Guild Wars 2

I will likely make part 5 sometime after the patch.

Here is part 4. I decided to make it before the update by using the screenshots from the previews and a bit of improvisation.

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/escape-lions-arch-qa-part-2

“If this was all planned from the beginning then is there a particular direction that ArenaNet has in regards to where the newest player hub will be? The response is that they are curious how players will resolve the issue of a new player hub.”

It’s definitely not going to “revert” like magic. The entire city is burning and most buildings have collapsed; it’s entirely in ruins.

Nageth.5648:

So Scarlets plan was to make a giant pie and throw it at Lion’s Arch all along.

That wouldn’t surprise me at all.

Toxic Apple Pie.
Molten Crust.
Airship Decorations.
Robotic Metal Pan.

She uses the giant drill to cut the pie.

I’m likely going to continue writing comics like these for every living story release. This is just the beginning.

I also plan to release 3-4 more parts of this piece once the next patch comes.

Nilkemia.8507:

That was great. Thanks for that amusing comic.

Thanks for reading!

I will probably expand it a bit more after the patch is released. I want to get some images of after the invasion first to make the next parts even funnier. c:

And here is part 3. I make these too quickly. :p

Here is a sequel comic that I just made.

blud.8174:

I’m really excited for this, but I won’t be able to be on at the usual times that the patch hits. Will it be like when Mad King Thorn came out of the lion statue where the cutscene repeats every so often? Will I log in to an already destroyed LA? Is it possible that it will be instanced?

I was really looking forward to standing on the lion statue as everything crumbles around me.

They stopped doing the one time events after the whole Karka invasion of Lion’s Arch… Having that one time event caused so many problems with the servers for its entire duration; skills just would not activate, people kept disconnecting, etc.

In addition to the server problems, it’s unfair to people in certain parts of the world that would have to log in at the middle of the night just to play during the one time only event.

It’s better for everyone to just have an instance and then the destroyed LA explorable zone after that.

Yes, her lair will still be there.

Source: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/madness/When-will-Scarlet-s-Secret-Lair-be-closed

inazuma.7021:

So, Scarlet wiped out the Protheans 50,000 years ago?

She also killed Dumbledore.

Riot Inducer.8964:

I am somehow reminded of Mass Effect and trying to convince the Council about the Reapers over and over.

Ah yes, “Scarlet” we have dismissed that claim.

Lol. Now I wish I had included that line. XD

There was this tweet from a GW2 writer a bit back: https://twitter.com/John_J_Ryan/status/417058515035779072

“Writing for February content. Feels like choreographing the invasion of another country, down to the foot soldier.”

Maybe that’s what the writer meant – maybe fixing all of the dialog around the world for this event? Though I’m probably wrong. lol

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Squee Squashington.5189:

“In 1 BE, he (Abaddon) spread magic to the races of Tyria, and thus was indirectly responsible for the wars that came afterward. King Doric pleaded to the gods and they rendered magic into the five Bloodstones, diluting their gift.”

That pretty much encompasses all magic that doesn’t belong to the gods.

You are wrong. There were after all other races before the humans, and they had magic too. So where did their magic come from? Not from the Bloodstones. We also know that the Elder Dragons leak magic into the land while they are asleep, so again, there’s plenty of magic on Tyria that does not originate from the Bloodstones.

“1BE – The human gods give magic to the races of Tyria.”

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Timeline

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defy_Pain_

They should release underwater Hellfire/Radiant breathers as well.

The hub replacing Lion’s Arch after its destruction is the Vigil Keep.

Source: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/02/11/prepare-to-escape-from-lions-arch-in-guild-wars-2s-next-conten/

I do agree with you that the flying castle in Kessex should have something done with it; I wish it could have its own living story release.

eleshazar.6902:

thaooo.5320:

The siege scorpions also get stuck on some miniscule bump in the road every few seconds.

Tip for you on that one: The skill that allows them to burrow can actually be used as a “jump” skill since it doesn’t seem to have the same strict limitations that other ports do.

It does have the same limitations as other teleports – it just has a longer range.

1. Ranger
2. Elementalist
3. Necromancer

They already said all of the stuff LA has will be in Vigil Keep for a while.

