Guild Wars 2

BrunoBRS.5178:

7 at minimum? if revenant is going to have a similar amount of utilities as other professions, then it’s 6 at most.

Irrelevant, given that these are effectively weapon swaps and that they sacrifice F1-F4 skills for these. Be objective.

Because classes in this game are so difficult to play, right?

Argon.1563:

Too much human. I would like to see at least 1 legend to be aligned with each of the playable races. not race-locked legends, but just a nod to the playable races. Ill be pretty upset if my Charr Revenant gets shoehorned into siphoning power from a bunch of humans.

Humans – Whoever. Take your pick. Nearly all major characters are human.
Norn – Asgeir Dragonrender
Sylvari – …Somebody. Ventai maybe?
Asura – Snaff
Charr – Kalla Scorchrazor/Pyre Fierceshot

Alright then.

Jalis.
Mallyx.
Shiro.
Asgeir.
Ventari.
Snaff. (Honestly, potential Asuran legends are lame).
Pyre Fierceshot.
Glint. (Absolute must, given how important she is to the game as whole).

See title.

Trait lines not bound to specific legends.
For four of the five trait lines to be philosophically bound to legends is a direct limit on the number of legends there can be. Make them general lines for the most part, though a few Legend-specific major traits are fine.

Seven legends at minimum.
Jalis
Mallyx
Shiro
Glint
Saul D’Allesio
Master Togo
Turai Ossa

Additional weapon options
Staff (Melee)
Sword (MH/OH)
Dagger (MH/OH)
Pistol (MH/OH)
Torch

To increase customization

Pick between one of three Elite skills for each Legend.

Channel skill – when swapping between legends, this minor skill occurs. This skill can be slotted in and has both standard and racial options.

To be honest, outfits were a bad idea. They breed uniformity and encourage a lack of creativity, when appearances should be custom-tailored. The fact that these skins cannot be mix-and-matched is more than enough to render them inferior to armor.

I’d rename it just because Taunt is a stupid name. How about Enraged?

Torsailr.8456:

As a specialization I’d like to see a Revenant become a Summoner, calling forth the Legends from the Mists to fight at his side.

Please no. We’ve got one class dedicated to the gimmick of having a pet and five others who can choose to do so.

Don’t waste slots on this beautifully-designed profession to fill that already tapped-out role.

What if they did the opposite and reworked it to let you customize your individual weapon skills on the Revenant?

One thing they could do to alleviate that a bit is to include a slottable “Channel Skill” that occurs while you are swapping between legends. With an added cast time to the channel swapping that would help balance the class, this would be quite unique.

Basaltface.2786:

For me this easily could be fixed by having either a “blank” legend that allows you to choose from a smaller set of skills yourself to have atleast 1 of your skillsets under full controll or having a certain amount of skills for each legend to allow to swap out skills from each legend yourself…aswell putting them into the order you want to have em. Thats atleast my opinion so far…also thats not a “buhuuu rev soo stewpid lel” rant…cause that class is anything but stupid…just too restricting imo atm

I’m all for build customization. One of my main gripes for Guild Wars 2 is that builds are so much more restricted and more shallow than anything in Guild Wars 1.

My problem with your statement, however, is that I believe that for build customization to be compelling, the skills should be compelling. Heals, utilities, and elites in this game are NOT compelling. They really aren’t. Making builds is a chore for me in this game because everything is so lack luster, one-dimensional, and homogenized. I don’t feel like I’m creating a specific playstyle so much as putting different stickers on my character’s face – probably the stickers that match his preferred damage type.

Now, the Revenant legend skills ARE compelling, based on what we’ve seen. If this was the standard for what utilities and elites were in Guild Wars 2, I would absolutely love to be able to customize builds.

It is unfortunate that the Revenant is so restricted, but, again, its skills are actually well-designed, and if I have to choose between slottable utilities and well-made utilities, I’ll always pick the well-made ones.

Lurock Turoth.9085:

Something I do find quite troubling is the lack of customization, you have very little choice in how your rev plays, you get 5 weapon skills, and 10 legend skills, none of which you seem to be able to change….seems weird.

