Guild Wars 2

The idea of giving people free server transfers so they can leave dead servers is a flawed concept that would only make a bad situation (low population server) worse (lower population server).

The issue of WvW population balance (and imbalance) is something they will eventually have to address, but the solution will more likely be centered around either spreading populations out, combining lower populations together or (and this is my hope), a more creative solution that is both time proof and works to provide every player the same opportunity to experience different aspects of WvW (and there have been very creative solutions discussed in other threads that do exactly that).

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

I’m actually hoping for another article/deep dive concerning HoT today. The previous wednesdays in the past weeks all had one.

Not really expecting anything today – for two reasons. The first is they want to let media attending the event in on the fun of showing us new stuff – and second is they are probably really busy with their guests today.

Belzebu.3912:

It sounds really nice.
They pretty much got the existent mechanic and just added visual indications to it but used it in a clever way.

The way I read it, there are some subtle differences between what we have now – beyond the simple addition of a bar.

The biggest is the idea of defiance (or break bar) regenerating over time. This should mean we cant just spam interrupts and then “save” the last one for the big attack the way we can now. Instead, people will need to save most of their interrupts and spike them when it is direly needed.

The other is the idea of the bar changing or behaving differently during massive attacks, such as the flight mechanic they mention in the article.

For me, these are very welcome changes that I can see making for both better future fights, as well as improving existing fights (for example, a more logical interrupt mechanic for the risen priest of Melandru’s animal transformation attack).

Dazes and stuns will still be more effective at controlling a targets movement than taunts as they’ve been described.

Im much more interested in any planned changes to the defiance system and the impact it has on control-centric builds/playstyles.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

…and this is why we showed all the things. Awesome job getting all the info dulfy.

Amazing job.

I am still curious about the underwater skills however.

Alberel Leonhart.9640:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Conncept.7638:

There is one thing still very confusing to me about this blog post.

It sounds like the Revenant may get less customization than other classes. As per usual your first five skills are determined by your weapon, but unlike other classes they said your second five skills are determined by your legend. Are they determined only by your legend? As in, you pick a legend and get the five skills that come with it? Or will there be a selectable loadout of skills within each legend? And if so how many per legend?

This is what concerns me too. I’m fine by having only weapon skills being restricted to a predetermined set, but your weapon skills AND your heal/utility/elite skill? Seems like there is very little build variety that way.

It looks to me like it functions exactly the same as how Elementalist attunements affect some of their utilities. In other words the Revenant has x number of skills to slot and each skill has one of x number of different effects based on which stance you’re in. Essentially each utility, heal and elite will have a core effect and purpose and the stance will give it a twist to suit that legend.

Take that skill that turns the Revenant into an avatar of Malyx for example (obvious Dervish reference there). I’m expecting that skill to have a similar effect in every stance, turning you into an avatar of that legend and granting you some maintained buff specific to whichever stance you’re in when you use it.

To me this would be the most logical way to implement it. Build variety would be the same as every other profession in the game but Revenants will have twice as many considerations to make since every slotted heal, utility and elite actually counts for two skills.

I think this is the most likely scenario. We will choose one utility for each slot (out of the standard number of utilities) – and what that utility does will change based on which legend we are channeling at the time.

For me, the biggest questions about the Revenant are – a. how many legends will we have to choose from, b. what are they, and c. how will the Revenant’s specialization differ from the core profession.

Unfortunately, when you are on a map like that, it is often best to just accept that those kind of players will never play with the good of their team in mind and that constructive communication is impossible.

Once you have determined that, it’s, unfortunately, best to just turn map and say chat off for the duration of the match. While it seems counterproductive to teamwork, with people like this, no communication is actually the better path to take.

Harper.4173:

The content hasn’t gotten easier. People have gotten better.

This.

And I will take a step further – the community itself has gotten better. Tequatl taught us how to come together in very large groups and start organizing at a cursory level. Triple Threat took it to a new level and showed us that difficult content is indeed possible in open world.

