Guild Wars 2

I agree. Do not raise the level cap.

I’d like ANet to add 10 or 20 Trait points.
In my opinion, they should do it through important achievements in game.
Competing all modes of a dungeon would qualify.
Achieving certain titles or objectives in PvP would qualify.
Each game mode would have certain skill/coordination-based tasks that would earn you 1 extra Trait point, up to 10-20 extra Trait points (total 80-90).

I think Traits need a little more granularity and customization.

Some of the Minor or Major Traits are really lackluster, and not in the sense that they need to be buffed, but their functionality is gimmicky, making them feel like filler Traits.
You can easily find yourself trying to get to a useful Trait while trying to be creative in your build, only to find you’re forced to go through useless Minor or sometimes even Major traits (for your build) in the process.

Superior Traits
So I think Traits shold be separated into 3 Types:

• The currently useful Major Traits would become Superior
  - Accessible at 10, 20 and 30 points
• The currently useful Minor Traits would become Major, and no longer fixed.
  - Accessible at 6, 16 and 26 points
• The remaining Traits would become Minor.
  - Accessible at 3, 13 and 23 points

Using Guardian’s Zeal Adept Traits as an example:

• Adept Minor
  - Protector’s Impact (reduced fall damage, create symbol on taking fall damage)
  - Revenge of the Fallen (extra damage while downed)
• Adept Major
  - Zealot’s Speed (create symbol on 25% health)
  - Binding Jeopardy (vulnerability on immobilization)
• Adept Superior
  - Shattered Aegis (burn when aegis breaks)
  - Fiery Wrath (extra damage against burning foes)
  - Spirit Weapon Mastery (extra spirit weapon damage)

Another example would be the Writ of Exaltation (Symbols are larger) and Writ of Persistence (Symbols last longer).
WoE is better suited for Major, while WoP is better suited for Superior.

That said, a couple more Traits would need to be created.
Instead of 1+1+1=3 Minor and 6+4+2=12 Major, you’d have roughly 3+2+1=6 Minor, 3+2+1=6 Major and 4+2+2=8 Superior.
—-
Elite Traits
It would be interesting to have an Elite Major Trait Slot, wich would essentially allow you to pick a single Trait from any Tree.
This would allow you to pick a Trait from a Tree where you have 0 points invested.

In the case of the above suggestion, it might include Elite Minor, Elite Major and Elite Superior Trait.
Restrictions:
- To access Elite Minor Trait Slot, you’d need to have a Minor Trait in at least 1 Tree.
- To access Elite Major Trait Slot, you’d need to have a Major Trait in at least 1 Tree.
- To access Elite Superior Trait Slot, you’d need to have a Superior Trait in at least 1 Tree.
—-

Trait Stats
I think Stats granted by Traits aren’t balanced, and most aren’t interesting.

Interesting Existing Stats:
- Boon Duration
- Condition Duration
- Main Mechanic (Virtue, Steal, Shatter) Recharge Rate

Uninteresting Stats:
- Everything else (Power, Condition Damage, etc)

Suggestions:

1. Instead of having Major Traits like Guardian’s Retributive Armor (5% of toughness is given as a bonus to precision), Trait lines could provide that as a investment bonus.
   Example:
   - Guardian Valor currently gives Toughness and Critical Damage.
   - Instead, it could grant Toughness equal to (Trait Points)% of your Precision (or vice-versa).
   So if you have 20 points invested in Valor, you get Toughness equal to 20% of your Precision (or vice-versa).
2. Instead of having Minor/Major Traits like Guardian’s Radiant Power (Deal more damage to foes inflicted with conditions) or Fiery Wrath (Increases damage by 10% against burning foes), or Necromancer’s Barbed Precision (Critical hits have a 66% chance to cause bleeding), Trait lines could grant that as an investment bonus.
   Example:
   - Necromancer’s Curses currently gives Precision and Condition Damage.
   - Instead, it could:
   a) give your Critical Hits a (3,3 x Trait Points)% chance to cause Bleeding (replacing the Adept Minor Trait Barbed Precision)
   b) increase your Condition Damage by (3x Trait Points)% of your Critical Chance.
   So if you have 20 points invested in Curses, you would a) cause Bleeding on 66% of your Critical Hits, or b) increase your Critical Damage by 60% of your Critical Chance.

