Guild Wars 2

What about adding a Layaway for items, created at the TP in the recipient’s Account Name; you can “promise” an item to a player even as you put it up to the Trading Post in a private listing. The duration could either be agreed-upon or a standard 24-hours.

If the receiving Player fails to complete the Trade (fork over the cash) before the Layaway ends, that item would then be revealed to the broad public and the spice would flow.

I also may have missed it, were there specific worries over the risks of adding a Cash On Deliver to the Mail system for non-barter transactions?

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Waypoc.6125:

That being said, what about the role of a Guardian as defined by it’s very name? Who is he guarding if not the group? Which brings me back to one of my suggestions above; having just a touch of aggro generation added so that when the group is going down, the guardian can draw aggro and and then plop down the wall of reflection you mentioned thereby allowing the group to recover a bit.

That’s why position is actually important in Guild Wars 2. Most of the guardian’s absorption/reflection abilities are sphere or lines. Wall of Reflection is an actual wall about 10 times the width of your character; plenty of room to protect your party. Then there’s abilities like Virtue of Courage (F3), which is not exactly a sphere of blocking but it applies a free block to every ally within range.

The main idea is that the combat and skills should keep you paying more attention to the game world than the various arbitrary numbers, bars, and meters typically associated with MMORPGs.

Not to mention I can guard my group from the rear or the frontlines; Save Yourselves + activate all of my Virtues + Tome Of Courage = one very confused, very alive party member who was expecting to be Defeated.

I spec my Guardian to mix equal parts control (movement-impairment on enemies, reflect attacks, blinds) and support (heal, condition purifying, Rally-oriented).

It’s even more useful and fluid than Aggro, because in tandem with someone like an Elementalist or an Engineer, I can control the movement of enemies at the limit of the range on my spells; “No, your bullets will not harass my Elementalist!” or “Boss, sit down before you fall down, enjoy my Line of Warding”.

It looks like Aggro because I can predict, counter, or nullify the advantages of the enemies. It’s better than Aggro because I can quickly retreat and get my bearings again and whip out my Staff to buff the group before resuming the CC from my Hammer or Shield-Scepter abilities.

What if the LFG was located AT the Dungeon of your choice, and it only queued you for THAT Dungeon? (No sitting in the capital spamming while zones lay dead)

If you want to do Ascalonian Catacombs, you better hike out there and click the NPC (or be presented with a GUI) to enter the LFG Queue. Dungeons are a more involved affair in this game, at least the Explorable Mode, so involving a bit of effort and commitment (travel expenses) will ensure that people are more determined to finish and actually make the run worthwhile.

Similarly, I disagree with making it cross-Server for this game. Server Pride! The exception would belong to the Overflow Servers… they’re a real pain to dance through right now, and the first 20 minutes of my last dungeon group was spent just trying to all enter the same instance. Having the LFG identify your true Home Server, and group you with folks from there no matter where you currently were, would probably be best.

/2cents

I like that, though I’m guessing that if an Engineer spends the traits to have turrets auto-heal, that healing is stalled for as long as you would be holding (picking up) a turret?

As to the tilde (`) key, that’s one idea… but what if the person has no turrets out? Maybe having it serve a function to your Belt would be a more sound suggestion, since no matter what, that Belt is in use by the Engineer (their one constant). Refresh all Belt abilities but double their cooldown?

What would be done to recognize that “Hm, if I unequip my offhand Sword, I’ll lose 30 Power…”?

But hey, I like the spirit of this suggestion. Let’s assume the stats were taken care of (thankfully Stats are quite secondary to your choice of Weapon and Utility).

