Guild Wars 2

Xae Isareth.1364:

I’ve always been quite interested in the Krait. Every other race apart from the Dragons have some sort of reason to kill, destroy or war on someone else, may I be vengeance, power, domination or land.

The Krait seems to just kill just because they want to, you never even get a slight impression why they do the things they do.

Kraits are tied to the popular theme of Mayans, who love human sacrifices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrifice_in_Maya_culture

Capturing prisoners after a successful battle also provided victims for sacrifice, presumably to propitiate whatever deity had promised victory in the first place, although there is no record of the Maya initiating conflicts solely for this purpose as was apparently the case with the Aztecs. Modern analysis of the ancient Maya art indicates a large number of representations of prisoners of war that are now understood to be sacrificial victims: “The analysis of the representations and sometimes of their context shows that the crossed-arms-on-the-chest gesture is associated with the concepts of submissiveness, captivity and death — in a word, sacrifice.”¹⁷

Level 0 necro.

6) Build variety – It is a fact, by numbers, that the build choices in GW2 is nowhere as diverse as GW1. Back in GW1 every character have 2 professions, with each having 100s of skills to choose from. In GW2, the characters are limited to 4X5=20 utilities skills and weapons skills, each set that we can’t even choose for ourselves.

The developers said before that this makes the game easier to balance and remove the chances of players carrying totally useless builds. etc

But have they ever asked the players what they want?

Build variety was a huge part of GW1. I used to spent hours designing my build and skills to the just the way I wanted it. I would often ping my build to my team and they would go wtf. But afterwards they would praise the usefulness of my build.

I will give one single example as prove. I am probably one of the very few necromancers that combined Foul Feast with Melandru’s Resilience to keep conditions off the whole party nearly 24/7. Thanks the the energy regen from all those conditions I also can nuke none stop for devastating damage. I tanked like a beast. This was just one of the many crazy things I tried in GW1. I was one of the most experienced blood mage in GW1, who used and stayed with blood magic throughout the whole GW1 sega.

In a nutshell, my GW1 necro is mine necro. She is unique. She does thing her own way. Everyone say blood magic sucks, but my necro disagree and she prevailed.

Can’t do that in GW2. GW2 gave me no room for creativity. My GW2 necro is a shadow of my former self. Obviously I cannot remove conditions, nuke or even tank nearly as well as my GW1 necro.

My GW2 necro is pretty much just like every other necros out there.

I feel in GW2 many classes are pigeon holed into a few builds. So what’s the problem? Well let’s say I play a Guardian and I suck at it. Well there is nothing I can do, because there is not enough build choices for me to improve. There is only a few ways for a guardian to play, and if I suck at those few ways then I must switch profession.

I think a vote of the subject of “build variety” should be held. Ask the players if they miss the build variety of the GW1 days. Do they want the duel profession system back? etc.

Jinn Kazuma.2163:

Really? Cartoons can’t be dark? I would like to draw Transformers:Prime. It is easily one of the darkest shows I have watched in a long time and I watch Walking Dead. And I am twenty seven. Disproved your entire argument. Now to tell you why it is even further incorrect.

Besides, GW2 already has a pretty grim storyline. World on the brink of disaster. Monolithic dark god-thing with an army of undead people, animals, and even plants preparing for a major offensive. Oh yeah, and there are betrayals. Sure, not to the extent of Khilbron from GW1, but there are some in there. So, I must ask: Did you even pay attention to the story?

Prove to me that Scarlet is not a cartoon villain and you have a case.

It is important to note that the target audience of GW2 is 20-40 years old. They are too old for cartoons.

GW2’s story doesn’t work b/c they made it like a kid’s show. The viewers might get a few laughs out of a cartoon. But they will never take it seriously.

20-40 year olds watch shows like Game of Thrones and play games like Witcher 2.

The story have to be darker and more serious to capture the correct target audience. There are murders. There are slaughters. There are kitten s. There are betrayal by best friends and family. They are unlikely heroes.

Example: Witcher Series

The problem is they hid too much lore. They feel that the suspense would keep the players playing.

Nope.

When some lores are 8 years old (e.g. Wizard’s Tower), and they still hasn’t been resolved, the players will lose interest.

A villain who hates the main character for past actions and choices.

A villain who is is strong because of political intelligent.

Scarlet doesn’t have to die yet. But her story should be moved aside until at least one major GW1 lore loose ends get tied up.

