Guild Wars 2

Hello guys,

I don’t know if any of you felt that the staff animation for the Druid specialization doesn’t really fit with the Druid theme.
What I mean is, that for example Druid’s (and Thief’s) Staff idle is just basically a Hammer idle.
Druid staff skill animations are fully recycled, there is no new animation at all, at least the thief got some sweeping moves and even a flashy jump attack.
Would it be possible to give new weapon stances to the new specializations? Maybe not at release, but in a future update. And introduce some new animations to poor druids, surely they can handle those staves better

TLDR.: Please Anet, introduce at least a dash of cool-factor to the druid, because playing it feels really underwhelming now.

Ranger
Strength: Diversity
Weakness: It lacks the tools for it, utilities should give weapons the ability to be used in different builds. Similar to how preparations worked in Guild Wars 1.

As it stands now:
Axe:
- Borderline useless in power builds as a MH, bc extra low damage on its 2nd and 3rd skills and they arent even useful, esp the cone, since you have to get in melee range for it to work, but you’re better off w sword if you do that.
- useless in condi builds bc low coefficient, and the lack of damaging conditions [only 1] (also the need to shotgun w it)
Axe should be the most versatile weapon in the ranger’s kitten nal, damage-wise. in almost every build, be it conditions or direct damage. Should be lacking in utility.

Longbow:
- lacks spiking ability (or is a one trick pony with q.zephyr)
- lacks proper AOE and utility (could be rectified with preparations). Barrage damage should be condensed for it to be viable in pvp, and it needs reduced cooldown, or, consider swapping barrage with AA, give longbow AoE AA, and give it a more powerful long range shot.

Longbow should be the LR AoE of the ranger, with much more versatility than warrior LB, since the latter has the higher damage output. As it currently stands, LB warrior does firefields for utility, cripple, insane damage and proper aoe, meanwhile ranger LB does single target dps (lower than warrior) 3 sec stealth on 12s CD (useless because its not long enough for you to reposition yourself) a one time knockback/fight (15s CD is very long), and an AoE that ticks maybe twice on the enemy until they can get out of it, or is easily facetanked by bunkers

Shortbow:
- lacks the mobility it should provide
- Quickshot forces you to backpedal, which makes the already lackluster 3s swiftness basically useless, since the enemy will catch up to you no matter what. If you don’t backpedal, you can’t attack.
- Concussion shot is also very weak compared to other classes CC mechanics, (warriors please)
Shortbow wielders should be low direct damage, high-mobility skirmishers second only to thieves but with additional control.

lmperdigao.2567:

Unfortunately, I believe that we will never have Guild Halls or GvG. Ever.
ANet talked about housing before release. It was 20 months ago. Never heard anything about from them after release. Guild Halls existed mostly because GvG existed. ANet will not release GvG, because it would kill WvW in a certain degree and they blindly believe that sPvP/tPvP is the way that GW2 small scale organized PvP is meant to be played.

I may be pessimist but I don’t have any hope anymore about serious development or great new features in this game.

I don’t think even anet got to the point where they should decide about this. Then again, I’d rather encourage them with good ideas to do something, instead of calling upon their past statements to implement something that isn’t vital to the game.

Remember: not one of their minigames were mandatory either, (and only a small number of players are consistent participants) so there is a good chance we get guild halls just because it’s wanted by many players.

Also, please, stay on topic

Wanze.8410:

I think as long as Anet hasnt figured out how to transfer guild banks between servers, they wont implement guild halls because it would tie guilds towards servers and stop them from changing servers.

Well that’s easy, they just have to use a modded overflow system, only guild members can get into.

Vol.7601:

There is zero confirmation that Guild Halls is coming, and speculating that they are ‘on the radar’ simply because it’s discussed on the CDI (which time and time again is repeatedly a discussion and not a concrete plan to have things in future releases).

Anet is simply aware of it, which isn’t newsworthy. Just like how they are aware of people wanting mounts, cheap legendaries and new classes.