I’m totally with runeblade on this.
Remove MF’ing from the game, or make AI always target whoever has the most pieces of gear with MF or MF nourishment.

I have to try that

On Greatsword, I usually use Binding Blade -> Symbol -> Pull -> Whirling Wrath.
This makes the enemy unlikely to escape my symbol or my whirlwind.

As for Leap of Faith, I usually use it as an opener, if appropriate, but can fit it anywhere during or after the combo as well.

Ideal is having another Guardian with the same build
1 – Guardian A uses GS, pulls and deals damage while Guardian B creates circle and dishes Hammer combo
2 – Guardian A switches to Hammer, creates circle and dishes Hammer combo while Guardian B switches to GS, pulls and deals damage

A 10 second mayhem of blindness, interruption (pull) and hurtsies.

Wow, the only thing that can be ripped from dervishes is “Flash” in the name.
I find it amazing you decided to make a comment based on something as irrelevant as that.

If anything else in these suggestions looks like Dervish, then you certainly didn’t play Dervish.

nachtnebel.9168:

Same should be true for conditions, they should just travel to the next target once one is dead …

Come on, seriously?

Because you can kill, slow, daze, evade, block conditions after they’re applied, right?
And your whole profession is balanced around them, right?

Funny suggestion. You know what would happen?

Bots would report every other player they see, except those in their “bot-list”.

I bet half of us don’t bother reporting half the bots in a “bot pack” running around.

But bots can most certainly be made to report EVERYTHING around them.

Result: Players are constantly disconnected before they have a chance to report bots.

I totally agree Lightning is a good element for Guardian.
I’ll add it to my suggestion.

Regarding 1) and 2), I think you misunderstood.

I’m not suggesting that Symbols should change.
I’m suggesting that NEW Symbols should be added – Flash Symbols do not replace Symbols.
With my idea, you have 2 types of Symbols:
- normal Symbols, wich always give Combo Field: Light, have a duration, deal damage over the duration and provide a beneficial effect with every pulse.
- Flash Symbols, wich are Combo Finisher: Blast, are instant, only provide EITHER damage OR beneficial effect, and have an additional effect with prerequisites.

That’s an illusion, CobaltSixty.
It just makes alot of players conservative in their playstyle, and more frustrated.
Costs more? Spend less. Farm more. Get bored of the game quicker.

The money sinks will work properly when the economy is fixed.
That means, above all, taking care of bots, hacks and exploits.

On a sidenote, ANet should make less items available to buy purely with gold, and instead require crafting materials for nearly every item – even if just a couple of them.

This would create a inherent item sink by giving value to crafting materials, in turn encouraging the salvaging of items, in turn making less gold available in the game, and so on.

Antiriad.7160:

Yep: Add items with cond.dam/toughness/healing please :-p.

To be honest, all stat combinations should be available with 1 condition:
At least 1 stat needs to be offensive.

That said, I think stats in gear should work like properties in GW1 – customizable on the fly as replaceable bonuses.

In GW1 each weapon had 3 customizability hooks: inscription + 2 parts of the weapon (hilt and guard for swords).

One thing I’ve noticed about Leap of Faith, is that if you use the pull on skill #5, and shortly after use Leap of Faith, you risk charging at the spot your target was BEFORE you pulled.
This can happen – unreliably – even 1 full second after the pull.

Actually, I really like Renewed Focus and I hope they never remove or severely change its functionality.

I do agree all Elites should have lower Recharge Times.

I made some very important changes to the original suggestion, namely introducing a new concept of Symbol.

