Guild Wars 2

Now I’m almost salivating at the prospect of running into a Revenant in PvP – one glance at his weapon (which they can’t swap) and at his buff bar to read which legend he’s invoking and I’ll know almost EVERYTHING about my opponent.

Those traits had better be really creative or these guys are gonna be somebody’s lunch served neatly on the good plates.

I also want to point out that to the Norn, the Revenants (with locked Right-tray design) would be anathema: a Norn forever barred from assuming their totem-form is a spiritual cripple.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

There options really are the legends you bring which offer unique playstyles and skills, I can see your point though.

Thinking on this for a few minutes longer, IF the right-hand tray is a locked set of 5 skills the meta for this class is going to evolve to its terminal state very fast. There’s no theory crafting to be done when your right tray exists as a block decision. It doesn’t matter how many legends are available… 2-3 will be anointed by the groupthink as the must-play options and that’ll be that. I’m sure you can envision the LFG notes “ZRK. Revs n MBS ONLY” (MBS = Mighty Bob Stance) or some other ridiculous shorthand .

Roy Cronacher.1576:

There options really are the legends you bring which offer unique playstyles and skills, I can see your point though.

I don’t know if unique is the word I’d use for the first class that can’t access a character’s racial skills .

It would also be odd if we had a re-run of the Tower of Nightmares and Revenants were barred from using the related healing skill offered for that episode.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

The skills on the right half of your bar are tied to the legend which you are currently invoking.

Lets see if I can phrase this unambiguously:

When I am invoking Bob the Mighty, will I have a Bob-themed pool of skills to choose from when filling out my right-hand tray, or does channeling Bob the Mighty give me an absolutely specific set of 5 skills without variation from any other Revenant invoking Bob?

I realize the answer may be different for buttons 6 and 0 than it is for buttons 7, 8, & 9.

Interesting. Could you take a moment to compare and contrast it to Thieves then?

Tanks only exist because of bad monster AI. Which is why games that have them end up doing ridiculous convolutions when these ‘tank’ characters are basically a sick joke in PvP.

I really don’t see introducing “mind controlled into hitting the guy MOST able to take it” as really improving any game, honestly. It just forces the enemy to act even dumber.

Three streams has the advantage of replayability in a game where you expect people to reach the head of a stream more than once .

The English ones, yes. I don’t know the roster for the other languages supported by GW2 nearly as well .

It could happen. I’d like to hear from ArenaNet that it did happen.

Azrael.4960:

what is with people and death knights..

I really don’t know. To me the defining feature of knights is heavy armor (followed closely by having a horse). Neither of those things will be true for specialized Necromancers so, yeah, not a “Death Knight”.

Executioner maybe. Corpse Lord. Black Slayer. Really depends on the new utility skills. But not “Death Knight” .

My necro is incredibly tanky already. Ritual of Protection makes wells pulse protection boon (for you AND allies). Vampiric Rituals makes wells eat other players and feed you life. And because Necros are light armor the bonus Toughness from Death Magic is further up the diminishing returns curve on Toughness.

Knighthonor.4061:

Anybody notice that the Mesmer Specialization is using a Sword as Main hand?
http://youtu.be/IOUk2y0K2m8?t=1m28s

Could it possible that all Specializations can use more than just their specialization weapon?

You were thinking a specialized necromancer could only equip greatsword/greatsword?

My suspicion is its related to religious restrictions on certain foods – there would be players not comfortable having their characters consume those items and thus being (potentially) left at a mechanical disadvantage because they lacked access to certain benefit combos.

If bacon and pulled pork sandwiches had the same stats as some existing foods it would still be an issue, but a much smaller one.

John Smith.4610:

50 Times a week, I am the destroyer of the designers intention to make people happy.

My hero!

Tyrannical.9348:

I never assumed they left, after all, the living story has the voice actors in, right?

Our characters (the 10 Hero Voices per supported language – male/female for each race) haven’t said a single new word since the game launched to the best of my knowledge. Its one of the things that made Living Story season one particularly lifeless.