It’s kind of a prestige thing for anet to implement Guild Halls, so it’s inevitable. I’m aware of the fact that there are many aspects of the game requiring rework/work and are higher priority than Guild Halls, but really, it is one of those things they want to implement sooner than later. Simply because it is what “defined” the old GW1. I also think that they are hesistant to bring back GvG because of the same reason: they want GvG somehow tied to Guild Halls. Either way, it’s on their agenda, and imo suggestions are always welcome.

styx.7294:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Upcoming_changes_and_features says guild halls aren’t worked on but the sources are over a year old. Maybe we need an update on whether this has changed or not?

I think it’s safe to assume that halls are steadily crawling up on their to-do lists, yes.

Logos.1306:

nice ideas, how about this:

Combine player housing with guild halls.
“6-10 Location markers around the map for buildable structures”

exactly! A special locations on guild’s (map) hall, where guild members can “build” their houses. A player could only have one house so If he/she would represent other guild (or his/her private guild) same house will apear on this guild map. And it won’t be deleted when he/she leave guild.

Could work, but when there are over 100-200 members in a guild it becomes either a bit crowded or people get left out. I think the solution to this is something like an instance in an instance. (like a portal to “Nearby Home Island” or smth like that.

I’d like to throw my ideas into the stew.
I think most of these are realistic and probably many people have had similar thoughts, but I just can’t find a topic that collects them.

I’l try to be brief and post in bulletin board style, though some of the points may require further elaboration:

• Guild Halls are small, instanced Islands (a few different to choose from, like in gw1)
• Instances – just like your home instance – , can be upgraded with nodes by the leader (for merits)
• 6-10 Location markers around the map for buildable structures. (for practical reasons, let’s make every structure use the same base layout, so 2 of the same islands can be very different in terms of structure layout)
• To make it a collective effort to build a hall, materials should be gatherable
• Same structures could be different in style /may even require different materials/ (asuran, norn, sylvari, canthan, elonian, krytan, etc)
• Guild hall guesting
• Sparring area (enter the marked zone to become enemies with the people that enter)
• Diverse island landscape with it’s own day/night cycle (muh sekrit fountain that is only reachable by a small jumping puzzle :P)
• Purchased service NPCs to offer something unique (like new guild armor sets, discounts (upgradeable for merits)
• A few markers for defining general feel (flagpoles, totems, torches, roadsigns, pirate skull, whatever comes to mind)
• Bulletin board (offering rewards for specific activities -> could be handy when the brain behind the idea is rarely online but has a lot of disposable income lol)
• Guild upgrades to have a minor visual impact (like Deep Cave to open a small area that contains a pile of loot/treasure)

That’s all I can think about right now,
I’m curious about what you guys can come up with!

Another idea:

Anet stated, that they are working on ways to implement ways to track the story.
I hope this means that at some point, longer, readable books will be available (similar to dungeon books were in gw1)

If that’s the case:

• Collectible book pages from Dynamic Events
• Stories of past characters (our past character and the heroes/henchies of Tyria) Koss!
• Once a book is completed, you can choose a unique item related to that character (like a sword/hammer of Koss, Staff/scepter of Norgu etc.)

Pros:

• They can always keep adding more stories/books >> build up your own library over time!
• It encourages revisiting events in hope of newer stories/rewards
• Gives some depth to the current Lore and reassures ex-GW1 players that their efforts were not in vain.

thehipone.6812:

Even better – I’d like to see some sort of “adventure log” like the old GW1 books. Put a page for each of N-number of different DEs that fit a common theme, like the priory work in dredgehaunt. Pages get completed when I complete the events (maybe make me talk to an NPC at the end so I have to stay to complete and people can’t just tag and run away). Let me cash an unfilled book in for coin based on how many different pages are filled. If I completely fill it I can take it back to Priory HQ and it becomes a token for a soulbound Ancient Dwarven Weapon Skin (NPC: “Hey, I can tell that you really helped out our efforts. We found these weapons during the work that you helped support. It is only fair that you share in some of the spoils.”).

Pros: Encourages people to do many different DEs, spread out in the world.
Additional opportunity for lore development/storytelling
Potential for unique rewards that tie in to actually doing something and not just farm gold—>TP —> buy

Cons: I’m sure that by the third day there would be a zerg train to optimize the “do these X events to make the most gold”. Might have to time-limit book redemption 1 per day/week/month.
Books take up inventory space.
Probably others…

Yeah, books were great in GW1.

In GW2 DE completion could also be like Vanquish fused with book completion.

