Guild Wars 2

The storyline and characters aren’t fleshed out enough to warrant a movie. They would definitely have to expand on certain parts of the lore (such as the Pale Tree possibly being a champion of the jungle dragon), improve certain characters (Trahearne, namely), and slow the pace down into multiple movies to warrant a film adaptation.

All of them.

Seriously. There is no reason not to eventually expand and improve upon the weapons options available to everyone. One of the game’s main problems is lack of variety.

I was thinking that these weapons should eventually be added (and this is not counting new weapon types):

Warrior – Torch
Guardian – Axe, OH Axe, OH Sword, OH Mace, Longbow
Ranger – Rifle, (Martial) Staff, OH Sword, MH Dagger, MH/OH Pistol
Thief – (Martial) Staff, Rifle, OH Sword, MH/OH Mace
Engineer – Hammer, MH/OH Mace, Torch
Elementalist – Longbow, Rifle, Greatsword, MH/OH Sword, Torch
Necromancer – Greatsword, OH Axe, Torch, MH/OH Mace, MH/OH Sword.
Mesmer – MH Pistol, Rifle, Shortbow, MH/OH dagger, Warhorn

Most profession boards seem rather decisive about which weapons they would like to see added to their profession, but the Elementalist seems more scattered – and with good reason. Aside from the Engineer, we have the fewest available weapon sets while being one of the professions that could logically use the most weapons in interesting ways. I’ve seen swords, torches, maces, greatswords, hammer, longbow, and rifle suggested.

So let’s put it to the vote – Choose one 2h weapon or two MH/OH weapons that you would like to see added to the profession in a future update. Nothing is not a valid answer. Think of it as a game, if nothing else.

What if 25 points gave you something uniquely tactical, like:

Whenever an ally within range falls below x% health, they are healed for y amount and lose a condition. This cannot trigger on the same ally more than once every z seconds.

Jemmi.6058:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Jemmi.6058:

The lack of trinity isn’t a problem, it is just one possible solution to the ‘problem’ of mindless DPS play. Your suggestion of improved mechanics and combo systems would also work. Some of us also do like the trinity system, personally healing is my favourite.

The trinity has its place, but it shouldn’t have a place in every MMORPG. Guild Wars 2 should keep the non-trinity system that it promised. The system that makes it unique and will hopefully come to define a few other quality MMOs in the future.

I agree, sadly, that GW2 should keep it’s place as a non-trinity system. That is what it was advertised as, so it would definitely be a bad idea to go back on that.

That said, healer has always been my favourite class, and in any other RPG game, it’s the class I choose. For now, I am having loads of fun with my Mesmer

“Healers” still exist. They are just no longer dedicated to just healing. Off the top of my head, I can think of:

Elementalist – heals his party significantly and removes conditions when swapping to water attunement. Has multiple area heals.

Guardian – heals allies on dodge. Heals with Staff. Heals with Mace. Can full heal everyone with one of the skills on his Tome of Courage. And more.

Ranger – Healing Spring is incredible – heals on cast, applies regen, and removes conditions, as well as constituting a water field for allies to blast finish for more heals. Moa pets pack some significant party healing. Rangers arguably benefit more from Healing Power than any other profession.

Engineer – Bomb engineers can spam ~300 health AoE heals while dealing pretty good damage to nearby foes.

Basically, your healer still exists. You just need to utilize more creativity and fill other roles in addition to that party healing. Just because you no longer have groups waiting for half an hour to find you doesn’t mean that you’re no longer of any use.

Vanthian.9267:

3) Trait support? There is literally only 3 trait that affects the greatsword.

Now the traits that affect the greatsword: “Forceful Greatsword” which reduces cool down by 20% and gives might on critical for greatsword and spear. “Slashing Power”, which increases the damage by 10% of both spear and greatsword. Then you also have “Blademaster” which increases critical hit chance by 10% while welding a sword.

….and there you have it! All of those plentiful traits…… all three of them…..out of 60 total traits… for a percentage of 5%. So… 5% of the Warrior’s trait are for greatsword (including the ones that do something for other weapons as well).

Quickly looking over the ranger traits it seems they have 2 traits that affect the greatsword (as well as other things). So they have 3.333% of all their traits for greatsword… Of which you get a damage increase by half the amount of the Warriors and get the same cooldown reduction but no might on critical.

This is funny because most weapons for any given profession do not have 3 or more traits supporting them – in fact, quite a few don’t even have one.

