Guild Wars 2

Aw, it’s on the one day I don’t have a badge for.

Aside from the private community party and this panel, will there be any other chance of meeting some people from ArenaNet at PAX or do I need to find my way to your offices?

Altough, you guys probably have a long week-end too so nobody would be there…

A few weeks ago, I got to making an ascended condition damage set for my Necromancer.

Having plenty of laurels, I started getting copies of all the Sinister trinkets unlocked by the Living World Season 2 only to notice Verata’s Seared Ring isn’t there.

I would have thought having already bought one with Bandit Crests for my Engineer would unlock it at the Laurel vendor, just like every other piece of the set.

Especially since it is also how it works for the Assassin’s trinkets locked behind dungeon collections (like Zhaitan’s_Claw ).

Since I saw nothing recent about this in the Known Issue tracker or in forum searches, I even contacted support to ask if this was normal; the GM agreed with me that it was odd but said I would need to raise this issue in the forums if we want a shot at it getting fixed.

So here we are!

The last time we saw a Fractal Leaderboard concept, it was based on Fractal level.

Going this way would mean that we could expect level resets and Fractal “seasons”. However, we all saw how badly people reacted to even a partial Fractal level reset.

Since a Fractal Leaderboard is still on the list of upcoming features for Fractals of the Mists, here is a suggestion to avoid that type of drama :

Make the Fractal Leaderboard daily, like the Adventure boards, and based on a team score per “island”.

The score would be based on multiple things, that could include :

• Time taken
• Amount of kills
• Damage dealt
• Healing provided
• etc.

But, most importantly, score would be modified by the Fractal level; meaning the score potential would be higher the higher it is.

Like Adventures, you would have 3 levels of daily rewards – Bronze, Silver and Gold – for each island, not level. You could get all 3 for Swampland island in one run by doing the highest level version, but doing other levels of Swampland that day would yield no further rewards.

Daily Fractal achievements could be changed to require completion at a certain reward level. For instance, requiring to get 3 Bronze Champion Level Fractals or 1 Gold Champion Level Fractal instead of simply completing them. This would force players to play 3 different Fractals or reward them if they are exceptional at one of them.

As for the “Dungeon” in the title? Well, I think this system could be extended to the Dungeons to replace the current crappy rewards and make them more interesting again.

Also, Dungeon/Fractals Guild Teams could be a thing in order to track progress.

What do you guys think? Am I the only one to think this could have potential? See any big problems this could cause? At the very least, it should make running something else than Swampland more popular, no?

Don’t get me wrong, I like the story of the game. But if you’re talking about a story element in the game, it’s easy for less experienced players to get confused.

Over the past weeks, I helped a friend come back to the game and had him play trough different parts of the story of the Livig World Season 2 and Heart of Thorns. He is a quick learner, so he often gets far on his own when I don’t play with him. But, it’s made me realize the gap in communication between players who experienced the story as it released and those who are playing it now.

It really hit home when he told me “I finished the personal story.” and he was actually talking about finishing the Heart of Thorns story.

There should be only ONE STORY in game
Elements like “Personal story” and “Living world” are fine when talking about releases, but make for poor titles for the chapters of an epic character storyline. It’s also confusing: isn’t the entire game my “personal” story?

Much like the “Living World Season 1” was added to the Story Journal as “Scarlet’s War”, the “My story” and “Living World Season 2” could use different names; the entire journal is your story and “seasons” do not make much sense if you’re not playing as the Living World releases.

Story Achievements
Along with more clarity in the Story Journal, there should be more in the presentation of achievements; since the “Story Journal” section was added, shouldn’t the “Story achievements” in the “General” section under “Hero” be moved there?

The “Heart of Thorns” achievement section can also be a bit confusing, since it is the name of the story, of the expansion and sometimes used as a synonym to the Heart of Maguuma region as well. Considering it has to do mostly with mastery points from the jungle, it could be renamed “Heart of Maguuma Region”; the “Specializations” category could go under “General”. If that is done, the achievements under “General” specific to the Central Tyria region should probably get their own section.

This may seem superficial, but I found out while helping my friend that achievements are a great way to explore and guide yourself trough content. You can set yourself goals that have specific names; this makes it easier to seek help or look them up on the Internet. Having them better organized helps when exploring the achievement section.

TL/DR
Multiple uses of the term “Story” (Personal Story, My story, Story Journal, etc.) and “Heart of Thorns” (the expansion, the region and the story chapter) makes it hard to communicate what you wish to talk about with less experienced players. The Story Journal and Achievements could be better organized, starting with less generic names for sections and story chapters.

Tobias.3619:

Nitross.6987:

And the Blue Guardian has a Green Circle attack that wipes the group unless 4 players go in the circle.

Acually it’s 3 players that have to stand in those circles while the boss is splited into 3 colors.
But when you fight the Vale (as in the one boss) then 4 players need to stand in those.

Ah! Thanks for that information, I didn’t know that.

Still feels strange that the attack colors don’t match their guardian tho. Not game breaking but still a little weird when trying to figure things out or explain them.

So, the Red Guardian has a Red Spark attack.

But the Green Guardian has Blue Teleport attack.

And the Blue Guardian has a Green Circle attack that wipes the group unless 4 players go in the circle.

Makes it confusing to explain to others: “You 4 are the green circle team; when the boss splits, go to the blue spire or we are dead.” Instead of simply “Team red, team green and team blue.”

Shouldn’t the attack colors match the boss? A green teleport and a blue circle?

Like Redattack.7836 mentions, technical issues like those Adine.2184 and gerry.6519 mentionned can be mitigated by not including all 500 players a guild can hold all the time.

People want the halls to feel more alive. I say that, instead of adding 20 random NPCs, add 20 NPCs that look like random offline guild mates.

Aside from loading the assets of the player, it should take no more performance off the servers than current NPCs.

I saw comments on Reddit today saying how Guild Halls were great but felt a little empty.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3qttx4/shout_out_good_job_on_the_guild_halls/cwi9gel

I know the idea isn’t new, but wouldn’t having your guild mates’ characters there in the hall would be better than some random NPCs?