I see alot of people talking about how challenging content isnt possible in the open world and I couldnt disagree more. It’s a different kind of difficulty though – its about coming together as a larger community and being open minded enough to work together at deeper and deeper levels.

Were seeing the results in DryTop and definitely in Silverwastes – and I hope Anet throws some really serious open world challenges at us in HOT.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

I don’t want to kill the brainstorming….. but, there are no new weapon types being added in Heart of Thorns. Though, specializations will allow professions to use existing weapon types which they currently cannot use.

It is good you came into the post, and something the team at Anet may want to consider doing more often on the forums. Reining in expectations about the areas you aren’t focusing on will keep the excitement level higher for those areas you are focusing on with HOT – and will give players the feeling that you are listening to them.

I think raids would fit well in GW2 if they included the following:

1. They have to scale. It doesn’t have to be extreme – something along the lines of 8-15 people would be perfect.

2. Ideally, they would be short – maybe as short as a single fight (possibly unlocked/tied in to the outpost system).

3. The reward system should compliment the rest of the game. It shouldn’t be any more or less rewarding than any other content. That isnt to say that there cant be unique titles or rewards, but no more so than found through other game modes.

4. Raiding cannot be seen as the pinnacle of end game content. It should be limited in scale and cohesively fit with the rest of the game (ie, my idea about unlocking/timegating through the outpost system).

I think most people (myself at the top of the list) are most worried about raiding taking over PVE endgame the way it has in games like WoW or Wildstar. We aren’t against raiding – we just want to make sure it is done with the GW2 mindset/attitude of inclusion and community building.

The best advice I can give is to not let people like that get to you – and realize that us “bad” players are the ones that probably get the most enjoyment from the game.

Play the game for the fun of the game – and seek out other people that play it for the same reason – and you will have a lot of fun in GW2.

spoj.9672:

Windsagio.1340:

Fractals and dungeons both are substantially less exclusive than instanced raids, and that’s the basis of the problem.

Heres the big problem. You are coming into this thread with a predefined idea of what raids in GW2 should be. Who said anything about instanced raids being more exclusive than fractals?

This discussion was done to death in the Raid CDI. The devs explicitly told people to stop talking about predefined ideas of raids from other games and basing complaints off of them. And told people to come up with ideas on how raids could work in GW2.

And to be honest it would be good of you to do the same rather than just argueing against content because your current ideas of it arent what you desire. It would be much more constructive to give feedback on how instanced content could be implemented in a way which you can support. Rather than just flat out saying no because of your experiences in other completely different games.

As someone who organized and led 10 and 25 man progression level raids for more than 5 years, I easily saw that the biggest barrier to entry revolved around simple logistics. There is no worse feeling than putting together a 25 player raid when 26 people – all of whom you consider your friend/guildmate show up. It creates an untenable situation in which you have to make a very hard decision that can hurt a real friendship.

Given that your primary stated desire is to play in a controlled environment, the obvious compromise would be scalable instanced raids. That is something I could easily get behind – raids (or at least short raid group sized instances) involving group sizes between 8 and 15 people sounds perfect to me.

That is the only real way I see to address the exclusivity issue.

My guess is that, since there will be tiers associated with the different masteries, the first thing we will need to do is unlock each one to provide base functionality (glide, shroom out, talk to the natives, peel the mordrem, etc). That should allow us to experience the basic gameplay options and choose the paths that best fit our playstyles and that lead to the places we want to go first.

Eventually, we will max them all out, which will be the equivalent of hitting level 80 in the core GW2 game – meaning we have access to everything (just as hitting level 80 lets us go anywhere and attempt anything in the core world).

So, think of attempting a boss without the proper combat mastery as the equivalent of attempting a lvl 80 mob while your character is still at lvl 30 – only now that same concept applies to advancing vertically through the map, exploring lore with the natives, etc.

The big differences are we should have a lot more flexibility in how we choose to master tracks (ie, level up) in Heart of Thorns – and it will be easier for Anet to add new masteries/tracks/progression to the game through the living story (as they add new maps/bosses/etc).