Forceful Greatsword is so far superior to Martial Mastery that it isn’t even funny. Martial forces you to go a melee-only Ranger to get its full benefit, which is only cooldown reduction. Forceful Greatsword is one of the best cooldown reduction traits in the game.

The 5% damage increase from Two Handed Training is a joke considering it requires you to spec 20 points into the worst trait line for the Ranger profession – a trait line that has little to no synergy with the Greatsword.

Couple this with the fact that the Ranger’s GS does less base damage than the Warrior’s even when you factor the pet in. Why? It’s a defensive weapon. A defensive weapon with terrible trait support that is blatantly outclassed by the Ranger’s 1-handed sword for both offense and defense.

Do the Warrior’s need some quality of life improvements such as more sustain and group support? Yes. Do they need buffs to Rush just because Swoop has a lower cooldown? No.

Frankly, the fact that anyone is expressing envy over the Ranger’s “advantages” is quite frankly absurd.

Jemmi.6058:

The lack of trinity isn’t a problem, it is just one possible solution to the ‘problem’ of mindless DPS play. Your suggestion of improved mechanics and combo systems would also work. Some of us also do like the trinity system, personally healing is my favourite.

The trinity has its place, but it shouldn’t have a place in every MMORPG. Guild Wars 2 should keep the non-trinity system that it promised. The system that makes it unique and will hopefully come to define a few other quality MMOs in the future.

By reworking skill 1 to deal normal damage instead of bleeding, you nerf P/D, a more fun and interesting set than P/P.

I support this.

You’re a funny, funny guy.

Okay, I’ll humor you:

Why does the Warrior’s greatsword have 2 movement abilities while the Ranger’s only has Swoop?

Why does the Warrior’s greatsword hit 5 targets while the Ranger’s hits 3?

Why does the Warrior’s greatsword have much better trait support?

Why does the Warrior’s greatsword deal more damage than the Ranger and his pet put together?

You’re comparing apples to oranges. You can’t compare one ability from each weapon and say “Class x is worse off because Class y has a superior skill z.”

Auesis.7301:

quote=1849874;PopeUrban.2578:]Also MrForz, I’m struggling to find the point you’re trying to make. o_O

That’s because there isn’t one.

I hope this is the case. It would make underwater legendaries a viable option for those who want some more subtle legendary particles with their choice of land weapons.

I don’t think this is the way to approach boss reworks. Perhaps some of them could have AoE patterns (or AoE patterns could be part of the stage in which you fight them), but it should be just that.

Currently, Banners are clunky and encourage a more stationary playstyle than Shouts, which limits their usefulness in most situations. It’s a shame, given that they are the most support-oriented part of the Warrior’s design.

My rework is this. May need rebalancing.

Banners now work like pseudo-kits, applying a constant passive effect

Equipping banners throws them on your character’s back, turning him into a minor mobile aura. The buffs wouldn’t be quite as powerful as signets, but they would be noticeable.

Something along the lines of +25 to each attribute granted by the non-elite banners and 1 second of fury, might, swiftness that pulses every 3-5 seconds for the elite banner.

Banners now have no cooldown

Placing them at your current location converts them into a stationary aura, increasing their aura effects to the current numbers.

Once placed, Banners have secondary actives

Yes, once you place your banner, it now gains an active ability, much like the actives of Engineer turrets. Unlike the Banners themselves, the actives actually do have a cooldown.

Battle Standard revives downed allies, grants AoE stability and performs a Blast finisher with its active. Huge cooldown of 240 seconds.

Banner of Defense pushes foes away from it and performs a Blast finisher with its active. (30 second cooldown)

Banner of Discipline grants AoE fury and performs a Blast finisher with its active. (30 second cooldown)

Banner of Strength deals AoE damage and vulnerability and performs a Blast finisher with its active. (30 second cooldown)

Banner of Tactics performs an AoE heal and a Blast finisher with its active. (30 second cooldown)

Note that banner actives have had their cooldowns increased to balance their other reworked effects and their added convenience. The Battle Standard active now has the cooldown that Battle Standard itself used to, but has also been greatly buffed to carry the primary purpose of Battle Standard).

New Banner Traits

Powerful Banners (Strength, Adept)
Banners increase the damage output of allies in their radius by 5% while placed.

Inspiring Banners (Tactics, Adept)
Banners apply their bonuses to a larger area. Banner active abilities recharge 20% faster.