• Talk to map NPC, for example a priory guy, and he gives you an empty book.
• Every event completed in the area is logged in the book, turn in that book at an NPC after map meta event is completed for unique rewards/minis/collectibles
• Could also add a legendary vanquisher like title when every map is completed
• This could also help new characters, because: *
• more populated areas and
• map completion is not the only incentive to do a full sweep

Beldin.5498:

I think the bigges problem they have with making DEs more rewardings is, that they are so different from the time / effort that is used for some of them so that instead of generic rewards that we seem to have now (1,5 Silver, 300 Karma or whatever) they have to assign maybe a reward to any event manually.

And then there is the problem that you actually get always a reward even if you just hit a mob around the area.

Now if it gets better rewards people will maybe just hit a mob in a 10 minute defend location event and run to the next, while 1 person left standing with a higher scaled event and has to do it all alone.

Well, I think this can be addressed by having to stay in the area to get the reward, also since they already have a system that tracks event area (shiverpeak event completer daily for example etc.) it might not be that hard to assign rewards based on location

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

introduce artifacts (lore-related collectibles) like those in Rift:
http://troublmaker.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/2011-05-01_210611.jpg

Each enemy type drops specific pieces of these artifacts in events. To get all parts of a centaur artifact, you’ll have to participate in many different centaur-related events in various zones. Event A has the chance to drop piece xy, Event B has the chance to drop another piece.

Important: non-tradeable

Artifacts could be combined into new skins, new types of bags (22 slot centaur bag) etc. They could include Legendary artifacts too.

In order to increase the chance to find artifacts, these will be tied to the number of unique events you do. This way people would stop doing the same events over and over again.

like this:

• doing 1 centaur event = no bonus magic find on these artifacts
• finding a 2nd centaur event + completing on gold = +5% magic find on these artifacts.
• finding a 3rd centaur event…
  etc.

So if there are 50 unique centaur events in the game, for each new one you’ll get +5% magic find on the artifacts related to the enemy-type. This would give you a progression as a centaur-killer and people who have found & completed every centaur-event would have a very good chance to get a full set of artifacts soon.

This is also interesting, what if you had to collect key fragments from DE-s to be able to open the map-meta chest which could contain said rewards or the tokens for the region?

Hello guys, there was a question about how to make DEs more compelling.

I’d like to list a few things, in a bulletin-format, please share your ideas too! (preferably in a bulletin format so it’s easier for devs to recollect information)

• Different regions, different loot (rares/greens are 99% the same everywhere)
• Event fame system (perhaps a new currency for region specific exchangable skins) similar to the one we saw in Guild Wars 1 EoN
• Skins like: scarf, cloak, mask, aquabreather, backpieces (tied to region). For example scarves for ascalon fame, cloaks for shiverpeaks. (probably account bound)
• Lore bits tied to events (maybe even upcoming updates therefore integrating them into the living world
• some sort of collectible stuff for your home instance (decorative perhaps)

Thoughts?

Hello guys, there was a question in a now closed thread about how to make DEs more compelling.

I’d like to list a few things, in a bulletin-format, please share your own ideas too!

• Different regions, different loot (rares/greens are 99% the same everywhere)
• Event fame system (perhaps a new currency for region specific exchangable skins) similar to the one we saw in Guild Wars 1 EoN
• Skins like: scarf, cloak, mask, aquabreather, backpieces (tied to region). For example scarves for ascalon fame, cloaks for shiverpeaks. (account bound)
• Lore bits tied to events
• Some sort of collectible stuff for your home instance (decorative perhaps)

Thoughts?

I’m happy to see a thread like this, and I certainyl hope it breeds some sort of contentment to both sides.

Among other things, I’d like you guys to make living world a bit more “living”, let me explain:
Let’s take a look at Living World as it is now:

- You present us bi-weekly updates w prior information about them villains/main events/happenings.
- You highlight new skins, achievements, zones that are affected, characters involved.
- Post an artwork about the next update
- We now know not to expect anything in 2 weeks, so living world just… stops living.

What Living World needs:

- Silent updates, that encourage you to explore the world, look for clues about work in progress content. Make us speculate about upcoming events.