5) City Battles

We already have plenty of open fields in both PvE and WvW. For example in WvW we already have 4 maps that’s mostly open field and castles. Can we add a 5th map that’s all within a city?

PvE can use more city battle maps too, of course. Burning cities are some of the most epic battle grounds. No to mention the thrill of street to street, house to house fighting.

Examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Da3EgZUA0Y

Diovid.9506:

I’d love it if story progresses to a point where the blood imperator Bangar Ruinbringer and Legate Minister Caudecus become true villains.

As to why? Well, for Bengar see my thread here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Concerning-the-future-of-the-Charr/.

And Caudecus is clearly a white mantle leader who funds centaurs and bendits to make queen Jenna look weak and who uses populist rhetoric to become loved by the people.

They both stand in the way for true peace between charr and humans.

So Demmi Beetlestone is actually a White Mantle Spy that infiltrated the Order of Whispers? Epic!

I will be looking more at villains that actually wants some kind of “greater good”. And for that greater good they are willing to sacrifice others.

Look at the organizations I made to get an idea:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/fangen/Create-your-own-Living-Story-patch-A-game/

1) Erinyes – Sacrifice children every 50 years to prolong their lives. Their battle experience and knowledge cannot be obtained otherwise. Their goal at the end though was to protect humanity.

2) Angels – Want to rule over the humans, with the ultimate goal of changing all future humans into Angels (humans naturally infused with the power of Abaddon). They believe that Angels are what humanity is destined to become. That’s what humanity’s greatest god, Abaddon, wanted in the first place. Once all humans become Angels, they will rule over all other races with superior magic.

1) Underwater combat – This is a huge addition to the GW2 world. However I think it is getting zero attention from the players because it isn’t what they expected or hoped it to be.

I made a thread to discuss this very topic. Unfortunately it got very few attention and replies. Like I said silence from the players is the worst and clearest rejection. They don’t even care. This clearly indicates that a major overhaul of the whole underwater combat mechanics is required.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-to-Fix-Underwater-Combat

2) GW1 Lore – imo we should focus on tying up loose ends from the GW1 lore (e.g. Livia, Mursaats, Joko) before exploring further into new GW2 lore (e.g. Scarlet). I made a threat about this. And most players seems to want GW1 lore answered.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Your-top-3-lore-loose-ends

Also read up on fan written LS suggestions to get an idea of the type of story they are looking for.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/fangen/Create-your-own-Living-Story-patch-A-game

3) World Events and Living Story- Please consider adding “world invasion” events as described by me in this thread here.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/How-would-you-make-LS-better/

4) Blood Magic – This is a selfish request from a lover of blood magic, dated back to GW1. No poll is required really, since blood magic users are rare in both GW1 and GW2. We have always been a very small minority of players that no one pays any attention to and no one invite to dungeons. Perhaps the future will be different.

As you know, life stealing has been broken since GW1 and was never fixed. Due to spiking in GvG, its armor ignoring damage have to be very low. And most life stealing skills are mindless fire and forget. A combination of “armor ignoring” and “easy to use” means that life stealing skills have to be “very weak” for balance purposes.

In GW2 the situation is even worst. Now necros get life stealing by just auto attack. So we have “armor ignoring” damage that is “even easier” to use than GW1. So it is obvious that life stealing becomes almost non-existentially small.

Consider changing life stealing to “Duration of Time” instead of one lump sum, and make life stealing “harder to perform”. Only then would life stealing have a place in GW2.

The other missing part is the “life sacrificing” nature of blood magic. Blood mage plays around with life itself. It is always about blood sacrifices for power. Without life sacrifice, blood magic won’t be blood magic.

To make up for the life loses, they steal life from their enemies to fuel their magic. Sacrifice life and then steal life. That’s the cycle of power for a blood mage.

By lore, a well played blood mage should beat other professions that doesn’t require any life sacrifices. A badly played blood mage would get him/herself killed fast. It is the ultimate high risk / high reward profession, even more so than the thief. The “Dark Aura Bomber” from GW1 would be a prime example of a blood mage.

Please take a good hard look at blood magic. Blood mages are the love of my life. Read one of my thread about this.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/The-Vampiric-Problem-in-a-Nut-Shell

Nolani was a good college. So many good mages came from there.

Kraag Deadsoul.2789:

vicious.5683:

This idea sounds like dagger #3, then dagger #2 but stronger and easier to land.

BTW necromancers are not vampires

No, they are not Bram Stoker’s undead monster who drinks the blood of the living to sustain itself.