Inspiring Battle Standard (Tactics, Master)
Banners now apply regeneration to allies while placed.

Banner Field (Tactics, Grandmaster)
When Banners are placed, they now radiate a constant combo field over a small area. This combo field does not do anything but serve as a combo field for the sake of finishers.

Battle Standard = Light
Banner of Strength = Fire
Banner of Discipline = Lightning
Banner of Defense = Ice
Banner of Compassion = Water

New Tactics Minors (current ones are now Majors)

Adept – Empower Allies

Grants allies +70 power.

Master – Empowered

Increases damage for every boon on you.

Grandmaster – Desperate Power

Deal 20% extra damage while under 25% health.

clay.7849:

Vayne.8563:

clay.7849:

Vayne.8563:

clay.7849:

Vayne.8563:

Nick.6972:

Most of the classes/skills in GW2 are not balanced too, GW1 wasn’t balanced, but at least it offered more diversity, hell, how hard was it to increase the Shadow Form CD to 1 minute as it was back in 2007?

There is such a huge difference in the type of imbalance we’re talking about here. The way Guild Wars 1 was set up, there was just no possible way to balance it. I mean, you think 4 zerker warriors and a mesmer are anything like a perma-sin, or a rank 8 ursan? Totally different level of unbalanced.

Imagine if you told Guild Wars 2 players today that a character could make himself immune to damage permanently. Or that a single player, like an imbagon paragon could mitigate 90% of the parties incoming damage with almost 100% up time. People would think you were mad.

Yes, this game has some balance issues, but they’re nowhere near as bad as the stuff that came up in Guild Wars 1.

Balance became a problem after they introduced new skills and classes, which GW2 has neither done and which you yourself agree they should not do without balancing things first.

The fact is that GW1 WAS balanced early in the game. It was much more balanced in the first year of prophecies than GW2 is now in its first year.

The problem is that they’re GOING to introduce more. NO MMO is going to leave skills untouched forever. So starting here, where it can be balanced is the smart thing to do long term.

In a perfect world people don’t get bored of the same skills. In this world they do. Therefore, for the long term health of the game, starting this way is smarter. As more skills come out, the game becomes deeper.

I’m must saying that the introduction of new skills created imbalance in GW1. It is my opinion that the balance in the game now is way off compared to Prophecies. Actually, I think the balance is way off in general. Not between professions, but between making something other than direct damage the best and only route to winning.

I agree that they will need to add more skills to keep people happy. Doing that responsibly would be appreciated. But, fixing team combat now would be nice first.

What makes you think they’re not fixing it? I just think they’re not fixing it fast enough. It’s the whole patience thing. It takes time for MMOs to shake the kinks out. Time often measured in years, not months.

Sorry, but I don’t really have years of patience for a company that has progressively made its product worse and worse with every expansion or new product, in my opinion.

What? Factions was a huge upgrade to Prophecies. I mean, yeah, the Kaineng part of Cantha sucked, as did the sewers under it, but the mob design was generally fun to fight, the soundtrack was the best in Guild Wars 1, Alliance Battles and Competitive Missions were a fun, casual pvp gimmick, Challenge Missions were an interesting feature, the new elite dungeons were a great addition, the story was better told than that of Prophecies, the new professions were fun, and the Kurzick and Luxon maps were gorgeous.

There was nothing “bad” about Factions as a whole. Nor was there anything wrong with Nightfall’s gameplay – though the maps were most definitely lacking and the Paragon did nothing good for game balance.

Ordika.9513:

I always wondered why they didn’t design Warrior banners Samurai style, in that they were placed on your back and the buff traveled with you.

Then the trait line for banners would have 2 5pt level buff to increase range and effectiveness and then a Grandmaster skill to allow you to have more then one on your back at a time.

This would mean that the Warrior now basically carries around a group signet, if they don’t spec Grandmaster they have to decide which to use and when. You could even go so far as to remove signets from Warriors, so that unused banner provide a minor passive buff to the Warrior alone.

This suggestion is fantastic, though I might retool it a bit. Retool the banners to each have one active skill while they are carried on your back – the active appears on your F2-F4 slots.

Edit:

Scratch the f2-f4 thing. It’s stupid. Just have the utility/elite keys place their selective banners and then, once played, replace the skill with an active unique to that banner. When used, the active buff (such as Fury for the Pre/Crit damage banner) will be applied in an area. The blast finisher when banners are manually placed through skill 5 while wielding them could be moved to either when Banners are summoned or, more likely, to the post-placement active skill.