This is true, but the utilities of current professions are typically tacked-on. You just sort of fit them in there because you have the slots and because you need a stun breaker and some condition removal. Elites are even worse, as they are usually little more than generic super buttons that often don’t feel all that super. They aren’t really a big part of your character, and their long cooldowns tend to enforce that.

With the Revenant, sure they can’t customize themselves as highly, but their legend skills are designed to work together coherently and are meant to be used frequently and as the situation demands. That is going to lead to some great gameplay, and I’d consider it a worthy trade.

Simon.3794:

Conncept.7638:

Simon.3794:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Simon.3794:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Simon.3794:

Mirdave.2014:

Elites with no cooldown (with the exception of the energy cost)? Is this fair?

do you know what is a thief?

Did you know that Thief utilities and elites use cooldowns, not Initiative?

did you know that thief weapon skill use initiative?

Yes, yes I did. That was not the question however. He asked whether or not an Elite that has no cooldown is fair. There is no precedent for that.

do you think weapon skill has no cooldown is fair compare to other classes?
that will be your answer.

You… wait, what? Do you English?

Did you mean: “Do you think it is far, them having weapon skills which have no cooldowns, to compare them to another class which does?” (Or possibly, “to another class which does not?”)

That’s the best I can come up with, and while it makes sense grammatically I still can’t see how it makes any sense in the context of the conversation.

I asked whether or not weapon skills that have no cooldown is fair
and that will be your answer.

Well, the weapon skills have no cooldown. It is fair. But that does not connect here. There’s a big difference between weapon skills – which are usually spammed by most classes – and utility/elite skills, which aren’t, but are designed to be spammed on the Revenant.

Will it be fair? We don’t know that yet. There is no answer. I’m inclined to say that yes, it can be fair. Anything can be fair with the right numbers. It’s just a matter of them balancing their energy costs with the effectiveness of the skills.

Simon.3794:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Simon.3794:

Mirdave.2014:

Elites with no cooldown (with the exception of the energy cost)? Is this fair?

do you know what is a thief?

Did you know that Thief utilities and elites use cooldowns, not Initiative?

did you know that thief weapon skill use initiative?

Yes, yes I did. That was not the question however. He asked whether or not an Elite that has no cooldown is fair. There is no precedent for that.

Simon.3794:

Mirdave.2014:

Elites with no cooldown (with the exception of the energy cost)? Is this fair?

do you know what is a thief?

Did you know that Thief utilities and elites use cooldowns, not Initiative?

Mirdave.2014:

Elites with no cooldown (with the exception of the energy cost)? Is this fair?

It is absolutely fair if they’re balanced around this. Again, we’re talking about a profession with only 5 weapon skills. They have a much higher emphasis on their right bar than other professions.

Alberel Leonhart.9640:

Caeledh.5437:

Argon.1563:

Neither of you are right.

No I’m pretty sure Bruno is right.

If it does work like that though then Revenants would have no real build options at all beyond weapon and legend. Your bar would literally just be weapon on the left and legend on the right. It defeats the entire point of having slotted skills.

Admittedly it would make Revs incredibly easy to balance in comparison to the other professions… maybe that could be why. :/

There are merits to that too, however. The “all or nothing” nature of Legends makes individual legend choices incredibly important.

Couple that with the traits, which, based on the preview, were some of the most playstyle-defining traits of any profession. They stated “this one is geared towards Mallyx and this one is geared towards Jalis,” but I was primarily seeing core, universally-useful traits that would really give Revenant players a lot of build flexibility.

(As a disclaimer, I absolutely intend to main the Revenant, with two characters on every class, regardless of its balance state, as I’m in love with the animations, concepts, and theme of the class).

The Revenant skills clearly have a lot of power. The class appears to have access to every mechanic plus the kitchen sink.

I didn’t see much balance commentary when Jalis and the Hammer were being discussed. Frankly, I’m not seeing a huge issue with anything in this section. Hammer is a beautifully designed kit. Its projectile block could be an issue, but overall, it appears to be within reason. Jalis is well done and brings a good balance of strengths that could synergize with just about anything.