" All essential services that are unique to Lion’s Arch will be redirected to Vigil Keep for the time being, including Asura gates to other cities, Fractals of the Mists, and incarcerated cactus-faced troublemakers. Personal story steps will be accessible through a new entrance. Hwang’s team has taken steps to ensure that the city will remain fully explorable for map completion, although if you’re especially fond of a particular view…well, you might want to grab screenshots while you can. We were also warned that exploration isn’t exactly going to be as safe as it currently is. "

http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/02/11/prepare-to-escape-from-lions-arch-in-guild-wars-2s-next-conten/

Emiko.3217:

Just a thought and an interesting possible plot twist here.

Could the 6 gods actually be the 6 elder dragons? I mean, NPC’s have been saying how the spirits doesn’t seem to hear them.

After reading one of the recent lore interviews here on the forums, I’m pretty certain the gods have nothing to do with the dragons. The gods also came to Tyria after the dragons went to sleep thousands of years ago.

" Q: Are the Six [gods] really gone or not? Their power is still very much present. Players can call upon the gods’ power with prayers, NPC priests can summon Reapers of Grenth etc., and their statues are still stuffed with energy. So if they left, why are their power still here?

Jeff Grubb: The human gods still exist, and their power is still felt within Tyria. However, they have pulled back into the mists, leaving the humans to stand (or fall) on their own merits. There has been a tendency for the human gods to, um, meddle with their worshippers a bit much, and in the wake of the final battle of Abaddon, they have been trying to cut back. Also, the destruction of the big A and his replacement with Kormir in the Pantheon resolved one of their ties with physical contact with Tyria. So there are ties, but you just can’t ring them up to take on the Elder Dragons. "

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Dolyak-Express-Jan-10-2014/page/3#post3545340

In the Edge of the Mists you can jump down from the top of the really tall towers into the buckets of water for hidden achievements. Still, a hang glider sounds really cool. :p

I don’t know if these mean anything, but the icons for the Toxic Code Fragment and the Aetherblade Code Fragment have numbers on them.

………………. Toxic Code Fragment ……………….

Reads as: 01011001 or 010 100.

01011001 = Y in binary
010 100 = ??? Unknown

………………. Aetherblade Code Fragment ……………….

1010 = ??? Unknown

………………. Others ……………….

Includes: Watchwork Code Fragment, Molten Code Fragment, Scarlet’s Lockbox Code Fragment

The others may have something hidden in them as well. I’ll attach them. The Molten Code Fragment hnas some blue marking at the top right that I can’t identify. Perhaps an in game language like New Krytan?

ronpierce.2760:

Qaelyn.7612:

Not only do I not think this will happen, I bet perplexity will be further nerfed in PvE as well.

Wouldn’t they have to fix it before nerfing it? I read that none of the confusion durations even work. XD

They said in the stream that they went through all of the runes and made sure to fix any of the runes and sigils that aren’t working correctly. The patch that includes the fixes/changes isn’t until after the next 3 living story releases though.

Thank you all so much for the information! c:

Mikuchan.7261:

All marionette mobs drop them.
And you can use the other cyphers to get more of them as well.

How do you use other cyphers to get more of them?

I have collected and assembled the other 4 cyphers, but this Scarlet’s Lockbox code cypher thing has eluded me. I haven’t the slightest idea of where to get more of them. I don’t even know where I got the ones I currently have.

Does anyone have any information on where to get more of them at?

This has happened to me before; it is definitely unrelated to skill lag (happened before in the middle of the night when hardly anyone was online in WvW). The only thing that I’ve ever done to fix it (other than logging out/changing maps) is to pick up supply in WvW. But you can’t do that in PvE, so the only way I know of to fix it there is to relog.

Yea, the new AoE indicators are really nice. It helps a lot during these big boss fights where I normally wouldn’t be able to see anything.

Randulf.7614:

I think 2 hours is fine for a boss. Otherwise it becomes trivial and farmable (and people would just camp permanantly and block others getting in to that server). WHat it needs is in between activities/events either leading up to it or in the aftermath (depending on win/loss) to keep people occupied. Even if it means taking players to other zones.

This boss is temporary. There’s nothing fine about making a temporary boss be on a very long timer – especially when its the goal for the current living story. They said in one of the interviews on this patch that the marionette wasn’t supposed to be a tequatl level boss – yet, it definitely requires the coordination that tequatl needs – if not 10 times that much.