Location in the hall could be based on Profession, Race, Crafting disciplines or even the Title equipped on the character. They could also assign some conversation choices based on those or even let us set an “Away text” on our characters.

As a similar feature, it would also be fun to have your own “alts” show up in their racial Home Instance.

First, we have to remember that this is a RPG and that “Progression” is a big part of it. As such, I completely understand the decision to make sure you cannot complete progression on the Elite Specialization instantly.

However, the gradual unlocking progression as it is means your “Elite” is sub par compared to the core specializations until you finish unlocking it. Meaning players will play the content on their core class in order to get the Elite unlocked enough to be playable at high level.

I don’t think I have seen this suggested, so I am sorry if I’m repeating but: what if the order of acquisition was changed so you could get to 1 Grandmaster trait within 200 points?

That is, instead of getting all the lower traits unlocked before moving to the next tier, you would unlock a trait from each tier first.

For instance, the Daredevil could change like in the image here.
!http://i.imgur.com/r67P44H.jpg!

You just have to make sure to keep the trait that modifies your Utility skills towards the end so the player isn’t stuck with a trait for skills they do not have yet.

I did not play with the staff in PvP, but even in PvE it seems like it lacks a bit of CC.

With the new breakbar mechanics, it feels like we should have a bit more to contribute. Especially since staff combat usually has sweeping strikes and knockdown.

We do have a hard CC in the from of the staff stealth attack, but Dare Devil seems to go out of its way to do something else than stealth. So this feels counter productive.

Also, it feels like you do a lot of auto-attack spam; with so many attacks that move your character (charge forward, evade back, AoE leap), you have less options when trying to stick to the enemy.

That said, proposing changes to the staff is kind of hard since it’s damage feels pretty good. So I’d go small:

• Have Weakening Charge stick to your target like Rush does on Warrior so you have the option to use it without changing position.
• Reduce the distance on the Debilitating Arc dodge to 300 so it matches the regular Dodge this way you can roll back in easily.
• Maybe have Dust Strike cause a knock down on targets in melee range? I’m not sure how to add a bit more CC without unbalancing the weapon too much.

Ohoni.6057:

Also, I suspect that either of your suggestions would take more time to implement than a dodge toggle button, but I have no idea how they’ve routed things. Ideally, just adding a button that swaps traits around should not be a huge deal.

I work in development – although not game development – and I can say that any change to the UI usually is harder to implement than just changing the values on an existing function.

However, I can’t pretend to know what tools they have on hand or if it may take longer to test the skill balance than just allow a fast change option. So we will see what they can do. Maybe they could recycle the Revenant stance mechanic? We could have our 3 dodge types but only have 2 “equipped” and the Grandmaster traits would add effects to one of the 3 dodges?

As I said: I’m not against a “dodge toggle” or a more fleshed out specialization mechanic. I’m just trying to see how we can meet halfway IF it isn’t possible to implement before release.

Ohoni.6057:

I love Lotus, when I’m in combat, but I absolutely HATE how if I’m just roaming around and dodge, I suddenly agro everything around me. It’s not practical.

I’ve had the same problem and I agree it NEEDS a fix. But, there are other ways to fix it then requesting they create a new mechanic and a new set of Grandmaster traits.

For instance, the attacks (thrown daggers or damage from the leap) could only trigger if you are already in combat.

In fact, for a bit of a buff, the dodges could have a different effect out of combat.

Unhindered Combat

• Combat: Knockdowns enemies as you move trough
• Out of Combat: Gain Superspeed (we already have Expeditious Dodger for Swiftness)

Lotus Training

• Combat: Throw daggers to deal damage and conditions
• Out of combat: Destroy incoming projectiles (to help your allies push trough a group of opponents)

Bounding Dodger

• Combat: Deal damage where you land
• Out of combat: Kick up dust where you land, creating a Smoke field

I just tossed this together in a couple of minutes as a proof of concept so I didn’t test the theory. It’s just to show that there may be other ways than a “Dodge toggle”; not that such “stances” wouldn’t be cool, there is just only so much time until release to make it happen.

My first impression on the Daredevil after equipping my character and moving around?

Clunky and awkward.

Biggest offender are the Grandmaster traits: an upgrade to the ability to dodge should not make it less fluid.

The three traits makes dodges feel longer than the regular dodge and have a pause at the end of it; because of this, you cant flow into a second dodge or into movement as smoothly as normal. Feels weird for an acrobat like the Daredevil.

The staff has similar issues with some skills having awkward pauses at the end of them.

Going to have to play more to get a better feel, but that’s what struck me when I first played with it.

Probably won’t mean anything at this point but here is my 2 cents. (on top of fixing bugs and PvE/PvP split)

Skill #4: Shield of Judgment

• Taunt (2 seconds) your target and block next incoming attack. Skill duration: 2 seconds.
• Triggering or cancelling the block triggers the current cone attack.
• You can move while blocking

Skill #5: Shield of Absorption

• No longer knocks back on activation
• Still roots on cast but follows the Guardian when moving (as seen on Revenant skills)
• The healing burst on cancel is a Blast finisher

Trait: Stalwart Defender

• In addition to current functionality, secondary activation of Shield skills causes knock back.

The idea is to make baseline shield more useful in most situations so it is better group support. I wanted to remove the knock back from the initial activation of Shield of Absorption as it limits the situations where you can use it without being detrimental to your group. Also, moving with a field is a new mechanic introduced with the Revenant that I thought would fit well as a trade-off.

I thought about making the knock back on secondary activation baseline for both skills but it felt like too big of a step from the current functionality. So instead I went for the additional blast finisher and thought to buff the trait with the CC since everyone agrees it isn’t that good as it is.

For Shield of Judgement, I based myself on how Chronomancer and Engineer Shield skills are balanced.

I know it may not seem much, but ArenaNet prefers iterative balance changes. We can see that with how they gradually tweak content from the beta events.

I think this could be a step in the right direction?

Bonus
If you really think this isn’t enough for a first pass, add this as a throwback to GW1:

• Shield of Absorption grants 1s of Protection to up to 5 allies within the dome whenever it destroys a projectile.

