Guild Wars 2

Shiki.7148:

Mar.4839:

Test.8734:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Mar.4839:

fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays

Yet druid is still stuck with pets.

That was probably meaningless hype, just like the “revolution” they promised when they released GW2. The specializations appear to be the same old professions with just a few extra skills.

I’m not sure if “revolution” is the correct term but they definitely made a lot of improvements over typical MMO elements. IMO we just take it for granted now because a lot of it is little things but when you take all the small parts and bring them together, it’s a refreshing system.

Here’s a thread by a recently new player from Reddit

Yeah it’s one person but I, and I’m sure many others, feel this way too.

@Scoobaniec: Yes Druids are still stuck with pets but we have no idea what changes have been made to them. For all we know the pet could play a much less important part when it comes to the druid as in maybe instead of 30% of a Ranger’s damage coming from a pet, now just 10% of it comes from the pet along maybe the pet being uncontrollable or maybe it does certain things when you use certain skills.

We just do not know because they haven’t elaborated on any of it other than Druid’s mechanic still utilizes pets.

Thus I would greatly appreciate it if Arena Net just clarified, by demonstrating, what to really expect from Specializations. Saying that the Druid is supposed to be like a secondary profession and then showing that its mechanic still utilizes pets is very confusing and really doesn’t explain much at all how different a Druid can be from the base Ranger.

It could also be that the pet now simply “buff” the Druid / the Druid has spells that change a little depending on the pet, instead of the Pet attacking stuff. Just because you saw a pet doesn’t mean it still behaves like a ranger-pet.

Yes, if that is the case then I’ll love playing the Ranger even more. If Druid’s pet will be similar to WoW’s Warlock class then I will be very happy. The warlock is a pet class but the pet is basically a buffer and if the warlock pet happens to die then it is not too much of a hindrance to the Warlock (you can still do loads of damage and have utilities available). But this is because the flavor of the Warlock is that the pet is not a pet but just a demon minion serving the Warlock, thus the interdependence between the two is much less than WoW’s Hunter pet class.

Donari.5237:

I’m wracking my brains to think what “heavy news” you mean. We didn’t get anything game related, and while some awful things have happened (and keep happening) in the world, I can’t see how any of them would delay normal business at ANet.

Yes I’m talking about the news yesterday about the memorial Mike Zadorojny made. Of course it will not delay normal business (as shown by Mike doing this in his spare time) but add onto the fact that there was no Wallpaper teased yesterday either (which they seem to always do before doing a reveal).

It certainly doesn’t paint the picture of a reveal of anything major as far as this particular week is concerned.

I wouldn’t mind being wrong though.

I doubt it. There was some heavy news yesterday. It sort of sets the tone for not much happening this week. Would be weird to release exciting news so quickly after yesterday.

Just my take on it, never know.

Test.8734:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Mar.4839:

fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays

Yet druid is still stuck with pets.

That was probably meaningless hype, just like the “revolution” they promised when they released GW2. The specializations appear to be the same old professions with just a few extra skills.

I’m not sure if “revolution” is the correct term but they definitely made a lot of improvements over typical MMO elements. IMO we just take it for granted now because a lot of it is little things but when you take all the small parts and bring them together, it’s a refreshing system.

Here’s a thread by a recently new player from Reddit

Yeah it’s one person but I, and I’m sure many others, feel this way too.

@Scoobaniec: Yes Druids are still stuck with pets but we have no idea what changes have been made to them. For all we know the pet could play a much less important part when it comes to the druid as in maybe instead of 30% of a Ranger’s damage coming from a pet, now just 10% of it comes from the pet along maybe the pet being uncontrollable or maybe it does certain things when you use certain skills.

We just do not know because they haven’t elaborated on any of it other than Druid’s mechanic still utilizes pets.

Thus I would greatly appreciate it if Arena Net just clarified, by demonstrating, what to really expect from Specializations. Saying that the Druid is supposed to be like a secondary profession and then showing that its mechanic still utilizes pets is very confusing and really doesn’t explain much at all how different a Druid can be from the base Ranger.

On the topic of the Legendary weapons, I’m going to stick to my theory that they may need some parts of the story released in order to obtain the components for some of the Legendaries, thus why just a handful will be available at launch.

Just look at how WoW has been doing their Legendaries recently, it requires pretty much all raids to become available over the course of an expansion and one simply works toward completing each “phase” or step until the next one is revealed.

Just a theory anyway.

@Olvendred: That’s true but that’s not what we’re asking for, if for instance they were to release in August and take the suggestion that someone said to reveal one Specialization every other week then that means they will have 18 weeks (just about 4 months and 2 weeks) of steady, hype-filled information. This is not even including things like Guild Halls, Challenging Group Content, and they could even delve into talking about more Adventures.

They definitely seem to have more than enough information to go steady for about 6 months or so. People are just unsure of why they have been so light on providing additional, more in-depth, overviews on topics most requested by the community and why has the last few weeks been so full of recaps and WvW/PvP. Not to dismiss those communities but things like Specializations will affect all aspects of the game. On top of that the majority of topics not yet discussed are fully PvE like Guild Halls, Adventures, and Challenging Group Content.

I mean it could be they wanted to get the WvW and PvP stuff out of the way and will now focus on the PvE aspects but so far in terms of PvE it’s just been a recap of what is known so far and the Personal Story overhaul (which while good, is not very exciting compared to the other things they can talk about).