Ahmrill.7512:

Yeah, some of us have families and work and don’t have time for standing around for hours or guesting everywhere trying to complete the event.

I’d prefer to see the spawn timer reduced

And some of us in general just don’t want to wait around for hours just so we can die on a badly designed boss and pay repair costs for no rewards at all. But your reasons are good too. :p

Ghostextechnica.3270:

Will the utility cooldown bug when exiting DS be fixed?

Will the Lich form not-remembering auto-attack settings bug be fixed?

Will our new heal (Signet of Vampirism) be reworked/improved? Noone uses it.

(Sorry 3 questions but I didn’t want to post 3 times in a row)

Those are all very good questions. The first and third one are the same questions I’d like answers on.

The inability to use heal/utility/elite skills when knocked out of death shroud by damage or running out of life force is a bug.

Why do the races have to be chosen from the playable 5? Why can’t a main npc character be a Largos, a Kodan or a Tengu?

Substance E.4852:

Change it to a quartz node and then maybe…

They already gave out a quartz node for the home instance with the Zephyrite update to those who completed the living story achievements.

Siphoned Power gives you one stack of might every time you’re hit while you’re below 25% health; this trait doesn’t count your current life force as health, so you can get below 25% health and then go into death shroud and get hit a few times to get 25 stacks of might in seconds.

Shrouded Removal is fine; it can be used to break fears or immobilizes (especially useful when fighting thieves who use steal and then give you a 3+ second fear from their stolen ability).

The thing that really needs to be changed in the necromancer traits is the fact that the Power line has Condition Duration, and the Condition Damage line has Precision… The Precision should be in the Power line and the Condition Duration should be in the Condition Damage line.

The Signet of Vampirism is just badly designed in almost every way. The passive cooldown completely kills any usefulness the ability could possibly have; the active cooldown is also really long and the active itself isn’t very useful and also has another cooldown for each hit that you can heal from on the targeted enemy.

This heal has no condition removal, a really high active cooldown, stupid passive cooldowns and low healing in general. There is simply no reason that I would ever use this heal.

If the signet healed the necromancer when the necromancer hits an enemy rather than when the necromancer gets hit… it could have its passive cooldown removed, because there would never be a time when you would heal the necromancer by attacking them.

Leeto.1570:

Every mark cast has different animation already, so your asking for longer cast time on marks so you can better notice that animations are different or what?
Mark of blood – default
Chillblains – hand glows green
Putrid – hand glows black
Reapers – whole animation different and looks like poke with staff

The glow color on the hand doesn’t change the animation; the character animation is still the same on the first 3 even if it has some very tiny and hard to see effect on the necromancer’s hand. As for the fear animation, that doesn’t even work if the necromancer uses Greater marks – it bugs back to the default animation.

An easy way to make it easy to know when to dodge is to make the mark appear at the location it is being cast while it’s being cast – and also to make each mark a different color and make the texture/effect of it a lot brighter and glow (looking at the tiny picture in the middle of the mark isn’t a great way to differentiate the marks, because they’re hard to see and not very well textured).

…………………. My Top 3 Ideas for Horizontal Progression:………………….

1. New Skills/Traits and New Ways of Gaining Them
Adding new skills/weapons/traits to every class will help increase variety; we can also be given new ways to get these skills – perhaps some of them very challenging. See this post:

• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/3422453

Traits/Stats could be redesigned for more flexibility and higher build variety; this would allow for a trait/stat switching system to progress in and unlock new trait/stat pages to switch between in different situations. See this post:

• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/3421233

2. Armor Collection/Unlocking System
This is one of the most important things that this game needs. If we could switch out our skins at any time and play around a lot with our armor look, this game could easily become a lot more about collecting skins instead of collecting better stats. I am a person who likes the idea of collecting every skin in the game, even if it means having to spend money. The reason why I haven’t spent anything is because I feel like if I accidentally use it on the wrong character or delete the item or something, there is nothing that can be done to re-withdraw the skin somewhere and just use it even though it somehow got deleted. See this post:

• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/3421985

3. Achievements and Revisiting Older/Unknown Content
Players have a tendency to not revisit some zones they have already explored; there are some that are just so far off in places that players have no reason to visit that players may see a zone once during exploration and then never visit them again. Achievements can encourage players to revisit these zones and revisit content they may not want to do currently or may not even know exists. See this post:

• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/3437531

There are other ways to encourage exploration of zones; rewards that reduce waypoint costs to zones and give other zone-specific rewards could be a way to get players to revisit them. See this post:

• https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/3421072

I will make a post about the 3 things most important to me in horizontal progression after this post.