LoF allows you to apply Vulnerability on blind, now every 15 instead of 20 seconds.
Not much of a boost, but not negligible either.

LoF’s chain-attack could count as a Symbol, without actually having a duration.

DaniellsAwesome, that’s an improvement, but all you’re doing is adding a “storage”.

I think what’s wrong with this system is having to re-buy and re-apply a skin everytime you get a new piece of equipment.

What if I want to have multiple builds, that require different types of stats?
Why should I be punished for it?

Spending Stones to permanently add the skin to your collection, and then using a HoM vendor to purchase a consumable version of any skin you unlocked would be ideal.

The only problem with downscaling is:
- You have more Traits
- You have more Major Traits
- You are likely to have higher quality armor.

What I mean to say is, if you had exotic gear at level 5, you’d feel nearly as powerful as a level 80 downscaled to 5 on his exotic gear.
But instead, at level 5 you usually have a mix of Normal and Fine gear.
Only at about level 20 do you start using Masterwork gear.
Only at about level 30 do you start having access to Rare gear, mostly from Dungeons, but with some effort from crafting too.
Exotic comes into play much later.

Now let’s get something straight. As you level up, you are meant to become – and feel – stronger.
If all you earn with level (skill synergies, increased gear quality and traits) is “compensated” when you downlevel, then what’s the meaning of progress?

This is not the answer.

I’m more in favor of getting rid of the concept of level entirely and making gear quality provide smaller jumps in power.

Keep this thread alive, provide your own ideas and how to make this change while keeping Transmutation Stones as something ANet can make money with.

Squirrels should be creatures that belong to a secret organization that monitors critter slaying.

The first time you slay a critter, all squirrels become hostile against you until you are killed by them.
Squirrels deal +1% to you for each critter you killed in the game.
Squirrels have permastealth while out of combat.
Squirrels have 2 skills during a fight:

1. Straight for the Nuts! – Charge at your target, dealing damage and knocking it down and then attacking in a flurry of blows while blocking all attacks, dealing damage every 0.25 seconds for 8 seconds to enemies in front of you and applying a stacking 2 second stun with each hit.
   Recharge Time: 3 seconds
   Charge Range: 1200.
   Attack Range: 130 range.
   Knockdown duration: 2 seconds.
2. That’s alot of nuts! – Burrow under the ground for 5 seconds, eating some nuts and restoring 20% health per second.
   Recharge Time: 8 seconds

No comments whatsoever?
I think the post is clear.

The point is letting some of those seconds the skill spends recharged and inactive, “discount” on the next cooldown once it’s used.

My suggestion is a soft change, as it allows ANet to still make money through Transmutation Stones, without punishing the players like they are now.

Indeed, it felt right.
I personally don’t mind it either way, as long as our damage dealing and activity isn’t hit like this.
Now we auto-attack too often due to long cooldowns.

That’s why I suggest Chain on LoF.

I think Symbols should be re-thought.
Perhaps they should not necessarily provide boons, or perhaps Retaliation could be given Intensity, the current Retaliation becoming equivalent to 3 stacks, and Symbol of Wrath only granting 1 stack, for example.

Quite a few options.

In the meanwhile, alternatively, Leap of Faith could get a Chain skill.
I suggested it here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Greatsword-New-Chain-Skill-More/first#post399393

raphaeldisanto.5478:

I heavily oppose anonymous character inspections, unless it’s on a request-only basis, and you have the option to disable requests.

You don’t get to see my gear unless I decide to show you.

I heavily oppose ANY kind of character inspections, EVEN if it’s on a request-only basis and you have the option to disable requests.

Why? Because it WILL become common praactice to be forced to ALLOW inspection before getting into groups/guilds.

Check the kitten elitist mentality in most of the community in WoW and D3, and you get the picture.