A new feature at character creation. When you make your character – or the next time you login for established characters – design your very own NPC companion using the same character creation system as your current one, with the added addition of a limited list of armor skins.

You meet this companion during an upcoming Living Story chapter and they appear alongside you in all future living story missions. Once you have met them, you also have the option of bringing them into any Personal Story missions.

Also, you can dictate their role and that changes them through presets. Full set of customizations:

Appearance, Class, Race, and Gender – just like your character

Friend, Love Interest, or Rival

A few personality type presets that affect dialogue

Build can be customized at any time.

The game is dying in the same way a man who just stepped on a nail is dying from blood loss – in other words, not very quickly, nor very likely.

I think the game is fun, but the lack of build options and poor class balance and mob + dungeon design scar that fun a good bit and limit longevity. These are entirely fixable issues and will probably be more or less resolved within the next year.

The game isn’t a grind unless you make it one. You don’t need that legendary. You don’t need the negligible stat bonus from ascended gear. You don’t need to spend all day running Fractals or CoF. Exotic gear is not that difficult to earn and can be earned in a solid number of ways. Every bit of content is viable to a degree and the world is a beautiful place to explore and experience.

For the next prestige gathering tool, how about a woodcutting axe that makes your character say “And my axe!” when he/she starts chopping the tree, producing slash animations as he/she does so?

Ah! No! Bad Mr. Chewy! Not there!

I’d prefer a full Quaggan outfit made from a giant Quaggan pelt. Write “totally not Urf” in the description.

RebelYell.7132:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

poe lyfe.5879:

it should be a passive effect for vigor. like 25% evade chance.

Absolutely not. Passive hit/miss chance is one of the single worst game mechanics possible and I will have none of it in my Guild Wars 2.

It’s a heck of a lot better mechanic than dodgerolling a badly telegraphed attack. “Your” GW2 stinks, mate.

No, it isn’t. “My” Guild Wars 2 easily deserves a 9/10. A year or two, and it’ll be nigh perfect if Anet has half a brain cell.

poe lyfe.5879:

it should be a passive effect for vigor. like 25% evade chance.

Absolutely not. Passive hit/miss chance is one of the single worst game mechanics possible and I will have none of it in my Guild Wars 2.

It’s not supposed to pay for itself to most players. It’s a limited time prestige item that offers new animations and convenience. It just so happens that usage of the item reduces its price over time by saving you money on picks, eventually paying off its cost for a small percentage of players.

If they released unlimited use prestige axes and sickles, I’d buy them too.

Geotherma.2395:

2k ish.
/15kittens

By Balthazar’s beard!

Zaxares.5419:

Sooo… 5 Black Peppercorns, 5 Chili Peppers, 5 Cayenne Peppers and 5 Ghost Peppers? And when you eat it, your character bursts into flames and dies?

That reminds me of when I was in the level 1-15 Charr zone during beta and ate the spicy barbeque sauce for that one dynamic event until it killed me. It was worth it.

nachtnebel.9168:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

RebelYell.7132:

Box cost only, and shame on you for encouraging Fractals + Flame&Frost + “balancing” efforts otherwise.

Dead companies release no updates.

True, but on the other hand companies also don’t change their behavior while constumers still throw money at them.

Which is why you don’t go out of your way to support a company that you want to improve.

If you see something you want enough to buy (which is truly saying something in a game with a gold to gem conversion) then go ahead. You aren’t making a statement or intentionally throwing lots of money their way. You just got something you wanted and they got something they wanted in return.

RebelYell.7132:

Box cost only, and shame on you for encouraging Fractals + Flame&Frost + “balancing” efforts otherwise.

Dead companies release no updates.

The collector’s edition plus about $120 give or take. Worth every penny and more.

These dyes, which are found only in standard Unidentified Dyes or in gem store Dye Packs are of exotic rarity and provide special patterns to the dye slot of your armor when applied. You then choose which colors to go with it through a seperate menu option when a pattern is applied.

Some basic examples:

Checkerboard/Chessboard Dye – a pattern of alternating squares

Diamonds – A diamond pattern.

Horizontal, Vertical, and Diagonal Stripes (found separately)

Star spangled.

Rainbow – Obviously doesn’t follow the “choose your colors” feature of other patterns.

And more.