…………………. Achievement Progression:………………….

Achievements are a very nice way to progress horizontally. I have come to the point in this game where I feel like the only achievements left for me are really grindy ones for very little AP and dailies/monthlies (I have 12500 AP). There are many things in the game that currently do not award achievement or achievement points for some reason.

Things that could award Achievements:

Leveling characters to 80

• Grants 1AP per level (80AP at level 80)
• Grants 25AP for every unique class leveled to 80

Guild Missions

• It is understandable that when these were released they would not have achievements associated with them because only bigger guilds could get them unlocked so quickly; however, it has been almost a year since their release and many guilds have them unlocked now. They could definitely use some achievements for personal rewards.

Dungeons

• Each dungeon should have an achievement category specifically for it; they should each have a challenging set of achievement for an overall meta-achievement award; this could include a title or perhaps a unique mini or skin only gotten through the achievements. These skins should be account unlocks like achievement tier rewards; perhaps this would be a good place to earn unique back items from each dungeon, which dungeons (other than fractals) do not yet have.
• Award players each week for how many unique dungeon paths they did; this would encourage players to do more dungeons rather than just the same few paths every day to gain gold. This could award achievement points and also some extra rewards.

Other various ideas

• Gathering
• Revisiting already explored locations (perhaps by encouraging doing specific jumping puzzles, dungeons, or even just reviewing any vista cinematic in a specific zone).
• Upgrading bag slots, bank slots, collection slots (reward how many bank slots an account has unlocked with a few AP, etc.)
• Collecting skins/minis/finishers/tonics/etc. (and implementation of a skin/other things collection system).
• Spending gold/other currencies (Even if it does not award achievement points – I’d like to see how much gold I’ve spent tracked in some way).
• Quests or Side Storylines (Perhaps implement Quests or extra Side-Storylines of some sort in the game; as long as these quests are not terrible tasks like “go collect 3 weak bloods from those bats 10 zones away and come bring them to me.” They should be important stories in the world that feel like they have an actual impact on something.)

Weekly Achievements

• Awarding players for weekly achievements could be interesting and help out the game in many ways that it needs; it could help encourage players to do a variety of things. These could award achievement points and also extra rewards based on how much you did in the week.
• Ideas: Unique dungeon paths to encourage running less-played dungeon paths, unique world bosses done in the week to encourage doing many different events, unique zones visited to encourage exploration and revisiting already explored zones, unique daily achievements to encourage logging in on multiple days a week, etc.

Fortus.6175:

No.

Currently there is little to nothing you can do to a warrior who already bolts across WvW faster than Usain.

It is fine the way it is, in fact, it is there specifically and purposely to counter stability.

Hope that helps. /cheers

Warriors have a trait that removes immobilize when they use a running skill.

After having just done the Vigil storyline on one of my alts, I noticed that this table with the map and things on it are not in the instance. There isn’t a trace of any of that stuff.

After I completed the joining the Vigil parts of the personal storyline, I went in and now the map is there. Screenshots attached.

…………………. Unlocking New Skills:………………….

Currently the way to unlock most skills is just buying them with skill points in the hero menu. Certain skills should be obtained through different, fun and challenging methods. Some skills may only be unlocked through new and challenging content, but some may be only skill points, some may be unlocked through a choice of the two, or a combination of both.

New Methods of Gaining Skills:

• Completing a certain Dungeon Path (such as Arah path 3 for a new necromancer skill)
• Defeating a certain enemy (such as Giganticus Lupicus, Subject Alpha, Shadow Behemoth, Fire Elemental, Tequatl the Sunless, the Statue of Dwayna, etc)
• Finishing a jumping puzzle or open world mini-dungeon.
• Living Story or Personal Storyline instances

New Skill Types

There could also be exclusive skills to places like World versus World, the Orders of Tyria (Whispers, Vigil, Priory), and other choices made during the personal storyline.

