It provides a new playstyle for the warrior.
No, the role doesn’t particularly change, but does that matter? There’s already complaints that GW2’s professions are too homogenized do to role cross-over. Should elite specs really be making it so that every prof can do everything exactly equally?
Yea the elite specs present an opportunity to give professions things they’re severely lacking in, AoE for mesmers through wells, ranged for guardian through bow, but I don’t think that means every elite spec needs to provide the profession with a new role.
Just giving us alternatives to how we do our job is already interesting. It gives us new toys to play with, new playstyles to enjoy. It doesn’t need to give us a new role.
Have you considered mace instead of hammer?
Either mace/mace or mace/shield. Either combo would provide CC on a shorter cooldown than hammer, which will allow you to proc your condition traits more frequently. And it would add some blocks to your build for more survivability.
If you could find a satisfying way to swap the Defense line in, you could pick up either the shield trait or mace trait (or both) depending on what weapon set you go for. And there’s other good traits that could synergies with this build in that line.
I’ve been playing a sword/shield mace/sword power build lately that’s pretty fun. Been considering trying a condi version with the interrupt traits.
Just wanted to put forth an argument against those who don’t want hard content:
Some people like hard content, while others do not. Some people like easy content, while others do not. Preferences like this go in all directions.
So for someone to make an argument such as “all the content should be available to everyone and not bared behind difficulty” is to not realize, or to forget, the above.
Generally speaking (that is to say, barring exceptions such as handicaps) everyone can potentially complete hard content. It doesn’t matter if you’re not skilled enough for now, you can get better and complete it. If you put forth the time and effort, you could complete it. You’re choosing not to.
And that’s a fine choice to make. This is a game, if it’s not something you enjoy and you don’t have a strong enough motive pushing you to do it, then don’t. That’s your choice, it’s a perfectly viable choice to make, and I respect it.
But the same goes for those on the other side. Easy content can be very unengaging, very uninteresting, very unmotivating. Some people want a bit more difficulty in their gaming experience, and won’t stick around for or enjoy overly easy content.
Easy content can be just as exclusionary as hard content to many members of a playerbase.
The reality is, in an MMO, you have to cater to multiple audiences. A wide variety of preferences and game modes. So it’s fine if you don’t like hard content, just as it’s fine to not like overly easy content. Just realize that both content types will likely need to appear in the game. And if you’re not willing to play it, that’s your prerogative.
A spectrum of difficulty is healthy for an MMO. Easy content is an important learning ground, is the basis of for the game, and provides things to do for new players and the masses in general. While hard content acts as a social motivator, deepens the game, and provides something to do for those interested in higher difficulty challenges.
(edited by Arewn.2368)
To en-light you… we seem to be getting a torch!!!
yeah, that is off-hand. that is problem. we already have torment which is ranged as off hand weapon, sword.
..
Can’t we use torch as main hand that normally range attack?
Having an alternative condi weapon for off hand isn’t that bad.
There’s actually some potential for main hand mace or axe to be used as a condi weapon with the elite spec and torch as an off hand.
There are traits that apply conditions on interrupt, allowing mace to deal condi damage.
And the axe’s fast attack speed is well suited to on-hit/on-crit effects (such as the ‘precise strikes’ trait), and the whirl finisher and projectile finisher of axe #2 and #3 can further be used to apply burns if torch gives a reliable fire field.
If the elite spec’s mechanic or traits then allow for some more burning, those two weapons may actually be viable main-hand condi weapons. Which would then create a need for both off hand sword and torch as condi off-hands.
We’ll have to wait and see how it turns out though.
Right when I was warming up to the idea of off-hand dagger….
Oh well, an off hand condition weapon is okay. If we get a fire field out of it, it’ll be good for condi build variety at least.
Also, thematically why torch for a berserker? I’d expect if for more of a “Raider” or “Marauder” elite spec.
(edited by Arewn.2368)
For something that’s “not you”, you sure bother a lot to defend it. Don’t you…
and you keep conveniently forget the for long bit. oh, and that this is an mmo.
I’ve been a raider for quite some time in wow (in fact, i got burned by it down to a crisp, as it turns out working in real life doesn’t help out with server firsts etc etc) and I can tell you flat out that people who want special skins hidden behind “hard” content want it not for the challenge or the thrill of the hunt, but for the bragging rights and the showing off rights.
If it’s not you, that’s great, I like you more already. But please, don’t try to come in here and tell us that the people who scream speshul skins and hard content in an mmo aren’t. Cause they are, they most definitely are. They want to stand in LA and get asked how did they got that skin and how, they want others to marvell at their awesomeness and that’s all there is to it.
I’ve already conceded that there are such people:
“Yes, there are absolutely people out there who want challenging content just so that they can be smug and have exclusive rewards. These people do exist. But that doesn’t mean they are the only ones who exist. There can be more then one reason for wanting something. More then one motive for a particular goal.”
I’ve never pretended those people don’t exist.
I’m highlighting that there are other, perfectly legitimate, reasons for wanting challenging or hard content. And that many people want content like that for these other reasons.
Now if you want to bring up them going back on their word you should have just brought up the existence Ascended period. But that’s a whole other can of worms that I don’t think we need to open up here. Anyway, now that they have definitively said that Ascended is the final tier and that they will never have another tier after this….well, I would really like to believe this. I will be holding them to those words.
Ascended was added 3 months after release. In the nearly 3 years since then they haven’t done anything to indicate they’d add another tier, and have re-affirmed on a few occasions specifically that they won’t.