Vampire in this context refers not so much to the act of blood drinking but, rather, sustaining one’s self by stealing the life of one’s enemies. As this is functionally similar to what the classic vampire does, it’s much easier to simply call necros of this ilk “vampires”. They could just as easily be referred to as “siphoners” or “blood mages”; but the community settled on “vampire”.

Well if we go back to lore, the blood mage plays around with life itself. It is always about blood sacrifices for power. To make up for the life loses, they steal life from their enemies to fuel their magic.

By lore, a well played blood mage should beat other professions that doesn’t require any life sacrifices. A badly played blood mage would get him/herself killed fast. It is the ultimate high risk / high reward profession. The “Dark Aura Bomber” from GW1 would be a prime example of a blood mage.

The closest that necromancer in GW1 got to being a vampire would be Vampiric Touch and Vampiric Bite. Although that is actually a touch skill, meaning that the life stealing happens from the hand. So it is more like a spell than an actual bite.

flow.6043:

I think that this Vampiric Leap is a cool idea, I’d change 2 things though:
6 sec stun… way too much, not sure if you’d need that anyway if you get immobilized as well.
8x life steal for 1/2 of healing power: not good enough, make that at least 1:1 in addidtion to a base amount.

The stun must last at least the full duration of the life stealing. Else anyone can just interrupt the channeling while they are getting hit. The idea is that when the victim gets hits by Vampiric Leap, he/she is put into a hypnosis state and cannot fight back at all.

The only way out is stun breaks or help from an ally.

But yes the extra 2 seconds of stun after can be removed. Maybe replace that with Might for the necro and Weakness for the target foe instead.

MercenaryK, I know very well about life sacrifices in GW1. Blood is Power was one of my favourite elites. Blood Renewal is also one of my staple skills. I used to use Dark Aura in Hard Mode dungeons and win.

But life sacrifice is a different topic. Right now I am talking about vampiric and life stealing.

GW1’s life stealing was very badly implemented, and has never been fixed. Due to spiking in GvG, its armor ignoring damage have to be very low. And most life stealing skills are mindless fire and forget.

Look at Vampiric Gaze, the prime example of the problems with vampiric in GW1. It got low damage and takes very little player ability to use. You don’t have to time it or wait for an opportunity. You just spam it on recharge.

Once again, this problem was never fixed in GW1. And its even worst in GW2. The vampiric in GW2 is even lower damage and even easier to use.

This all could be fixed by changing life stealing into Duration of Time and making these skills more difficult to use. I had been saying this for years, no joke.

Blood mages in GW1 were super rare because they aren’t effective. Most necro pick the more effective Death Magic for minions or Curses for Spiteful Spirit. And in GW2, blood mages hare pretty much went extinct. Well no surprise. Necro in general has went extinct in high level dungeons (e.g. Fractal level 48+). But those few necros that you see are always berserker power and condition. Obviously they got pretty much nothing in blood magic.

I made a similar thread a while back and got no response. So don’t keep your hopes high. T_T

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/fangen/Post-Rate-these-Fan-Made-Organizations

Anyways I will play this with that group I created above: Erinyes

Act 1:

Caudecus and his rebels joins up with the Separatists, White Mantle and Mursaats, to try to overthrow Queen Jennah and reestablish White Mantle rule. The combined rebel forces, lead by their new advanced jade armor scores victory after victory. People of GW2 have no defense against spectral agony since they don’t have Seer infused armor.

The player’s mission was to delay the rebel advance by 20 minutes to allow civilians to escape.

The rebels pushed into Divinity’s Reach. Desperate the players scoring some victories against the human rebels, they got to retreat each time they see Jade Armors with Spectral Agony. That skill is pretty much one hit kill.

Finally the rebels push into the throne room. All seems lost.

The Erinyes came to save the day. These hundreds of years old mages and warriors all have infused armors and beat back the Jade Armors. “Just like old times” they said.

Introduction: (crowds running away, heros stand their ground, you get the idea)

After a brief conversation, Erinyes leaves. Livia, Eve, Evennia and Anise left with them.

Act 2) The war against the Mursaats, Scarlet and Elder Dragons continues. The Erinyes would come back to assist the players here and there in desperate battles. Logan is on his personal hunt for truth behind the Erinyes.

Act 3) The Canthan empire (or Joko) began their attack against Kryta. The players once again got new allies, call Angels. It is known that they are allied with the Erinyes. The Angels and Erinyes would both assist the players in missions from time to time.