@ Snoring Sleepwalker
Nah, chain skills are nothing like Assassin combos.
Assassin had the potential for multiple different combos
One of my favorite examples was:
- Golden Phoenix Strike (off hand attack, must be enchanted, doesn’t require a lead attack)
- Repeating Strike (off hand attack, requires off hand attack)
- Horns of the Ox (dual strike, requires off hand attack, knocks down)
- Falling Spider (off hand attack, only hits knocked down targets)
- Death Blossom (dual strike, requires off hand attack)

So in the example above, I could:

1. Open with Falling Spider if target is knocked down (by my Horns of the Ox, or someone else), otherwise open with Golden Phoenix Strike
   - Follow with Repeating Strike (optional)
   - Follow with Horns of the Ox or Death Strike
2. Restart

I had an easily spammable enchantment, I think it was Shadow Refuge.

You could have Palm Strike (elite) instead of Golden Phoenix Strike.
You could have Moebius Strike (elite, offhand that chains after dual strike and refreshes all attack skills if the enemy is below 50% health) for even more crazyness.

Anyway, the main deal with Assassin combos was you had restrictions, but also alternatives.

There’s an even easier sollution.
Make enemies move away from you when they think they can’t reach you.
It’s easy to code, and it’s what a player would do in the same situation.

Harder to code, would be making enemies intentionally break LoS with you when they think they can’t reach you. That’d be so awesome I can’t describe it

This is an awesome idea, imo.
Eleven Thumbs up.

In my examples I said roughly.
I don’t think it’s a static “minus X” either.
I think it’s probably closer to a percentual adjustment.
So if you’re 20 with 15 gear, that’s 75% your level, so if you go to a lv8 area, your gear would be equivalent to lv6.

Regardless of how it is exactly, it’s still a bad design.
Though I agree it might take too much effort to fix something a couple days of leveling fix.
Whether they do something about it or not it won’t affect me much, nor for long.
This is mostly a brainstorm towards improving the overall feel of the game for all the potential new players out there.

Cheers.

2 silver every 5-10 levels? That may be true for the first 20 levels.
But it’s still beside the point.
You should never weaken because you level up. It’s ridiculous. It’s purely bad design.
Downleveling was created to fix a problem generated by Level.
In turn, downleveling generated its own problems.
Getting rid of Level and Downlevel fixes everything and doesn’t really take anything away.
No one levels for the pleasure of seeing their health grow by 100.
And their base stat increase is NEVER felt, because of downleveling!
Levels in GW2 are only useful for traits, skill points, and determine when you get new stuff (skill slots, weapon swap, etc).
That’s it!

And this is not an issue I felt often while leveling.
I only started feeling it when I got into dungeons, and into higher level areas, and then became clearer on my third and fourth characters.

Alot of players in my guild and others I’ve played and chatted with shared their troubles with the game.

Not everyone follows a walkthrough or plays super conservatively – some like (and have fun) trying and dying and trying again.
Before they know it, they have repair bills that far outweight whatever they gained, and instead of earning currency, they lose it.

As I said, at level 80 all of this is moot.
I’m talking of the whole concept of exploration, playing where you like – both of those could be done alot better.

Yup, that’s pretty much what I suggested.

EoTN HoM vendor is a mechanic already in the game, so would require the least work of all.

Using a Transmutation Stone on an item should add that item to said vendor, forever.

I made several suggestions regarding expansions: one for Cantha, one for Elona, in this thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Expansion-Concepts/page/2#post485983

I did not include plot ideas, mostly because I wanted to keep to 2 posts, and I kinda reached the limit on both of them.
—-

That being said, I think it’s highly unlikely the Assassin profession will be added, as it is too similar to Thief.
Same kind of weapons, same kind of equipment.

Instead, I proposed that some of the “missing” Assassin concepts be added to the Thief arsenal – Lead+Offhand+Dual Strike combos, etc.

Same deal with Paragon concepts (chants, echos, etc) added to Guardian, along with Spear and lightning-based skills.