Those scarves might be doable since they wouldn’t look absurd on a Charr…

So, was ArenaNet able to get all the original Hero Voice actors back in the studio to record new grunts and shouting for all the new Revenant skills?

How about for new specialization utility skills or class mechanics (like warriors statements as their adrenaline rises)?

Knighthonor.4061:

Rumor is they are getting their own personal story for leveling up.

I don’t believe that for one-tenth of a second.

Starting area is set by RACE not class. There is zero reason to expect a new tutorial. There may be characters added to existing ones that chat with Revenants with new dialogue to help guide them, but beyond that, manage your expectations…

BunjiKugashira.9754:

You think masteries should be instantly maxed out when HoT is released?

Seeing as masteries are ANet’s way of raising the level cap without invalidating our current gear or making us overpowered on the old maps, it makes only sense that you require about as much exp to level in HoT, as you did to level in the normal game.

My suspicion, based on how WXP works and some comments by the Devs is that the new leveling bar will build mastery points (and tomes will do this too) BUT we will have to undertake certain tasks to unlock tracks to spend those points in. So you might blow a pile of tome to amass 600 points on day one, but you’ll still need to go out and find the tasks that give you the ability to spend those points.

I’m as curious to see how it works as anyone, but I can easily imagine a system of locks and tasks that creates appeal for many while not being an instantaneous blowout for a few.

I have 18 character slots, with more than half of them occupied by 80s.

Arenanet can either choose to reward and encourage a player who has dropped a not inconsiderable amount of money on them for character slots or they can discourage that behavior by making ‘re-mastering’ every character individually a massive drudgery festival that ensures I’d never buy another slot again.

It might not serve others well, but their plan serves me well, and I’m the type of player handing them real cashy money.

BunjiKugashira.9754:

Why not open a new thread and ask for levels to be removed completely? Because kitten grind…

Given the number of us planning to pop a level 20 scroll and 60 level up tomes in the first 90 seconds after our first Revenant gets out of the tutorial, I don’t think we need a thread for that — it’s already the case .

voxrar.2859:

Tell why why I should stay.

That you even ask the question suggests you should play another class for a while to understand just how good Guardians have it .

I’m reasonably satisfied with what I’ve seen so far.

There are things I want for the game. I realize those things are often personal and idiosyncratic. That those things aren’t the things I’m seeing in the HoT previews doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy the things they have managed to add.

Knighthonor.4061:

Is it me or is Anet deleting the links and post to the reddit video of the guardian with bow?

Was that put in by accident?

The links are just fine. They’re in the Guardian boards though.

kylwilson.9137:

The thought of Mesmers getting a paltry two new weapon skills i.e. just a shield offhand is…offensive really.

Or it would be if that were true, since the specialization will also have a new elite skill, new utility skills, possibly a new heal skill and oh yeah, a whole new set of traits.

New weapons are NOT the most important thing about the specializations. Not by a long shot.

Those kinds of things are likely to be announced much closer to launch where they won’t be a nagging thorn in the paw knowing that they can fix them but choose not to until the expansion comes out.

Roy Cronacher.1576:

The Revenant is quite different from both the guardian and the warrior professions. Think a darker heavy armor class that imbues magic and power of the mists into it’s attacks, along with drawing power from past legends.

I’m hopeful the clips we’ve seen of the Revenant holding a fist aloft as a massive dragon made out of mist energy materializes behind him is an Elite Skill.

Because if that’s a utility they may not be over-powered, but they’re already pushing the boundaries of over-awesome .

It’ll be back. It might not be soon though.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Scoobaniec.9561:

This week;

Revenant+specializations plox

I’ve been on the edge of my seat every since the PAX announcement to learn more about specializations/revenant.

Which is pretty much proof positive they’ll be last or kitten close to it.

Ah, another step in the never ending struggle to make Rangers the worst longbow archer class in the game .

Neat ideas, but I’m unconvinced. A couple of those sound much more like utility slot effects rather than weapon skills.

Ah, so you do think they are hiding one. Funny.

Read the promo page for Heart of Thorns. Do you see a dungeon mentioned? Do you think they’re HIDING one from you?

Dungeons are a major feature.

They’ve said they’ve announced all major features in Heart of Thorns.