Of course this is all pure speculation on my part.

I would like to see the Ancient Karka event return now that lag seems to be less of an issue with full servers – maybe by transforming Southsun into a map similar to Silverwastes or Drytop based around defeating it.

Same for the Breachmaker fight in some form.

spoj.9672:

Yeah except GW2 is the only game with such a superior combat system in an MMO. Not to mention it has great cosmetics and deep lore. Instanced content was a thing at release. I dont see why everyone suddenly thinks its not part of the game anymore. I really dont have any alernatives games i want to play. Believe me ive tried. HoT looks like it might bring in some new fractal stuff so thats atleast something.

You are 100% right about this. The fight system, lore and cosmetics would make for some very interesting instanced encounters.

Where it falls down for me is how unfriendly raiding made other games.

At the same time, I think there is a middle ground/compromise that could offer more for every type of player without bringing in the elitism and general hate that comes with the rigid raid model.

I would like to see them do away with any future dungeons or raids entirely and replace them with a different type of content based around the outpost/adventure/masteries concept. In this model, as players advance the map (through the objectives associated with outposts), they unlock more and more “adventures” that come in a wide array of formats.

Some would be open world, but just as many would be instanced, including 1 person, 5 person and 8-12 person encounters. Rather than long rambling treks, they might involve a single encounter or fight. Likewise, they would only be open for a limited time in each map cycle (and would fit in storywise with everything else going on).

So groups wanting to do some larger group instanced fights still could, but would also need to support map objectives first – encouraging teamwork on a much larger scale. Since they would be shorter and repeatable, groups looking to involve more friends could easily do so without shutting off a large percentage of the guild for hours or nights at a time. And, since they would be part of a larger initiative, it would be easier for individuals or smaller groups to find pugs or others working toward those goals.

Again, Im not for traditional raids like we see in other games, but I think there is a place for a raid like system (specifically like the above) in GW2.

And a quick note regarding the past few posts – those kinds of posts are exactly what got the raiding CDI shut down. Resorting to name calling and demeaning comments isnt conducive to a real conversation – its just petty, entitled and childish.

You dont have to map hop. Just grab a smallish group of players and take the four fortresses. Once you have 3 or more (or even 2), start using the LFG tool to fill the map you are on. A simple LFG reading “Silverwastes. Please taxi and leave party.” will fill a map very fast with people just looking to have fun and do the events on the map.

If you end up staying on the same map, just rinse and repeat when the next cycle starts (and you get to keep your cool zone specific magic find boost.

I find this alot more fun and rewarding than jumping to 70% full maps.

The one thing I wish Anet would do is improve the LFG tool for map wide events like this one.

spoj.9672:

Also noone is forcing you to raid if they do get implemented. “No because i came to GW2 to escape raids” is such a cop out excuse and really selfish.

The reasons people are giving in most of these posts are much deeper than that – and explained in detail in their posts. More importantly, they are no more (or less) selfish than arguments from the other side of the debate. It is all simply opinion and discussion.

Additionally, many would be open to raids as long as there are key differences when compared to what many consider the traditional raid model.

Avster.1935:

Mala.3861:

No, a thousand times, no.

Many of us came to GW2 to escape that very thing.

Why are you so haunted by raids? It’s not going to be a conventional raid.

Before you reply, please read the previous posts that I’ve made on this thread. I’m naturally curious.

EDIT: This goes to others as well. Don’t just say “No.” give an explanation, but before you do read the posts that have been made on this thread.

I think a lot of us naysayers would be open to raids in GW2 if they made sure to avoid all of the things that make them such cesspools of hate in other games. To me, that means

• They would have to be flexible. Set numbers create situations where friends have to make untenable decisions about who gets to raid with the guild and who doesnt. Im not saying let 50 people into a raid, but don’t set hard numbers either. Scaling from 8 to 15 makes the most sense to me.