But there are hints and indication that the Angels, desperate Abby’s intentions, do not see themselves as humans. What does it really mean to be human?

Act 4) Logan discovers the secret lair of the Erinyes. He found out that the Erinyes indeed abduct child villagers. The reason they last this long is because they transfer their spirit from their old body to a new body every 50 years.

They were also abducting pregnant women from the bethels, for unknown reasons at the time.

Logan: “How can you do this?”
Livia: “Simple. If we do not sacrifice these few childs, a lot more people would have died. You saw how powerless you were in the fight against the rebels. Your ancestor, Gwen, refused to join us. So her power now lies in her grave. What a waste of talent.”
Logan: “She knew? Why didn’t she stop you or say anything?”
Livia: “Child, the world is not as black and white as you think it is. Gwen didn’t agree with us. But she also admitted that we weren’t wrong.”
Logan: “No! You are lying!”
Livia: “We are not so different, you and us. You sacrificed Snaff to save Queen Jennah, because she is indeed more important. We sacrificed a few children to save the whole humanity. Join us Logan, and we will defend humanity together.”
Logan: “No that was different. I didn’t know Snaff was going to die.”
Livia: “So if you knew beforehand that Snaff will die, will you let Queen Jennah die?”
Logan: “I….I….don’t know.”

The players also meet Abby for the first time. She was introduced as the creator of Angels. “I only want to defend humanity, nothing more.” she said. Logan and the players departed after a brief conversation.

Act 5) The human towns came under attack from the Angels. The Erinyes, for the first time, ask the players for help. The players has gotten much stronger since Act 1.

It was later discovered that they rebelled against Abby and the Erinyes. They want to rule supreme over all humans.

Abby: “You are all humans. You are born to defend humanity. Why would you now attack humans?”
Angel: “Looking like humans does not make us humans. Look mother. We are so much stronger than they are. And the strong should rule over the weak. That’s what humans had been doing for generations. They would kill each other over greed and power. For now, we should rule supreme over them to ensure future peace. And eventually all of humanity will become like us. We are what humanity was destined to become since the time of the gods. And with this power humanity would rule over other races.”
Abby: “No! I will stop all of you!”
Angel: “You have Abbadon’s knowledge and part of his power, but none of his memory. That’s why you are ignorant. We did our research, and this is what Abbadon would have wanted. He is our true father. You cannot stop us.”

Abby was seriously wounded, but saved by the players and Erinyes.

And so the Human-Angel war begins.

Suddenflame.2601:

CHIPS.6018:

Suddenflame.2601:

CHIPS.6018:

Suddenflame.2601:

CHIPS.6018:

Suddenflame.2601:

Fastest and easiest fix for this is:

1. Split traits between land and water traits.
2. Full armor change. A set of armor for land use and water use
3. More under water types of gear

These 3 things would vastly improve underwater combat.

Getting one set of ascended armor and weapon for one character already takes forever. I doubt the players would enjoy farming for a second set for underwater combat.

Standardize all stats for each profession is the best way to go.

Dude I don’t know what game you been playing, but I was able to make 2 ascended weapons in 3 days after reaching lvl500 in crafting. When ascended armour comes out I doubt it will take much longer. The one that takes the longest amount of time to make is celestial which takes 40 days just to get all the charged crystal. So the longest time in the game would be to make Celestial Ascended armour and weapons but at max 40 days cause in that 40 days you would get enough ascended materials just to make like 10 weapons.

This is only true if you do not have alts. This game does not need to be even more alt-unfriendly than it already is.

I have 10 characters and having no trouble at all.

10 full ascended characters? If you are in my guild you would be in the minority. A very small minority.

impossible to have 10 fully ascended characters lol. So far have 1 fully ascended and 2 very close. 1 a little farther just needing accessories and another i just got to lvl80 today that has like 2 pieces of ascended and working my way.

Then you agree with me that it will be a pain to craft new sets of ascended gear for each character for underwater combat.

Not saying it is, but they should avoid becoming like “Supernatural”.

Relax. They just need one outstanding story (e.g. Livia), or outstanding world event (e.g. organized Centaur invasion against Kryta) to bring back the fans. Just one.

I support Orders. Please bring back the 33% hp sacrifice mechanics. ^^

Suddenflame.2601:

CHIPS.6018:

Suddenflame.2601:

CHIPS.6018:

Suddenflame.2601:

Fastest and easiest fix for this is:

1. Split traits between land and water traits.
2. Full armor change. A set of armor for land use and water use
3. More under water types of gear

These 3 things would vastly improve underwater combat.