He left so that he could become an independent consultant. I’m sure he makes more money this way (as well as having more say in the matter) and it doesn’t prevent him from working with Arena Net in the future as a consultant. If he left on bad terms I’m sure he would publicly state it, just like Omeed Dariani did when he decided to leave EQ Next.

But that isn’t the case with Chris, he only had good things to say after being free from the company.

I don’t believe they’re panicking, if anything they have said, and it has been shown to be true so far, that they are a very iterative company. I think this is one of their greatest traits.

There’s a reason Ascended armor and how long it takes to craft was introduced into the game, because there’s a large amount of players that enjoy taking a while working towards something, that’s also why they are introducing pre-cursor crafting. People like to be able to work for something in game, even if it takes them a decent amount of time to complete. That adds longevity, which is what a lot of players want (and so does the company).

The non-permanence of Living Story Season 1 was absolutely not working, somebody who hasn’t played for months gets to come back to a game where just a few maps have changes but no actual new content for them to play because they missed it. The only kind of people who benefited from the Season 1 style were players who constantly were available all those times the content was released.

This clashes greatly with Arena Net’s earlier style that you can drop the game for a couple months and come back to new stuff and a changed world to play in, which Season 1 did not have that effect. The only way to get items from season 1 now is to buy from a laurel vendor currently, I doubt many people find that fun.

Season 2 definitely has that intended effect of taking a break and coming back to play. People who took a break from the game get to come back to two new maps since season 1 ended, along with all the story instances and items that become available. And to top it all off one of the biggest changes is Lion’s Arch, probably the most popular hub city for all GW2 players, in a destroyed state.

Also now with the introducion of having an expansion. So many people have been asking for GW2 to include an expansion because expansions come with a lot of new features and content. They revitalize interest in the game for existing players and draw in new ones. It’s almost like a time for festivities in the MMO world.

Arena Net may make a lot of changes to the features and direction of their game but it always ends up being better than before. The Sylvari redesign, account bound dyes, wardrobe system, transmutation overhaul, the TP graphical UI redesign and Idk whatever else they’ve introduced since the last time I’ve played.

Well if they are overhyped it would be because we’ve heard comments from Arena Net themselves saying things like specializations are akin to be sub-classes or similar to secondary professions from GW1.

Colin Johanson himself says “….they get new profession mechanics that fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays when they become a Druid.” Interview Link

The important bit here is the fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays. I’m not sure about most people but I believe this to mean that playing a Druid will not feel like playing a Ranger.

PCGamer asks Colin “Beyond having a different weapon, how different will the druid specialisation be from a ‘standard’ Ranger?”

Colin’s first sentence reply is, “We’re really trying to make it feel like it’s almost a sub-profession or a secondary profession if you will, and not just a new set of a couple of skills.” Interview Link

Again, more evidence that they are supposed to feel substantially different.

This is why some general information, and possibly an example of one Profession’s Specialization, is very much being asked for; a lot of people, myself included, want to just see an example of how different will a Specialization be in gameplay from the base Profession.

Thus far, the way Arena Net has been talking about it makes it seem as if they will be very different. If they are not, it would be nice of them to temper our expectations, just like Bobby Stein did on PoI yesterday with the Personal Story overhaul.

ainekitten.9517:

I can’t wait to hear more about this, or quite frankly, ANYTHING that doesn’t involve WvW or PvP content because that seems like all we hear about lately and as someone who stays out of that content entirely, something character or PvE related would be nice.

Well they spoke of the PvE story today

This week, while introducing some new information about Personal Story and the Story of HoT, felt really sparse. All we received throughout this whole week pretty much were just a lot of recaps on information that has already been known, for the most part.

Going to hope this is because next week’s info will be about Specializations!

Donari.5237:

Or maybe they’re not evil manipulators, and they do have things reasonably far along, but they’ve been burned by announcing things as subject to change that then do change and everyone says “But you saaaaaaid.”

Exactly. Look at what happened when Ascended tier gear was introduced. Sooooooooooooo many people moaned and groaned about how they said they wouldn’t introduce a gear grind. Even though Arena Net’s main goal for it was trying to implement items that took people more than just a couple hours (if even that long) to obtain. Exotics were too easy to obtain, and still are, to feel like meaningful progression. Also we have never had a tier increase since.

I’m glad they introduced Ascended because it gives people a sense of progression for obtaining items over a decent amount of time. Some people don’t enjoy it. But the way in which people called out Arena Net for it feels overboard and something they do not want to deal with again.

@Roe: I really like that idea although I feel Specialization reveals are going to be sporadic, just like original Profession reveals. It would be nice to have a roadmap of when to expect a reveal but apparently that drives away hype. For me though it does the opposite, but I guess that’s just because I like to know when things are planned.

@lordkrall: Yes this seems to be a case. From a fan-meet it was said by a Dev that the Thief specialization was already picked but that if it changes then it will most surely be for something more awesome.

I’m alright with knowing something like that because it makes me think of how Sylvari looked when they were first announced and what a major improvement they were after Arena Net decided to totally redo their looks, I would have never wanted to make one otherwise if not for that revision.

This is why my OP is just asking for some general information on how a Specialization works. For instance we do not know when they are unlocked or how, does it require being a certain level or completing a certain task? Does it require skill points or some other kind of currency? Will it play a big part in the story (similar to being Ascended in GW1) or just be an addition that is only new to us players (like the Desert Borderlands and Stronghold PVP maps)?