The Mace/Axe weapon set and Mallyx were the point where the OP cries started, and it’s easy to see why. Huge amounts of Resistance (a powerful boon), plus two leaps (one for the weapon, one for the legend), pulls and displacement, and extreme condition pressure work together to make something downright scary.

Stability on Dodge was another clear point of contention. That could be ridiculous, though it is important to keep in mind that it a single stack of Stab in accordance with the Stab rework. That could very well balance it on its own, though it may require adjustment. This really sounds like something that should be a Grandmaster trait to me – whether minor or major.

Stun break on Legend swap seems absolutely ridiculous, especially for a Minor trait.

With that said….

A big balancing feature of the Revenant is that they have to manage two resources – energy (legend skills and weapon skills) and cooldowns (weapon skills only). When coupled with the existence of upkeep skills, there is a lot of resource pressure. Yes, the Thief has initiative, but this only dictates their weapon skills, so there is no contention between the two halves of their bar like there is with the Revenant.

Perhaps this will not be enough to balance the Revenant at its initial state, but it DOES add an extra level of balance for Anet to utilize in trying to bring this profession in line with others. When dealing with resources and cooldowns, weapon skills should be stronger than others, and when dealing with a resource that causes each utility/heal/elite skill to compete with eachother for usage, they should be stronger than the individual cooldowns of a standard profession. Anet, however, gets to decide between raising costs or lowering effectiveness of a skill when balancing it, and that will be a HUGE part in dictating how the Revenant class plays.

Another thing to keep in mind is that they do have fewer skills than a standard profession. They have 5 weapon skills, 2 healing skills, 2 elite skills, and 6 utility skills, for a total of 15 skills. The current profession with the smallest pool is the Warrior (10 weapon skills, 1 healing, 1 elite, 3 utility, one burst, for a total of 16). The loss is that the Legend swaps are technically not effective skills in themselves, much like Attunements aren’t – unless you trait them for swap effects. They do nothing but change the bar. It’s a small point of balance, but it is a point of balance all the same.

Yes, wave goodbye to the Condimancer who also has easy access to boon strips that would remove Resistance if he plays properly. Wave goodbye to him and laugh!

Shiro

Archemorus

Saint Viktor

Vizu

Master Togo

Represent Factions!

I don’t really see this as a bad thing at all. What you’re describing is counterplay. Most temp-transformation classes also have ready access to stability (and often also get it on the same skill that transforms them), thus they have counterplay to the counterplay.

I would be HIGHLY impressed if there were profession-specific masteries, especially if there were exploration ones that allow you to unlock secret locations and loot for yourself and teammates.

My God, there’s a lot of bloated opinions in this post.

I for one actually thought that The Silverwastes was a beautifully designed zone, Dry Top was a fun and interesting map thanks to its sandstorm mechanic, and the story was much more focused and interesting than anything in Season 1. There was a lot to like about Season 2.

My only real disappointment was the lack of quality feature packs, but it looks like the expansion is meant to address that.

BunjiKugashira.9754:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Progression is NOT content. It is NOT something to do.

Exactly, but that is something he just doesn’t seem to realize.

So… I assume you don’t like progression then? Is that your problem? Is that why you want all masteries to be unlocked and completed immediately if possible, so you have another point on your todo-list crossed out?

“Founded on the idea that the journey is the goal, the Heart of Thorns expansion continues the Guild Wars 2 tradition of challenging the conventions of MMOs to fulfill the promise of what online worlds should be.” Source
Maybe GW2 just isn’t the right game for you.

Don’t put words in my mouth. My statement was that progression is not content and that players who emphasize progression over content are only hindering their enjoyment of the game and further limiting an already stagnant genre. Progression is fine and dandy. When implemented effectively and in a way that respects the player and fits the overall design and design philosophies of the game.

The original fault of Guild Wars 2 was that it had nearly zero progression of any form. Not traditional vertical progression and not the fantastic horizontal progression that defined the series with Guild Wars 1. It had nothing to hold goal-oriented players at all.