Getting one set of ascended armor and weapon for one character already takes forever. I doubt the players would enjoy farming for a second set for underwater combat.

Standardize all stats for each profession is the best way to go.

Dude I don’t know what game you been playing, but I was able to make 2 ascended weapons in 3 days after reaching lvl500 in crafting. When ascended armour comes out I doubt it will take much longer. The one that takes the longest amount of time to make is celestial which takes 40 days just to get all the charged crystal. So the longest time in the game would be to make Celestial Ascended armour and weapons but at max 40 days cause in that 40 days you would get enough ascended materials just to make like 10 weapons.

This is only true if you do not have alts. This game does not need to be even more alt-unfriendly than it already is.

I have 10 characters and having no trouble at all.

10 full ascended characters? If you are in my guild you would be in the minority. A very small minority.

Ok this will be my last bump. Is there anyone else out there that have any interest in improving underwater combat? If so please voice your opinion.

I hope Anet take notice in this thread. If it continue to be this quiet here, it is a good indicator that a great majority GW2 players have pretty much given up on underwater combat. That’s why they are not even posting here. Silent is the worst and clearest rejection. This shows that a major overhaul of the whole underwater combat mechanics is the only way to go.

My suggestions are tried and proven. They worked really well in those popular Gundam and Mecha games from Asia. If Anet really want to expand into the Asia market they should take a hard look at them.

Thanks for reading.

My necro was a full time blood magic user back in GW1. Back then blood magic was underpowered forever, since it ignores armor and can be used to spike in GvG. Most vampiric skills were very easy to use. Just case it and steals health.

For years I had argued that the life stealing should be done as DoT, so they cannot be used for spiking. Hitting a foe once should lead to 5 seconds of small life stealing, for example. And for years I had said that vampiric skills should be much harder to use but much stronger.

And then we come to GW2. Blood magic has downgraded even worst than before. The damage is still done on a per hit bases, so its damage have to be low to prevent spiking. And the worst part, the life stealing is now tied to the auto attack. Which means they are even easier to use than back in GW1. Back in GW1, at least the player had to managed energy.

As long as vampiric continues to be dealt per hit, and is this easy to use, they will continue to suck.

Let’s cut to the cheese of what I envision vampiric to be. I will provide one example skill.

Vampiric Leap
Required: Grandmaster Blood Magic (cannot use this skill without this rank)
Placement: F2 next to Death Shroud. Cannot use this skill while in Death Shroud.
Range: 1,200
Recharge: 30s
Cast Time: 1s (with obvious animation)
Type: Channeling Skill
Description: Leaps rapidly at target foe. If hit, your target foe suffers from Stun for 6 seconds (cannot move or use skills). You suffer from immobilized for 4 seconds. For 4 seconds of channeling, every 1/2 second you steal life equal to 1/2 of your healing power. This channelling can be interrupt from the outside or stun breaks.

Why this works? The skill itself is hard to hit. Its 1 second cast time and animation means the necro need to snare the foe. After hitting, it can still be interrupted and stun break countered. Healing Power does not directly increase the damage of the necromancer, and the Grandmaster requirement means the necro need to trait for it and sacrifice on other things. But when it works, it does a lot of life stealing. You also get extra 2 seconds to attack that foe afterwards. High risk, high reward.

Which lore loose end do you want Anet to talk about next? Tell us your top 3.

1) Livia – She and scepter or Orr. Mind=blown since 2007.

2) Wizard’s Tower – It is about time we find out what’s going on inside. Mind=blown since 2005.

3) Kralkatorrik – He should be the next dragon we deal with. The lore behind him (from books) has set him up to be the most interesting dragon to fight/ally with.

I think Anet should bring out Livia’s story right now. Once she returns, the GW1 lore crowd will be very happy and stop complaining.

Or they can bring out Wizard’s Tower. The lore crowd would be even happier.

jakalofnaar.1702:

This patch sucked for just about all classes – except warrior. So basically they wanted support roles to be more viable, so they improved our party healing with Transfusion? No offense to those that use it, and speaking from a purely PvE point of view her, but that’s a pretty useless trait in a dungeon group.

As far as a support role goes, we’re pretty much right where we were pre-patch….standing outside the dungeon looking for a group who’s desperate enough to take us.