WvW Exclusive Skills Example:

Engineer – Elite Skill – Demolish: Place a time bomb on target wall or gate that will explode after 2 minutes if it is not destroyed; the explosion will instantly demolish the wall or gate. The bomb will take 50 Supply to build and has 150,000 health. Cooldown: 600s

• Method of Obtaining: Reach rank 500 in WvW and then spend 25 skill points on it.

Order Exclusive Example:
Whispers – Necromancer – Elite (Spectral Skill) – Spectral Invisibility: The necromancer becomes a spirit and is stealthed for 3 seconds; the necromancer may continue using other skills while transformed. Cooldown: 15s

• Method of Obtaining: Join the Order of Whispers on any character on your account and then spend 25 skill points on it.

Vigil – Warrior – Elite (Shout skill) – Confusing Shout: Nearby enemies are dazed for 3 seconds and given 10 stacks of confusion for 10 seconds. Radius: 900. Cooldown: 30s

• Method of Obtaining: Join the Vigil on any character on your account and then spend 25 skill points on it.

Other Content Rewarding Skills, Example:
Necromancer – Elite (Corruption skill) – Gorgon’s Stare: The Necromancer is Immobilized for 3 seconds. Turn enemies in target cone to stone for 3 seconds. Range: 600, Angle(cone): 90 degrees. Cooldown: 30s

• Method of Obtaining: Defeat the Statue of Dwayna in Malchor’s Leap with this character.

Elementalist – Elite (Cantrip skill) – Vibrating Earth: Send out 3 pulsating waves over 3 seconds through the ground that will knock down enemies for 1 second, damage them heavily, inflict 5 stacks of Torment, inflict 3 stacks of Bleeding, and Cripple them for 3 second with each wave. This skill casts instantly and does not interrupt other skills. Radius: 1200. Cooldown: 60s

• Method of Obtaining: Defeat the Molten Berserker in the Fractals of the Mists with this character.

…………………. Armor and Weapons: ………………….

There are currently many different places that could be more rewarding in the game and allow the player to progress toward something they want to show off what they like to do in the game. Places like jumping puzzles, Fractals of the Mists, and guild missions could get exclusive armor sets and weapons that you can unlock only by collecting their tokens.

• Each jumping puzzle you do could reward 1 Lost Token. These Lost Tokens can be traded eventually for armor or weapons from a collector in Lion’s Arch. The armor and weapons from jumping puzzles should have a theme of exploration, discovery, secrets, and intelligence shown off in them; perhaps weapons and armor made of clouds, magical runes, feathers and light.
• Fractals already grant tokens, but the weapons are still RNG drops and there is no armor set – only a back piece and weapons; a Fractals armor set could potentially look amazing if it has the same theme as the weapons.
• Guild Missions have an exclusive weapon set already, but releasing an exclusive guild armor set for Guild Commendations would be a great idea as well. If they use the same theme as the weapons, they might look absolutely amazing.

Permanent Unlocks

Additionally, unlocking any of these skins should unlock them on your account or character permanently; after which, the player may re-use the skin on as many times as they want. The same should be done for pretty much any skin in Guild Wars 2; most should be soul-bound unlocks, but some could unlock on the entire account permanently (like the Hall of Monuments skins and the Achievement point skins).

The Living Story has a habit of releasing one-time only skins that can only be applied to one piece of armor and never is usable again; instead, these skins from the Living Story should be permanent account unlocks that may be applied over and over.

Structured PvP and WvW should also reward exclusive unlocks that can be used infinitely on the player’s account; these two modes currently offer very little in terms of rewards overall, but if they rewarded exclusive skins, finishers and whatever else, I know I would play them simply to unlock those types of things.

Gem Store – Exclusive Rewards

The same unlock system should be done for any armor or weapon sets purchased in the gem store; they should be usable as many times as the player wants on their account. If someone spends ten dollars to buy a skin, it should definitely be usable as many times as they want for any character.

Speaking of the Gem Store, to reward players who actually buy gems with real money and support this game being free, Arenanet could reward exclusive armor and weapons to players. The more gems they buy with real money, the more unlocks they can choose.