Ascended gear and trait-locking were both laughable attempts at progression, as they were done sloppily and in a way that does not respect the game’s intended audience (and it is, to be fair to Arenanet, difficult to do so, as it is impossible to compromise between horizontal and vertical progression using existing conventions, and it is foolhardy to attempt to appeal to both crowds at once).

The Mastery system sounds much more promising, as it is much more free form and does not invalidate existing content, nor effect World vs. World balance. And it allows players to define their character to a great degree. I love this and am fully behind it – on paper.

I cannot support character-bound masteries, however. It’s conceptually awful. Progression is beneficial when players actually make progress – as in broadening their horizons. Retreading the same ground on every alt is not progression, but rather regression, and it makes for a dull experience, especially if you’re like me and have 8 alts, with plans of making as many as 18 after Heart of Thorns.

The better idea is to expand the pool of masteries, to give exciting new forms of progression while not punishing players who enjoy alts.

And if you insist that this is not the game for me, I would advise you to actually take a look at the type of game Guild Wars 2 is – both philosophically and in practice. Guild Wars 1 was a horizontal progression type of game where skill and adaptation were more emphasized than progression – perfect for my needs. Guild Wars 2 is in a similar vein, as it emphasizes mechanical skill and freedom of playstyle. It has not, nor has it ever been, intentionally unfriendly to alts. And seeing as how masteries were announced to be account bound, the burden of proof is on you to change that, and thus the game, as described, is not right for you. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here trying to ruin the experience of alters everywhere.

BunjiKugashira.9754:

And let’s be realistic here. A complete playthrough of HoT will probably take about 10 or 20 hours. After that? Play it with the next alt. Oh wait… There is nothing to do no matter what alt I choose.

This is precisely the kind of mindset that holds this genre back. Catering to players who can only see the “reward” or “the reason” and not enjoy the experience itself results in an inevitable decline in game quality – for they get nothing more than a shallow part of the overall experience.

Progression is NOT content. It is NOT something to do. It is a reward for doing the actual content – the things you are supposed to be doing anyway because they exist and because you enjoy them.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

NOOOOO!!!
That completely kills it! That would be a nightmare for altaholics like me. I was so relieved when I heard Masteries are account-bound, that way I don’t have to regrind my masteries over and over and over and over again.

This. I’m a pretty hard-core altaholic, and account bound masteries is a great relief.

Conncept.7638:

Argon.1563:

Generally when lore elements and mechanical elements begin to mix, it doesn’t work, so just keep them separate. They don’t need to mix either. Why does a lore event need a mechanical explanation for it?

Tell that to the WP system that became canon after six years of preproduction, two years on live, and an entire book series treated them as if they weren’t.

What? The books totally treated Waypoints as canon. They were in the early days of production when only major cities had them – and they were still being built even there. It has been some years since then, and it is not at all implausible that waypoints would become more advanced and more widespread within that time frame, especially given that the design of standard field + fort waypoints is much simpler (and probably more portable) than that of the larger, more complex main city waypoints.

Profession
Mesmer

Specialization
Bard

Description
Blends deceptive sounds into their illusions to further disorient enemies while buffing ally morale.

Profession Mechanic – Notes
Every Illusion and Phantasm is associated with a particular note (like C, D, or E). When the Mesmer has 3 illusions, a song is played, buffing all allies in a large area with a unique, non-strippable buff which can only be removed by killing one of the illusions.

Hitting F1-F3 encourages that particular illusion to play more loudly, granting allies in the area an additional Boon.

New Elite Skill
Phantasmal Orchestra
Summon three Phantasms which do not count toward your Phantasm limit and which play a unique background song that stacks with any regular song you might be playing. This song has 3 individual stacks and loses one stack with each orchestra member that is killed. They do minor periodic damage to surrounding foes.
(They benefit from all Phantasm traits and skills).

Utilities
Lose – Deceptions
Gain – Tunes – Unique spells that reposition all Phantasms while producing minor temporary buffs around them.