What does a profession lose for what is gained, and how much? Is it a different amount for each profession or the same? Are Specializations designed with the intent that if someone strictly wants to only play a Druid in all game modes and forms of content then they are able to do so?

These are the kinds of information that I meant I’m looking for as I understand the necessity for keeping ideas behind closed doors until they’re ready. However I just feel like these kinds of general questions, not about what Specializations are arriving, should have pretty stable answers by now. That is my hope at least.

@Donari: Yes I feel the same way, especially with the Revenant blog post. I assumed we would have gotten to know at least all of its’ usable weapons, even if we were not able to see the skills. But I think they want to use the Revenant as sort of the “look forward to new info about this Profession” while leading up to the expansion. There might be conventions and such where Arena Net wants to utilize new information about the Revenant as a way to catch more attention for demo players.

I mean they can do this for Specializations too like how the original eight Professions weren’t all playable at all demos aside from the ones that were revealed and talked about beforehand.

Also I suspect when they do decide to pick a particular Specialization to reveal then we will be teased with artwork, then blog posted, then maybe even press will release news from covert interviews with Arena Net, followed by a PoI for a slightly closer look at what was revealed in action and then of course those parts being playable at a demo. They can definitely reveal enought information to carry throughout a whole week. Revenant reveal lasted a whole week and it didn’t even include all parts of the Profession, a Specialization reveal can definitely do the same.

Crey.5263:

Alex.9268:

I think the reason is very simple, they will only change 1 trait line per new specialization, and being Anet they couldn’t be bothered removing and replacing all the pet related traits in the other trait lines. So druids will definitely be stuck with pets.

To add on to this, I have seen no mention of them modifying existing weapon skills so all of the ranger skills that affect pet would effectively be loosing half of their utility, making them even more ineffective as a druid.

Well they did say that Professions who are not getting a full five new skills (from offhand weapons being their new specialization weapon) will get compensated in another way. It almost sounded like a hint towards possibly having different weapon skills when one is specialized. But we don’t know! Only that we WILL get compensated somehow for not getting 5 new skills (Anet’s own words).

@Donari: I think it’s safe to say any blog posted today would’ve been April Fools themed. Hopefully Specializations next week! If not well then I’ll just be logging for dailies and occupying myself with other things in the meantime.

@Alex: Same I would like to know more to and thank you for pointing out the data-mined Ele Skills. Could it perhaps be that we’ll see information about the Elementalists’ Specialization sooner than the other Professions? Something to ponder.

I’m very close to just putting off GW2 until Specialization or more Revenant details emerge. I can wait for everything else but I’m just super curious on how Profession gameplay will change.

Other than logging on for dailies my spark to play has dwindled so much. If this week doesn’t introduce anything big then next week will be my last to be hopeful for big news, if not well I’ll come back when it’s ready. :P

Zero Day.2594:

Mar.4839:

Hmm, they really seem be stretching out their news, although the summary is helpful as I admit I wasn’t able to watch the Ready Up. Maybe tomorrow (April 1st) is going to be a big day or something. That blog post still doesn’t seemingly relate to the picture teased on Monday.

Maybe it’s because they need more time to develop? Wild guess.

They do have at least 2 more months to go, assuming that when they do start talking about specs it’s 1 per week – 9 in total, so ~2 months, bit over.

Oh, there’s probably going to be more beta’s, so another couple months…

Well yes but many believe, myself included, is that they won’t reveal them all in a row and it’ll be spaced out sort of like the original profession reveals were.

Another thing to note is that they’re definitely not going to have something playable in a Closed Beta without revealing it first with a Blog Post as was done with the Revenant (blog post happened first then came the reveal in gameplay and test availability).

So with that line of thinking, and also the fact that they keep saying Closed Beta will happen really soon, means a blog about a Specialization for a specific Profession or just Specializations in more detail should come really soon hence hoping for it to appear either this week or next, hopefully.

EDIT: To add to my Revenant example. Revenant blog post was released about a month before the Stress Test occurred. Hence I’m sure they’ll space it out like this for other Specializations as well (maybe they’ll reveal two and then following CBT has those two available or something like that).

Hmm, they really seem be stretching out their news, although the summary is helpful as I admit I wasn’t able to watch the Ready Up. Maybe tomorrow (April 1st) is going to be a big day or something. That blog post still doesn’t seemingly relate to the picture teased on Monday.

Fade.1743:

The problem is that they have to completely rebuild various fights and battles to work for one person. It’d be the equivalent of remaking another season. It’s not like the personal story fixes which were already designed for one person.

Very true, I think creating instanced fractals of Living Story season 1 may be a good way to go. Unless they somehow manage to find a way to convert it to the system they used for season 2.

This is typical of even the highly successful MMO World of Warcraft. The year before an expansion releases is sparse of new content as the development team is focused on the expansion.

As others have stated, many people who play WoW just keep their subs going but don’t receive extra content in the meantime. We’re not having to pay monthly to be able to keep playing this game after our initial purchase as it stands.

If you are bored enough to not have anything interesting in the game to do then just take a break. I know many players who are excited for the expansion but will not come back to playing GW2 until the expansion is (or is close to) released.

I might myself even take a break soon, as I feel like I have nothing to work towards right now and none of their recent blog posts have been interesting enough (I’m more into the Revenant and Specialization infos).