I think we’re safe.
Unique Rewards for challenging content, provided that everyone can ACCESS the content but have to use their own skill and ingenuity to complete will not discourage folks, it gives people something to look forward to and work towards. It is a bit different than Legendary Crafting which is getting a massive overhaul thanks to Precursor crafting coming out which is perfect. And honestly it is something absolutely needed in this game.
Exactly.
Provided everyone can access the content.
This is a pretty important caveat.
And then they added legendary backpacks. They’re reliable like that (the devs). Their word is like a binding contract. Well, almost.
Legendaries are the exact same strength as ascended. They didn’t go back on their word at all.
edit: nvm, you just didn’t know about it. That’s fine.
(edited by Arewn.2368)
So challenging content is one that needs you focus to play at your best using everything you got on your skill bar…
What’s hard content then? How is it different than challenging cause I didn’t get it.
Finally it’s refreshing to see one of the hard + challening crowd to admit that’s it’s not about anything else than the rewards and the feeling of superiority you’ll get by displaying it to the plebes in LA. I applaud your honesty. If more ppl were like that, we might even get games we enjoy more.
You’re completely misrepresenting what I said.
For starters, nowhere did I say or even imply that it requires you to play at your best. Just that it engages you. That the mechanics of the game are actually being put to use in a fulfilling way and engage the player’s mind.
Nor did I “admit” that people are only after rewards. I didn’t even come close to implying such. Rewards are a single facet of this subject, a subject in which there are a multitude of motivators that intermingle to various degrees. Yes, rewards are relevant. No, they are not the be-all end-all. And, in fact, rewards sometimes don’t even come into play as a motivator.
I have, in my time gaming, taken on harder content PURELY because I thought it would be fun to do so. The only reward for my effort was the sense of personal accomplishment that came with completing it. Not to brag, not to show off, not for the loot, not for an in-game achievement, not because someone told me to do it.
I am not generally a “hard-core” gamer. I typically play games on what ever the easiest mode available is. But I do often try harder stuff, just for the fun of it. Turn up the difficulty for a particular campaign map or fight. Throw in an extra enemy in a match. Things like that, just for fun.
And that is by no means something unique to me. People across gaming do this.
You’re wrong, nobody does hard content for the joy of hard content FOR LONG. I just applauded your honesty, don’t start with the lies now. You want the rewards that come with it, you want to bask in LA’s sun with your shinies and have the ppl marvel at your greatness. Take away the rewards, and you’ll do it once in a blue moon when you’re bored.
They do.
I’m sorry you don’t understand that, but they do. Many people do. There are entire games focused around being hard, and people enjoy them for that very aspect.
Monster Hunter games are fairly hard overall, and I love them. Many people love them. But do you think people are in it “for the reward”? In the first place, what “rewards”? the loot? Absolutely not. Gear in that game is important in-so-far as it is a mechanic that allows you to progress. You farm gear not because “I want it, it looks cool, I’m going to show off!”, but because it grants you the power to take on new monsters. Then is it the in-game achievements? not likely, only a few people I’ve run into bother with them, if they even know they’re there. I certainly don’t care for them. To brag, or show off? Perhaps some do, but rarely have I run into such people. And of the several hundred thousand copies of the game that have sold, there certainly aren’t several hundred thousand people going around showing off and bragging about it.
So then why do so many people play it? because the difficulty is an enjoyable aspect of the experience.
Have you ever in your life played a game at a difficulty that is above the easiest? Even just playing a game on normal mode instead of easy?
You don’t do that for better rewards. In most cases the rewards don’t change at all. You do it because you find the increased difficulty to be more engaging and ultimately funner.
Yes, there are absolutely people out there who want challenging content just so that they can be smug and have exclusive rewards. These people do exist. But that doesn’t mean they are the only ones who exist. There can be more then one reason for wanting something. More then one motive for a particular goal.
I’ve clearly outlined how I view challenging content, and why I think it’s important. And I’ve gone into some detail on why I find hard content valuable.
No where has my reason been “so that I can be a smug chump in LA getting off to feelings of superiority over the plebs”.
Sorry, that’s not me. And I would argue that that’s not how most people who want challenging or hard content are either.
Nobody does hard content for the joy of doing something hard for long, unless you bribe them with rewards that will make them feel unique and better than their fellow man. Simple as that.
There are absolutely people who do hard content simply for the joy of doing it. Some people find the hard content itself to be fun, and the simple sense of achievement in finally completing it is the only reward they sought from it.
That you think otherwise is simply an indication that you yourself are not one such type of person, and that you aren’t involved with such people.
Nothing wrong with that of course, people enjoy different things. Just don’t for a second think there aren’t people who actually enjoy hard content.
I don’t think of myself as someone particularly “hardcore”, but I’ve certainly gone out of my way to do hard things in games for no other reason then because I thought it was fun.
(edited by Arewn.2368)
I hope raids have rewards that are not higher in stats, but unique in look that are not obtainable anywhere else in game. I think the rewards should be BoP as well to keep the prestige of the items.
I also believe that more challenging content should be more rewarding than less difficult content. If raids are more difficult than waypointing and autoattacking they should reward much more than world bosses. If they are more difficult than stacking in a corner and melting a boss in seconds they should be more rewarding.
The devs have stated that if they add raids, raid gear WILL NOT be stronger then other gear, and they don’t plan on adding higher gear tiers in the first place. Ascended will remain the top.
I very often argue in favor of challenging content in GW2.
