Guild Wars 2

I agree with you there. Bountiful Power just doesnt feel like a Grandmaster trait that changes your playstile.

Diovid.9506:

Why is everybody jumping to conclusions based on that banner showing a tree? I mean, why does it have to point to sylvari or druids or what have you?

Ancestor trees are a thing you know? http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ancestor_Tree

I was also thinking in that direction, maybe it has nothing to do with Ventari or sylvari at all. As the centaurs are quite close to nature (in fact in a Sylvari personal story quest you even convince them to follow your orders because you are nature spirits) wouldnt it be possible this camp and banner belong to a crazy cult of dragon worshipping centaurs just like the Sons of Svanir worship Jormag?

As the discussion here revolves for the most part around Subclasses i wanted to introduce a few different ideas on what else could be done to expand the possibilities of customizing your Charakter/build diversity and to give you a feeling of reward/progression.
If those ideas came up before please excuse me, i honestly didn’t found the time and resolve to read trough all forty pages.

A Mechanik that lets you add different functionality to skills
, giving you the possibility to add effects or slightly changing what they do but still keeping the essence of the skill intact. Examples for such a system could be the runes in Diabolo3 or the glyphs in World of Warcraft.
As an example lets take the “Cleansing Flame” of the Guardians torch. In the Weapon Skills section of your hero panel you could choose to upgrade this skill, adding different effects to it.
For example the skill could: -Cleanse conditions on you as well
-Remove boons from the ennemy
-Convert the cleansed conditions to boons
-Do more damage/always crit/set the ennemy on fire
-…
This could greatly augment build deversity while not beeing too big of a change and would give players who enjoy the buildiung process give even more finetuning. You could really look at your build, ask yourselves “What do i want to do with this Build? What do i lack/need more?” and then finetune your skills to fit the role you want to take even better.
Depending on how you get the components for this skill-upgrade it could even work as vertical progression, giving you something to work forwards to. One of the things that motivates me most for leveling/grinding in a game is “This trait/skill/build is awesome! I wanna get that and every level i grind brings me closer to that awesome skill.”

A System for vertical progression past level 80 without raising the levelcap, just like the World Ranks in WvW. What exactly this “levels” give you still has to be determined but it could give you motivation and progression without devaluing what you got. The idea of subclasses may represent this idea but there are also other possibilities.

Gated content and a gear threadmill that have no impact on the game
This may seem a bit contradictory at first but i hope i can explain it so that its understandable.
A gear threadmill gives you prgogression, something to work towards to and motivate you. The problem is that if you are not interested in the content that needs the new gear (like with the fractals and the ascended gear for infusions) you are still impacted. If you dont go into the Fractals you dont need ascended gear. The problem is that players without ascended gear feel as they are not as effective as they could be even in regular dungeons and fear to be left out. If you fight someone in WvW who has ascended gear and you dont you will always have the feeling that you lost because of that difference in gear.
The solution here is to make the advantage exclusive to the content you need it for.
For example lets say they introduce a new “dungeon” to the game called Underworld, divided into different tiers. In Tier1 you can gather stuff to make new equipment without wich you wont have a chance in Tier2. The clue is that this equipment is identically as good as the best available armor in the game but has a +x% stat bonus exclusively in the Underworld.
This was tried with the torment mechanik and infusions in the fractals but i feel the idea was very good but not as well done as it could be as the ascended gear still gives you an advantage other than beeing able to use infusions.
Like this players who enjoy item progression could do it in Guild Wars 2 and players who dont are nbot in the least affected. This fits the theme of the game that there is something to do he enjoys for everyone without forcing players who dont like this kind of content to play it.

I’m not quite sure, but isn’t server transfer from Europe to America impossible/disabled?

exploit all three dimensions
The underwater battle provides room for more dynamic and action-heavyer combat by exploiting the possibilities of three-dimensional movement.
For example, you could have to swim through a hallway with holes in the walls where eels emerge, biting you for massive damage. You would have to avoid those fissures by swimming up or down while moving trough the valley. There could be a kind of maze with currents as “jumping puzzle” element.
A boss could be a giant turtle with an indestructible shell, sitting on a rock. In the first phase, one would have to kill adds / sub bosses or defend a point against adds or procure objects somehow and get them to one point while the boss rains death upon you with a destructive ranged attack which you would have to dodge. In the second phase, the turtle then rises from her rock and swims through the area, revealing a soft, vulnerrable belly. Only attacks from below are not blocked by the shell and damage the boss, the players are forced to watch their positioning.
Or there could be a kind of jellyfish / octokitten boss whose tentacles emerge from the floor and trash around, forcing players to dodge. (Yeah, again. Making you dodge is important for any dynamic and action-loaded combat mode.)

reviewing existing underwater battles
Another component of the reworks, and probably the most important and most logical first step would be to make the existing underwater fights more interesting and dynamic, thre-dimensional.
Skills such as the 2-skill of the Guardian / warrior spear should be adapted so that they no longer miss when it is used under / over an opponent. Although three dimensions are available , you are forced to move on a two dimensional plane to be able to use your skills.
The final boss from the second path in the Honor of the Waves could also throw his mines in a few rows on various heights in (more or less) rapid succession, forcing players to adapt their height to avoid beeing hit. Or he could throw the mines in a kind of barrage / explosion so one has to seek cover behind the numerous bars and braces in the room.