The professions I think can be added – because they’re clearly different from the others in the GW2 – are Dervish (Elona) and Ritualist (Cantha).
As for races, I agree with Tengu for Cantha, not sure about Elona.

Weapons: Scythe, Kama (one-handed Scythe), Javelin (one-handed Spear), Spear (useable in Land), Greataxe (two-handed Axe), Orb (two-handed, for most casters, useable in Land) and Whip (one-handed, for rangers, mesmers and dervish)

Also suggested weapon subtypes, wich are weapons of the same type with slightly different skills, like Katana vs Sword vs Scimitar and Nodachi vs Greatsword vs Falchion.

I also think each expansion should have focus on all regions.
So if Cantha is introduced, Tyria shouldn’t be ignored.
When Elona is introduced, Cantha and Tyria shouldn’t be ignored.

So my thinking is: They go to Cantha seeking allies to help solve problems in Tyria,, but also find new dangers in Cantha.
Same deal with Elona.

Tarkaroshe.8370:

If you don’t want to out-level your gear, don’t progress into higher level zones. Stay wherever you are, and enjoy whatever gear you’re wearing. If you’re staying there, you really have no need for the benefits of higher levels anyhow.

And in doing that, you have your desired level-less system right there.

I underlined the part that shows you either don’t quite understand how downleveling works, or didn’t really bother reading what I wrote at all.

You can’t “stay wherever you are, enjoying the gear you’re wearing”.
You know why? Because you’ll level up, whether you want to or not.
If I am level 30, my gear is level 28, and I’m in an area level 20, here’s what will happen:
- My effective level will be 20
- My gear will be equivalent to roughly level 18 gear
If I level up, I will become 31. Here’s what will happen:
- My effective level will be 20
- My gear will be equivalent to roughly level 17 gear -> I became weaker.
You know why? Because the difference between my level and my gear increased, and that difference is kept when downleveling.

So what I’m saying, and you seem to be readily dismissing, is that, while progression is great (skills, tiers of gear (quality, etc), traits, and so forth), the notion of level itself is pointless in GW2, because of downleveling.

If you…
- have no level
- gain 1 skill point every X experience, up to 300 or something
- gain 1 trait point every X experience, up to 70
- have a smaller growth in gear power
- have base stats and gear stats adjusted to the current level 40 or 50 or 80… whatever

…you’ll lose nothing at all in terms of fun, and there will be absolutely no issues with “downleveling” whatsoever, because it won’t be necessary.
You could effectively stay in an area if you wanted.
Any player could go explore tougher areas without getting insta-gibbed due to level difference.
The game will finally be truly explorable.
You will finally be able to play wherever you want, with whomever you want.

Because let’s be honest, when you level up and get gear for your level, you “reset” the difficulty, and the new enemies are as hard to kill as the ones you were fighting a few levels ago (in weaker gear).

So why not instead make monsters actually become slightly tougher in tougher areas, and get rid of levels?

Sometimes, Recharge Times may feel punitive, because skills are balanced around how often they can be used, but rarely are they used that often.

• Maybe 2 skills finished recharging simultaneously.
• Maybe you have a little lag.
• Maybe you want to wait for the right opportunity to use the skill.

All the while, the clock is ticking, and your skill is doing nothing.

So I think a great concept is Overcharge:

1. Each skill may (or not) be able to Over-Recharge up to X seconds,
2. When you use the skill, the Recharge Time is reduced by X
   Example:
   Take a skill with 20 Recharge and 5 Overcharge.
   If you use it 2 seconds after it finishes recharging, its recharge time will be 18 instead of 20.
   Essentially, you “accumulat” recharge time, up to a limit specific to each skill.

I hope the devs can make use of this to spice skills up a bit or to have an easier time balancing them.

Erm, my suggestion is precicely about re-using the skins, permanently.

Hall of Monuments Heirloom gear works like that.
You buy the skin (for 0 gold), apply it.
Later you get new equipment, go to HoM, buy the skin again (for 0 gold), apply it.
And so forth.