Rather than “class-balance” they need to do power/control/support balance as a whole, because in PvE, power scales like a mofo, control is an afterthought (and usually comes from minor traits, or utilities from DPSers), and support can come from a single party member – and that’s only if you really need it…

I really wish they’d just slow down a bit on their LS updates so they can put more devs onto actually fixing these areas of the game.

I have around 1400 healing power. Transfusing heals for about 4000 and Deathly Invigoration heals for about 900. It isn’t that bad.

The problem with level 48+ Fractal is that it is all one hit kill. Either our allies get one hit killed, or we ourselve gets one hit killed. No healing would help you. So in there it is all about Berserker.

As a necro that supports by team healing, I am happy to announce that the healing from Transfusion and Deathly Invigoration are greatly improved. But given how rare healing necros are, I understand why most people are unhappy about this patch.

My necro was a full blood mage back in GW1. But in GW2 I gave up on the vampire aspect of the necromancer long time ago. The current way they set up vampiric is totally mindless. You just auto attack and you get health back. When it is this mindless and easy to use, it is doomed to be weak and useless.

Crazy damage poison??? Do want!

Bone Minion X3? Putrid Explosion 1 hit kill? Do want!

Grasping Dead shockwave? No recharge? 1 hit kill??? Do want!

Locust Swarm 1 hit kill? Dagger fireball? Life Siphon 1 combo kill??? What’s this I can’t even…

Suddenflame.2601:

CHIPS.6018:

Suddenflame.2601:

Fastest and easiest fix for this is:

1. Split traits between land and water traits.
2. Full armor change. A set of armor for land use and water use
3. More under water types of gear

These 3 things would vastly improve underwater combat.

Getting one set of ascended armor and weapon for one character already takes forever. I doubt the players would enjoy farming for a second set for underwater combat.

Standardize all stats for each profession is the best way to go.

Dude I don’t know what game you been playing, but I was able to make 2 ascended weapons in 3 days after reaching lvl500 in crafting. When ascended armour comes out I doubt it will take much longer. The one that takes the longest amount of time to make is celestial which takes 40 days just to get all the charged crystal. So the longest time in the game would be to make Celestial Ascended armour and weapons but at max 40 days cause in that 40 days you would get enough ascended materials just to make like 10 weapons.

This is only true if you do not have alts. This game does not need to be even more alt-unfriendly than it already is.

Yes Conncept. In a WvW zerg fight it was nearly impossible to tell who you are targeting. And the reticule becomes more important the faster the action becomes.

I am concerned about the lack of response for this topic. Has everyone given up on UW combat? Or do you guys disagree with my suggestions but are too polite to say so? :P

I had been saying since GW1. Vampiric skills need to be actual skills with cooldowns, and the life stealing happens overtime to prevent spiking.

Suddenflame.2601:

Fastest and easiest fix for this is:

1. Split traits between land and water traits.
2. Full armor change. A set of armor for land use and water use
3. More under water types of gear

These 3 things would vastly improve underwater combat.

Getting one set of ascended armor and weapon for one character already takes forever. I doubt the players would enjoy farming for a second set for underwater combat.

Standardize all stats for each profession is the best way to go.

Creeper.9360:

never thought underwater combat was that bad, certainly better than any other mmo I’ve played

but I do think they need to go through all of the skills and readjust them, some professions are so far ahead in underwater combat than others.

also, perhaps add some underwater rebreathers? make them craftable. Seems like a bit of oversight by the devs on this. Or perhaps they are just wanting underwater stuff to disappear and forget about it.

It is bad because no one ever talk about it. A lack of interest is a good indicator that it needs a major revolution. Just search on youtube for “GW2 underwater combat”. How many exciting fanmade videos do you see on there? Very few if any.

I tried the search function on the forums and I cannot find any topic on underwater combat. When UWC was removed from WvW, almost no one complained because no one ever do it. UWC rightnow has no “fans” in 1 on 1 or zerg vs zerg.

Then we look at PvE. I cannot name even one fight UW that’s good or memorable. That giant jellyfish in Fractal, for example, was horrible.

Compare this to the fast action, reflex based underwater combat I am purposing. Example:

Have No Faith In Me.1840:

CHIPS.6018:

Imo, underwater combat should be full on action and reflexes. It should be played at a much faster pace than ground combat.

Faster than ground combat? You ever tried playing water polo? Or even watched it? Compare that to any sport on “ground”, ground is always faster, water is restrictive. Hell, look at volleyball, compare playing it on a court, to in a pool, you CANNOT move anywhere near as quickly in water.

inb4 “why bring RL into it?”