- Timer-Activated content. This is arguably my biggest request regarding Living World. It would really make Tyria unique and alive. Patch in an event that triggers 3 days after the initial patch-day, let us feel like we can find something new any day, hell, even overnight! Randomize the content. There is no need for huge changes, make a team that works on events/content that links the bi-weekly patches together in a seamless way, so the world evolves as the days pass!

- Run 2 or more arcs at once with each update! obviously focus on only one of them, but keep us posted about different happenings and events. There is no need for major stuff, like dungeons or complex scripted events, only a subtle change like a dialogue between affected NPCs is enough. As days / weeks / months / pass and we get closer to the actual release of the aforementioned content, slowly introduce events that lead up to it! Like there is Scarlet now but the priory in Lornar’s Pass isn’t wiser by one word since release and it breaks immersion.

Thanks for reading, I hope I’m not alone w these thoughts.

I know that a single player game can’t be compared to a multiplayer one and
lag might be an issue, yes, but remember alpha: you can learn when to dodge by sound only, same with jade maw. Or think about the charge skill of the undead abomination in CoE. These patterns do require timing to avoid and are rather unforgiving, but not frequent enough. As a matter of fact I think undead abomination is a more interesting encounter – because of his insane speed and instagib – than alpha.

Lot’s of people know dark souls, mostly because of it’s unforgiving encounters, and I remember ANET telling us how explorable dungeons are only for the most skilled players.

Seeing as this isn’t the case, I’d like to propose the idea of making hard mode dungeons available for experienced people, who want real challenge.

Keep in mind though, that I’m not suggesting to rework explorable paths, what I’m saying is: create challenges for those who enjoy them.

ANET knows that the playerbase is fragmented, different people want different stuff, and that’s alright. Some like the living story, some won’t even touch it, some enjoy gear grinding, some like farming, and I’m pretty sure a lot of players (including me) like tough bossfights.

This is where dark souls comes to mind:

- Make these new encounters unforgiving.
- Attack patterns that shred the party if not countered/dodged/avoided
- Let reaction time be a deciding factor when trying to avoid these patterns (check Ornstein and Smough for reference) & the opportunity window to fight back, should be small, as is their HP pool
- Add account bound rewards/recipes as drops, so they don’t mess with the economy, but will reflect the player’s resolve to finish something that’s not easy.

I haven’t seen encounters like this in any other MMO, and from my experience, GW2’s combat system is atm the best basis for this

Opinions?

best thing that happened to the game since launch, please make it stay ;_;

I think it’s still easier to create a few more skins than whole events

Seeing as Colin mentioned in an interview, that they want to do something about blues and greens being pretty much useless, why not re-introduce this system? perfect stat combos could either be crafted or salvaged from exotics.
Dropped items could be more diverse skin-wise.
Thoughts?

As a veteran GW1 player who was promised everything I loved about guild wars 1.. and more, I have a suggestion for content that will surely please the majority of current players.

Lots of People in GW2 want to get weapon/armor skins. They want them, and this is sort of an endgame, as it was in gw1 too. People played GW1 to get skins, to complete titles and do PVP.

These kind of people don’t really care about new events, and they probably don’t care much about story. period. They know that new events mean another way of not getting money for their set goal, be it legendary or any of the forge items. They know It’s 15k xp, 400 karma and 2s at best.
I’m not saying, it’s not nice to have updates like this, but it takes too much effort to create content like this only to be left deserted after 2-3 runs. That’s the way it is. That’s why most events are only done by newcomers and alts.

So the suggestion part:

I can safely say that 90% of the original GW1 PVE playerbase enjoyed farming because there was opportunity to get highly sought after skins with good stats and low requirements. Different builds, different areas, different loot.

This is diversity GW2 currently does not have. You have 1 farming build, you go to 6-7 crowded events to get 1-2 rares every day, or farm orr events for bags hoping to get rares to salvage. = money. Or… run dungeons over and over, again , for the money. Both even if you have lots of time.

There is one sure way to semi-fix this, which is easy to implement, easy to love: introduce dungeon specific loot.

-Let us have that lucky day feeling when our favourite skin drops.-

Make them account bound and give them higher drop rate (than current named items), but also randomize their stats. Put dungeon specific minipets to chests, hell , even put new armorskins in.