The effect is nice and it provides convenience through never having to carry backup picks, which also saves storage space. So what if it doesn’t pay for itself within a realistic span of time. Convenience is priceless (or $10.)

A Mesmer was my Guild Wars 1 main, though the term “main” is loose here.

My Guild Wars 2 main is an Elementalist.

No relation between the two.

To roleplay as a particular character, be attractive/kitten in a more conventional way, and enjoy what is (in my opinion) the best armor selection of the races.

Volrath.1473:

Daecollo.9578:

MrForz.1953:

Volrath.1473:

Does it come with a new panda race to?

Absolutely, with new ninja stuff even if the Thief has absolutely NOTHING to do with all of that.

(Plus I don’t see my charr using that kind of weapon)

Arabian Thieves used Staffs.

thieves use small weapons

Edit: About your vid that is an Assassin, not a thief and double light-sabers are small weapons when concealed, not exactly a long piece of wood…

In what way are Guild Wars 2 Thieves not Assassins? Literally the only thing defining them as a “thief” is the profession mechanic which is incredibly tacked on.

6/10. 7/10 maybe. The hair is a bit plain for the face and facial hair combination. It’s not bad by any means, but isn’t distinctive either.

Merlinus Rook, my Elementalist.

I’m a poor judge of Asian names, so I’ll just say 7-8/10. Looks well enough.

Merlinus Rook, a laid-back, snarky Elementalist with a lust for adventure and fame.

Are you kidding? The old Sylvari racial concept was terrible. Green skinned humans with effeminate forms and bad hair. The new Sylvari concept is interesting, unique, and has more potential for customization than any other race in the game.

That said, I would like to see more face templates that don’t suck. There are like 2-3 decent faces each for males and females with a lot of poor hair options.

Daecollo.9578:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Daecollo.9578:

The Shadow Kick would be low damage “knock-back” it is spammable, but its not a knock-down, the people getting knocked back do not lose control of there characters for long, its mostly just an interrupt.

The Spin attack is high damage, but it has low range, so you have to be in your enemies face.

The rush ability needs adjusting, maybe “Cure a condition, small heal, give 4 fury/swiftness?” its more of an ability that lets you stay in the fight.

Cobra Stance is just cool, we need a tanky type weapon.

I just fail to see how a generic spin attack, Cobra Stance (which is less interesting than the same move that can be activated a second time to grant AoE aegis), a gap closer that immediately recreates the gap (in other words pointless), and a ridiculously op perma fury/might/swiftness gap closer is at all better conceptually than what I put forth.

Uh, its not really OP, its only 3-4 seconds. Since you quoted that link.
I was thinking more “Sith Assassin” style staff. With magic/melee. Maybe Life-taping attacks and kicks.

“Swiftness/Fury = Sustained Damage.”
“Healing some how, maybe via attacks.”
“High Mobility, No Stealth.”

Your original link stated that the skill gave 10 seconds of each, which on a 3 initiative skill is ridiculous. Hell, it might be ridiculous on a 6 initiative skill. And frankly, I find broken English to be a chore to sift through.

Balance aside, I still fail to see why your concept is much different from what we already have. It’s just not all that interesting.

Daecollo.9578:

The Shadow Kick would be low damage “knock-back” it is spammable, but its not a knock-down, the people getting knocked back do not lose control of there characters for long, its mostly just an interrupt.

The Spin attack is high damage, but it has low range, so you have to be in your enemies face.

The rush ability needs adjusting, maybe “Cure a condition, small heal, give 4 fury/swiftness?” its more of an ability that lets you stay in the fight.

Cobra Stance is just cool, we need a tanky type weapon.

I just fail to see how a generic spin attack, Cobra Stance (which is less interesting than the same move that can be activated a second time to grant AoE aegis), a gap closer that immediately recreates the gap (in other words pointless), and a ridiculously op perma fury/might/swiftness gap closer is at all better conceptually than what I put forth.

Killsmith.8169:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Killsmith.8169:

One thing to keep in mind is that the skill coefficients are better on the warrior. I just did a little testing in the heart of the mists and it looks like the greatsword has about a .7 coefficient for the warrior’s auto attack, while the ranger gets a 0.55. That means they get about 27% more damage per point of power.

Hundred blades has a power coefficient of ~.55 on each of the first 8 hits and ~1.1 on the final hit. That’s huge. Maul, on the other hand, gets a 1.5 coefficient.