New weapon
Warhorn (Off-hand)

Weapon Skills
4. Phantasmal Musician
Summon a phantasm that deals constant AoE damage while buffing allies with frequent, short-duration Might stacks.

5. Cacophany
You and all illusions produce loud notes that deal overlapping damage and short fear procs.
Blast Finisher

New Trait Line – Songweaving

Boon duration + Illusion Cooldown Reduction (1% per rank)
(Condition Damage swapped into Chaos line).

Minor traits-
(Adept) Focused Illusions – Increases illusion health by 20%.
(Master) Lingering Inspiration – Song benefits persist briefly after one of the illusions is killed.
(Grandmaster) Higher Calling – All allies in a large area gain 3 stacks of short Might when a Song starts.

I’d actually say the opposite. Endurance makes flying more fun, as it adds a degree of challenge. You have to pick suitable points and efficiently use the flight, or you won’t get full effectiveness out of it. It’s not supposed to be a replacement to walking, but rather a supplement.

feight.2704:

mmm …
what were they suppose to do? i mean… creating another queue to split the already sparsely populated pvp arenas? that would just make the whole pvp experience unplayable. at least for me, if i have to wait any longer for joining a game… zzz
thats why there’s custom arenas, if you wanna play only that map, have fun.
we got map selection too..

Because adding a completely new mode TOTALLY won’t revitalize the PvP scene and increase the community size with people who like PvP but do not like the Conquest format, right? Right?

My sole disappointment with the Heart of Thorns information releases thus far is that Stronghold will share the same queue as Conquest and Courtyard. Allow me to explore why this is a very bad idea.

I thought this was play YOUR way, not play THEIR way.

Guild Wars 2 is founded on the principle of “play your way” – the ability to viably choose to play only the content that you want to play. A voting system betrays this by throwing nine-tenths of the stage-selection power to other players. This is a minor nuisance when all maps are on the same mode (though I am certainly prone to, as a personal preference, loving certain stages, like Khylo and Legacy of the Foefire, and hating others, like Spirit Watch).

With entirely distinct, separate modes, however, merged queues are simply a betrayal of this founding concept entirely. I want to play a PvP form that is more similar to MOBAs or Guild Wars 1 GvG. I do not ever want to play Conquest again (unless it has unique achievements) once Stronghold is released, as I find point control repetitive and shallow. Unfortunately, the choice is mostly out of my hands. If Stronghold, like Courtyard, ends up less popular in the long run, I’m largely out of luck, as are players who currently prefer Courtyard.

Players must be able to specialize in certain PvP forms if they so choose.

A large part of competitive improvement is practice and specialization. Merged queues hinder this by diverting players from their chosen game type whenever it fails the vote.

The existence of merged queues will increase the number of leavers and the amount of toxicity.

This is a point that has no doubt already been touched on in multiple threads. If players are not given the opportunity to play in a form that is acceptable to them, they are substantially more likely to get frustrated and leave, and, frankly, I wouldn’t even be able to blame them. I have no desire to play Conquest, and there will be players who will have no desire to play anything but Conquest.

I would add, however, that merged queues will also increase the amount of hostility in the PvP community.

- 9 out of 10 players vote for Stronghold.

- Random selection results in Conquest being selected.

- “Okay, which one of you kittens voted for Conquest?!”

Merged queues will create an ugly dynamic in stage selection.

We already see this with Courtyard, but when a non-Conquest stage appears in the rotation, it takes up a slot that could be used to create more Conquest stage variety.

Furthermore, if Stronghold is to be viewed as a legitimate competitive mode in merged queues, it must be an option in every voting pool, taking up the slot every time. If this does not happen with merged queues, players will lose even the possibility of electing their own preferred game type.

This will only get uglier if and when Stronghold gets alternate maps that may or may not appeal to players more than its first one.

Conquest and Stronghold WILL have different metas, as they are different formats

Certain builds WILL function better in one mode than the other. Yes, you can change builds during the waiting time before a match starts, but this is a slow and annoying process thanks to the lack of templates.

Furthermore, players WILL be more skilled with a certain class in one mode than the other – and there is no way to change class selection based on an unforeseeable voting outcome.