Do the same with some jumping puzzle chests and mob types to encourage spreading out in the world.
example: drake type pets drop elemental weapons, hyleks drop tribal stuff etc.

Well that’s it, thanks for reading, and sorry for wall-of-text

Yeah, much like every hat in GW1… I miss my divine halo ;_;

yes please, I’d very much like to wear aviator glasses with my T3 set! I’d actually consider spending gems on items, beside karma booster

It was worth a try. Though I think it’d also help removing bots from the game, seeing as they do exactly what you described: they use pets to tank.
In most situations though, there would be no real need to tank mobs as if you have a fair damage yourself, it’d balance out the situation. Moreover, the fact that most of the rangers don’t like pets >as they are now< is an indication that no crying would follow (at least not beyond the usual amount other professions get)

I’d even go as far: (addendum to my previous post)

give different pet types different combo finishers on their F3 (or whatever) skill for more strategic depth

I’ve written the same idea in another topic, but maybe that wasn’t really the best place to discuss, so here it is:

What if they made pets invulnerable (before you all start flaming, hear me out)
- what if they removed pet autoatk and give 4 dynamic profession specific skills (they change from pet type to pet type)
you wouldn’t have to worry about pets getting damage, but still you had to use their skills wisely
for this to work:
- they should adjust ranger damage
- give pets more support abilities and/or improve upon existing ones
example: cats cause bleeding, canines vulnerability, bears stun, spiders poison with their F1, the F2 and F3 are activated dmg dealing abilities, and F4 is special to each pet (like it is now).
This way rangers would get a decent buff to their base dmg, there is no need to worry about pets, but the idea is true to the concept that rangers need to utilize pets for full effectiveness.
Pets should not be another 3 seconds of additional dps, they should have abilities synced to your build:
you want condition dmg? Go cats or spiders
you want raw dps? go bear/canine
you want to chase down enemies in wub? go devourer/spider

What if they made pets invulnerable (before you all start flaming, hear me out)

- what if they removed pet autoatk and give 4 dynamic profession specific skills (they change from pet type to pet type)
you wouldn’t have to worry about pets getting damage, but still you had to use their skills wisely

for this to work:
- they should adjust ranger damage
- give pets more support abilities and/or improve upon existing ones
example: cats cause bleeding, canines vulnerability, bears stun, spiders poison with their F1, the F2 and F3 are activated dmg dealing abilities, and F4 is special to each pet (like it is now).

This way rangers would get a decent buff to their base dmg, there is no need to worry about pets, but the idea is true to the concept that rangers need to utilize pets for full effectiveness.

Pet’s should not be another 3 seconds of additional dps, they should have abilities synced to your build:

you want condition dmg? Go cats or spiders
you want raw dps? go bear/canine
you want to chase down enemies in wub? go devourer/spider

Hello everyone!

Finally I’ve decided to share some of my ideas (no, not concerns) to help make the dungeons feel more rewarding and fun and therefore “populated”.

First of all: some of these ideas may be familiar with those coming from GW1 , but seeing as the dungeons in it still hold their core playerbase, is something worth mentioning.
Without further wall of text, here they are:

[1.] – Tools (Kits/ Suits/ RC golems etc.) required to do certain parts of the dungeon.
There are a few dungeons with similar mechanics, like cutting through a dredge door or using special rifles to force golems to explode near the boss, but … creating ways to avoid entire fights (if executed well) or assigning different roles to each player is something I’d consider.

Examples:

a) RC golem jumping puzzle with 2-3 unique skills to bypass security doors (with a very challenging time gap) for a bonus bossfight and a chest. (with rewards unique to the chest, like a certain minipet or a weapon (remember the bone dragon staff, emerald blade, silverwing recurve bow from GW1) -> the unique rewards are mandatory for keeping up long term interest.

b) Stealth missions with stealthsuits (sneak around a mansion/castle perfectly undetected with randomgenerated objectives, like collecting orders, deactivating security switches . —-> Flawless execution spawns a boss who is visible to only one person (equipped with Nightvision goggles) and must coordinate the team (now equipped with a special rifle w cone AoE) to damage the boss or even warn them about impending doom

c) Providing a variety of tools to choose from, to solve specific problems within a dungeon (Macgyver style) -> example:

-collecting materials to make a boat to traverse the surface of a pool of acid
-getting a radiation suit to pull the plug
-5 shields with directional skills (above head, before you, side) to rush through a field of raining arrows (testudo ftw)
-sneaking behind enemy lines with a bomb to blow up these archers
Etc.