So to compare, hundred blades gets 5.5 damage per point of power, maul gets 1.5. I don’t think pets are ever going to pick up that much slack.

The thing that really makes no sense to me is that a class that reduces damage by dodging a lot has a bunch of skills designed to do constant mediocre damage. You can’t do damage while dodging, so if rangers dodge more, shouldn’t the skills be a little more bursty so they don’t hurt our damage as much?

Hundred Blades is a non-mobile channeled skill with an 8 second cooldown that relies on stun/knockdown/immobilize utilities to make it connect (which in turn rely on foes not carrying stun breaks).

Maul is a mobile, standard skill with a 6 second cooldown that also applies 3 bleeds for 6 seconds, while the Ranger also has pets at his/her disposal to help make up for the damage gap and provide utility.

This is a real apples to oranges comparison, especially considering that Maul isn’t the problem of the Greatsword. The low coefficients on the auto-attack chain and/or the fact that it can’t make up for the MH Sword’s higher damage and perma cripple are the issue.

It’s absolutely a valid comparison in some parts of the game, like dungeons. The coefficient on ranger’s auto-attack is low, but the biggest gap between the ranger and warriors and guardians is the #2 skill. All of those skills are going to hit and do close to full damage in a dungeon so the fact that the other #2 skills are channels doesn’t make a huge difference there.

For PvP everything you listed is relevant and deserves consideration. However, maul is really obvious and easy to dodge, so I think it’s better, but not by a whole lot.

That’s a problem of PvE design. Mobs are too unintelligent to avoid obvious attacks, so Warriors are dominant in that format. Unfortunately, group PvE doesn’t emphasize the Ranger’s strengths – bunkering, dueling, dedicated condition damage with a direct damage pet, and Healing Spring. In the end, the Ranger’s only major contribution to a dungeon group tends to be Healing Spring and maybe high condition damage if there is not another Ranger or Rifle Warrior or Necromancer already stacking up bleeds. Given that Necromancer’s do everything the Ranger does in PvE as well as bring potent group support via wells to the table, the Ranger is just undesirable in many dungeon groups.

And it will stay that way until either A} The game’s dungeon design gets an overhaul or B} Split ability balance is used to uberbuff the Ranger’s performance in PvE.

kikittener.9578:

remember remember the manifesto remember. lies lies everywhere

Where in the manifesto did they say that everyone should have a legendary weapon? Legendaries are an aesthetic reward for significant effort, not a power advantage that needs to be obtained to keep up with other players. The manifesto holds in this case.

Auesis.7301:

Staffs fit perfectly fine – if Elementalist and Necromancer can use Daggers for casting properties, then what’s the problem with a Thief using a Staff just to smack things over the head? It befits the Thief ethos of improvisation even more, in my view.

Aye, and Thieves already use Staves and Scepters as stolen items.

Killsmith.8169:

One thing to keep in mind is that the skill coefficients are better on the warrior. I just did a little testing in the heart of the mists and it looks like the greatsword has about a .7 coefficient for the warrior’s auto attack, while the ranger gets a 0.55. That means they get about 27% more damage per point of power.

Hundred blades has a power coefficient of ~.55 on each of the first 8 hits and ~1.1 on the final hit. That’s huge. Maul, on the other hand, gets a 1.5 coefficient.

So to compare, hundred blades gets 5.5 damage per point of power, maul gets 1.5. I don’t think pets are ever going to pick up that much slack.

The thing that really makes no sense to me is that a class that reduces damage by dodging a lot has a bunch of skills designed to do constant mediocre damage. You can’t do damage while dodging, so if rangers dodge more, shouldn’t the skills be a little more bursty so they don’t hurt our damage as much?

Hundred Blades is a non-mobile channeled skill with an 8 second cooldown that relies on stun/knockdown/immobilize utilities to make it connect (which in turn rely on foes not carrying stun breaks).

Maul is a mobile, standard skill with a 6 second cooldown that also applies 3 bleeds for 6 seconds, while the Ranger also has pets at his/her disposal to help make up for the damage gap and provide utility.

This is a real apples to oranges comparison, especially considering that Maul isn’t the problem of the Greatsword. The low coefficients on the auto-attack chain and/or the fact that it can’t make up for the MH Sword’s higher damage and perma cripple are the issue.

jportell.2197:

Daecollo.9578:

jportell.2197:

Adventurer classes can use a variety of items but none are able to use staves/scepters/foci/hammers/maces… Notice that certain armored tier classes are unable to use weapons that other class categories can use… For instance soldier classes can not use shortbows, pistols, or daggers…. you guys got it pretty good currently… But if you need another ranged weapon… Try picking one that is already available in your class “category” rifle or long bow come to mind

A lot of thieves in history used the staff.