At least next week Dark Souls 2 will release on PS4 and that will take my focus off GW2 for a while.

@witcher: Yeah that is likely what I am thinking too, that for whenever the first CBT happens they will probably release a couple specializations for us players to get to dabble with (as well as probably more Revenant skills? Idk).

@lordkrall: You’re right but wow the Personal Story wasn’t even a blog :T just a post here on the forums also it seems like the update for Personal Story will be “at least 8 weeks” away since Bobby Stein says we will have at least 8 weeks to complete the correct story steps on current characters.

This makes me wonder if we will get a blog post at all this week pertaining to the earlier linked picture.

@Donari: Yeah it seems likely either more information on the new maps or something to do with Personal Story of HoT because Bobby Stein said in another thread that a blog about what they plan to do about fixing the current Personal Story (and presumably Personal Story in general) should be going up this Tuesday if all goes as planned.

Looks like we will have some kind of blog post to look forward to tomorrow (if it isn’t already Tuesday for some xD)

@Zaoda: Yeah Ralanost is right. We can’t really say much about Specializations at all because other than a couple names and weapons have been given.

This was the purpose of the thread, to hopefully get some Specialization information soon because there is literally nothing to speculate on. I understand that this is the same for “Challenging Group Content” and “Guild Halls” but as Colin said in the AngryJoe interview “minute-to-minute gameplay is really important” and that’s the #1 thing the majority of players do in GW2: Play around with their professions in combat.

Out of all the big topics that haven’t been revealed so far, Specializations will most affect how we play with our Professions.

maddoctor.2738:

Elementalists should get a melee weapon, Lightning Hammer shouldn’t be the best melee option for elementalists. A weapon with proper melee cleave too

Guardians need a more reliable ranged weapon, scepter is good overall but the auto attack tends to miss and it’s slow. Faster attacking ranged weapon is what Guardians need

A reliable ranged option for Thieves would be nice, like a Rifle, Thieves lack a 1200 range weapon, however there needs to be some balancing with this, because they can’t allow this Rifle easy access to Stealth. Being hit at 1200 distance from someone that can stealth easily isn’t fun

Engineers and Necromancers both need a melee cleave weapon and the Hammer / Greatsword they are getting is probably exactly that.

Rangers will get more Support skills with the Staff, as Ranger support is rather limited now, from Weapons only the Warhorn provides support for the party and Axe5 but that’s situational. I expect Staff to give rangers more reliable Support options, I just hope it’s nothing like Guardian Staff

Mesmers are getting more party support options, time manipulation looks interesting for buffing allies, we’ll see how it works in the end

I’m not sure Warriors really need anything they can already do almost everything and cover most roles in an excellent way. Maybe a two-handed cleave condition weapon? Axe->Greatsword (Power), Mace->Hammer (CC), and Sword->??? (Condition)

Warriors will probably get something to excel from range? It definitely seems like they are using these first iteration of Specializations to increases Professions positions in combat (For ex: introducing more options for front, mid, back line positions) by looking at what Professions are currently lacking and by the devs standards, in need of most.

Warriors are very much about getting in your face to deal damage, just like Thieves currently, so since Thieves are most likely getting a Rifle for Range, then maybe Warriors will too in the form of Pistols or Shortbow (for mid-line combat)?

Well true and I’m not expecting it before the 3rd Anniversary. Just that when they keep saying CBT will start “really really soon” then it must be starting “really really soon” and I don’t know how 4.5 months away for first beta would equal “really really soon”.

Thus the first CBT must be happening within April, May at the latest. June seems way to late to use the phrase “really really soon”. I’m going to assume it’ll be a new build and thus probably include a Specialization or two.

If it doesn’t I’ll be sorely disappointed. :T

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Riiiiiight….3 years mark coming in 4.5 months and expansion still in works. I can see it now how they’ll bolster about 3rd aniiversary, when out of nowhere few million voices will say:

“Collin…that’s nice and all, but there’s a huge kitten mammoth on your room – it’s called new content should be here”

Idk I really think this expansion will release this year, barring some unexpected radical iteration that needs to happen. I was looking at the previous Closed Betas here on the GW2wiki and CBTs and BWEs occurred either one or two months apart, but never much further in between.

Along with the fact that when these Closed Betas begin there is no NDA, which makes me believe they are much more confident about showcasing the content they have worked on so far.

It would just feel strange to begin Closed Betas without at least some specializations being revealed as I imagine they want to reveal them before making them playable. Maybe next week will be the week for a Profession’s Specialization reveal as my earlier linked Screen doesn’t seem to have a thing to do with Specializations and Arena Net as always teased upcoming blogs with a photo at the beginning of the week.

WingedDante.9821:

Mar.4839:

Elrey.5472:

Electro.4173:

I wouldn’t think it would be a problem for friends, as they could just send you the money in 2 “payments”, one each week. If you already trust them enough to sell them a precursor in such a way, trusting them to make multiple payments shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

I mean, sure, you have to wait two weeks to get all the gold, but I kind of doubt you’re so in need of 500 gold that you absolutely NEED it immediately.

The problem comes when that is only an specific trade, and you have the entire week to do more trades.