• They CANNOT be more rewarding than any other content in the game. Ive explained this above, but once again, greater reward turns it into something people will feel they “have to do.” There is no way around that – and GW2 doesnt really work that way anyway.

• They cannot be the dev team’s primary focus. They have developed a fun game that the majority of us (i know Im making an assumption) really love. They need to focus efforts on ensuring the core elements of the game (open world, WvW, PvP, 5-player dungeons and fractals) are as entertaining as possible.

I realize you will most likely disagree with all or most of these points (which is fine – its a discussion), but these are the points you asked for – why we (or at least I) are against raids. If, however, they take a different approach from other games (ie, the three points I list above), I think you would find alot more people supporting the idea.

I am one of those colorblind players.

Most things in the game cause little to no issue. The only significant one is the red circles vs green terrain or light red circles issue. An option to change those colors would be tremendously valuable.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

Yeah, i wish i could have been excited for this, as i enjoyed dragon ball ages ago.

Now, not so much. Sorry Anet.

The few matches Ive done today have been much more fun than the last time it was around, thanks to the lack of the exploit farmers in the matches .

Avster.1935:

Blaeys.3102:

…Now, if they can pull off raids in such a way that the numbers are flexible, the rewards are no better than any other content in the game and they are still extremely challenging, then Im all for them…

But then no one would do them…We already know our player base is more prone to doing easy things for high rewards. Let this, for a change, be a hard thing for higher reward…

If the content isnt fun/enticing enough to stand on its own sans higher rewards, then adding higher rewards would just create a “have to do that” atmosphere – yet another element of raids that lends to the hate and toxicity I referenced.

The bigger issue is the group size flexibility, imo (must have for larger groups), but creating better rewards for something only a small percentage of the population wants to do is just as toxic – leading to the have/have not mentality that drove many of us (even previous hard core raiders like me) away from other games.

Im not against them adding more challenging content, but not in ways that lead to divides between players and greater drama.

I would only support the idea of raids in GW2 if the numbers were flexible (scaling). Otherwise, as great as the content could be, it would just be a source of drama and hate – and I would be adamantly against it.

After raiding for years in other games, I came to GW2 specifically to get away from the atmosphere that kind of rigid set number content creates.

Now, if they can pull off raids in such a way that the numbers are flexible, the rewards are no better than any other content in the game and they are still extremely challenging, then Im all for them.

Otherwise, it is something that would inevitably toxify what is now an amazing game and community and I don’t want it (no matter how much I want more challenging group content).

No.

I really do not want 10 man raids in GW2.

I love the current direction of the game. They are getting much better at making the open world zones more engaging and interesting.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Blaeys.3102:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks. Otherwise, they might as well just call it player housing.

To be quite blunt, it’s bullkitten. A guild of 2 is no less a guild than one that has 100.

I dont think you actually read what was posted, but chose to pull out just a small part. The post and the issues regards guilds of one person.

Even the definitions you cite use the plural “persons,” indicating more than a single member.

Once again, I agree that this is a feature that should be available to both small and big guilds, but at what point does a guild hall lose all meaning and just turn into player housing – which would do more to segment the community than it would to offer any sense of community (which is what guilds should be – communities).

This is why my suggestion above does not include using merits to unlock a guild hall. Let’s come up with a suggestions that allows for guilds of all sizes, but that still require some TINY bit of effort and cooperation between players in a guild to get started.

Guild hall… player housing..nomenclature, all it is. It really makes no difference if a person wants to build it alone. Hell, if they succeed that should be a testament to them as a player. This doesn’t relegate halls to meaningless. It’s just one more option for that persons play style. And who knows maybe at some point, he might grow that guild and share it, or maybe he never does. Doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have the same opportunities as a bigger guild.

As for merits…yeah I can agree that I hope they aren’t required to unlock our guild halls, but somehow I just know they’ll play a part. Unfortunately my guild never got to the point of earning any (not that we haven’t tried), so I guess we’re just s.o.l. if that’s the case.

Then they need to put in a mechanic for player housing or for expanding the home instances.