There would be a full range of items to choose from: all weapon types, boots, shoulders, chest, leggings, helm, gloves, back pieces, aqua breathers and perhaps even mini pets, town toys, finishers, or tonics; there could potentially be other items as well. There may also be temporary awards (like a Royal Pass); adding in Royal Passes will encourage players to continually spend gems to keep their royal pass active.

Reward Ideas (every 400 Gems bought):

• 400 Lifetime Gems Bought: Choose one of the following Weapons, Armor pieces, Back Pieces, Mini pets, Toys, Finishers, or Tonics from this exclusive set; this will unlock it permanently on your account. Also awards 1 Royal Pass (2 weeks), and a random item from the Gem Store.
• 800 Lifetime Gems Bought: Choose one of the following Weapons, Armor pieces, Back Pieces, Mini pets, Toys, Finishers, or Tonics from this exclusive set; this will unlock it permanently on your account. Also awards 1 Royal Pass (2 weeks), and a random item from the Gem Store.
• 1200 Lifetime Gems Bought: Choose one of the following Weapons, Armor pieces, Back Pieces, Mini pets, Toys, Finishers, or Tonics from this exclusive set; this will unlock it permanently on your account. Also awards 1 Royal Pass (2 weeks), and a random item from the Gem Store.
• 1600 Lifetime Gems Bought: Choose one of the following Weapons, Armor pieces, Back Pieces, Mini pets, Toys, Finishers, or Tonics from this exclusive set; this will unlock it permanently on your account. Also awards 1 Royal Pass (2 weeks), and a random item from the Gem Store.
• 2000 Lifetime Gems Bought: Choose one of the following Weapons, Armor pieces, Back Pieces, Mini pets, Toys, Finishers, or Tonics from this exclusive set; this will unlock it permanently on your account. Also awards 1 Royal Pass (2 weeks), and a random item from the Gem Store.

…………………. Traits System Remake: ………………….

Build variety, versatility and accessibility can easily increase the fun of playing through the game. Right now, certain traits that would be fun and great on many builds are out of reach because the stats that the line gives or because certain traits feel forced just to get to a later trait in that line.

Stats:

If the traits and stats were separated, the player would be able to choose the traits they want without being bound to stats that they don’t want – for example, critical damage on a condition build.

Players will be given a certain amount of stat points to put into the different stats available; there are 140 Stat Points available (at level 80). The maximum amount of Stat Points that may be used on a single stat is 30. Each stat point will grant the stat either +10 or 1%, depending on the stat.

• +10: Power, Precision, Condition Damage, Healing Power, Toughness, Vitality
• +1%: Critical Damage, Boon Duration, Condition Duration, Class Mechanic

Traits

The way traits are picked can be remade to be far better and more versatile; players should be given the ability to choose a certain amount of adept traits, master traits and grandmaster traits. Traits will not be locked into specific lines like Death Magic and Curses – instead, traits wanted by the player will be chosen from the total pool of traits available from that tier or below.

So, a character will be able to use 7 Adept Traits, 5 Master Traits and 3 Grandmaster Traits. Master Trait slots can also be filled with Adept traits, and Grandmaster trait slots can also be filled with Master or Adept traits. The exact number of traits per tier may be adjusted as necessary.

Trait and Stat Templates

Players should also be able to save a few templates of different stat sets and trait sets; the player should be able to buy Stat and Trait pages with either 25 skill points or 50 gems. There should be a maximum amount of Trait or Stat Templates available per character (likely around 10 or so).

Example Images Attached!

…………………. ENCOURAGING EXPLORATION: ………………….

There are many zones that are empty or nearly empty at most times because there are little to no reasons to visit them after world exploration. Encouraging players to revisit these zones might not be too hard.

The idea I have is that the Asurans want the players to collect data from various things in different zones and with each bit of data collected, the player’s account gets reduced waypoint costs to that zone permanently.

Collecting data would be done through many different tasks; each one would acquire a certain amount of data. There would be diminishing returns (like getting Luck for more magic find), so it would be hard to reduce waypoint costs to zero; still, it would reduce waypoint costs to the zone and players will feel like they are progressing in certain zones while collecting data when just having fun doing pretty much anything.

Data Collection Ideas:

World Exploration (points of Interest, Vistas, etc.)