This is as far as my thoughts on a possible rework of the underwater battles go. Do you consider it appropriate? Are there any suggestions?
Maybe my suggestions are completely useless, ArenaNet has already proven to be more creative than I could ever be. But I hope that the underwater battles will be given more attention and love in the future, they could be such an awesome feature that makes Guild Wars 2 even more unique.
Especially since you finally would have the feeling that it is worth getting Kraitkin or Kamohali’i Kotaki, wich are two of the best Legendaries in my opinion.

As the underwater fight was announced I was ecstatic! You dont have to surface every few seconds to breathe, you get new skills and weapons, and the water worlds are beautifully designed.
Unfortunately, the enthusiasm faded away very quickly. The underwater combat has so much untapped potential that it almost breaks my heart. Instead of a three-dimensional, action-loaded combat mode with room for tactics , most fights are boring and take up too much time. Lack of equipment and choice in the skills do not make you want to fight under Water, There aren’t much fights under water and the few there are are often left aside. Most players prefer restricting HotW tokens to 60/120 a day then clearing all three paths, it seems a waste of money to buy Exotic spears / tridents / harpoonguns. A vicious circle.
I don’t like under water combat either, don’t get me wrong. But i’d love to like it, it could be awesome!
So I thought about how to make underwater battles feel appealing once again and decided to share my ideas with you.

Exotic respirators
Currently there is only one green respirator at level 80 for each armor class and no selection at the stats. Basic requirement for a review of the underwater battle, of course would be that this is changing. Exotic respirators for dungeon tokens with the same stats as for the armor, craftable respirators with the usual prefixes, or even a few exotic respirators at the temple merchants. For starters, there wouldn’t even have to be loads of stat combinations, the selection of what you have for guild backpacks would be enough as long as you have exotic respirators. Later, you could then extend the offer to other stats and maybe skins.

replace locked skills
Some skills work at the bottom of our lakes and seas, others are locked and not available for this battle mode. This is quite a shame as one has a smaller selection at the skills, and, on top of that, some classes have more skills under water than others. It would be ideal if the skills that do not work under water would be replaced by other skills that can be used only under water. Thus, the balance would be favored between classes and you would have more choices.

separate/own Skilltrees
If, as an example, one plays as a Necro builded entirely on marks and / or wells, he can’t do terribly much under water. An engineer who enjoys playing elixir gun and towers on the surface, prefers possibly grenades under water. Unfortunately, both can’t be covered with one single build.
Therefore it would be useful in addition to the possibility of different utility skills to allow players to also define the traits for the underwater fight separately. Maybe you could even set up whole new traitlines designed to fight under water, just one or two.

More underwater battles
Another important part of a remake would be that more underwater fights find their way into the game that aren’t as easy to escape as the ones now. Southsun Cove could get a new submarinal area with new events and opponents. A new dungeon whose paths are entirely or at least for the largest part under water would also be a possibility.

I never really understood the whole thing with Magic and Bloodstones, but as im doing roleplay and want to use magic on one of my Charakters i have some questions regarding this subject.

The Wiki says:
“The massive stone was sealed with King Doric’s blood and split into five pieces to limit the races’ ability to use magic. The first four segments rule over its respective school of magic: Preservation, Aggression, Denial, and Destruction. (…)
Because the four schools of magic are separated, no individual is capable of utilizing all forms of magic.”

First question: What are the different schools of magic, how do they look like? I mean Preservation should be pretty clear, Destruction as well. But what is the difference between Destruction and Aggression? And what on earth should i imagine under the magic of Denial?
Does anyone could explain this to me or give perhaps examples?

Second Question: " Because the four schools of magic are separated, no individual is capable of utilizing all forms of magic"
How does this influences the magic for roleplayers who want to keep to the lore? Does this really means a mage who can cast one single defensive spell can’t cast any offensive spells at all? This would be quite severe rules and most of the games classes/weaponskill sets/whole skills like Zealots Defense would go against the lore and had to be considered mere engine-stuff.
Or do i misunderstand something there and it is not as severe as i think?

I hope you or maybe even one of the Designers knows more about the subject and could answer my questions.