What I want to make abundantly clear though, is that when I say challenging content I do not necessarily mean hard content.
While I do enjoy somewhat hard content as well (though I’m not particularly into super hard stuff), I expect even easy games to provide some form of challenge. That is because it’s a game. The medium itself demands it.
When I talk about content that challenges you, I mean content that requires you to pay attention to what you are doing, content that has depth of play, content that makes good use of GW2’s gameplay mechanics, content that engages the player, content that strongly encourages you to do more then just spam 1.
The problem with GW2 is that much of its content fails to do even that.
So when I say challenge, I’m not talking about some super hard stuff here. I’m talking about bringing the game up to a certain bare-minimum standard for how engaging it should be. And I think many people feel the same way when they invoke the word “challenge”, because GW2 is in just that poor of a state regarding player engagement in PvE.
I realize I’m playing with the definition a bit here, but I’m trying to express the sentiment behind the words being invoked.
Even some of the supposedly “most difficult” content isn’t actually a challenge from a gameplay perspective. For example, Great Jungle Wurm is pretty easy when all’s said and done. Victory is achieved by pre-fight organization, not by intensive and difficult combat on the player’s end. If you’re on TS3 the fight practically becomes a guided tour. And I do not mean that as any form of hyperbole.
Now such a philosophy may inevitably increase the game’s difficulty somewhat. But that’s fine, that’s a healthy increase in difficulty. One which players will naturally adapt to, grow better from, and still find enjoyable.
Remember at GW2 release, how “hard” much of the community thought the game was? But it wasn’t hard, we all just sucked at it and literally needed to learn how to play. To adapt to these new and unfamiliar mechanics for an MMO.
You should naturally be getting better at something you spend a lot of time on. And a game should never hesitate or be afraid about challenging its player. Especially for core-gaming, we’re not looking at a mobile game here.
It’s a game, not a movie, not a tv show, not a youtube video, not a book, not an amusement park ride. And as a game it thrives on directly engaging its user base, so don’t be afraid of it doing so. It’s an interactive medium.
I can appreciate wanting easy content. “An easy challenge” as it were. I want easy content too. I don’t want every moment of every game I play to be super intensive and difficult. That gets just plain frustrating (for me at least).
I want to be able to relax and leisurely play sometimes. And in the case of some content, such as story focused content, difficulty can actually be an unwelcome distraction.
But even still, even easy content must be “a challenge”. Because if it’s not, it might as well be a movie. Or I might as well watch it in a let’s play on youtube. Merely existing as a game loses it’s purpose if its not challenging you.
Now ONTOP of that, I also want some hard content. Just to be clear. My post is getting pretty long at this point, but suffice to say having a bit of hard content even in an overall easy or ‘’casual" game is important, particularly in MMOs. It greatly adds to the sense of breadth a game possesses when there’s content out there that few have overcome. It’s a huge motivating factor. And it provides a nugget of something to do, to grind and excel at, for those who are of the “hardcore” variety.
Regarding rewards, I definitely agree that quantity of rewards should reflect time spent.
But I do not agree with your view on unique rewards. Unique rewards should absolutely come from hard content. And I am talking about “hard” content here, not just “challenging” content as I distinguished it above.
Now that doesn’t mean ALL cool stuff should come from hard content. Most should be readily available elsewhere. But hard content should definitely have it’s own unique rewards. Just as PvP and WvW should each have their own unique stuff.
This is because it acts as a very powerful social motivator that gets more people more deeply involved with the game. This is especially true for MMOs, which are social beasts at their core.
I definitely understand wanting something you like to be made readily available to you. The problem with applying that philosophy too liberally is that
1) if you get everything you want, you have less motivating you to play
2) it destroys the social motivation system which is so important to MMOs. A cool and difficult to acquire skin isn’t just enjoyable for the person who owns it. It also adds to the experience of everyone who sees it in the possession of the person who owns it. It’s an important atmospheric element of any MMO, and a short-sighted “I want it, give” mentality will completely destroy that.
Non-thief player chiming in.
I actually think they should increase the revealed time, and buff other forms of thief survivability to compensate.
To be frank, stealth shouldn’t be the default state you fall back to as soon as you’re not attacking. But thieves are so squishy and lacking in other forms of survivability that it seems they don’t have much of a choice but to do exactly that.
Revealing yourself should be something you commit to in combat, and stealth should be a precious resource you occasionally go into (“occasional” in the context of GW2 combat, is perhaps something to the effect of every 15 to 20 seconds on average). Forms of perma-stealth playstyles are just too unfun to play against and as such are unsuitable for an MMO.
You have to have very well developed stealth mechanics for them to be fun for all involved parties, which is necessary for any sort of multiplayer environment. But GW2 doesn’t have that, GW2 just has straight up invisibility on a cooldown.
Haha .. so classic. Not much more to say.
Yes, ‘classic’ carrot-on-stick tactics are a primary means of getting people into content in MMOs.
If you’re invoking the word “classic” to imply anything else, you’re off-base.
Rewards are obviously a prime motivator to get people into content, but that is in no way mutually exclusive to a desire for challenging content.
Not to mention how the two have good synergy. A reward you put effort into earning is all the more satisfying, compared to something that was simply handed to you.