Simply put, it’s a bad idea.

Merged queues between differing PvP formats are simply unhealthy. They bring nothing to the game – save, perhaps, for the illusion of a larger PvP community – while significantly damaging player convenience and gameplay preferences.

I’ve been a strong supporter of the concepts of this expansion. I WILL buy it, and I am looking forward to Stronghold. In this one issue, however, I have to speak up, because the decision being made is not a healthy one.

Quite a few modes are simply lacking in achievements. I’ll give some basic suggestions.

Fractals of the Mist

Raise your fractal rewards level -
Ranks start out at 1ap then go to 5ap per rank, with 10ap for the final rank.

Dungeons

Boss specific achievements – such as “Kill Kholer without getting hit by his spinning attack.” (Variable ap)

Hero

Individual achievements for hitting level 80 on each class. Each one is worth 10ap.

Tradesman

The Magic Touch – Craft x Magical (Blue) Items.

Masterworker – Craft x Masterwork items.

Rare Talent – Craft x Rare items.

Exotic Specialist – Craft x Exotic items.

Ascended Craftsman – Craft x Ascended Items.

Jumping Puzzles

Hobby Puzzle Jumper – Complete 5 jumping puzzles (per rank). Functions like Hobby Dungeon Explorer.

Bosses

There are a large number of world bosses not covered by achievements. They each deserve one.

Triple Trouble

Bane of the Great Jungle Wurm -
Defeat the Great Jungle Wurm x times (repeatable).
Unlocks after completing its meta achievement.

Tequatl

Bane of Tequatl.
Defeat Tequatl x times. (Repeatable)
Unlocks after completing its meta achievement.

World Vs. World

WvW has a bounty of long-term achievements, but it lacks in the short term. The edition of smaller, 5ap versions of its existing achievements would be nice.

Also….

Hobby Mist Warrior –
Rank up in World vs. World. (Repeatable)

Collections

Additional weapon collections. If it’s part of a set, give it a collection.

Oofta.8036:

What if the dungeon was designed so that two five person groups could enter and have to take different paths to meet at the same finish to fight a boss that needed 10 people to bring down? Different objectives needing to be met by each group before the last boss is attainable?

Just spitballing here sorry.

There were two such missions in Guild Wars Factions – Vizunah Square and one other, which required two 8-man parties to meet up and beat the mission.

They were both interesting concepts, and I wouldn’t mind seeing something like that in the game.

10 is too much. The game becomes a jumbled mess of particles at that point.

I’d say 8-man. Harkens back to the original game, increases the group size, and keeps things in a reasonable balance.

nekretaal.6485:

I think it is part of a set. There are a bunch of similarly mystic forged weapons with the same glow

Abyssal Scepter
Wall of the Mists
Lyss/Ilya
Ignus Fatuus
The Illusion
Mirage
Reaver of the Mists
Spirit Links
whisper blade

Etc, Etc.

And I hope it never becomes a collection because one of the items needs Giant Eyes.

No one ever said that an item can’t be part of two sets, lol.

Focus skins tend to be pretty unpopular (for the most part), due to their odd appearances. The Anomaly, however, is a focus that stands out for its attractiveness. As a simple energy orb, it almost gives the impression that the character is wielding a single weapon (as a spell-sword), and it really helps emphasize the magical nature of the character. The only problem, however, is that this gorgeous focus is geared solely to the Mesmer, and its pinkish-purple color scheme doesn’t work for everyone.

My suggestion is as such – make The Anomaly one focus from a Collection of similar ones.

The Blaze
The Blaze is an orb of swirling flames. When stowed, it appears invisible, and it explodes into the hand once wielded.

The Tempest
The Tempest is an orb of collected winds that erratically swirl around the hand once wielded. These are also invisible when stowed. This is the perfect off-hand for people who want a more subtle skin.

The Orbit
Once wielded, rocks will rise from the ground to orbit the character’s hand, spinning in multiple types of orbits.

The Tide
The Tide is an orb of flowing waters that sway back and forth.