It’s not equivalent, Svenn.

In any MMO, and even in GW1, you can stay in an area making up for whatever you did wrong, in case you somehow mess your leveling, or fail to gather enough materials.

If you have level 10 gear, you can stay in a level 10 area, no matter what level you are.
You can stop in an area and keep improving your gear until you’re ready to move on.

That is not the case in GW2, because of Downleveling.
If you decide to stay in an area – say level 20 area.
You have level 15 gear – that’s 5 levels below you.
If you level up to 21, the game will keep you at 20, and make your gear equivalent to level 14. So by staying in the same area, you’re actually weaker than before because you leveled.

This is simply poor design, all because they decided to keep the conventional leveling system and implement downleveling, rather than getting rid of Levels entirely.

Downleveling is a great concept in itself, but the exact way it is implemented is problematic.

What I’m suggesting is essentially what the game should have been from the start.
The ideology behind downleveling is the same behind removing the concept of Level.
ANet just stopped halfway :P

It seems the common practice in these forums is dismissing others’ arguments by exaggerating their presumed downsides, and minimizing or even denying your own.

If you truly believe most skills are balanced except for a few exceptions, you’re deluding yourself.

My suggestion, envisions using mechanics that are already in the game.
Skills that players use added to creatures.

The development team would need to make a couple AI templates and then adjust to the different skills each creature would have.
It wouldn’t be the same as designing 1 AI from scratch for each creature.

Furthermore, as I said multiple times, my suggestion fixes several game issues, rather than 1.

• less bot effectiveness (splitting skills makes bots more effective because some skills are underperforming in PvE in order to balance PvP)
• more fun in PvE (less boring encounters or frustrating mechanics)
  Example: You know when a creature becomes invulnerable because you’re out of reach? That means the check is already done. Now instead of invulnerability, make creature move out of YOUR reach. Hard?
• dev team only needs to balance 1 set of skills for the entire game

The consequence is certain, and pretty obvious, I might add.

As for the amount of work? How about the amount of work they will have balancing skills differently for each aspect of the game, wich is also designed differently.

Instead, I’m suggesting that the gameplay mentality is one throughout the whole game.

I’ll agree that it’s a big enough change that it might be best introducing with an expansion, and monster AI could be changed gradually, starting from end game, and moving down towards lower level areas.

I think Transmutation should work differently.

• You have a Skin Collection.
• Transmutation Stone + Piece of Gear = Unlock Skin in the Skin Collection
• Your Skin Collection works like the Hall of the Monuments Heirloom Vendor
  - You purchase a Skin as a consumable, as many times as you want, for 0 gold, that you use to apply its skin to a piece of equipment of the appropriate type.
• Starter Gear is automatically Unlocked in the Collection
• Basic Transmutation Stones used to unlock Normal, Fine, Masterwork and Rare Skins
• Fine Transmutation Stones used to unlock Exotic and Legendary Skins
• Could be as follows:
  - 1 Basic Transmutation Stone + Normal Item
  - 2 Basic Transmutation Stones + Fine Item
  - 3 Basic Transmutation Stones + Masterwork Item
  - 4 Basic Transmutation Stones + Rare Item
  - 1 Fine Transmutation Stone + Exotic Item
  - 2 Fine Transmutation Stones + Legendary Item

This change would not devalue Transmutation Stones.
Why?
Because currently players are conservative with Stones.
With this suggestion, players would feel encouraged to actually collect all looks in the game.
ANet could even create an achievement that tracks what’s the highest number of skins one of your characters unlocked.

Jestunhi.7429:

Hmm…

If you think a SB is a high DPS weapon, instead of just the best of the (frankly poor) options rangers have available to them, then I don’t think anything good can come from us discussing balance.

I never said it’s high dps.
I said it’s the highest of the ranger weapons.
Meaning there is no disadvantage in playing Shortbow as a Ranger, compared to all your other Ranger weapons.