Individual “guilds” arent started by players (most of the time) because they want a guild of one person – they are built because that player wants access to specific features they feel they wouldnt get otherwise. They feel they HAVE TO do this in order to access features they see other individuals get.

The game should encourage players to play together, not apart. If there are things in a guild hall that individuals desire, then Anet needs to put those things into the player’s housing instance – and leave guild halls for the guild communities that players are building.

People keep saying “what will it hurt to allow individuals to build guild halls?” What it hurts is the ability to hang out and communicate with larger groups (even groups as big as 2 people) if that is what you want in the game. Players shouldn’t feel like they have to cut (even temporarily) their primary form of large group communication just to get specific game features (and, invariably, they will feel they have to).

So, if youre asking if every player should have access to the same resources in game – the answer is, of course they should.

What we should be asking is, what unique resources can the game offer to those wanting to build actual communities (of any size)? Community tools and resources should be built with the needs of communities in mind – offering groups of friends something unique. That can, and should, be done without diminishing the importance or the role of the individual.

I would be all for the idea of introducing expanded player housing side by side with the introduction of guild halls, but having to unrep your actual guild to build your personal “guild hall” makes no sense to me.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks. Otherwise, they might as well just call it player housing.

To be quite blunt, it’s bullkitten. A guild of 2 is no less a guild than one that has 100.

I dont think you actually read what was posted, but chose to pull out just a small part. The post and the issues regards guilds of one person.

Even the definitions you cite use the plural “persons,” indicating more than a single member.

Once again, I agree that this is a feature that should be available to both small and big guilds, but at what point does a guild hall lose all meaning and just turn into player housing – which would do more to segment the community than it would to offer any sense of community (which is what guilds should be – communities).

This is why my suggestion above does not include using merits to unlock a guild hall. Let’s come up with a suggestions that allows for guilds of all sizes, but that still require some TINY bit of effort and cooperation between players in a guild to get started. If youre advocating they just give these to every single player for no effort, then what is the point of calling them guild halls.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Blaeys.3102:

Reality is, it doesnt matter what they are called -that isn’t important

I wouldn’t say that, to be honest. People build certain expectations when they are presented with a term, and many might get disappointed fast.

I think the best terms are challenge or activity, both of which already have meaning through other pieces of GW2 content, meaning there would be actual confusion. “Adventure” isnt perfect and it does come with a deeper meaning, but I dont see a need to change it.

Regardless of what they are called, it is an interesting system that fits well with the direction they seem to be going. I also agree with many that the example in the POI was extremely simplistic, but I think the intent was to showcase the system more than the content.

Thinking about the potential for a system like this is exciting and introduces a potentially new aspect to GW2 gameplay. It isnt anything revolutionary or groundbreaking, but it should still add fun to the game – which is the one thing I care most about.

MrIllusion.5304:

I think after the two Shadow of Dragon and Teragriff fights, it’s safe to assume that we won’t see a repeat of the famed Zhaitan Press One fight.

Most likely there will be a Personal Story green marker to start the instance, followed by a purple marker for the achievements. I notice that the last few episodes have achievements that are more catered for group play, even though they can be done solo.

If they want to throw in a large scale epic battle, they can place the purple/green marker at a location that is only accessible after a Vinewrath-like fight.

Maybe we do an epic battle against the exterior “Body of Mordremoth”, afterwhich a small group can breach inwards and do an instanced battle with the “Heart of Thorns”.

This actually sounds plausible and would work well with a fight like this – kind of like the Tower of Nightmares (only permanent) where we worked our way through the zone (which would involve the main fight you discuss) to get to the instanced (1-5 person) fight with the Toxic Hybrid. I could definitely see them doing that.

People are getting way to tied up on semantics and what to call them. They obviously called them adventures simply because the other logical terms were already taken in game and they didn’t want to cause confusion between game types.

Reality is, it doesnt matter what they are called -that isn’t important, nor is it the (actual productive) topic of this thread.

The best thing they can do is give the fight its own smallish map in the actual game world. Yes, it will be repeatable, but technically, so is the Zhaitan fight.