Zev.3407:

Glad your taking our feedback seriously9even if you never once responded to people feeling like a lack of utility customization)

Glad to see I’m not the only one who feels like this.

But considering this:

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Kidel.2057:

Since so many are asking for condi cleanse I’m sure it will be considered. Shiro+Glint has none.

Revenant as a whole is designed to not have much condition cleanse. That’s not to say there won’t be any tweaks for removal, but it won’t be any large changes. can’t have everything.

It seems to be by design that the Revenant’s choices are limited to your selection of Legendary stances. It was even more evident when Revenant had no weapon swap.

But, considering how the stances have synergy with specific weapons and trait lines, it feels like the profession has very little choice within the builds you can make.

That’s why I still feel every stance should have 4 utilities. This could let you include a stun breaker and/or condi clear in each stance – doesn’t have to be very good ones – so you at least have the option to equip one.

This would be in line with how other skill types are done for other professions; they have 4 shouts or 4 signets, and so on. And for each type, one of them has some defensive use.

Or maybe I just need to play more with the profession to figure out how it CAN be personalized within it’s current limits? I don’t know for sure. What do you guys think?

JanoRis.8703:

Aelaren.3784:

Profession (days played) – bug/no bug

Guardian (1049) – bug
Necromancer (1047) – bug
Elementalist (706) – bug
Mesmer (499) – bug

Warrior (1023) – no bug
Engineer (961) – no bug
Thief (874) – no bug
Ranger (672) – no bug

So neither age theory works (mesmer with 499 days age bugs where ranger with 672 days does not), nor elites revealed theory (my ranger does not bug out on me).

That’s cause ranger didn’t get revealed yet afaik….we know that the elite spec is druid, but else we don’t know anything about it, since there was no reveal blog and stream yet

You are right, Ranger elite spec had no official reveal; just hints from the first trailer and announcement.

However, the list of bugged professions does match up with the list of those who had an Elite Specialization unlocked during the 1st beta weekend event.

I just did som e of the jungle quests and a few of them feature defending objectives with the Pale Reavers, a company of Sylvari snipers.

On such events, it is possible – even encouraged in the event UI – to equip some of the rifles for yourself, in order to thin out the enemy before they reach the objective.

The range and damage on the rifles is impressive, if you can hit.

The problem is they fire using a tiny AoE circle and if it isn’t exactly on a monster’kitten box, it does nothing.

In the first event I used them, I was unable to damage huge vine monster that came from the ground, let alone smaller moving targets.

In the second event with the rifles, the main targets are slow moving husks. But the rifles are useless as the husks are immune to damage until they get hit with enough crowd control.

I think we need to brainstorm a few ideas on how to make those rifles relevant, or they should not be usable in the first place. Like using turrets at Tequatl, using an environmental weapon in an event should be meaingful.

My idea would be to add a few more skills and modify the current one :

Skill #1: Make it targeted instead of AoE.
Skill #2: Overcharged Shot – Targeted attack that causes knockdown (NOT knockback).
Skill #3: Target Acquisition – Large AoE with max range and low cooldown that sets 1 enemy in it as your target.

Reaper Greatsword skill #5, Grasping Darkness, hits 5 tragets with a pull.

In PvE combat, I had trouble evaluating what I was going to hit with and it made me wonder, would it be better as a ground targeted AoE skill?

With so many mobs with break bars, would it help?

I don’t know. What do you guys think?

I’ve seen a lot propose to have weapon skills to change according to specific Legendary Stances. I have even touched on the idea in another thread but it feels too much like the elementalist and, even if you only have 2 stances at once, you have multiple choices; it could end up giving even more attack skills to the Revenant than what the Elementalist has.

I have a two step suggestion to help with the weapon problem :

• Each weapon would have a ranged/AoE and melee version of their skills that depends on the Legend in use. Ventari could be ranged and Jallis melee for instance. Equipping 2 melee legends would be like equipping 2 melee weapon sets; changing Stances could refresh weapon skill to make it more like having 2 sets.
• Each stance would have a passive effect in addition to being ranged or melee. Some examples could be:
  - Ventari: create healing shards when you block attacks. Gain Healing Power (at the cost of Power?).
  - Jalis: gain Protection when critically hit. Gain Boon Duration (at the cost of Precision?).
  - Mallyx: Inflict bleeding on critical hits. Gain Condition Duration (at the cost of Toughness?).

If the stat gain is tied to a loss in another, it could be done in a way to give player choice more impact by making it a percentage. For instance, you could lose 10% of your Power and the amount lost is added to Healing Power while in Ventari’s stance; your ability to support others would be good even if your base build focuses heavily on Power. This does have more potential balance issues, that’s why I’m not sure about it.

I agree with you, changing stances should be no slower than changing elementalist atunements and each Legend should have at least a 4th utility skill to have some flexibility.

I also think the weapons are a big problem since the class seem to want to promote changing stances but, weapons seem designed each for a specific Legend. If I use staff, it seems good with Ventari but when I switch to an offensive Lengend the DPS of that weapon is too low.

I’m really unsure how that part should be fixed. Different weapons skills for different stances, like Ele atunements? Not sure I would like a copy like that. Skills that change your attacks like Kits or Transforms? Feels like a bandage solution.

Maybe have each stance change your stats? Ventari could increase your healing power while reducing your power and precision. To give players more control, the reduction could be a percentage of the base stats and the increase would be equal to how much you lost in the other 2 stats? Or a similar mechanic.

What do you guys think?

I agree on your evaluation of the problem, but I am not certain on the solution. Kits or Conjures seem like a quick fix to me, one that would basically make the Revenant a heavy armored Engineer in terms of flavor/mechanics.

But build flexibility does seem too precocious and heavily dependent on the right weapon/legend combo.

A 4th utility skill seems like a must for me, but it needs to add flexibility to make different builds and not force you to take them just to fix your weapon selection.

A counter proposal would be to have the stances apply a modifier to your weapon skill; greater damage, added conditions, turning melee attacks into ranged ones, etc.