The Darkness
An orb of necromantic energy (black and green) that appears once wielded. Black is a primary, and the green shifts from dim to bright periodically.

The Nova
An orb of pure blue light that appears once wielded. The Nova glows intensely.

Collection – Orbs of Power
The Anomaly
The Blaze
The Tempest
The Orbit
The Tide
The Darkness
The Nova

Reward – An ascended armor piece of your choice.

Raeth got a full re-imagining, and it came out better than expected.

I’m alright with it either way. I fully intend to make alts to cover every specialization (or at least a few specializations each), if only because I love alt’ing and I love coming up with new appearances.

Zaxares.5419:

Togonn’s earth spikes do NOT invalidate the achievement. I can also confirm this from personal experience. However, your complaints regarding lighting is well justified. It IS rather difficult to spot the sand pools on the lighter ground portions.

I also echo the advice of others suggesting that you group up for this achievement. One person is Caithe, while everybody else just equips ranged weapons and stand up on the little rock ledge that leads to the higher ledge. (Don’t go ALL the way up. This will teleport you back into the arena and cost you the achievement.) The wind walls don’t reach there, and since the sand pools only spawn where the Earth Elementals are killed, there is no risk of getting hit by them as long as the Elementals keep following Caithe around.

I’m not sure which ledge you’re referring to, but I just parked a friend pretty high up, and the wind still hit him.

Aomine.5012:

Easy solution, find a guy to work together.
With one person hiding and one person killing the boss, you can easily obtain this achievement.

Attempting to leave the area, however, teleports you back into it.

To complete the Carapace Collection, one needs to get every achievement for the relevant personal story missions. Because of this, these achievements are among the most important ones in the game. Getting them right – that is, making them manageable, but engaging – is thus important. After all, you’ve eliminated the option to do alternative achievements for these.

No Refuge, however, is an obnoxious barrier here. I am, of course, referring to the Dodgy Crowd achievement – which requires players to kill the boss without getting hit by any wind walls or sand pools.

The wind walls should not be an issue. They are easy to see. Easy to dodge. And that’s good enough.

The problem, however, is that this map suffers from a combination of two major graphical annoyances that interact to become downright blinding.

The brightness of No Refuge is just over the top.

Even when gamma is lowered to the absolute minimum, this mission’s terrain is obnoxiously bright. It is physically PAINFUL to look at for extended periods of time.

The particles for the sand pools tend to blend into the terrain at all gamma settings.

When a player is required to avoid something, it should be visible. It doesn’t have to glow like bright red neon, but holy kitten, it needs to be clearly visible. It shouldn’t be very close to the general color and texture of the stage.

The achievement text is falsified.

In addition to the two stated objectives, his earth spikes will also cause players to lose credit. Due to the lack of red circles, this one tends to be just as stealthy as the sand pools. Instead of proper telegraphs, it uses a color that blends into the bright sepia tone of the flashback.

Why is there no repeat mote for this boss? Why?

You had a good thing with Hidden Arcana. Bosses should have instant repeat motes for these types of achievements. Repeating the entire mission for one achievement – which can only be obtained at the end of the mission – is not fun. Not fun at all.

In short….

Remove the bright, high-gamma sepia effects from this mission. Replace them with proper, normal lighting and colors that do not blend with the boss particles and do not hurt the eyes.

Add instant repeat motes to each segment.

Subtle particles are the best kind to have. The blindingly bright effects like those of Sunrise/Twilight/Eternity are just garish, while immersion breakers like the Quip are a crime against humanity.

We could use more like Flameseeker Prophecies, Bolt, or Frostfang.

My theories:

Warrior → Tactician – Gets OH Pistol

Guardian → Zealot/Avenger – Gets longbow

Thief → Assassin – Gets rifle

Ranger → Druid – gets staff (of course)

Engineer → Demolitionist -gets Hammer

Mesmer → Chronomancer – gets Shield

Necromancer → Executioner – gets Greatsword

And my personal favorite:

Revenant → Wraith – gets Dagger usage

I’m planning something like this, but with a darker skinned Sylvari and the leg armor from the future Rytlock set. Will modify any and all other armor pieces to match them.