Actually, this might affect me even more than I though earlier. You can check my in-game historial right now to find an interesting log. Since i got more than 1000Gold and a really friendly guild (we know each other on real life), I usually give money to my guildies when they need it (as example to buy the black wings) and they return it to me on the next weeks.
In the past months I gifted 1250g for a precursor to a friend that I met on real life 1 month ago. Then later I gave 750g to another friend for a different precursor, 510g to a different one, 100g to another one, 100g to another one and 60g to another one. At this moment, all of them did return my money back (except 95g) and they did get their shiny item when they didn’t had enough money for it.

It was totally ok for me. If a close friend ask me for 700g to return it in 1 month, I would give the money to him without doubt, but now I won’t be able.

You see my point, right? I’m not selling gold, but this new “rule” will annoy the hell out of me. (Trying to give some criticism feedback).

Umm if someone is asking for 700g to be returned in 1 month then under this new system it still works. Since the cap is 500g/week, they will just have to wait 2 weeks to receive the 700g, thereby satisfying the within 1 month requirement.

Also re-read point 5: The maximum amount of gold that can be sent via a single in-game mail will be 500 gold.

They don’t say any limits on how much gold a person can send, just how much per ONE in-game mail. Thus this should not prevent you or anyone else from sending various amounts of gold to others.

The cap is per account per week. and it’s recieved, not sent, according to the literal wording of the post.

“Each account will have a limit on how much gold can be moved from its mail in-box and Guild Vault into its wallet each week”

Yes but my example is for the person talking about sending different amounts of gold to other people. Of which Gaile has not listed anything about there being a limit on Person A sending gold to Person B, or C, or D, or E. Just that Persons B/C/D/E will only be able to receive a maximum of 500g a week. Whereas Person A can send 400g a piece to Person B/C/D/E (totaling 1600g Sent).

The limit is only about accepting gold, not sending it.

EDIT: Failed at Maths

Andred.1087:

It seems what you all fail to understand is that they’re not going to release any info until it’s finalized. Can you take a guess why? …

ANet has a plan for releasing this information. Odds are they already have a time table for every blog post that they are trying very hard to meet. No amount of begging will cause them to deviate from that schedule. That’s the way things work in the business world.

Actually many of us already understand this, but it doesn’t make us less likely to wish for it haha :P .

Well they just revealed this Wallpaper I attached. It’s a landscape photo so I guess that means no Specialization info this week because when they released the Revenant blog they showed a concept art image of the Revenant.

Guess we’ll have to see for next week… v_v

EDIT: @Scoobaniec: We really can’t speculate for how much class mechanics will change, as Arena Net themselves said some Professions’ mechanics will be modified (as seen with the Ranger still utilizing the pet) and some mechanics will be changed entirely. Since we have only been hinted at a modified pet mechanic for the Ranger/Druid there is not much we can speculate on at the moment in terms of specifics.

This is why I would just like more detailed information in general about Specializations like someone said earlier about how much do we lose, or how do they become unlocked, etc. Things like those would be nice enough information to go on about and give more discussion topics on Specializations.

As for current traits/abilities, Colin said in the HoT interview with AngryJoe that they will be going back and revisiting base Professions and tweaking/modifying existing skills and traits. How well of a job they do on that remains to be seen but they definitely won’t exist in the same state they are in currently.

Elrey.5472:

Electro.4173:

I wouldn’t think it would be a problem for friends, as they could just send you the money in 2 “payments”, one each week. If you already trust them enough to sell them a precursor in such a way, trusting them to make multiple payments shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

I mean, sure, you have to wait two weeks to get all the gold, but I kind of doubt you’re so in need of 500 gold that you absolutely NEED it immediately.

The problem comes when that is only an specific trade, and you have the entire week to do more trades.

Actually, this might affect me even more than I though earlier. You can check my in-game historial right now to find an interesting log. Since i got more than 1000Gold and a really friendly guild (we know each other on real life), I usually give money to my guildies when they need it (as example to buy the black wings) and they return it to me on the next weeks.
In the past months I gifted 1250g for a precursor to a friend that I met on real life 1 month ago. Then later I gave 750g to another friend for a different precursor, 510g to a different one, 100g to another one, 100g to another one and 60g to another one. At this moment, all of them did return my money back (except 95g) and they did get their shiny item when they didn’t had enough money for it.

It was totally ok for me. If a close friend ask me for 700g to return it in 1 month, I would give the money to him without doubt, but now I won’t be able.

You see my point, right? I’m not selling gold, but this new “rule” will annoy the hell out of me. (Trying to give some criticism feedback).

Umm if someone is asking for 700g to be returned in 1 month then under this new system it still works. Since the cap is 500g/week, they will just have to wait 2 weeks to receive the 700g, thereby satisfying the within 1 month requirement.

Also re-read point 5: The maximum amount of gold that can be sent via a single in-game mail will be 500 gold.

They don’t say any limits on how much gold a person can send, just how much per ONE in-game mail. Thus this should not prevent you or anyone else from sending various amounts of gold to others.

Shiki.7148:

Dadnir.5038:

Like said, Specialization are probably the things that hype the most about this xpac. They will most likely wait untill the very end to give any tips about how they will work. There is 2 dangerous things that could potentially happen when they will release some accurate information about specialization :

First : players will be disappointed and most likely the hype train will stop. (not good for them ^^’ )
Second : players will be hyped and speculate even more accurately for each profession, which at the same time could lead to a prematurate death of the hype.

Beside, they still need to show the whole revenant class before talking about specialization. because you wan’t introduce specialization when you didn’t even show 2/5th of one of the profession that will have a specialization.