For instance, the staff could turn projectiles into healing shards instead of reflecting them when you use it to defend while under Ventari’s stance and its attacks could lift stone shock waves that have more range/cleave when using Jalis.

Of course, I realize this is basically an “Ele atunement lite”. Essentially having different attack skills depending on the stance. It may seem much when added with the utility swap but, since you only have 2 stances at a time instead of 4 atunements like Ele, it should balance out.

Even this doesn’t feel perfect tho; I would really like to see Revenant stand on his own rather than have to lift mechanics from other classes.

I could not find a specific topic about this, but I would be surprised if it was not mentionned. Sorry if this is a duplicate.

With a single weapon and utility skills dictated by your active Legend, Revenant has little skill variety. You can look at one and by their weapon and stance you will know EXACTLY what skills they have.

At the very least, they could use a 4th utility skill on each Legend. This would be much like every other class where you usually find 4 of each skill type (4 utility Shouts, 4 utility signets, etc.).

It would also give a chance to include the option for a Stun Breaker for each Legend; from what I can see at first glance, only Jalis’ Elite skill breaks stun.

I think this would have better visibility in the Guardian forums. You should post it there as well.

JonPeters.5630:

2) World bosses are currently too easy

Since the new conditions were burning through world bosses a lot faster than before, the idea of doubling health and allowing crits seemed like a good way to balance. I was happy to see it in the patch notes and eager to try it out.

However, it seems that not all hit boxes – at least on Tequatl – can be critically hit; hitting his fore claws did not crit.

I really hope this is a bug.

Just tried Tequatl myself. I think we should reserve judgement on the “too much health” until they fix it so ALL hitboxes can be critically hit.

Because I refuse to believe that only making one odd middle hit box work and leave out the fore legs is “working as intended”.

Say, FrownyClown, when you say:

FrownyClown.8402:

it doesnt synergize with anything well.

You are talking about the current implementation of conjures, correct? Not my own suggestion?

As for the rest, it’s pretty solid feedback! Thanks for being constructive.

Xillllix.3485:

Look at what they’ve done to turrets. It’s way easier to make sure nobody ever use them again than do proper balancing. Seems that they have the same philosophy with the ele conjures.

Look what they are doing with Guardian right now: they are asking for direct input on upcoming changes to Elite Tomes

If we just sit down and say: “nothing will ever change the way we want”. Then it’s sure to be that way.

I prefer trying to get my ideas out there; at least then, there’s a chance – however slim – that any future changes will be something based on our feedback.

Sizer.5632:

Has it been confirmed that there will be a nerf and nothing else added? If so its really disappointing, if not, well, I guess we will have to wait.

Nothing has been confirmed and, between that and how they are asking for input on Guardian Elites in the forum right now, that is why I think its the best time to have this conversation.

All we know is that the Devs stated their intention to change the damage on Frost Bow and Lightning Hammer because they are too cheesy and problematic right now. This was said during the Specialization AMA; you can see the details on Dulfy’s site

Their final call isn’t known yet, so let them know what you think.

In a recent stream with the dev, it was suggested that they are looking to tone down Lightning Hammer and Frost Bow conjures. Instead of just nerfing them, I say conjure skills as a whole should be looked at.

What should our Conjure skills be?

I remember the early game day where most players would ignore them because of limited charges and cooldowns up until the day people realized the utter cheesiness of using Fiery Greatsword without a target and how Frost Bow’s Ice Storm can just “melt” targets.

They changed the greatsword; fine, the skill was obviously not designed to be used this way in the first place.

Now they are looking at our Frost Bows. And while I want to protect a skill I love using, I can see why they would nerf it; after all, most people conjure the bow, use number 4 and toss it. That in itself shows how unbalanced the skill is; you may as well put “Ice Storm” directly as a utility.

Another problem with balancing conjured weapons is that you get 2 of them; with another player, you have 2 Ice Storms at the same time. So any potential change to them has double the effect.

So, some conjured weapons have skills that need to be toned down but many – if not all of them – could use a buff. However, doing so is dangerous due to their double nature.

Conjure skills require a re-balancing; I suggest that they should be remodeled after Banners. No charges, reworked cooldowns and durations. Only one summoned weapon on the ground but, the weapon can be dropped and picked up at will.

With a change like that, I think you would not need to nerf the overused skills as much as they need now and could even enhance others without fear of the “doubling” effect of current conjures. Aside from direct enhancements to skills, I could see the following:

• Elementalist traits that apply to weapon skills could apply to conjured weapon skills of the mathing element.
• Other profession’s traits could apply to matching conjured weapon type (axe, longbow, shield, hammer, greatsword)
• Add an effect to their spawn location, like the damage from Fiery Greatsword.
• etc.

As ArenaNet says: nothing is off the table. I’m not happy with a straight up nerf to Conjure skills, so I’m making a counter proposal. Use this thread to make yours or add to mine and we will have a better chance to get skills we have fun with without causing balancing headaches to the Devs.

I play mostly PvE: a PvP player’s input would be greatly appreciated.

I think this is a good idea. The tomes are quite underused as they are; if I don’t run Renewed Focus, it’s because I’m messing around with my Norn Elites.

In keeping the most used abilities of the tomes in the new skills, what we lose out on is mostly the look and feel.

However, since the look and feel of tomes is quite unique – not a lot of skills are as flashy as they are – I think you need to make a the idea of bringing back tomes in an Elite Specialization a definite plan if you make this change, not just “hope”.

It may make it easier to wait for the return of those skills if we know they will come back as a full set of Healing, Utility and Elite skills.

ronpierce.2760:

He said they will likely come back in the future. If I had to guess, as kits or Conjures.

Personally, I dislike the way Conjure and Tomes currently work: both charges AND timer on a relatively long cooldown? And conjures are gone if you change weapons?

If they are made into an Elite Specialization, I would certainly like to see them become like Kits; a personal item you can swap out at will, since I don’t think anyone but the Guardian should handle the ancient tomes of sacred magical knowledge. Maybe equipping the Elite Specialization could disable your second weapon set to compensate the extra versatility; that, or Engineer could get an Elite that grants him a second set of weapons so it’s fair.