And aether path isn’t the most popular dungeon because
a) as mentioned, the rewards suck
b) it’s frankly not that challenging, still subject to the same brainless farmfest
c) Anet abandoned dungeons for the most part, resulting in:
c1- a lack of developed dungeon community to actually flourish around and run challenging instances
c2 – relatively crude and poorly developed dungeons due to lack of iteration and improvement. Good for a start, but 3 years down the line very lacking. Vanilla WoW boss encounters were similarly crude and poorly designed. But they kept making new dungeons and raids and progressively figured out how to best design encounters for their game.
My point with all this is that no where in my earlier post did I imply that rewards didn’t motivate people. Just that challenging content, in and of itself, is desirable and has several positive effects on the game experience.
You forgot #5: the content is challenging… for a few weeks/months before people figure out how best to farm it and they start crying for more.
“challenge” is nothing more than a stalking horse for “I want better rewards than the unwashed masses”.
No it’s not.
“Challenge” is wanting content that will engage you and take full advantage of the mechanics the game holds.
Monster Hunter is one of my favorite franchises for a good challenge. Coming upon a silver rathalos, a tigrex, a nargacuga, etc, for the first time, you’ve got a really hard fight on your hands. But by the times you’ve built a full set of armor and a weapon off them, kitten straight you’ve got them on farm and are looking for more to challenge you.
Yes, wanting a trophy to show for your accomplishment is often a facet of challenging content. But don’t for a second think people aren’t after the challenge itself. It’s not a stalking horse for special-snow-flake-syndrome, the challenge itself is what’s most important.
Challenging content is what many people find fun, because it is what best engages them, best makes use of the game’s mechanics, gives them a goal to surmount, and feels great to accomplish.
Many people are not satisfied with running through content and spamming 1 while rolling in loot. They want the game to engage them in meaningful ways, and that is the crux of “challenge”.
Since I did not notice anyone addressing stats on gear, allow me to try:
Power: Power increases all direct damage inflicted by the character.
Precision: Precision increases critical hit chance.
Toughness: Toughness decreases the amount of incoming damage suffered by the character.
Vitality: Vitality increases maximum health.
Condition Damage: Condition Damage improves the damage done by the conditions bleeding, burning, confusion, poison, and torment.
Condition Duration: Condition Duration improves the duration of all conditions inflicted by the character.
Ferocity: Ferocity improves the damage multiplier on critical strikes.
Healing Power: Healing Power improves all outgoing heals that your character does, including self heals.
Hopefully I’m not oversimplifying this, if so I’m sure someone will correct me.
Just a few oddities to mention about toughness:
Toughness increases your “Armor” stat.
Your head, shoulder, chest, hand, leg, foot, and shield gear pieces have a “Defense” value on them, which also increases your “Armor” stat.
Armor decreases damage taken by a percent based on this formula:
Damage done = (Weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)
However damage inflicted by conditions DOES NOT get reduced by armor (nor by damage reducing effects such as Protection).
In other words, condition damage ignores armor.
Raid is coming?
lets just say if there is even a smell of a raid coming to this game at all .
then be ready for what happens next because of it . or put it like this if Anet brings in way shape or form of Raids of any type . like they have in other games then be ready
for a lot of people to leave this game for good and not look back, as Anet will have
very badly messed this game up . as it will not be a good fit for this game no matter how you look at it . or try to put it just not good for this game at all.
There was an entire CDI thread (topic started by devs, in which the devs actually participate in the discussion) focused around discussing “raid-like” content in GW2, and (if they were to add it) in what unique form it should take to be conductive to GW2.
A lot of good ideas came from that thread, and there’s no real reason to think it would ruin GW2.
Incredibly briefly boiling down the thread to its basics (based on memory), it came down to "challenging content for medium sized groups, which adequately engages a group of that size (aka no zerging), in an instanced environment with no “gear treadmill” (aka no more powerful gear)".
The problem with event mobs dropping loot is that it moves the focus away from the actual objective of the event, and it encourages everyone to play builds focused around tagging mobs.
Just a suggestion, but keybinding is fairly important to playing effectively.
Might I suggest trying the following:
W A S D for movement
E R F C Q for your 5 weapon skills
Shift + E R F C Q for your healing, 3 utility, and elite skills
1 2 3 4 for your profession skills (shatters in the case of mesmer)
I find those keys are pretty comfortable to use, and shouldn’t be hard to hit even with small hands.
It’ll feel awkward at first, but you get used to it fairly quickly, and in the long run you might find it easier to play that way.
Pay attention and actually make an effort, and you won’t have a problem.
It’s difficult by comparison with the “spam 1 to beat everything” type of content, but it shouldn’t be a problem to anyone willing to actually play the game.
There’s a difference between being an “uncoordinated casual player” and someone who refuses to make an effort whatsoever and expects an on-rails experience that plays for them.
There’s a difference between “elite, super hard content” and tuning the content difficulty up a bit in order to make it a compelling experience.
The game was never marketed towards people who are bad an unwilling to even try to improve themselves. Nor does “casual” imply being unskilled in the first place.
You aren’t being left behind or neglected just because the game requires you to actually pay attention to what you’re doing while playing it now.
It was the same thing at the initial launch of GW2. So many complaints across the forums of people finding it too hard. The reality was that it wasn’t hard, people just sucked and didn’t know what they were doing. But after a month or so, people got used to the game, figured out what they were doing, and it stopped being a problem. They didn’t nerf content, the player base just stepped up to the plate and learned how to play.
And now we sit in the opposite position, where the game is actually viewed as being very easy and severely lacking in challenging content. This isn’t the result of nerfs, or easier content being introduced. It’s the result of people learning how to play.
This isn’t hard content. It just requires you to pay attention and actually learn the game you’re playing. The bare-minimum one should expect from a game.