• Reward: +3 (per PoI, Vista, etc.)

General Exploration (just roaming the map and passively collecting data)

• Reward: +1 (per 5000 range treaded by your character)

Collecting Skill Points

• Reward: +5 (Per skill point gained)

Completing Events or Heart Tasks (if the zone has any of these)

• Reward: +3 (per event/heart task completed)

Collecting Lost Asuran Data Crystals (hidden throughout the zone)

• Reward: +500 Data (each Data crystals is a one time only find)

Vanquishing Certain Enemy Types (Destroyers, Inquest, Risen, etc.)

• Reward: +1 (For every 10 of one type killed)

Completing a Dungeon in that Zone

• Reward: +25 (Per path completed)

Killing Champions

• Reward: +3 (Per champion killed)

Jumping Puzzles

• Reward: +25 (Per puzzle completed)

Gathering (trees, plants, etc.)

• Reward: +1 (Per item gathered)

Speaking with NPCs

• Reward: (Case by Case basis)

Personal Storyline Completion (within the zone)

• Reward: (Case by Case basis)

Living Story Completion (within the zone)

• Reward: (Case by Case basis)

Achievement Points (while in the zone)

• Reward: +1 Data (per Achievement Point gained)

Guild Missions (within the zone)

• Reward: +50 Data (per mission)

Progression and Diminishing Returns:

Level 1:

• Requires: 100 Data
• Reward: -1% Waypoint Costs to this zone

Level 2:

• Requires: 200 Data
• Reward: -1% Waypoint Costs to this zone

And so on… The amount of Data needed should increase with each level – perhaps by 100 per level; the reward will be the same with each level gained. At Data level 100, the player will have 100% reduced waypoint costs in that zone (although 100% is unlikely to be reached with diminishing returns).

Continuing rewards:

This data collection could continue past Data level 100 for extra rewards; perhaps +1% magic find, or karma gain, or coin gain, or experience gain while in the zone for every Data level gained past that – up to a maximum of Data level 300 or something along those lines, where the player would have +200% magic find while in that zone. This could also allow the data collection to work on World versus World maps by allowing the player to just get extra magic find through Data collection (because waypoints are already free in WvW).

Level 101:

• Requires: 10,100 Data
• Reward: +1% Magic Find while in this Zone

Level 102:

• Requires: 10,200 Data
• Reward: +1% Magic Find while in this Zone

Necromancers are really useful in HotW path 1 because of those dreaded wolves near the start of the dungeon; just use the blinding well (and plague blind) on them and have your team dps them if they’re ever pulled. It makes that part so much easier instead of an instead death if the wolves are pulled accidentally.

Also, because of the way the final boss has shrines giving him protection and regeneration a ton of the time, necromancers can remove those boons and also give him poison to reduce healing. Much of the time, condition necromancers will be doing more damage than all others in their group at this part because of them being so focused on melee combat (which you can’t do very easily against that guy) and their ranged weapons will do very little.

I think the signet’s passive should cause the necromancer to steal health when hitting an enemy, not when being hit by an enemy; the passive is uncontrollable and badly made. It’s also just a bad heal in so many ways:
-Long cooldown, low healing
-Need to be hit for passive heal
-No condition removal
-Low active healing
-Annoying passive cooldown (unaffected by signet cooldown trait)

Of course, if they made it so the necromancer steals health when hitting an enemy, ranged weapons (especially the staff with its many aoe abilities) would be a bit too powerful, so the healing should be more potent while wielding a melee weapon and weaker when wielding a ranged weapon.

Signet of Vampirism

Passive: Steal health when hitting an enemy. Health stolen is tripled while wielding a melee weapon.

Active: Heal yourself. For the next few seconds, you and nearby allies steal extra health from enemies; healing is tripled when wielding a melee weapon.

Passive Life Steal (ranged): 75
Passive Life Steal (melee): 225
Active Initial Heal: 5240 (+1.0 Healing Power)
Active Life Steal (ranged): 125
Active Life Steal (melee): 375
Active Duration: 5s
Channel: 1s
Cooldown: 20s

I searched on the trading post for the Recipe: Light of Dwayna and it’s not even on there. It seems that it’s supposed to be sellable, but it’s likely bugged still.