[2.] Rewards

a) Rare drops in GW2 today mean only one thing -> 30-ish silver. No matter what drops, a GS, a mace, an armorpiece, at best it’s still 1-3 ectos and a sigil maybe that worths 6.5s.
No unique skins, no rare Rares (named exotics maybe with fixed skins) like Demon Fangs or Silverwing in GW1.

Suggestion: include more skins in RNG drops, make them more region specific, and give some mobs higher droprate.

example: Harpies can be seen wielding Infinite Light, make the drop it!

b) Unique rewards from dungeon chests.
I’ve mentioned this before, but now examples:

-Chests in AC exp have a chance to drop mini Ghostly Priest, Eternal Blade (gw1 again), Eternal Shield, Ghostly Staff
-Chests in Arah exp have a chance to drop Obsidian Edge, Obsidian Staff mini Zhaitan
-The chest after defeating the Jade Maw has a chance to drop Jade Dagger and Jade Sword

[3.] Sense of Freedom
Jumping off the airship in Arah SM was hilarious and awesome… therefore Parachutes! Gliding from A to B or jump off at different times to reach different objectives! Hell even rocketboots to get to heights normally unreachable.

Additional suggestions for upcoming Fractal themes:
-Pre-Sunken Arah
-God realms
-Margonites!

Thanks for reading, and sorry for the WoT. If you have any further suggestions (I know I have more, just can’t remember them now) please share them!

gw1 taught me that experimenting is fun

Agreed,
Can’t even imagine the possibilites. Community created events, like talentshows for in-game prizes or guild orchestras, concerts, cover bands, hell even GW2’s own bands. Would be totally awesome.

-One-handed sword root has been removed
-Pet AI improvements (when not commanded to attack, they try to avoid AOE circles)
-Greatsword attack speed has been increased by 10%
-Spirits are now immune to martial weapon damage unless activating their abilities
-Longbow projectile speed has been increased by 30%
-Longbow skill Rapid Fire casting time has been reduced to 3.5s from 5
-Barrage has been reworked, targets up to 6 players, cooldown has been reduced to 15 seconds, has 1 sec casting time, each arrow deals 25% more damage than a regular autoattack.
-You are no longer immobile while using whirling defense
-Crippling Talon now ricochets, damaging up to 3 foes
-Crippling Shot’s cripple duration has been increased to 5 seconds

++ Signet effects:
Signet of The Wild uses the same formula to calculate healing for both pet and the player
Signet of stone: Reduces incoming damage by 10%, activating it reduces incoming damage by 50% for both pet and player, cooldown has been reduced to 90seconds, duration has been increased to 10 seconds
Signet of the Hunt: increased movement speed bonus to 15%, activating it gives swfitness for 10 seconds.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want a burst dps class either (I like the concept of the ranger here, but in-game it just doesn’t play out like that) . What I meant is that the ranger problem is something similar to the mesmer was before some fixes. If you chose the wrong weapon (anything except staff/sword/pistol) you were skinned alive in seconds. It’s the same with ranger. You only have 2 or 3 viable builds with the SAME 2 weapon sets, while everyone else has much more choices. I’d like to use 1h sword and GS too, and want them to be viable choices in pvp – because now – they are subpaar.

also: Daggers anyone?

As you have said, we are like free kills for everyone, except those who have been playing for 2 days. Ranger isn’t about playing how you want to play, it’s cold math. Shortbow and axe for us, nothing else. And I for one, am not really into these weapons. Axe-throwing is lame, and not satisfying, shortbow is like button 1 spam, and we can’t even kite around with it, cuz of relatively slow recharges (Crippling shot causes 3secs of Cripple and has 12 s CD) The other weapons are next to useless. especially in pvp.
Spirit’s die in 3 hits, our signets are almost worthless if not traited to affect us aswell.

It’s been more than 2 months since the game was released, and rangers got nothing except a nerf to shortbows, and buff to harpoon guns (YAY). warriors get buffed in every patch, why?!