So you don’t have to worry, you won’t be locked out of content, nor should it be to difficult for you.
Yea, the given numbers are probably over tuned. It’s more of an example then an actual expectation for how they would be balanced.
It may actually be better to forgo the cds and simply have each banner usable (“clickable”) once in it’s lifespan.
With regards to having more banner traits, I actually don’t think we should have more. We have a lot of weapons, and the corresponding weapons traits (plus other utility-skill traits) are already clogging up a lot of our trait options. It’s nice to have some utility skills that you can simply take “as is”. Inspiring Battle Standard seems good enough as our banner trait.
Specifically regarding a 20% cd trait, I don’t feel there’s that great a need for banners to have 100% uptime, it makes them more one-dimensional, as they simply become a buff you always have out.
Quiet simply, these players aren’t disappearing, they’re ultimately migrating to new MMOs.
The MMO market doesn’t exist in a vacuum, there are many factors going on.
On the people side: people come of age and start playing games/MMOs. And people get older and stop playing because of later life priorities (or death). As a general trend, the “gaming population” seems to be on the rise from what I recall (though don’t quote me on this).
On the game side, there’s a similar story. New MMOs appear on the market all the time, and when they do, some fraction of the “total MMO playerbase” (so to speak) tries these new MMOs. Inevitably, some fraction of those players stick with the new MMO they tried. Slowly, over time, players migrate away from older and less popular titles, and move towards newer or more popular titles. Eventually, these older games lose their playerbase and cease to be.
Yes, it may also be the case that the total MMO playerbase is shrinking (though I don’t know this to be the case), but inevitably some of the players are simply moving to new games. The player population for new games that come out have to come from somewhere after all. And in most cases, that “somewhere” is other games.
I’ve been looking at my banners recently, and started thinking “man, what’s the point of having 4 of these, it’s a waste of potential utility skills. I could just have one and pick it up to change which buff it provides”.
Which got me thinking: banners are really boring, not hugely useful, and clunky to handle.
So how could they be changed?
Well for starters get rid of the ability to pick banners up. It’s in the way.
I know, it’s neat, but when do you really want to have to do this? The skills on the banners generally suck, our banner trait actually discourages us from using multiple banners, and most importantly it’s clunky to handle them.
The entire need to pick them up is created by their long cooldown/duration in the first place. Change that, and we open the playing field to new ideas.
The idea
So what can we do with a banner we can’t pick up? Interact with it.
Instead of picking it up on interact, interacting with the banner actives a banner specific effect.
These are relatively powerful effects meant to be used tactically 1 or 2, maybe 3, times in the banner’s duration. We don’t want to make these into something you have to camp next to to refresh a buff every 10 seconds. Instead, they should be something you (or an ally) can run up to it at key moments to cause a unique effect that impacts the battle field.
New banners: 80 second cooldown. 60 second duration. The up-time remains the same, but you now place them more often, relinquishing the need to re-position them by picking them up. They still provide their passive effects.
*Remember that these effects are ultimately gated behind the banner’s 80 second cooldown.
Banner of Strength: Activate to cause a tremor that pulses outwards from the banner, damaging and knocking back enemies.
Think something similar to Tequatl’s shockwave (except you can’t jump over it).
30 second cooldown. Usable 2 times in the banner’s duration.
Banner of Defense: Activate to create a defensive perimeter around the banner for 5 seconds. Allies within the perimeter block all attacks.
I was originally thinking something along the lines of Guardian’s Sanctuary, but wanted something unique, and with more of a warrior flare. Interesting potential synergy with different profession’s blocking traits. Also doesn’t have the same area denial effect of Sanctuary.
60 second cooldown. Usable once in the banner’s duration.
Banner of Discipline: Activate to create a zone around the banner for 5 seconds. Allies within the zone will always critically hit.
Not sure about this one. Crit banner with an activate that provide more crit isn’t that interesting. And having to stay within the zone could really hamper your ability to do anything with those crits. That said, would be a good damage steroid, and has some potential for interesting play.
25 second cooldown. Usable 3 times in the banner’s duration
Banner of Tactics: Activate to create a zone around the banner which increase the duration of boons by 1 second. Pulses once every second for 4 seconds.
In essence, the banner lets you maintain important boons for a tiny bit longer, provided you stay near it while the effect is active.
20 second cooldown. Usable 3 times in the banner’s duration.
These are of course just my suggestions for what the banners could do, examples of interesting mechanics they could potential bring to the battle field upon activation, and numbers I think would be roughly appropriate in terms of balance (mostly there to provide example numbers though, probably overturned if anything).
I few things to keep in mind:
Though these effects can be activated 2 or 3 times in the banner’s 60 second duration, there’s ultimately an 80 second total cooldown on the banner, creating a 20second downtime where the banner isn’t up or usable (there aren’t any banner cd or duration traits anymore).
Also think about how these are used. They do carry with them the benefit that an ally can activate the effect, however they are essentially hugely telegraphed attacks. You have to go up to the banner to activate it, something an enemy can clearly see you doing and potentially use area denial to keep you away.
Most importantly here is the idea that they cause interesting effects around the banner, rather then just adding more passive bonuses. The banners already passively benefit your stats, so an idea like “gives 10 seconds of fury” would be fairly boring in my opinion. It’s also important that the effects are localized within a small area around the banner, and not something the banner gives you upon being activated that you can run off with (once again, such as a boon).
