longer than just at the start of the fight. All the other tier 1 strength traits can give some benefit throughout a sustained fight. To try and get DFA to do the same requires overcompensation to try and ‘force’ it to be viable.

That’s what my problem is with it. The halved fall damage is really the only part of the trait that has much use, and that use is almost exclusively out of combat. A minor buff to give it at least some viability in a fight would help the balance I think.

But you’re right; it’s definitely a hilarious trait when you finally get a chance to use it. It’s fun, but not especially effective.

The trait “Death From Above” is not particularly viable as a combat trait.
Halving your fall damage only benefits you when an enemy knocks you off of a ledge and you fall, and in most cases, I find myself using DFA for exploration, goofing off, and general non-combat stuff.
Damaging and Launching foes when you take fall damage is satisfying when you can pull it off, but the fact is that it requires you to walk around more to get up to an elevated position to use it, and even then, you really only get to use it once in any fight, and that’s at the very beginning of the fight, which is not a particularly tactical time to launch enemies.

So as far as actual combat goes, you either won’t use it at all in a fight, or you’ll use it just once at the very beginning. This makes it very inferior to other strength traits in my opinion.

I’m not sure how it works in PvP, since I’m almost always in PvE, but in PvE it seems more like a gag trait than anything else.

Some suggestions on how to improve it:

Option A) Give leap skills a percent-chance to trigger the launch effect. For example, if I use Savage Leap with Death From Above on, I have a 25% chance to damage and launch nearby foes (or at least my target).

Option B) Add a boon to the fall effect. For example, when taking fall damage, you damage and launch nearby foes and gain 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds. This will make the initial “crash” at the beginning of combat a little more rewarding.

Option C) Add a percent-chance for the launch effect to trigger when you are knocked down or launched by an enemy. For example, if an enemy splats me to the ground with a hammer, I have a 10% chance to launch them. This is more like a “death from below” thing, though, so it doesn’t really make sense :P

Option D) Add a constant damage bonus vs knocked-down foes. For example, 10% bonus damage vs knocked down foes. This will synergize very well with the trait’s effects when it launches, and will also allow a passive bonus that is more sustainable for characters using knockdown builds.

Option E) Make the fall damage grant adrenaline. Example: Whenever you take fall damage, the damage is halved and you launch nearby foes while gaining 10 strikes of adrenaline (that’s 1/3 the bar, right?).

Anyway. There’s a few ideas to consider. A minor change or buff to make the trait slightly more viable in sustained combat would be good, I think. Right now, if given the choice between DFA and say, “Berserker’s Power”, the choice is pretty clear.

Thoughts?

And I just realized there’s like already five topics on this subject. Sorry for posting another duplicate. I do this all the time }:-(

I’m a bad forum user. A bad, bad forum user.

If possible, I think having the ability to use the preview feature to look at the skin on a piece of armor or weapon in the trading post before purchase would be a welcome addition.

An example of where this would have been helpful:

Doing personal story quests, I got 5 of 6 pieces of a set of armor which did not have a skin name. They just said “strong pauldrons, strong chestplate” etc. When I completed the story step to get the leg piece, the leg piece was the wrong skin, probably because of a glitched loot table. So I was left with 5/6 pieces of a set of armor, where I wanted the 6th, but didn’t know the name of the armor set.

So. I went to the trading post, and started filtering armor pieces to show only leg pieces, and figured I’d preview until I found one that looked like a match. But you can’t preview items for sale on the trading post. Blargh…

On a hunch, I tried searching for the pieces I did have, and matched up by icon the helmet until I found the name of the set. I then did a quick google image search to confirm what the leg piece looked like. Then I found one, and bought it. Problem solved.

While I eventually got the piece I was looking for, I did have to take myself out of the game world and search around the internet for a third-party image of the set. I think having the convenience of the preview feature on the trading post would make this simpler and easier for players who want to browse unknown armor and weapon skins on the trading post to see what they like.

If you’ve never seen that skin before, then you can’t know if you’d like it or not. And without a preview function on the trading post, this is probably preventing people who craft items from selling them to other players.

Thoughts?