There are no new dungeons in the next expansion.

Fermi.2409:

Dante.1763:

Pinging gear is quick enough already. Takes barely any time to shift click all the gear in your inventory.

Sure it’s easy, but you can still ping gear you’re not actually using.

Why yes, yes you can. Possibly because the game design itself makes it abundantly clear you should focus on playing your character rather than trying to play mine for me.

I’m gravitating towards female Charr.

Its not an accident there isn’t one now and wasn’t one at launch and those reasons haven’t changed.

Actually, out of any set of cosmetic goodies designed for sale to MILLIONS of different players, I’m a little stunned the original poster likes 15%.

That’s a pretty good hit rate in my mind.

N.G.T.H.

(not going to happen)

I think you may need to get out and enjoy some fresh air . There is nothing going on at the PAX event worth scrambling your circadian rhythms over, really.

A OK.8276:

Has anything leaked regarding all classes getting 5 new weapon skills ( as in a MH and OH or 2 handed)?

Nothing of that nature has leaked because that’s not how it’s going to work.

How about whether or not we have to use the new weapon with the specialization? How does that look with weapon swap.

Of course not. So the weapon swap problem will never happen.

It would be cool to have traits swap when weapons swap. Maybe make some more room for creativity in builds? Maybe that’s too much. What do you guys think?

I think that’d be an entirely new system 100% unrelated to specialization and a lot of work just to let a few players be more powerful while confusing the heck out of the rest of the players. People already have enough trouble with slotting utilities for their underwater mode.

No.

warbignime.4610:

There is a high chance they will add more base skills, we still don’t know yet.

On the contrary – there is ZERO chance of that being part of the Heart of Thorns package – if those things were coming ArenaNet would not have mysteriously overlooked promoting that fact as part of their sales pitch.

I think you are trying too hard for perfect symmetry when they’ve said ‘a specialization = 1 new weapon’ rather than ‘a specialization = 5 new weapon skills’.

I also think people are overly focused on the new weapon when the new elite, new utility skills, and new traits are probably far more important in terms of the specialization being competitive in any play mode.

Both of them are hard crowd control that allow you to decide to trade damage for action. Just as torment is a root you can pay a price to ignore.

Its a lot more forgiving than the stuns you’d be taking in most other games, but you need to decide whether flinging your DPS is a better call than just waiting it out…

Its a good way of describing a pitfall. But it’s a fairly obvious pitfall and good design will avoid it.

Rather than indulging in hand-wringing speculative concern, let’s just stand by for a clearer picture where we can frame those concerns with actual knowledge.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Nike.2631:

I’d like to see a couple more ice-themed ones. I have zero expectation it’ll happen, but there it is.

there’s a whole set of ice-themed weapons, do you also need ice legendaries? :P

seriously, ice is the most recurring equipment theme after fire (SO MANY FIRE STUFF)

Plants comes in significantly ahead of ice . By some count’s Asuran weapons are more common than ice also.

That said, you’re right. I’m really more interested in ice armor (of which there is none).

I own two precursors (one bought on the cheap, one drop). Once you have them, the 250 t6 mats of every type can start looking like I’d-rather-slit-my-wrists levels of “fun” to grind out…

I’d like to see a couple more ice-themed ones. I have zero expectation it’ll happen, but there it is.

‘Teef’ is what happened after a thief steals the ‘h’ and the rest of the letters just sort of fall together without h’s strong moral compass.

My expectations (and first assumption, really) in group content is that the other people make a sincere effort.

I don’t care if they’re good. I don’t care if they know the fights. I care that they actually want to succeed. There is no cure for people deliberately sabotaging an effort (and I include willful AFK-leeching as deliberate sabotage).

I’d prefer folks tell me they don’t know the fights beforehand (especially when I ask…) but the truth will come out pretty quickly either way. The first two issues I can train people on the spot up to a level where we’ll pull it of. Beyond sincere effort, if you really want to wow me in a PUG I have no higher praise than “takes direction well”. If you interpret “play the way you want” as license to grief or troll other players… well, I trust real karma will deliver a good salvo of pigeon droppings into your life .