It should be something that changes the section of the battlefield occupied by the banner. It should also generally keep to the banner’s theme of benefiting allies.
What do you think? comments, criticisms, suggestions, ideas?
(edited by Arewn.2368)
I’m sick of guardian getting shafted by arenanet I’m quitting guild wars 2 that’s for kittening over guardian arena net with a kitten specialization and kitten skills.
Guardians have had strong builds in every game mode since release.
Don’t be so dramatic. It’s beta for a reason, they’re still tuning DH just like all the other beta content.
Don’t have much else to add, I very much agree with this.
The mobs are decently challenging and require players to actually pay attention to what they are doing and learn what the enemy does.
This is excellent and GW2 should continue designing in this way.
I’m not actually in beta, I’m personally referring to teragriffs and the like, and agreeing with his assessment of HoT mobs.
1. Stats are already very simply and not that numerous in GW2.
They each do a single specific thing, there’s no overlap, good synergy between stats, and each stats can be useful to every profession.
This in contrast to many other games that often have setups that include Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, each effectively doing the same thing but for use exclusively by specific different classes with slightly different secondary effects.
2. For max level gear, there only exists 26 different stat combinations.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Item_nomenclature
You’re proposition actually makes the system more complex and increases the number to 60, by your counts. You’re confused because you’re not taking the time to understand. If you don’t want to learn the names, that’s fine. Just look for the thing with the stats you want and you won’t have a problem.
3. Outside of PvE, stat choice matters incredibly. If it doesn’t to you, it’s because you’re doing it wrong. Each stat is important to different builds. Yes, that means some are more important or popular then others, but there’s literally nothing that can be done about it.
In PvE, you’re partially right. In dungeons, berserker is the meta for groups that know what they’re doing, and is in generally very popular and effective. New players? defensive stats can be of benefit, someone who can heal well being in the group can help too. World bosses? solider gear. Great Jungle Worms? going to need some people in condi setups. General open world stuff? that’s really up to you, pick the stats that allow you to play with the most freedom for your play style.
Additionally, they’re progressively adjusting new content to encourage the use of stats sets other then berserker, so they’re already in the midst of fixing your problem.
While I enjoyed the collision in GW, it was a different game. Between potential trolling and many melee players wanting to melee meta bosses, collision seems like a bad fit for this game.
Imagine if players actually split up between Teqs 4 legs, instead of all stacking in one spot?
Idk, sounds like a good thing to me. Less lag at the very least.
Character collision is normally handled on the client side. When one is detected a separation movement vector is generated and send to the server as if the player generated with the movement keys. So that’s not a problem.
The problem is comes with passages and doorways. City of Heroes had player/npc/critter collision and you could jam up doorways and it was a real problem at times. Pathfinding crowds is one of those game problems that haven’t quite been solved in a generic enough way to be copied and used across game development. It’s a big issue with RTS gaming and while it’s loads better than say the first Warcraft, it would need to transfers agency from players to the server for movement resolution which simply isn’t viable for an RPG/FPS/MMO because we don’t want to give up control of movement.
It causes more problems than it solves. Imagine the outcry if a party wipe happens because a choke point gets, well choked, because players and pets get jammed up allowing mobs of critters to take advantage?
Archeage has player collision, but you are able to subtly push unmoving players out of the way.
Not once did I run into the issue of being blocked by another player in any significant capacity, nor did I see any such complaints on forums and the like.
There were collision related complaints about people blocking paths, but these were all related to vehicles (which GW2 doesn’t have), and honestly weren’t that big of a problem in the end. In some ways, even that trolling enhanced the experience. A blocked bridge on a trade route was annoying, but also more interesting. You had to find ways to circumvent it, or have your friends/guild help get your packs across.
You described a situation with a wipe caused by player collision, but that is precisely the kind of scenario that makes player collision an interesting addition. If your group is incompetent and fumbling into each other, you’re going to wipe or do poorly. It’s an additional dynamic to combat.
When I play monster hunter, I have to be careful not to smack my fellow hunters around, and have to carefully position myself to hit the right spot on a monster. If I’m trying to cut a tail and we’re about to trap the monster, I can’t just run through it to get to the tail. And if I get stuck on the wing while I’m on my way to the tail, I have to change priorities and hit something else, otherwise the opportunity will be wasted.
Properly implemented collision is a wonderful, game enhancing mechanic.
Unfortunately that boat has long since sailed for GW2. It’s not something you can throw in after the fact.
well… just imagine what trolls would do with this “gift”… thats all i gonna say about that
Likely nothing.
If implemented properly, it’s a non-issue.
I would personally love player and mob collision. I find it really adds to the experience. Archeage pulled it off nicely. The only reason it could ever be used to troll in that game was because of the carts, which gw2 doesn’t have.
Looks great, really nicely put together.
Not sure why a vampire is wearing wax bird wings though.
Why does it mean this last time I checked anet said nothing about not revealing anything next week just wait till next week actually begins before saying this.
The 11th will be the soonest Tuesday (their typical info-dump day) after the beta. The beta will feature all of the currently announced elite specs. It would be fairly odd timing for them to announce and hype up a new elite spec, and then immediately have a beta featuring the other ones, but not it.
I didn’t say it was impossible, I just find it unlikely and odd, thus the reason I opened my phrase with “I guess”.
I guess this means no new elite spec announcement till the 11th at the earliest.
Its perfect, check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdaIN1HIg48
It’s appearance is perfect! I really like it.