I am stating something based off how they split the armor tiers and the weapons available to them… And what thief? From a lore perspective in this game used a staff? Not denying that the ideas here are cool… But based off of the current implementation of staves in this game… The way its being described to be used here just doesn’t fit…

Why impose a limitation on the future of classes based on current weapon selections? All this does is restrict class definitions, when they could easily be expanded, and limit the game’s longevity by restricting the number of weapons available to each class.

Staves fit the Thief (and the Ranger, for that matter) like a glove, even if they need to release specific “Bo Staves” for this to happen. And why restrict the staff? It’s already available to both light armor and heavy armor (the Guardian) classes. Who is to say that it is out of reach of medium armor professions?

The Thief would use the staff as a true hit and run skirmishing weapon, unleashing the fury of his initiative before finishing with an auto-attack combo that breaks the fight, refilling his endurance and initiative, and re-engaging the fight.

Sustained damage can be obtained by hitting with the first two strikes of your combo between each skill.

Skill 1 Chain
Smack – Hit your foe with the staff.
Thwack – Hit your foe with the staff again.
Back – Deal damage, knock your foe back, and slide back a distance all in one motion.

Skill 2 Flick ~ Costs 1 Initiative
A very quick, damaging attack that puts 1 short duration stack of vulnerability on the target. If spammed, it’ll look and act like a mobile version of a channeled move (ie: Hundred Blades, Whirling Defense, etc.).

Skill 3 Sweep ~ Costs 5 Initiative
A cone attack that knocks struck foes down and damages them. Sweep them off their feet.

Skill 4 Guard ~ Costs 4 Initiative
Channel a defensive stance. If attacked in melee range, counterattack with a high damage swing that dazes the foe briefly. Cancel the channel early to grant allies Aegis for a few seconds.

Skill 5 Pole Vault ~ Costs 6 Initiative
Leap at the target location, damaging foes in an AoE. If a foe is hit directly by your body, you gain a passive called “Bookah Stomp” making your next Pole Vault free.

Traits

Acrobatics

Staff Mastery
Your endurance slightly refills when consuming initiative with a Staff. Staff attacks deal 5% more damage.
(Master)

jpnova.4572:

Good job building on my idea. I like the look of it.

Adding a link to this on my thread.

Feel free. I just think that pet concepts warrant their own threads rather than being grouped up. As I see it, it forms a more convenient format for Anet to look at.

jpnova.4572:

Leo G.4501:

I’d never turn down more pets…

But it’s not impossible to keep melee pets alive and doing damage. It’s especially easy if some of your teammates are melee. Scenarios I’ve noticed:

-Melee teammates with a melee pet, they’re sharing boons and aggro. If you have to, move your pet so they aren’t standing ontop of others so they don’t get cleaved as much.

-Melee teammates don’t have boons and jump in and out, using a more tanky pet means he’ll be doing a lot of the anchoring and survive longer than others taking hits in its place. So, it helps glassy melees by taking some heat.

-Ranged teammates…melee has to chase down bosses to do anything. They don’t do as much damage but probably aren’t dying too fast either.

For a melee ranger, I find it’s easier to reposition as I can dodge through the boss, call my pet (and pets have that strange tendency to run ahead of you) so it quickly pulls the pet to the other side. When you need to dodge, it’s tough to coordinate your dodge and your call but putting the mob on active at least alleviates the need to focus my pet on attacking.

No, it won’t always save your pet and sometimes your pet will take huge damage, but that’s why you can swap it. You can even judiciously use your swaps to dodge your pet out of harms way, but I’m usually so focused on keeping the pet alive, swapping feels like a completely sideways strategy than for saving and I usually never think to do it at the heat of the moment.

That’s what I do as well but I’ve noticed this is only possible with our more heavy set pets. Cats, Birds, Moa, just don’t cut it in dungeons. They’re dead almost instantly with in a hit or two from even the trashier mobs.

The old dodge and call works with Dogs. Bears and Boars don’t really need it, I save it for when they fall under 50% health.

Moas are some of the more heavy set pets. They have one of the highest vitality ratings of the pet families.