Just had this happen to me. Still bugged.

Penguin.7906:

I doubt this will be a priority any time soon, especially since there won’t be underwater in HoT.

The Specialization system is for the entire game and will come online before the expansion; the fact that there will probably be little underwater exploration in the jungle maps HoT will add does not change the fact it’s a problem elsewhere.

They gave us the rundown on upcoming trait and skill changes before they were in their final form so we could give them feedback and they could adjust. Underwater in itself may not be a priority, but skill balance and build diversity is definitely on top for them right now and having an entire skill type and it’s associated traits be unusable in one aspect of the game is not balanced.

I agree it is a somewhat minor issue, but it shouldn’t just be brushed aside.

Here are some examples.

Stomp
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stomp

For Stomp, I could see it become a single target Sink effect, that also pushes you upwards. It would remain mostly the same, losing only the Radius and Launch effects.

Another option would be to make your character quickly dive towards the bottom of the water; if movement is interrupted by a surface, you stomp it and debris could be sent as projectiles towards nearby targets.

Throw Bolas
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Throw_Bolas

Simply make it a net while underwater. There is an environmental weapon that gives a nearly identical skill that works under water.

With the upcoming specialization changes, every skill will have a skill type and you will unlock skills with Hero Points through lines based on types.

As they said there will be a “Signet” unlock track or, for instance, a “Physical” unlock track.

We also learned from the AMA that:
- Physical skills will be more effective with Endurance above 50%.
- Rampage and Mending will become Physical skills.

However, this still leaves a problem: none of the current Physical skills have an underwater version. Neither does Rampage.

This would make a potential “Physical” reward track and traits that affect Physical skills a poorer choice. One could argue about the importance of underwater combat in the game, but it will never become better if nothing is done about it.

What could be the underwater versions of Physical skills?
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Physical
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rampage

In PvP and PvE, some builds relied on the stat boost from a Trait line to work with gear that did not provide them.

For instance I’m not that comfortable on a full berzerker thief but, since I like to trait in shadow arts, I made a lot of my ascended armor berzerker with some valkyrie and I still have decent defensive stats. And the 300 Toughness I get from the Trait is much more than the 74 base increase mentionned in the blog.

Question: When you say you will split on the equipment the remaining (226) attribute points from traits that are not added to the base stats, will you simply increase the existing stats (making min/maxed characters even more so) or will new stats be added to existing items? Like Berzerker getting some Toughness and/or Vitality?

Yoroiookami.3485:

tigirius.9014:

I was just hoping for a chance at getting that anti toxin backpack.

Can’t you buy that for laurels from a vendor?

Unfortunately, it is not part of the offered list.

Botting is about using automated software to farm for things.

Even if you use such a software for only 5 minutes, the status of your account – achievement points, time played, etc. – will not matter. Only that, at the moment you were reported, you were using such a tool.

Now in order to figure this out, ArenaNet checks the logs whenever a report is made. They most likely ask themselves: Were you moving in an exact pattern for a long while? Did you answer to players talking to you to check if you were a bot? Or maybe they have automated ways of detecting software or macros being in use (high amount of commands in a very short time maybe?).

I don’t know exactly how Anet work these things out but, I do know that if you think you’ve been wrongfully banned you need to open a customer service ticket and, maybe, having a video recording to send them could help. But, if you don’t want the status of your ban to be public, don’t ask about it in public forums.

Einlanzer.1627:

I don’t understand why they wouldn’t just use a form of phasing. How it worked for Ascalon in GW1 was perfect. Until you complete the PS you should see all of the original versions of all of the maps, then as you progress the LS the maps update for you and for you and you only see other players who are at the same story stage.

The maps all already exist, it’s just a matter of implementing them, which shouldn’t be that hard. It would honestly make the narrative of the game feel much more coherent and compelling to individual players.

Much like in GW1, we already have some instancing for new players with the introduction mission of each race. You can’t stay in there forever but, the system IS there to make an instance for players that are starting up.

The biggest problem for something like this for the living story is SCALE. Not only having all “pre-scarlet” maps up and running would be a huge drain on servers, it would also mean splitting off your new players from the old one for a large amount of time.

Since GW2 is all about playing together and easily finding others to help you, splitting off your player base is something you want to avoid; that is why they made mega-servers after all!

;)

Becka Williams.4978:

I honestly think the fights should be split off from “reliving” season 1. I know people will say “but the fights are what season one was about!” But I think, if people just want to learn the story of what happened, having a recap in the form of story based instances, with maybe a BIT of fighting, along with guild raids that reuse the actual fights, would be better. I mean, how do you get a feel for the marionette fight if it’s just you reliving the living story season 1.

I agree, fights like the Marionette are meant to be open world bosses.

But while that particular case did serve to show the progression of Scarlet’s power, it is not required to understand the plot. You could easily bring it back on it’s own – like I suggested here – and cut the need to fight it from an instanced story line meant for the Story Journal.

However, the attack on Lion’s Arch and the final fight against the hologram and Scarlet are very important to the story and should be – in my opinion – included in a potential story chapter in the journal. And since you can replay the chapters, I’m sure there would be plenty of people to relive this part with (especially if something like my party matchmaking suggestion is used).

If Season 1 ever makes it into the Story Journal, it needs to be coherent on its own without the need of a Guild to start an instance. It may mean cutting some parts but, having the opportunity for new players to live that story is what is important.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Is it even possible, given the changes that came about in the world?

I think it would require support from the system in the form of “historical instancing”.

By this I mean being able to have old versions of the maps when we enter a personal story instance; such as having the old Fort Concordia when doing “Forging the Pact” in the Personal Story or having an instance of Lion’s Arch as it was during Scarlet’s attack for those who would be doing that chapter.

I believe someone from Anet once said the system could not support this as it is now so, the first step to allow season 1 to be brought back would be to find out how to do so.