Fortunately reducing it’s currently too big size will not detract from that. You can still appreciate it roaming around the world, view it in your hero panel, or zoom in to get a good look at it.
these are supposed to be miniatures, and that something that large and long is getting obstructive.
They are miniatures though, miniatures of far larger creatures.
Right, and they all meet a “miniature” scale. They are not to scale of the creatures they are based off of. Tequatl and the Great Jungle Worms being notable examples of this. There are sometimes slight off-sets of size between minis to represent the scale difference. But they all still meet that “miniature” scale.
All but the Mystic Dragon, which seems to meet the ranger pet scale.
If it was a ranger pet, necro minion, summon from a rune set, or something to that affect, it would be fine at it’s current size. It’s okay for these things to be bigger because they are gameplay relevant.
How will fractal scale 100 work then?
Will it be the case that scales 89 to 100 will be the same effective difficult, but each featuring a different location?
Or will scale 100 be the most difficult, but you’re stuck repeating the same location every time you do it?
Or will you make scale 100 a special case, perhaps make it random?
Yeah, I am occupying the same “space” as them. And I want them to see my mini, not for it to become some obscure footnote that nobody sees because its too small.
It doesn’t have to be twice the length of a human for others to see it. Minis at the current average size are plainly visible as they are. “I want them to see it” isn’t an argument for keeping its current size, because they can see it. They can see it so much that it’s a problem. Reduce it to a size where they can see it but it isn’t a problem. I’m not asking for it to be shrunk into oblivion, just to a size that vaguely approaches normal mini size.
Was really hoping to see full Hellfire armor with destroyer weapons… instead, more ugly wings.
Good vid though, going to try out the build.
It’s perfect as it is. You don’t have to use it. :P
An option to disable other players minis would do, just like other games have them, for those who don’t like it.There’s far more annying stuff like max height Charr / Norn with huge Wings or almost everyone using a legendary greatsword, while the slashing animation REALLY sucks in combat.
I actually like it a lot and do plan to use it when the initial hype dies down a bit (too many people currently using it).
“Turn off all minis because one is over-sized and ruins it” is not an appropriate solution.
They’re minis, miniatures, mini-pets, non-combat pets. This mystic dragon is over-sized not only by GW2 standards, but by the standards of most MMOs I’ve played. WoW, Tera, FF14, mags in PSO2, this thing is big no matter how you look at it.
GW2’s minis are perhaps on the small size compared to other games, and could maybe use a size increase in general if you want to get picky about it. But this Mystic Dragon is just huge.
Like I said in the OP, I can appreciate that some people preferentially like this larger size. I’m not going to say you’re not allowed to like it. However I am going to say that this is an MMO, and that you occupy the same game space as other players. Imagine if every mini in the game was of comparable scale to the Mystic Dragon, roughly the size of a human. The fact that some people like it being large and in-your-face isn’t much of an argument for keeping the current size.
EBGames was the official retailer for Canada, but they were dropped from the list at the last minute. I’m guessing they wouldn’t agree on a price due to the exchange rate.
If you’re going to purchase it over the internet anyways, why not just buy direct from buy.guildwars2.com? You should be able to use amazon.com for digital purchases (you just have to use a fake address).
Hopefully that is the case with EBGames, and that they’ll continue negotiating.
Would be nice to see a 50$ price tag instead of some increased value because of exchange.
As the title states, the mystic dragon “mini” is far too large.
While I can appreciate that some people preferentially like this, please consider that these are supposed to be miniatures, and that something that large and long is getting obstructive.
It seriously occupies more screen space then several ranger combat pets. That’s partly a result of its profile and animations rather then sheer physical size, but the size itself is fairly large too.
Even scaling it down to half of its current size would still leave it as one of the larger and more showy minis.
It’s a great looking mini, I love it, but the size is just too much.
Some fun facts: historically it would seem berserkers didn’t really exist. And the word “berserker” was apparently used to refer to a man in a lord’s retinue who would represent the lord in duels. Still in the context of the Norse here.
You can see the word translated as “champion” and “bear/bare shirt” (bear skins were historically worn by vikings).
Proposed changes to guardian shield
Shield Skill #5 – Shield of Absorption
This skill will now additionally block, acting similarly to Dragon Hunter’s Shield of Courage Virtue or the block component of mace’s Protector’s Strike, blocking for yourself and allies in the dome. Functionally, the dome would absorb projectiles as it always has, and the blocking component would function for yourself/allies when hit within the circle. The heal component of the skill will be removed.
New name: Shield of Protection
Tooltip: Create a dome around you that pushes foes back, absorbs projectiles, and blocks attacks for you and allies.
Reasoning: A shield’s most basic and important function is to block. To not have it do so, especially on the class themed as a stalwart defender, is a crime. Balance wise this shouldn’t be over powered, since the block is technically redundant. The dome already protected from projectiles, and the knock back served to protect from melee (by knocking them away). That said, its uses were still fairly niche, and the additional block helps round that out. Block AoE at a distance, block mobs with defiance, block coverage against stability, etc. Heal removed for presumed balance needs (don’t want to see that cooldown go up).
Shield Skill #4 – Shield of Judgement
This skill will now additionally heal allies hit by the wave.
Tooltip: Create a shielding wave in front of you that damages foes while healing and granting protection to allies.
Reasoning: The skill is overall redundant, weak, and kind of all over the place. The damage isn’t appreciated and the protection is underwhelming, if not on it’s own then by virtue of the fact that traited focus outshines it. I felt the shield’s kit shouldn’t lose anything through these changes though, so moving skill #5’s heal here seemed appropriate and functionally compatible (you’re aiming for your allies anyways).