It’s not that I don’t wanna know but… It’s more realistic this way. Maybe they could at least tell us specialization name and weapon… Hu! I’m too greedy!…

Actually the smartest plan would be to talk about ONE spec (Druid or Necro as the weapons are already known for those), then talk about small things for a few weeks, then talk about the next Spec etc. etc. Best way to keep the hype going, while also keeping a lot of “big stuff” hidden.

Yes exactly, I really don’t think we’re going to have just 9 straight weeks of revealing specializations. Usually Arena Net has a habit of “taking a break” after releasing some huge information, as in the next round of news is small and not so exciting, but news nonetheless.

It’s a much better strategy anyway as any big reveal will unleash a ton of discussion on the topic for a great while (just look at the amount of discussion brought forth from giving a look at the Revenant and even the Mastery System).

But while the WvW and Stronghold additions look nice for a change of pace, it’s not big enough news for me and others (as seen by replies in this thread).

People will always complain about something so I feel like expanding on the Druid or Necro is a really good idea since they seem to be set about the Ranger getting a Staff and becoming a Druid and the Necro getting a Greatsword.

Throw us a bone, Arena Net, please.

They haven’t said anything at all yet regarding future stress tests or even beta. But I’m pretty sure the next time players are able to play the game will consist of a real closed beta (with no NDA). They were able to stress test the demo already and it would seem weird to be like “hey we’re gonna do another stress test of the same area and same build again!” Since it’s just mainly for gathering data at peak activity intervals in a day. I’m sure they got enough data from the first one.

So look forward to Closed Beta!! =]

Zetsumei.4975:

You guys realise that probably the biggest reason specialisations haven’t been talked about or put in the beta is because the content isn’t anywhere near being completed right lol? That goes for most of the content in HoT. What people are failing to realize is that the majority of the content wasn’t being completed in secret all this time in some good-willed plan by anet but being created from scratch as we speak. People should weigh up whether the missing content from the usual updates is significantly less than what this expansion will give us.

Where did they say that they just started work on this expansion? If I remember correctly they said they’ve been working on the features for a while and they waited until they were content with what they were going to add in the expansion before talking about all of it.

Also with closed beta starting soon (and there being no NDA for the closed beta) means that HoT is feature complete already and just a lot of iterations/balances/fixes are left to do.

I’m surprised when people think news shared with the community is when the devs started the whole process. They are always working on future content, always. Just like with the story reveal for the Sylvari, it was something planned from the beginning of gw2. Yes they will iterate along the way, sometimes greatly sometimes less so, but the future is always being planned.

Arena Net definitely knows how to keep the hype train going, even when some of us feel like it’s been agonizing to wait. They’ve released a blog post every week since the expansion announcement so while it may not be news some of us are interested in, there is always news being shared.

I’ve said more than I needed but basically all of this has already been planned way in advance. Even their weekly blog releases. It would be naive of someone to think otherwise.

I know from another thread that they said most likely a post about their plans for the Personal Story fix will go up this coming Tuesday, barring any unforseen circumstances that causes them to delay it.

If that is supposed to be some kind of hint that this week will focus on Personal Story for HoT then I’ll be sorely disappointed. Or it could turn out to be like the announcement of camera changes and FOV which seemed to originate from nowhere.

I agree about them seemingly saving information that most people would like to know about for later (just like challenging group pve content). It sucks but they probably have a better idea on player activity than we do because I agree also that I feel like this isn’t great for hype. It causes me to lose interest too and move onto something else (though again if I just also could decide on what to play then I wouldn’t be focused on having to wait so much).

At least they are releasing blog posts every week until the launch of the expansion. So they have to run out of small stuff to talk about sometime!!! Then they will have dragged themselves into a corner with only big features to discuss in detail every week! >=D

Map events rewarding T6 mats (among other mats) is going to drive the cost of T6 mats down, not up. This is due to the fact that we’ll get more supply in the end than the demand for it.

I mean just look at every other item that’s currently in the game where when supply was scarce – price was high, but once supply became routine then prices came way down.

I think the only things that will raise the price would be things that will stay scarce in supply, while demand increases.

Valento.9852:

sorudo.9054:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Specialization
“Specializing keeps base profession skills and traits in addition to the new ones provided by that specialization”
yes it does….

As I’m the wiki editor who wrote most of that article, I’d like to link my source for credibility:

“Colin: We’re really trying to make it feel like it’s almost a sub-profession or a secondary profession if you will, and not just a new set of a couple of skills. It’s not just opening up the capacity to use a staff. When a ranger becomes a druid, they have an entire new set of skills and traits that come available to them. And their profession mechanic changes as well. That’s true with all the specialisations. You actually play the profession differently, not just in skills and traits, but in the core mechanics of those professions. Some of them will change an existing profession, some of them might give them entirely new profession abilities and remove other ones. It really varies specialisation to specialisation, but it really should feel like you are playing a new version of your old profession. And players can actually mix and match a little bit. If you are playing as a Druid you will be able to use a lot of the Ranger’s skills, and you can actually slot them in to make a lot of creative builds. But a Ranger can not use any of the stuff a Druid has unless they become a Druid.” – PCGamer

Even in your own quote it shows that a Druid is locked out of some of the Ranger’s skills “…playing as a Druid you will be able to use a lot of the Ranger’s skills”

Why is “a lot” used instead of “all” if you have access to everything a Ranger has accessible to them?