The next problem would be how to support parts of the story that were meant for more than 5 people. Some ideas include :

• Rewrite those parts as 1 to 5 player story instances with NPCs playing the parts of other players and proper scaling down of the monsters. It wont be exactly how it was on release but, new players could at least relive it.
• Code a way to do matchmaking of entire parties entering the story instance so they share the same map. However, there still might not be enough players doing that part at the same time as you.
• A bit of both: make it possible to solo but, as more people fill the map it would trigger the events as they were for large groups.

For the 3rd option here is an example of how you could segment the final assault on the Breachmaker:

• 5 players or less: Fight your way to the cliff side teleporter (near the Tegnu door). Once through, you have to fight the Hologram and then the final instance with the wounded Scarlet.
• Between 6 and 14: Fight one randomly selected Assault Knight before you can use a teleporter.
• 15 and more: Fight all 3 Assault knights as it was during season 1 (with proper scaling of course).

Of course, you could segment it more but, I’m just trying to explain the concept here. Besides, there are probably other ways this could be done.

kalzana.3192:

Accessibility

• If I’m in a guild scheduling raids don’t make me leave the 16th in LA.. but if I could have 2 raids of 7/8 instead, without the difficulty getting stupid, that’s fine.
• ~1hr or less to complete
• Don’t limit to a single guild per instance

Tell a story/Fit in the Lore
Don’t make the raid be a disconnected instance that no one remembers what it’s really about other than the mechanics. Or worse, something which jars with continuitiy/existing lore.

Replayability
Most harder dungeon paths I did once to see what it was about, and that was it. Increase replayability by different options within the raid, different sets of achievements, and even some randomness.

That’s a good top 3, mind if I use it too?

1. Accessibility
Guild Wars 2 has been about playing the game your way since the start. If a player doesn’t know enough people to form a Raid group, he should be able to join one almost as easily as he can walk into open world content like a Tequatl attack.

2. Tell a story/Fit in the Lore
My very first thought about Raids in GW2 was to expand on dungeon’s stories. I would love to see an Arah Raid unlocked after explorable mode where we go make sure Zaithan stays down for good, fighting many of his dragon lieutenants along the way on the ground and in the air. I think it would make for a proper ending to the story as well.

3. Replayability
Replayability should not be “repeat this X times to get reward”. Tokens are an OK way to mitigate RNG but, they don’t make replaying content more interesting. They just make it required. Random encounters that drop specific loot, daily challenges that grant bonus rewards, guaranteed specific rewards such as ascended boxes for taking the hardest paths; make it interesting and rewarding to come back for more. Not more of the same.

Forgotten Legend.9281:

on a positive note…

in The Silverwastes, there are 3 lanes leading back to where we assume the map boss will be located. since there are three lanes, we may have a new fight inspired by the twisted marionette.

Yeah, I had heard about how the Silverwastes seemed to have elements inspired by the Marionette.

Maybe I’m bringing up this old thing for no reason if we are getting something just as good or better in the new content.

I would still miss hearing the awesome music in game with it’s boss though.

Over the pas few days, I have seen so much enthusiasm over the new Living Story content on Reddit and in the forums. Much praise about the music and, in one instance, someone even said the new area mechanics reminded them of the Twisted Marionette.

I haven’t had the time to play the content myself yet but, this sounds great!

However, it got me nostalgic about the good parts of the first season of the Living Story.

The Twisted Marionette is just one and it’s too bad it could not stay as part of the world boss rotation. People want more large scale coordination; the Raid CDI can attest to that.

Why didn’t stay around? Oh, right: we sunk it and it’s control platform – the Breachmaker – at the bottom of Lion’s Arch harbor when we killed Scarlet.

No one would ever want to dig it back up and put it back in Lornar’s Pass.

Except for the Consortium. I could easily see those greedy merchants want to restore it as a “monument to the heroes of Lion’s Arch” and charge visitors and scholars like the Priory to see it up close. They are the guys who thought of relocating refugees on the Karka infested SouthSun Cove to use a cheap labor after all.

If that were to happen, the remaining forces of Scarlet’s Alliances could very well try to hijack of it to serve their interests, using one or more Aetherblade Airships to drop chains to lift it from it’s scaffolds and powering it up to call the remaining Twisted Watchworks from wherever Scarlet left them.

I imagine that if they would succeed in activating the weapon and wiping the map, the 3 factions could take advantage and attack key parts in the pass; the Aetherblades are bound to be interested in Priory vaults for instance and the Molten Alliance may want to coerce some of the Dredge into their ranks, while the Toxic Alliance seems to still want to spread their poison. Just because Scarlet isn’t around to force them to do her work does not mean they can’t work together one more time to serve their personal interests.

Wow, look at me rambling on. Here’s the short version for those who don’t like walls of text.

It may be wishful thinking but, this is my take on how to bring back the Twisted Marionette fight while respecting the lore of the game: blame it on the Consortium.

This idea has the advantage of being mostly a visual and storytelling change; the fight could then be used as it was, with Priory members in each lane.

I would really like feedback on this. Constructive ideas might inspire me to do a write-up on how we could have the Battle on the Breachmaker back!

Top 3 for me :
1. The Guild Hall plays a part in delivering new content to current game modes
For instance, it could allow to host GvG matches for PvP and allow deployment of Airships or Asura Gates to support a controlled WvW fort or to enable a PvE event for everyone on the map.
Yeah, my ideal hall is a floating Mists Castle WITH an Airship dock.

2. The Guild Hall gives a guild goals beyond building the hall and getting all upgrades.
I want our hall to be an incentive to play more as a guild, a common goal. Even if it is simply by having some of it’s features be temporary, like hiring guards or crafting NPCs. The Influence system lets player contribute to guilds but, a lot of guilds have reached the cap; let’s avoid simply making another, higher, cap.

3.Big or small guild, customize your Hall YOUR way.
On one hand, large guilds have hoarded Influence and Merits for something like halls for a long time and it would be like a slap in the face to force other currencies on them. On the other, small guilds deserve to express themselves as much as large ones. Much like can gain experience any way you play the game, make it possible to build and customize the Hall in multiple ways.
Want an ice statue in your hall? Pay Influence (and wait) to commission a sculptor, buy parts of an artifact that spawns one using Honor of the Waves tokens or find the artifact parts from beating the Claw of Jormag, the Frozen Maw or Frostreach defenders in Edge of the Mists. Everyone needs to find THEIR way to make their home.