Valor major trait – Stalwart Defender
Remove the toughness from this trait. Instead, the guardian and allies affected by shield skills gain a unique buff that increases toughness for a time.
Tooltip: Shield skills grant a stack of Stalwart Defense for 10 seconds, which increases toughness by 150 per stack. Shield abilities have 20% reduced recharge.
Reasoning: This trait felt a bit weak overall, both in competing with the alternative traits, and by comparison with Focus Mastery. It was also a bit redundant, given that shields already provide increased toughness.
Most importantly though, it was boring. In the form of this buff, the effect can be stacked for a burst of defense, and utilized even after a weapon swap. The up time should be able to hit roughly 100% if you time your stacks, keeping it competitive with Strength In Numbers, though as a drawback you will need to actually hit your allies with shield skills for them to gain the effect. Overall it should offer shield users an interesting alternative to the trait.
HoT Price Feedback + Base game included [merged]
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Arewn.2368
Haven’t bought it, so I didn’t notice yet, but that is actually pretty bad. Not looking forward to the idea that I’m going to be paying more for HoT then I did for GW2 because I get the short end of the stick with currency exchange.
Might as well have gauntlets/fist weapons at that point.
While I can see shield-like implements being purposed for use as dual-wielded weapons, using traditional shields (like 99% of those found in GW2) for that would just be nonsensical
I don’t think it will happen, because offhand weapons give you less stats than mainhand weapons, therefore to give warrior mainhand shield they had to buff it to bring it in line with the mainhands.
They give the exact the SAME attribute bonuses. The only aspect that to consider is the lower weapon strength…. but that can easily be compensated for through higher damage coefficients on skills. It would be a benefit power scaling, since payout for extra power would be higher.
As for dual shields; I’ve been wanting to see this for a long time.
It could be balanced one way or another regardless, but just for the sake of accuracy I’ll point out that shield give points in the defense stat.
Now that you’ve mentioned it, I do think that the stance is a more important issue then the staff skins.
At least with the skins you’ll find some that are suitable, but if they don’t fix the stance it’s going to look awkward no matter which staff you’re wielding.
Also, a vault skill like that would be absolutely amazing.
I personally love the idea of a melee staff, but you make good point, Arewn, in that most of the staff skins are very… I dunno, top heavy? As in they have a lot going on at one end. That said, the second two pics on my first post would probably work better for most of the staff skins.
The idea I’m basically suggesting is this: since these professions are going to use staves as a physical combat weapon, then wouldn’t it be more appropriate to wield it as such?
Also, I’m willing to bet that we’re going to see a lot more staff skins that’ll look more like a traditional bo staff.
Yea, I’m also excited at the prospect of melee staff, and I definitely agree that they should get proper animations/stance.
It’s just the state of the in-game staves that bug me. They’re clearly for magical purposes, too ornate and often oddly shaped top heavy.
You’ll notice in all the picture you linked that they are wielding a bo staff, or some sort of specialized melee combat polearm.
That’s because a staff in the sense of a polearm is in effect an entirely different weapon than an ornate magic staff, and using a magic staff for melee combat is entirely stupid.
There shouldn’t be a melee combat staff stance for the same reason GW2 shouldn’t feature its clearly magic oriented staves as melee combat weapons: because it’s ridiculous.
The direction they took with the revenant weapons is all around bad, with regards to hammer and staff. They made them that way for the sake of uniqueness and nothing else. The hammer is wielded like a staff, and the staff is wielded like a hammer, it’s just silly.
Don’t make something unique for the sake of being unique. Make it unique because the idea is a good one in the first place.
My rant aside, since they are doing melee staves, they should at least do it somewhat right. Classes such as revenant that will be wielding a staff as a melee weapon should absolutely have a different stance. My preference would be for a stance like the ones in the second two pictures you linked.
A sub won’t speed it up
A sub won’t make for better content
A sub won’t make for more content
A sub won’t make for free expansions
A sub won’t even make for cheaper expansions
A sub wouldn’t give you any of those gem store items, it would just be $15 a month on top of everything elseIt’s a profit model, not a charity. And while you can say well we have X million users so its an automatic X million times $15 a month how much awesome could they do with that?
But that doesn’t account for how many people would walk away
Or that much of that would end up in the pockets of investors/stakeholders, not the dev cycle.That said I agree that “there’s no sub” is not a valid argument against someone’s opinion that HoT is priced too high. It’s a matter of value for dollar, and that’s highly subjective.
Precisely this. And if you want proof, you can look at pretty much any other sub fee game on the market.
Sub fees aren’t magic, having one doesn’t poof quality content into the game.
I played WoW for several years, I’ve been playing FF14 for the past 2 or 3 months, and I’ve dabbled in Tera, Rift, Wildstar, etc over the years.
Nothing about a sub fee makes the game superior, it’s just a different form of revenue intake for the company, and a different payment plan for the player.
Now that they nerf shout heal amount, basically destroy my dream of going either 60066 or 06066.
You really can’t be too optimistics with this dev team.
You can get regen on banners with shout heals now though, which is pretty nice. If your build had any healing power, this just made that healing power a lot more effective per point since it’s now being used by more sources of healing.
While thoughtful of you, Anet isn’t a baby that needs to be coddled. Criticism is very important for development, you shouldn’t try to stifle it.
Also, many people know a decent measure about balancing games, you shouldn’t baselessly assume they/we don’t.