They are getting much better at giving the open world fights an epic feel. If they gave us a map about half the size of Drytop and then made the Mordremoth fight a two hour epic encounter (with Mordy’s body taking up almost the entire map ) that repeated 4-6 times a day, I think it would be very enjoyable.

The last thing many of us want to see is 10, 15 or 25 player raids in this game – especially with ultimate boss/LS content fights like this one. Remember that many people didnt like the Zhaitan fight because it was in a 5 player instance. Putting the fight in a rigid traditional style raid (which is a HORRIBLE idea in this game in general, for the record) would be taking that bad idea and making it much worse.

guardian.6489:

You should probably base some adventures on the random silly things players do for fun on their own like:

…

O ya and do that hand gliding race idea, that sounds like fun.

Even if it’s not an official minigame/adventure launched with HOT (and it really should be), Ive already told my guild we WILL be doing hang gliding races, even if its just seeing who can fall the fastest without dying-.

Astralporing.1957:

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks.

Why? How does that hurt you?
…

The biggest draw of guildhalls always was not in the perks, but in providing a social place for guild gatherings.

If the point of a guild hall is to provide a place for social gatherings, what is the point of a guild hall for an individual player (unless you like talking to yourself)?

Im not against small guild halls – i think it is absolutely something that should be achievable. But there are ways to do it that by rewarding teamwork (even on the small guild scale) and discouraging the fragmentation of the community.

The damage single person guild halls does is subtle, but it is still there. If the cost isn’t carefully considered and the benefits for the single player are too great, then you will end up with 100,000 players splitting from their communities (primarily by splitting from their guild chat channels) to essentially play alone – not because they want to, but because they feel they have to in order to get access to what all the other individuals building one person guild halls are getting.

That is why I proposed the system I did in the post above – it allows for guilds of any size, but still requires at least a minimal level of investment/cooperation.

I understand the issue, but there has to be some kind of mechanic or currency that discourages individuals and extremely small groups from building guild halls just for the individual perks. Otherwise, they might as well just call it player housing.

How about this – what if they made building a guild hall a new category of one-time guild missions and tied it into what guilds and members are actually doing in game. After unlocking in the guild menu for a moderate influence fee (which can be bought with gold, remember) and finding the location, guilds get a special mission to clear out enemies (surely the guild hall location will be infested in the jungle) to get the foundation for their guild hall.

After that, weekly missions are made available for guilds to acquire building materials and gain prestigious items/room/features for their hall. This could then be augmented with features that do require varying levels of gold, influence and merits (for guilds that have built those up). This way, any guild putting in the effort gets a guild hall, and guilds can tailor their halls around what they actual do in game. This also ensure active guilds – those that do things together every week – are rewarded for that teamwork.

So, once the actual location is secured, guilds that wvw, pve or pvp will have ways to customize their halls. Guilds that do guild missions for merits can reflect that in the nature of their hall, just as guilds that WvW, do dungeons or PvP can gain hall features unique to those game modes.

As a general rule no, but I could see implementing one of the new adventures that involved some type of corruption mechanic pitting players against each other temporarily (similar to the branded event from the BWEs).

Some I think are possible -

Reaver
Slayer
Sorcerer
Shaman
Reaper
Warlock

The information presented was exactly what they promised to show us.

Putting on the back seat driver steering wheel/Monday morning QB glasses, I would have recommended they do just a few things differently -

• Set expectations during the stream. There is nothing wrong with saying, “Our only goal here is showcase how adventures will work so players can see the potential and how easily we can add cool content.” That would take the emphasis off of the actually adventure (which was a little vanilla, while still potentially fun) and put it on showcasing the system behind adventures instead.

• Once you set that objective, stick to that topic and forego the random running around. Save the stuff about outposts until you can show more of that system. Alternatively, if your goal was to showcase outposts as well as adventures, the same setup is required – set expectations.