And well, I’m never using Carapace legs for anything else. Because, as beautiful as they are, they clip with freaking everything.

1 – The game doesn’t need traditional vertical progression. It wasn’t designed for it, and by catering to the vocal minority who demanded it, the developers significantly diminished the quality of the game.

2 – The trait system is designed around the current number of trait points. Awarding more points (either through a level cap increase or otherwise), will demand a complete rework of the system, balance issues aside.

3 – Such a step is profoundly unnecessary when new horizontal progression systems with more potential (Specializations and Masteries) are already slated for introduction to the game.

sinican.9250:

It is just horrible, so many armor sets junk just because of all the crappy looking pants, especially for charr where apparently the skirts get even shorter.

Please just stop with the skirts and dresses on plate armor, sure sure make a few, but at current there are far more plate dresses than plate legs… is there a reason why?

What? There are FAR more plate legs than plate “dresses.” I’d actually like to see some more sets like Carapace come out (with fewer obnoxious clipping issues.)

“Paths” would have been a better name for the system.

Sylvari, for sure. With the inclusion of their mental struggle against Mordremoth, they’re just so much more interesting than everyone else.

Etheus is a Sylvari whose dream brought him directly into the Mists. He awoke with an incredible knowledge of Tyrian history, and he was able to build up his own proficiency with the unique magics of a Revenant, independent of Rytlock, who views him, like other Sylvari, with suspicion. His link to the Mists makes him more resilient to Mordremoth’s influence, but he still hears the call, and he still struggles to maintain himself.

Cantha for sure. The Echovald Forest and the Jade Sea were easily among the best looking environments in Guild Wars 1, and I would love to explore them again. Everything in Nightfall was just desert, desert, and more desert – well, except for the Realm of Torment, which was a dark, twisted desert.

krixis.9538:

I personally have no problem with trench coats.

what I do have a problem with is shoulders not being symmetrical or having one shoulder being really bulky and the other being really slim almost not there.

same with gloves

anyway non trenchcoat asura engineer

Asymmetrical outfits are a style, and it’s one that I’ve grown to love just as much as (if not more than) symmetrical clothing. The reason being that symmetrical gear tends to come across as standardized or military, whereas asymmetry stands out.

The degree is important, of course. WoW-style shoulders are just ugly.

naiasonod.9265:

I think if this were tabletop game and I were GMing it, things like that would be very real and very horrible potential outcomes to player decisions.

Unfortunately, here in MMO-land, players don’t really decide anything, so the narrative isn’t likely going to go in such directions as that – to do so would probably really bother a lot of people on various grounds, not least of which might well be feeling forced into basically being tricked and played for fools.

Its fine when players have choices and can, therein, wind up making fools of themselves, sure…but when we’re basically having a story plopped down before us and all we essentially do is basically go along for the ride?

I dunno. They could certainly do that (and I’d find it interesting if they did), but I doubt we’ll see anything that stretches brain-muscles too hard to comprehend.

The good guys will continue to be bright, shining paragons of goodness – the bad guys will continue to be malefactoring moustache-twisters and enormous kill-it-all godbeasts.

I don’t expect much (read: any) deviation from telling a conceptually simple story here.

I don’t know if you were around for the first game, but “Nice job breaking it, hero,” was Anet’s favorite trope to utilize.

Leading the White Mantle to the villagers that were rescued by the Shining Blade was our fault.

The Lich getting the Scepter Of Orr was our fault.

The Titans being unleashed on the world was our fault.

We released the Dredge from their bonds of slavery – something that players of Guild Wars 2 are still suffering for. Seriously, screw those guys.

Nightfall starting was our fault, thanks to our exploration of the forbidden city and releasing of Abaddon’s prophet.

Guild Wars 1 players also helped the Ministry of Purity rise to power, and quickly regretted it once the Ministry started trying to purge the Tengu from existence.

I would not put this kind of storytelling past Anet at all. If this has -at all- occurred to them as a possibility, they will no doubt make use of it.