Retro.6831:

Devata.6589:

About the taxes. I don’t think anybody really said they wanted taxes but it was mentioned as one of the ways (among others) to prevent guild-halls (if in the open world) to become ghost-houses when the guild would go inactive.

Donari.5237:

I continue to disagree with the need for upkeep. It essentially forces people to play (and in the above suggestion, to play repping a specific guild) or lose progress made while playing.

The 100% rep guilds are heavy handed enough now, imagine if keeping the GH depended on players repping.

+1 more vote for “No Upkeeps.”

Upkeep fees run completely counter to Guild Wars 2’s play style (horizontal progression) and subscription-free payment model. Players are able to pick up right where they left off months or even years later and not feel like they’ve been left behind. Having upkeep fees would essentially force players to play to maintain their guild hall, which is contrary to the rest of the game.

Of course, as Devata mentions, upkeep fees are designed for more open world housing systems, to prevent the large swaths of land required for that approach free of abandoned houses. If Guild Halls or instanced (or pseudo-instanced as in my proposal) there’s absolutely no need for them. I would argue that even if Prophet.6257’s idea of Guild “Zones” is implemented, having multiple, numbered copies of the zone would be more in line with Guild Wars 2’s design than an upkeep fee.

I’ve got a rough list of notes I’m making as I pick through this thread. I’m not 100% caught up yet, I’ll share it when I’m done. Awesome work in here so far though, guys.

I understand your reluctance on Upkeep cost and I would like to point out that I do not want them on the Hall itself or on the features like decorations or trophies or most structures.

However, I am proposing upkeep as a compromise to counter the problem of making the Halls too convenient and reducing the amount of players in public areas. For instance, Guilds can already buy portable Guild Crafting stations that they could repeatedly buy and deploy in their hall if its not an available feature; if you have that upgrade unlocked, you could use your hall to have one all the time by paying the cost of the stations as an upkeep.

In the event that the Guild Hall would be part of combat gameplay as I described above, another way to make it something you have to work on would be to have the combat features (defensive siege, guard barracks, walls, etc.) something you have to spend resources to rebuild. It would be a sort of “optional upkeep” since those would be at risk only if you use the hall for WvW for instance.

Also, if a feature like the PvE claiming I described is added, it could be made to be synced across Megaserver instances if it came with a recurring Influence cost to balance it and give a shot for another guild to claim it; I was thinking kinda like Guilds could have influence over cities in GW1 Factions…

That is what I meant when I said it needs to offer both permanent content (the hall itself) and have some “upkeep” costs (specific convenience features or combat upgrades).

Guild halls can be so many things at once, it’s hard to stop at just a few. Here’s a few points I feel are important.

Guild halls are the “end game” for guilds and should be something that is both permanent and requires upkeep, so the players always have something to work for.
As things are, a lot of guilds only really come to life during guild missions. Building the Guild Hall is a goal that will rally a lot but, if all upgrades to the hall are permanent, activity will die out soon after it is maxed out. Because of this, a lot of the upgrades to the hall should have upkeep and/or their own build queue so we can pay influence to keep them up. I don’t like the idea of permanent crafting stations in the halls as it could empty the cities but, if you need to be out in the world making influence as a guild to keep them, it would instead send more players playing.

Guild halls should be more than commodity; they should add gameplay opportunities
Its a mark of your status, its convenience but, it should also add to the gameplay of all game modes. I know GvG will be another CDI but, it needs to be said: much like in GW1, the halls need to be a setting for elements like combat. GvG hosting – much like personal PvP arenas – could be one of the temporary upgrades to halls.
As Airships or mist islands, halls could also play a part in WvW: you could have a War upgrade that lets you open a path your hall from the claimed fort (i.e. asura gate or rope up to the ship), for allies to come in and use the upgrades (i.e. bank or shops, maybe extra siege if its an airship) but that would make your “hall” vulnerable to attack for a while if the fort is claimed by an enemy.
In PvE, maybe the Halls could give you the opportunity to unlock a type of land claiming; the Lionguard are spread thin after Scarlet’s attacks and having a large and influential guild back one of their outposts could be a big help – and a trigger for special defense events.
I’m sure you guys can think of other gameplay opportunities that halls may unlock!

Guild Halls should be an extension of current systems, not separate
Don’t introduce new currencies for Guild Halls; use what we have. Guilds have been hoarding Influence and Merits for this for a while. However, it does not mean we have to stick to those currencies. Here’s ONE way it could work:

• Use Influence to secure a plot of land with basic structures (Architecture guild upgrade); this upgrade adds the Guild Hall tab to the guild panel where you can find it’s own upgrade queue and the button for members to travel to the hall
• From the Guild Hall tab, you would use Influence and/or Merits (depending on the quality and style you want) to hire workers to build structures and merchants for services. Special structures or decorations could require players to contribute crafting materials like wood or rare items like specific event trophies (i.e. elemental lodestones to have elemantals patrol your hall).

In conclusion, I want to share a random though came to me while writing this: Floating islands in the mist or airships/zepplins? Why not both?
Following my idea on gameplay integration, the Mists island would be the basic plot of land you get and would open up the possibility of setting a gate in an Edge of the Mists or PvE fort, as well a being a GvG sPvP map. And, in order to send support in the Borderlands or Eternal Battlegrounds, you would need an Airship, who could be upgraded with cannons. The airship would be permanent but, it could be shot down or sabotaged from the inside if enemies get to it during an attack.

What do you guys think?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Donari.5237:

The way I’m looking at it, this CDI is for brainstorming. It may transpire that some of the ideas are too grandiose or infeasible but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be discussed. Even if an idea is too much to implement, it may spark creativity on a smaller scale or inspire a spin-off concept that turns out to be wonderful.

Generally the devs running the thread come back after the initial brainstorms have died down and ask for more focused discussion on certain points. We’re not far enough in yet for that phase, imo.