• Finally, be clear about what you are not showing. The POI was not about map size, new professions, specializations, etc – say that up front so that people focus on what you are trying to showcase.

Again, take this for what it’s worth – Saturday morning advice from the cheap seats (even though I am an experienced public relations and media relations consultant in real life ).

Keep the POI focused and set expectations regarding what you are (and are not) showcasing. All told, I was happy with what you showed us, but I realize those who didnt read the intro may not have understood what you were trying to accomplish.

Im very interested in how they change the core profession mechanic (in our case, illusions/shatters) for the mesmer. For most professions, it looks pretty straight forward, but since clones and phantasms are so integrally tied into everything about us (weapon skills, traits, etc), they will have to get creative.

I kind of like the idea of replacing clones and phantasms with time distortion fields (little rips between reality and the mists – giving the profession a direct tie to the expansion theme) that can then be manipulated through the F abilities. It seems like the logical choice – and could be alot of fun, giving the mesmer some crazy control and support options.

They could do alot with this concept by tailoring each distortion field much like each phantasm is different now. Imagine a distortion that causes anyone entering to see low powered phantasmal versions of creatures from Tyria’s past (kind of like the fields spawned by the toxic stalks in Kessex Hills/Tower of Nightmare event), or a field that significantly slows projectile speeds.

In the end, we will just have to wait and see, but I really hope they change enough to make it feel like we are actually playing a Chronomancer (if that is the actual name) and not just a slightly tweaked version of the current mesmer. I think to do that, they will need to directly address/replace clones and phantasms.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

As a big fan of Nochtli myself I’m here to tell you that there’s still going to be plenty of unique and unexpected things happening in the jungle. I think Steve’s point was simply to illuminate the premise that we’d like to build on our epic map stories with events wherever possible. That doesn’t mean crazy hylek won’t play a role in say, surviving in the jungle.

Thanks for the clarification. I was actually thinking about this as well. As cool as the new way of doing things looks, I believe it would feel mechanical and less alive if we didnt have other more random events, as well as event chains and content unrelated to the fight with Mordremoth.

Deleven.7508:

I had an idea. Maybe a future specialization will be for an elementalist to become an aspect master like the Zephyrites. Instead on the normal attunement swaps you would switch between sun, sky, storm and crystal. It would be a bit too altering to do this for all of the elementalist weapons, so it would only be applied to the main weapon that they would add, and it would likely also have to be a 2 handed weapon so that the off hand wouldn’t cause problems.

The next release isn’t likely to be this though, as they are likely to be getting a 1h sword, but maybe a future specialization this will be true.

At first I was thinking something like Pyromancer or Geomancer where they moved away from attunements and had weapon swapping but only one element.

Then I saw this Zephyrite themed idea.

They need to do this.

First, the obvious ones:

• Polymock
• Bar Brawl
• Archery Contest
• Musical Bells (with the dynamic addition of new songs to play and master)

(I would also add Kegbrawl, Crab Toss, Southsun Survival and, if possible, Sanctum Sprint – bringing them into the actual game world would allow guilds and friends to do them together ).

Those could all be in the orginal GW2 world. As far as the Jungle, I would like to see things like:

• Glider obstacle course (maneuvering through objectives/ruins while being chased by multiple Wyvern)
• Dinosaur races (riding on the back of dinosaurs – but only in the event)
• Single combat related adventures (spawning powerful bosses for 1v1 combat – VERY similar to Queen’s Gauntlet)

• Finally, I would love to see them add 5 to 10-player adventures as well (organized keg brawl anyone?)

I really like the idea of adventures. Something I’ve always wanted is a way to participate in minigames without having to disappear from the rest of my guild. I can definitely see an “Olympics” style event for my guild in the future if these things work the way I think they will.

Couple of important points they’ve made-

1. There will be a finite number of mastery points.

2. They can always – pretty easily I assume – add new mastery paths.

Given the first point, I doubt we will ever have a surplus of mastery points that just sit there. They can just match the number of points available to the number of things they offer.

And, when it looks like people are maxing them out, all they have to do is add new paths.