Why talk about RL when we have magic and dragons? :P

It is common opinion that under water combat is badly implemented. In most cases, in involves zergs auto attacking a mob until it dies.

Imo, underwater combat should be full on action and reflexes. It should be played at a much faster pace than ground combat.

Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZXMteH6l8o#t=1m57s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_tllM2v1_0#t=2m49s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9SJIAD2eCc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3nPlKDuZYg

Things to do:
1) Standardize all stats while underwater – All guardians should have the same stats (power, armor, etc) while underwater. The elementalists would have different stats from a guardian, but all elementalists would all have the same stat.
Reason: Ground combat and underwater combat are very different. It will be very annoying for a player to keep switching between different sets of weapons and armors as they switch between ground and underwater combat.

2) Add a crosshair to your current target as an indicator – A crosshair will appear on your current target to show you who he/she is.
Reason: this is very important, even for ground combat. In the chaos of battle, it is very hard to tell who is your current target. Adding a crosshair will help the player quickly identify his current target.

3) Add a “boost” function – When player double taps space (jump), he goes into a fast swimming mode that drains endurance.
Reason: Fast pace combat requires a boost function to allow rapid escape and chase.

4) Greatly increase endurance regeneration – Endurance regen underwater is 5 times faster than on ground.
Reason: Fast pace combat requires a endurance regeneration to match the endurance usage. Reflexes are more important that resource management.

5) Remove weapons switching cooldown – there is no cooldown for switching weapons underwater.
Reasons: Fast pace combat requires fast weapon switching to keep up the pace.

6) Greatly increase damage dealt in underwater combat – Attacks on average should take away 25% of a unit’s health. That’s around 4-6k a hit.
Reason: While it is harder to hit a foe underwater due to movement speed, each hit packs a punch.

7) Change skill #1 on ranged weapons so it is not an auto attack – there is no auto attack spamming range attack in underwater combat. Melee attack spamming remains.
Reason: Ranged auto attack will be very annoying underwater, and does not take any reflexes.

8) 2 second invincible after hit – When you get hit, you lose control of your character but you are invincible for 2 seconds.
Reason: This gives you time to recover and regroup. The damage is too high to allow continuous damage intake.

9) Increase attack range to 2,400 – Ranged attacks can target and hit from 2,400 distance, instead of 1,200
Reason: Allows for long distance sniping.

I think as a community we should conclude that LS is happening after the PS. PS can be treated as a prequel or something. LS is where the main thing will be.

I hate PS in general. I don’t find them fun at all because its single player. I much rather do World Events. Even dungeons are better than PS.

GW1 never had PS. I don’t know why they bothered with it. I say forget about any future PS, and change them all into World Events and dungeons.

GW1 story is much better than GW2’s. It flows better, plenty of foreshadowing, and involves characters that you care (or hate) about.

Ascalon was great -> Searing
Prince Rurik decided Ascalon hopeless and leads the people to Kryta (rightfully so)->dies
Help White Mantle pick out Chosens
Betrayed by White Mantle & Chosen (probably the same ones we just picked) killed->escapes
Lich pretend to help us
Forgotten have to test us->ascension
Both Stone Summit and Mursaats wants us dead->Saidra dies.
Tricked by Lich->Titans now loose
Kill Lich.
Kill Titans.
Reinstall the Queen on the throne. (plenty of foreshadow on this one. )
Kill all remaining White Mantles and Mursaats.

Mad King is a funny halloween event. So he won’t be too hard.

LunarNacht.8913:

Most of the stuff in gw1 wasn’t as interesting as you make it.
There were some good quests. But most stuff was: “Enemies there, go kill.”

Sounds like you never been though The Searing.

Might be related to Mursaat’s Jade Armors.

Yes it was the hint to the clockwork invasions.

EOTN could have been built by anyone. Anet gave us zero hints. All we know is that its creator is an enemy of the elder dragons. That’s why it gave us visions to counter them.

The problem is, who isn’t an enemy of the elder dragon? So this is pretty much not a hint at all.

Ask Livia when we see her.

There are many “dead zones” in the game right now, where almost no one is in them. Why? Because most players have already moved beyond the level 40-50 range of that zone.

GW2 is also not alt-character friendly at all. Just equipping one character with all ascended gear takes forever. This further lead to this “dead zone” problem we see. Back in GW1, we could find parties for missions even years after the game’s release. Why? Because many players play alt characters, since GW1 was super alt friendly.