Also, “But a Ranger can not use any of the stuff a Druid has unless they become a Druid”

I really don’t know how anyone can interpret those two above points as having access to current skills and traits as well as getting new ones. They’ve also said that specializations are supposed to be sidegrades, not upgrades. So that maybe there’s something you’d do better as a Ranger than a Druid and vice versa. Thus why they said (Colin specifically too, Look at Angry Joe interview) we are able to switch back and forth between a Ranger and Druid on the same character.

Gotta think about what specializations add to the table first and foremost. This time around it looks like specializations will be giving professions major access to things they couldn’t previously do.

For example Necromancers getting Greatsword for that melee cleave that currently they can’t do so well.

Guardians wielding Longbows because they really don’t have a good long range damage focused weapon.

Engineers with Hammers because they currently have no great way to excel in melee combat.

Seems like Anet is trying to really give professions more choices in terms of being either a front-line, mid-line, or back-line combatant, so where a profession is lacking in one option, that seems to be what this round of specializations seems more focused on attaining.

With that in mind, rifle or longbow seems most fitting for thief currently. Since there’s some kind of hint in the trailer that a norn thief was wielding a rifle. Seems more likely that rifle will be the weapon of choice for thief’s specialization.

I just hope they’re different enough to feel almost like a new class. I wish Anet would go more in depth about specializations (I’m so bored of all this WvW info, though I know for some this is probably the most exciting news).

If they gave us a run down of one speciliazation then we’d at least know roughly what to expect for other professions’ specializations. By this I mean the rules of how to obtain it, how many skills/traits get switched out, do existing weapon skills get changes, etc etc.

Give us something for more speculation Anet please! (Hopefully next week)

@*xev*: To me it sounds like you havent played living world season 2 or 1. Those are when most of the “new DE” were introduced and fleshed out a bit more.

This makes me think Anet will either include some sort of in-game cinematic that summarizes what happened in living world season 1 and 2 or they will sell multiple box versions of the expansion where one box contains access to season 2 of the living world.

I say this because yeah from a new player’s perspective (or even a returning player from a long break who did not participate in living world) will find it jarring to go from the 1-80 personal story into HoT personal story.

There’s no way they’re gonna make a specialization intentionally playable before without giving its week-long special first.

Ah ok so we don’t know yet. Just wondering if that information was revealed or not yet. Thanks for answering.

Like the title states, do we know if specializations are available at lvl 80 on a profession or will we be able to delve into them earlier (like at level 30 or 40 or EVEN RIGHT AWAY!)??

Hey everyone, I just recently created a Warrior and am leveling him currently. I just wanted to know what makes Warrior’s appealing to all of you that play/main Warriors?

For me I would say it’s the feeling of being a Knight and all that encompasses but your reason can be anything and everything!

What makes the Warrior appealing to you?

Now inb4 all the “just make a human” etc comments

I was wondering if anyone has tried to match Sylvari skin colors to humans and how that’s turned out? For instance it seems like some of the Sylvari NPCs (especially the females) have peachy-ish skin almost to the color of humans but these options don’t seem to be available in character creation. Or maybe it’s just the males who don’t have this option because I’ve only ever made male Sylvari.

I am hoping for tips on how I can get closest to a fair-skinned color sylvari male, because they seem to have such stark contrasts when choosing the lighter to darker browns. Anyone have an ideas?

Fashion Mage.3712:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Fashion Mage.3712:

Well that’s nice, but just because they offer some support doesn’t make them support legends (not that taunting is support). Kind of like how the actual support legend will also offer some things that aren’t purely support.

Jalis is not “some support” hes pretty much oriented for support and groupplay. 3 out of 5 abilities are support. And taunt can be a support if lets say someone is really low on hp, you can taunt mob/player to get aggro giving your party member a breathing room to heal up or w/e. How is that not support?

By support legend you actually asking for a healer/tank role which wont happen.

How is that not support? It’s control, that’s how it’s not support.

I’m not asking for anything (although the inevitable Glint legend is very likely to be much more supportive), I’m just saying that it’s not primarily supportive, it’s primarily tanky mixed in with some control and support. Jalis’ heal is not supportive in any way, it has one supportive utility, and it has a tanky/supportive elite. Compare this to guardians who can have a set of non-weapon skills be 100% supportive.

The healer and tank roles have already happened, they just don’t really occur in most kinds of PvE.

So your idea of support seems to be more along the sides of buffing and healing? Correct me on that if i’m wrong.

I think Revenant will definitely get good support capabilities, indeed Mallyx could be considered support already (in a debuffing type way).

Loxsus, sometimes Anet take big risks and change things drastically, other times they take a small risk with small changes. We have no idea what extent specializations change the current classes, so we can only guess from what we’re given and yes the Ranger still utilizing the pet doesn’t make it seem like a big change but we just have to wait until more information is out.

Who knows it could be like DarkWasp stated. Although I don’t want to shoot this theory down but in the trailer it shows the pet charging forward in the same direction as the enemy :T so I doubt it will be following us like a nature spirit and just providing support.