At first I wasnt worried, but after reading the most recent blog post, I think this is something they need to be very careful about.

The idea of masteries making it easier to take down bosses concerns me just a little.

Hopefully, this will never be through something as basic as “do more damage,” but rather through encouraging strategic placement of players in fights (similar to the wvw lines).

For examples -

• give us a mastery that causes the bombs we run to Claw of Jormag’s ice wall to do more damage or

• a mastery that allows us to drop bigger poison cleanse circles when using the turrets on Tequatl.

I really hope they dont use the mastery system to allow straight power creep (do x% more damage to Svanir, for example) into the game. Just as bad would be the inverse (take X% less damage from Svanir). Feeling challenged (at least a little) in all zones is one of my favorite things about GW2.

Im torn. I have Chiroptophobia from the Halloween event (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Chiroptophobia_Greatsword_Skin_wielded.jpg), but may want to go with something a bit more subtle. Not sure yet.

I think there is a common misconception here – Having a goal to work toward is not the same as grinding.

Grinding involves doing the same thing over and over past the point we find that thing fun. We dont know what masteries will involve specifically, so we cannot say that we will be repeating mundane tasks we dont enjoy over and over for them.

If they take all goals out of the game, we arent really left with a game. Again, working toward a goal does not mean the same thing as grinding.

I would much rather they focus on making the one specialization per class we are getting with HOT as unique and fun as possible than see multiple at this time.

The thing that people are overlooking is that HOT seems to be (in all of its features) about providing a strong base for future living story updates. Once the system is in place, it should be easy for them to drop in new maps, outposts, adventures, masteries and even specializations as features (or as part of living story updates) rather than as part of full blown expansions. Not saying this will happen, but it seems logical.

And from a semantics perspective, the word specialization is in no way an indication of multiple options. It makes sense we will eventually have this, but – as I said – it really makes more sense for them to focus on getting it right the first time.

1. You are correct – only purchase cost, no subscription.
2. Technically, it is not dual classing like GW1. It is class specialization. Were not 100% sure what that will look like yet, but it looks interesting.

3. All indications you are right – Engineer hammer and mesmer shield, but it is still too early to know for sure.

Donari.5237:

They cannot put gliding in the old world. It will break the maps. They have said so. Thus all the updrafts in the world won’t let you soar.

I think he is advocating something slightly different – basically allowing hanggliding only in very select, scenic locations – kind of like the diving goggles. Not as a way to explore, but rather as a way to take in the sights.

I think it could work without breaking anything. It really just would be a controlled fall. I dont see them putting the time into it with everything else going on right now, though.

Ive seen a lot of things of interest to me in the blog posts these past two days, but the one item that has me the most excited is actually the possibility that some of the proposed activities (minigames) will make their way into the open world with Heart of Thorns – through the adventure system (based on yesterday’s blog post).

My question is, which minigames (existing and theoretical) does everyone think would work in the open world – and which do you think we might get? Polymock? Bar Brawl? How about Kegbrawl or Crab Toss? Is there any way they could make Super Adventure Box work with this system?

Very curious to see what they do with this and what people think might work.

There has always been a treadmill (just not a steep one) in higher level fractals with infusions. That was kind of the point of higher level fractals – to give that to people without impacting the rest of the game.

Not really a big deal.

I expect that, to fully enjoy the game, players will need to buy the expansion. That only makes sense.

The one exception I can see to this is the new WvW map. It would probably be detrimental to alot of the smaller servers if, suddenly, a percentage of their population (however small) was locked off from helping out.

Other than that, however, I expect every feature they listed to be exclusive to those buying the expansion (including masteries in old zones).

Just my thoughts though.

One thing Ive wanted for a REALLY long time is the ability to host and play minigames (sanctum sprint, kegbrawl, etc) with my guildmates.

I know they said during Wintersday that there are restrictions on how people enter minigames because they are tied to the servers or system powering pvp, but it seems like an expansion/introducing guild halls would be the perfect time to fix those limitations.