In fact, in Ranger, Sword is relatively cool, in that you have alot of mobility and evasive capabilities.
In that regard, Ranger isn’t exactly the worst case scenario where it comes to this thread.

No thoughts about this at all?
I think it is a very significant issue with the game that can easily be solved.

Illiander, that is certainly one thing worth looking at, but I don’t see how that’s part of the PvP vs PvE problem.

Instead of separate both sides, make them similar.
The hate will always exist as long as PvE follows much easier and boring mechanics than PvP.
PvPers will always look down on PvErs because of that.
If skills are split, that won’t change.

Making both aspects of the game more similar actually fixes everything all the way to the quality of the community.

PvE doesn’t have to be equal to PvP.
It just needs to be comparable, thus making skills feel just as useful in both.
In doing so, Bots have a harder time, players have more fun, rewards can be improved as it will be less viable to just grind through AoE, and skills will be balanced between PvP and PvE.

Enemies do not need to have dps like a player.
They just need to move away from the extremes:
Ultra Dumb = Health and simple dps
Ultra Cheesy = immunities and/or insane control abilities (mega knockbacks, mega knockdowns, fears that last 6 seconds, etc)

I’d say Veterans are closer to the effectiveness of a player, while normal enemies are more likely to be balanced in a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio, not accounting for AoE.

Alot of WvWvW is uncoordinated. Just clusters of players with a goal that’s not always perceived in the same manner.

Likewise, some monsters can move in clusters and/or roam within a certain area.
Some of the stronger monsters (like champions) can be compared to a cluster of players, as long as they have challenging mechanics, rather than simple brute damage.

Some creatures might spot you from a distance and attempt to pre-empt you.
Other creatures would act like they do now.

You’re missing the point.
Making PvP “more” similar to PvE doesn’t require monsters to have the same reaction or tactics as player.
It only requires monsters to follow similar rules to players.

The mechanics that players use are already in the game, so all that needs to be done is change the AI to use those mechanics, and none of the below requires complex AI:

1. Fall damage and knockeable off cliffs
2. Movement while using skills
3. Moving away when attacked by someone out of reach, instead of going immune
4. Making some bigger monsters resistant to knockback/knockdown, instead of immune – meaning less duration/distance
5. Make monsters use skills that give them stability for a short duration before channeling their important attacks, rather than outright immunity. This would make players able to interrupt the ability as long as they remove the protective boons beforehand.
6. Making enemies attempt to use a healing skill when they pass a certain Health % treshold
7. Making enemies periodically use defensive skills that force players to attack at the right time, rather than spamming skills
8. Give more enemies pull/charge skills
9. Make some enemies kite you (strafe + shoot) every now and then
10. Make enemies use skills that remove/convert conditions/boons
11. Replace some enemy big hit auto-attacks with multi-hit auto-attacks (like Weapon Skill #1)

The list goes on, but none of the above requires complex AI; none of the above requires monsters to “emulate” players.

Bosses do not need to have much less health, just a little less, to compensate for the healing/buff/debuff mechanics.

And I’m obviously not saying every enemy should have everything…

This is more of a brainstorm, but it’s something that’s been itching me for a while, specially considering what made Guild Wars 1 so awesome.

One of the things I love about GW1, is that leveling is essentially a tutorial, and over 75% of the game is played at max level.

Despite this, end game still feels like progression, because you hunt for skins, perfect equipment prefix/suffix, perfect insignias, runes, skills and achievements.

In GW2, leveling has a function more similar to the conventional MMO, such as WoW, and creates similar problems without adding anything meaningful.

Note: What I say below applies to the process of leveling. Does not apply to max level.
One of the biggest problems, is constantly outleveling your gear.
No matter how much effort you put into crafting or making money to buy a piece of equipment, you soon MUST replace it. This is detrimental to the feel of Effort vs Reward.
This happens because leveling makes you weaker.
Your Level is limited by each area’s individual effective level (ELv) cap.
Example:
- You are Lv60 with Lv48 gear (5:4 ratio)
- You are in an area that adjusts you to Lv40
- Your gear is thus adjusted to roughly Lv32

If you level up, you will now be Lv61 with Lv48 gear, but due to the Lv40 adjustment, your gear will now be closer to roughly Lv31.