Absolutely correct Donari.

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you know I am up to date and that is one of the best CDIs to date in terms of superb proposals, brainstorming and problem solving.

Chris

The first CDI I participated in was the previous one for Guild QoL; is the final sorting where people give their 3 favourites the norm for CDIs?

Sadly, I missed that part and my ideas didn’t make the cut in the final document; although, I would have probably hesitated to pick all of my own as some other ideas I feel were more important to push trough…

I just want to make sure I don’t miss anything on this discussion.

Muusic.2967:

Not sure if this has been covered yet so mentioning it

Proposal Overview
Group kicked when leader DC’s or leaves zone

Goal of Proposal
Stop the loss of hard earned progress in an ongoing dungeon due to the leader leaving or getting disconnected

Proposal Functionality
Change the code so that the next person in group assumes leadership if leader disconnects and do not allow other group members to be forced out of the zone if they leave.

Associated Risks
None forseeable

Please try to be as concise as feasible with your proposal.

From a player stand point it seems like this would be an easy fix. I am avoiding any form of pug nowdays because of how many times I have been kicked from a zone and lost a lot of work because the leader hits the wrong button or his mom pulls the plug.

I’ve got good news and bad news for you.

Bad news: the theme of this CDI discussion is proposing changes to improve Guild Quality of life, so talking party mechanics seems to be slightly off topic.

Good news: this was fixed with the feature patch on September 9th!

Mark Katzbach.9084:

Dungeons
Dungeon instances no longer close when the original creator leaves the party.

There is already a lot of posts in here so, I hope I won’t be repeating much as I can’t hope to read and remember it all before adding my voice in. I’ll try to keep 24h Coverage out of the equation like John asked but, since we are talking about WvW, it’s bound to be a factor.

I don’t have the pretension of having the complete solution to all our population problems. The ideas shown here only attempt to tweak how the population of WvW players can move from one World to another on their own and to give better options for smaller groups to be efficient. However, some of those ideas would depend on how much data ArenaNet can have on player habits…

Smart World Transfers and Guild World Transfers
I believe the idea of free world transfers to let the players balance the population has merit but, how servers are designated as free to transfer to would need to be revised. The price would need to adjust in real time according to the population’s WvW ability (not numbers) and presence; this could be calculated based upon total or average server WvW experience point and WvW map population statistics for the last week for instance. Having the price change in real time would prevent a massive amount of transfers right before a tournament matchup as it would readjust at a set interval and after a certain amount of transfers to or from the server.

As for Guild World Transfers, it is a concept I suggested in the recent Guild QoL CDI . The idea is to give Guilds a way to regroup – or transfer – their player base to a server using guild resources (proportional to the current transfer cost).

These two systems would encourage players to switch to lower population servers while preventing massive exodus by being more adaptive.

World Alliances – My take on “Battle Groups”
I do not like the idea of server merges as it would be a serious blow to the feeling of community built over the years. Only Anet can tell for sure if the current game population and growth would require a merge but, assuming we can still support the current number of worlds with the player base, we could use the players waiting in queues to bolster lower tier worlds.
When entering the queue for one of your WvW maps, you could have a suggestion to join the same map on a server of the same color as yours for the matchup while you wait for your place. Players who do so could be rewarded with a small buff – possibly to magic find, so it does not give too much of an edge to an already strong server – when returning to their server, as payment for their “mercenary” work. Duration of the buff could depend on how many objectives were completed. Mercenary players would not be able to put a commander tag up.
Should enough players from the server you are guesting on want to enter the map, “mercenary” players would be prompted to leave for another server in need of help if their queue isn’t up, much like you now volunteer to leave empty maps (but with a shorter window, of 5 to 10 minutes).
This would give backup to lower tier servers while preserving the current server structure. It also has the advantage to use systems similar to others in place: EotM server alliances and volunteering for map transfer.
Ideally, along with this change, I would like to see the Borderlands and Eternal Battleground get a slight cosmetic “re-skin” with the Desert/Ice/Jungle theme near the starter areas (or more, if possible), to emphasize this alliance.

AI Backup
A first simple tweak would be to give NPC defenders the same AI as the Edge of the Mists, where I noticed some Kodan manning cannons and oils when players did not take them. This would help servers with fewer players and not be something to unbalancing for servers who are already dominating. Besides, a player with the right WvW abilities will always be better than NPCs.
Another change would be to let players – perhaps, only commanders – assign orders to idle NPC workers such as using supply to repair when available or rebuilding lost keep or tower siege.
More options could also be added to other NPCs: sentries could have a purchasable upgrade to show enemies on the map around it, patrols and dolyaks could have path options to prioritize certain structures? Or, you could also simply buff NPCs when there are less players. The idea here is not to replace players but, to make NPCs better at supporting smaller groups if they know how to organize.

SkyShroud.2865:

Zesbeer.8365:

Proposal Overview
Guild Event Calendar

Goal of Proposal
create a fast and easy way to schedule guild events without having to send out mail or whispers to your guild.

Proposal Functionality
Under the guild window there would be a calendar tab with a plan blank calendar

• ability to add events
  • date and time info along with ingame waypoint or poi
  • ability to have the event span across more than one day
  • ability to have events repeat like when make up guild missions take place ect.
• rank options for who can add, remove, edit and view
• option to be able to be mailed a summary (per player so if a player wants to opt out of it they can)
• option to turn on anet events ( things like feature patch updates or pvp/wvw tournament starts)

Associated Risks

• spam
• inappropriate language or events added
• conflicting events with other guilds (note that every guild would have there own and other guilds would not be able to see them unless you were a member of that guild)

In additional to what suggested.

Goal of Proposal
Easier to coordinate with individuals of different timezone.

Proposal Functionality
Display a alert in guild chat if there is a upcoming guild event in xx minutes.

I want to add something to functionality too: a calendar could also be used for Guild Upgrade activation planning. You could set the date and time for any upgrade, making sure your Magic Find bonus or gathering bonus are up when your guild is online the most, even if there are no Officers online to activate them.