VOLKON.1290:

People in ’zerkers humor me to no end. They provide so many loot bags in WvW.

In WvW we don’t have this problem, because there is no one-hit-kill in WvW.

Future world events should model after WvW, for obvious reasons.

When every boss you met in dungeons would one-hit-kill you, berserker is the only way to go. I am sorry to say.

Those that disagrees hasn’t been to Fractal level 45+.

I don’t use berserker btw. I use apothecary because like OP I enjoy tanking and surviving. Necro is meant to be an attrition class, so I am designing my build around that idea. Its the game design that’s failing players like me and OP. Not our problem.

Its the game design that forces everyone to use berserker in dungeons. So no I don’t blame berserker users neither. They just take the most efficient way out.

rizzo.1079:

CHIPS.6018:

rizzo.1079:

The change to the Teq event has already effectively removed Sparkfly and the event itself from the radar of the vast majority of players, there’s no good reason to do that to even more of the world map.

I will counter argue this point. The “real” reason no one do Teq anymore is because there is zero consequence of losing

Well I can’t say the ‘real’ reason no one does Teq(neither can you), but I can say I don’t do it because it’s frustrating and unfun, more about overcoming technical hurdles than actual game play skill. From what I can see on the forums, there are many people who share that opinion.

Having Lion’s Arch shut down because of an event doesn’t sound very fun either. I’m with you about the LS having more permanent effects, but closing off areas, especially major hubs, will cause more harm than good.

You hate Teq because Teq is badly implemented. I actually partly agree with you. The queue, overflow and wait time problem specially was annoying. But you do not hate world events. When world events in the future are better implemented, you will love them. Yes?

Like I said the players can take back Lion’s Arch fairly easily. So don’t worry about that. Its just what potential can happen if the players don’t care. Well, the game would force the players to care. There will be consequences.

rizzo.1079:

The change to the Teq event has already effectively removed Sparkfly and the event itself from the radar of the vast majority of players, there’s no good reason to do that to even more of the world map.

I will counter argue this point. The “real” reason no one do Teq anymore is because there is zero consequence of losing. Imagine that you are on a server, like SOS for example. Teq wins in Sparkfly Fen, and he pushes to Bloodtide Coast. The Bloodtide Coast fight is easier, so the players should win. But let’s say Teq wins, well now he is literally inside Lion’s Arch. All merchants and all services are disabled.

Imagine that you are from the SOS server. What do you do? Well unless you plan to guest on some other server forever, you better push Teq out of your Lion’s Arch. You better get your SOS guilds organized and win against Teq. Or you can ask other servers to guest over to SOS and help you out.

Obviously the fight against Teq inside Lion’s Arch would be “super easy”. And once you force him out he will fully retreat and the whole event sequence reset. We don’t actually want a server to lose Lion’s Arch forever. But you get the idea. The potential to lose is there. Losing to Teq does have consequences.

In the future there can also be living story world events that changes the whole story forever. Saving a town or not. Saving a specific individual or not.

For example, this teenage you saved in this event will eventually become a very powerful mage of a powerful guild, who would help the players in a future world event. If you let him/her die, well too bad that mage won’t help you in the future. He/she is dead, remember? Of course, that same teenager could also become a future villain, so it would have been better to let him/her die. Anet can be so creative with it.

Remember Aiko from GW1? Well saving her or not should have an outcome to the whole future of the story. There are thousands of other kids around that needs saving. There should be a reason why the game is asking you to save her.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Aiko

And I strongly believe this is the direction that GW2 LS should go towards.

The problem is if the world never changes, for better or worst, then it isn’t living.

Yes I agree that some people will be unjustly punished. They won’t be able to access an area, for example. But let’s be honest. There are many “dead zones” in the game right now, where almost no one is in them. Why? Because most players have already moved beyond the level 40-50 range of that zone, for example.

GW2 is also not alt-character friendly at all. Just equipping one character with all ascended gear takes forever. This further lead to this “dead zone” problem we see. Back in GW1, we could find parties for missions even years after the game’s release. Why? Because many players play alt characters, since GW1 was super alt friendly.

I understand that an evolving world won’t be fair to a player of level 40-50, if the event happens to be in that zone. However this game have multiple level 40-50 zones for this very reason. If an event is happening here, level up somewhere else. This game have to cater to the majority, and most people have at least one level 80 by this point.