So you don’t feel like you progress to Lv61.
Instead, your gear feels like it regressed to roughly Lv31.

Wich means leveling is bad throughout the whole game, until you finally hit 80. you only feel stronger when you upgrade your gear – not when you Level up.

Ofcourse, this is somewhat (but not completely) mitigated by the fact you gain Traits and new skills, but my point stands.

Leveling should make you feel STRONGER.
Not the same.
Certainly not weaker, EVER.

In Dungeons, the consequences are harshly felt.

[Suggestion]

• Get rid of the conventional concept of Level – No more Base Stat Growth
  You can have Level as a means to keep track of the number of Skill Points/Traits earned so far, but it’s unnecessary.
  Essentially, make the gameplay similar to Lv20 in GW1.
  - You gain Experience
  - Every X Experience you gain 1 Trait Point (up to 70) and 1 Skill Point
• Adjust the stat growth in Traits and Gear
  With no Level Requirement on gear, you can make gear grow in smaller jumps, and focus on:
  - Types of stats (Mighty->Strong->Knight)
  - Quality (Fine, Masterwork, Rare, etc)
  - Number of Upgrade Slots
• No more need for Downleveling
• Adjust numbers in the game to a spot that feels comfortable
  Instead of downgrading all numbers to Level 1, it could be down/upgraded to around 40 or 50
  - A max Traited, Skilled and Geared (Exotic) character should feel somewhere around 5 times stronger than a new character.

I’m totally with you on that, Zenith.

GW2 could have 80 levels for the purpose of Traits, Skill points and whatnot.
But there shouldn’t be statistical growth linked to level.
The gear could have level requirements, but have smaller jumps in power.

The other day I got level 50 with one of my characters, and had 50 Masterwork crafted gear waiting for me.
So I decided to go TA.
Since I didn’t find enough players, I had two choices:
- Change character to keep it at 50 to run TA.
- Keep playing

I went with playing.
I got to 53 just doing renown hearts, gathering, etc.
And as I level – but the area I’m in forces me to stay at the same level – I notice my damage goes down, my overall effectiveness goes down, and the only sollution is keeping my gear at my level at all times – wich is impractical.

Before I get started, something needs to be made very clear.
In most games, you are expected to level up and move to areas appropriate to your level, in those areas you obtain gathering materials and drops that will help you get equipped.
In GW2, you have downleveling, meant to let you play wherever you want.
However, downleveling ruins the above.
Because in lower areas, you get lower gathering materials.
In lower areas, the drops you get can go anywhere from the minimum drop of the area, up to the maximum drops for your level, meaning in average you will get inferior drops.

As you level up, you outlevel your gear – crafted or bought.

Due to the arguably “tight” tuning of Dungeons, a level 30 in Fine Lv30 gear, may do fine, but if you level to 35 and keep the same gear, you start getting into trouble.
If you go to level 40, you will have nearly no chance, as the simplest of attacks will pretty much 2-shot you.

Having gear 10 levels below you isn’t uncommon while leveling, considering the speed at wich you level.
While crafting, you may make Fine Lv30 and Masterwork Lv35 gear, although Masterwork gear is quite expensive. Rare is even more.

So in alot of situations, leveling feels like regression, rather than progression.
This regression is softened by the increase in Traits.

Only at maximum level do you feel like you are progressing, because you no longer outlevel your gear.
Any new piece of gear you obtain will be valid until you get better.

Anyone else feels Downleveling needs to be handled slightly differently?

At least make enemies unable to knock you off cliffs as well.
Jump? Sure.
Knocked off? No.
Feared off? No.

Let’s hope for the best.