Profession Skills?
I’m a Guardian, I’ll start with what I know or might find useful.
Unequipped 1 — Chastise: 1, Strike foes with a blast of light at medium range. 2, Strike foes harder with another blast of light. 3, Channel a short burst of power that damages your foe, or heals a small amount if interrupted by being attacked.
Unequipped 2 — Challenge: Target foe is damaged and inflicted with Weakness, you gain Might and Stability.
Unequipped 3 — Restrain: Leap a short distance to the target to Cripple and Blind them.
Unequipped 4 — Signal to Regroup: Blind nearby foes as you leap backwards.
Unequipped 5 — Searing Grapple: Immobilize a foe in melee range and Burn them. Channel a short flurry of strikes with your other hand.

Adding any one-handed weapon or item (Shield, Torch, Sword, Mace) would replace the appropriate Abilities (1, 2, 3, or 4, 5) with the attacks you know for that weapon. Similarly, who knows, maybe there’s a CRAZY Guardian running around beating people with his fists and bodily keeping enemies away from Allies.

darkoracle.6483:

coglin.1496:

darkoracle.6483:

Same for turrets, they don’t use any of our stats at least the kits get the +power and +cond dmg, the turrets get NOTHING

do necro minions get effected from the necros stats.

Nope, neither do guardian spirit weapons or Elementalist Ele’s.

Curious, seems like an oversight… unless… what about a Ranger’s pets?

I’m wondering if there is (or why there may not be) a timer which shows how long the Elite skills last for.

Granted I could get a feel for it with a stopwatch, but in the middle of a fight I’m looking to maximize which actions I take while Tome of Wrath or Tome of Courage are up.

I’ve taken the trait which extends the Elite duration, but I don’t know how much. A pretty colored bar that times-down would be a welcome addition, or perhaps to show the time remaining in one of the 6-9 Slots (which go blank during a Tome use).

Not certain how applicable this is for other Professions since I’m not familiar with them all. Still, as someone who enjoys reading books… I like to know how much time I have left to finish the chapter. =]

Thoughts or insights are welcome.

Knighthonor.4061:

I agree. many of the Traits for this was badly designed. Why have traits dedicated to Blocking, when we dont have short cooldown blocks?

I’m not sure why folks say that Blocking is unreliable, or hard to control.

For one, I have the Trait that gives me Aegis, Protection, and Regen when resurrecting — during particularly taxing fights I can reasonably run around resurrecting or rallying people. My Aegis (chiefly) is refreshed each time. Retreat is also a fine option for getting that Aegis up in a pinch. Add to that the Mace, Shield, Sanctuary, Focus, Sword… blocking can happen quite often if you really try to build for it.

As for the specific trait that Burns when Blocking… It’s not like the Guardian has a hard time lighting people on fire, it’s their Condition of choice. Personally I’d prefer to see a Blind on each successful Block (but that might be too overpowered).

As to the suggestion of swapping Mace skill 3 with Shield skill 4… I’m of two minds.
Yes it makes sense to do this from the obvious “well Shields block!” argument, but then again, Warrior and Engineer already have “blocky” Shields, and the Guardian is introduced as an asymmetrical Profession, maybe the one which blurs the lines the most. It’s a magical warrior, I think it’s allowed to not make some sense in the spirit of being unique (and still pretty dang effective).

Remember, the Guardian is not designed to defend itself as much as its ALLIES. The Shield is not for the Guardian, it is for the troops behind them. As tough and survivable as the Guardian is, I still feel like my defenses “belong” to my allies (nearly every one benefits me and at least one other ally), and really that’s part of the appeal.

I agree, in that if I play poorly I’ll be defeated.

I had thought the Guardian was cool and generally good when starting out, but once I figured out how the Field/Finisher system works (inter-profession and intra-profession combos), you’re right. I can be almost unkillable if I time my virtues, blinds, retaliations, and evades just right. I can solo Veteran NPCs, but only if I’m really on my game (and then, win by the skin of my teeth in some cases).

Similarly I’ve heard complaints of Engineer survivability at low levels, but my younger brother (who loves the Engineer) has been aggressively kicking tail. He plays smart, and is rewarded with very few deaths.