PorceleinEve.2973:

You’d think new dungeons, fractals etc would be considered a major feature. If one map for pvp is considered one, why not a dungeon. And let’s not forget the answer colin gave angry joe when asked how big is the expansion, how many zones. “We’re focusing on features”. And those have been already announced. In all honesty what exactly we’re expecting here? that they’ll go “fooled ya all didn’t we? we also have 3 new dungeons in the works and 5 more fractals”. And that answer colin gave. It screams out, not that many zones. I’m assuming 3 to 4. Making these zones not easily exporable, but instead hiding bits and pieces behing the grind that’s the mastery system, isn’t content. Really it’s not. Having to do the same events again and again to grind your glider mastery just so you can reach a place of the map you couldn’t before, isn’t really “content”. Imagine if you’re in another zone in old tyria, and an invisible wall prevented you from accessing half the zone. And a message poped up saying, sorry laddy, you need to do 30 more events in this zone to cross this thing here. Would you really call this content? Cause that’s what we’re getting. Wanna reach that place there? grind that glider mastery. Want to see that bit here? grind your mushrooms. Want perhaps that one over there? go grind froggy lore stuff. Now granted this might be more enjoyable than the insivisiwall thingy but still, i can’t in good conscience call that amazing design and buckets of content (personal opinion, for the easily confused).

I just want to focus on the bolded part. I agree it’s not amazing design but honestly it’s entirely not feasible for them to create content at a pace that players won’t eat up within weeks if not a month. If there’s any developer who can create content faster than players can consume it please show me cuz I’d like to give props to that dev company. Even WoW with all the money it makes can’t churn out content that quickly. You have to gate things in order for their to be progression and for it to feel like you’re actively making progress towards something which in the end will feel like an achievement.

Now yes some people don’t find any fun in that at all (Why do I have to level up my glider to reach higher places, why can’t I just do that once I get my glider? Etc etc) these are valid arguments but again this is the surest way to prolong time for devs to create new content.

There are people working on creating their first legendaries still to this day, not because some crazy amount of player skill is involved but just because it involves a lot of grind. But I wager that a lot of those people will still feel like they achieved something worthwhile once they finally complete it.

So yes I agree that it’s not amazing design. But honestly, it works for me. It gives me enough of a sense of progression that I’m mighty excited to work through each tier of mastery and I know this will extend the amount of time I spend playing with GW2.

Well since Revenants are using a Hammer as a ranged weapon (and Mesmers can use Greatswords as ranged weapons) it’s not too farfetched to think Staves could possible be used in melee. Although we’ll just have to wait and see once they reveal all of the weapons it can wield.

Yes unfortunately pets are still utilized in the druid class mechanic. This was stated in one of the recent PAX interviews with Anet (or I think at some fan-meet).

It would’ve been nice because it’s the only reason I can’t bring myself to play a Ranger :T but looks like we gotta wait for maybe the next specialization or something.

Kal Spiro.9745:

Sorry, but the actual argument, and the only one that matters is: The Devs said Revenant wouldn’t have a story because story isn’t associated with class, therefore, no story.

Yup, Anet has said personal story is focused on your race and they want to keep it that way.

This is also the case of where something new to us players does not coincide to what is new in the universe of the game. Revenants have already always existed in the world of Tyria (as an earlier stated example Havrouns are Revenants by just a different name), it just now being accessible to us players.

Imagine it more this way: If necromancers weren’t available to us in the beginning of release of GW2 but they exist within the world already (like Zhaitan is basically a nercomancer dragon) and with some expansion became a playable class.

Duke Nukem.6783:

i too think we need alot of non crafting skills so that i can do something with my time in this game other than combat, it would be great to have fishing, or hunting, or construction that lets you build your own player owned hosue…..or herblore where u make anti dragon potions and then go into the new pve/ pvp area to the far north where other players can attack u while u try and fight the king black dra…..wait what were we talking about, but yea FISHING SKILL!

Actually Artificier profession lets you make potions. Though I feel they are underutilized because you really don’t need them for the majority of the game’s content. But they exist!!

Also I’m all for fishing, it was definitely a fun thing to do in WoW, I think a great game includes both high stress activities (ex: combat, fractals, raids etc) and low stress activities (ex: exploring, crafting, gathering etc). By stress here I mean how much you actual brain power and focus you need to do an activity.

GW2 definitely includes both but I feel they could expand on their low stress activities even more and something like fishing is indeed a welcomed addition.

With all that said, they actually do seem to be moving in this direction by the inclusion of Adventures with HoT as they gave an example of the shooting gallery as something that was talked about as a mini-game before the game’s release but never actually implemented.

They could pretty easily have different kinds of rare fish be part of a collection. Different kinds of rods and lures and fishing hats could be obtained through rewards, crafting, drops. They could even introduce special tonics or hold weekly/monthly fishing tourneys to see who catches the biggest fish or something of the like. The possibilities!

Palador.2170:

No Scarlet because she’s not a legend.

Before anyone yells, back up and think about it for a second. She’s not a legend, she’s a FACT. People know her, and know just what she did. There’s solid documentation on a lot of it, and lots of the people that met her are still around.

A legend needs time to grow. To become its own thing. To take on a life of its own. Scarlet’s story hasn’t done that yet. You can say she was epic, but you can’t really call her a legend. Not so soon.

This right here.

I’m surprised that some people can even think of her to be of “legend” status. Also Anet specifically said that as the Engineer is their most forward-thinking profession, the Revenant is their answer to the opposite of that, looking way back into the past for inspiration and theme. So yes the legends of the Revenant will almost surely (like 95% if not higher) be stand-out characters from GW1 that had a lot of fame/infamy in during those time periods.