Guild Wars 2

Apathy.6430:

Only if you can throw them

You can throw Axes with Ranger.
You can shoot bouncing arrows with Thief.
You can throw 2handed spears underwater.
You can throw a Greatsword and it returns to you.

Ofcourse you would be able to throw them on land.
Both 1handed and 2handed.

Eladriel.7295:

Bite your freakin tongue. You want an archer make a warrior. Stop trying to screw up the class for those of us who like using the pets.. Geez…. people like you really irritate me.

People who don’t even bother understanding what they read are alot worse.
NinjaEd is suggesting the OPTION to NOT use Pet as a Ranger.
OPTION.

Sorry if I didn’t come out clearly.
I’m not discussing what name ANet decided to give to the bar.

To me – and I believe to alot of players – Energy is a fast moving resource like the one in GW1 and WoW’s Rogues. It’s essentially the same as Initiative.

Mana is a slow moving resource like the one in WoW, that usually requires specific mechanics or leaving combat to refill it.

Since the bar barely moved with skill usage during the video, and mostly only moved with Dodging, it just looks like a very long Endurance bar.

If defensive skills cost more Endurance, that would’ve been a neat idea if ANet had added one more thing: using skills while moving should cost additional Endurance.

Actually, I think Mesmers are more likely to get Rifle than Longbow.

Both 1-handed and 2-handed spears, imo.
I miss the Paragon.

That was Endurance.
Notice how it is used 95% for rolls (it seems like skill #2 also uses some of it, but nearly nothing).

Mana, as in WoW – a pool you can increase with gear – is a bad idea.
Energy, as in GW1 – essentially Initiative – is what GW2 should have in conjunction with cooldowns.

GW2 has room.
I do agree it’d be a massive endeavor to transition from the current system into an Energy+Cooldown based system.

It could be introduced in an expansion, though.

All of the thinking behind it was in GW1.
It’s not like ANet would be trying something new to them.

I wouldn’t want pets to be removed.
Just give Rangers the option to play with or without them.
Engineers don’t need to play with Turrets or Weapon bundles.
Necromancers don’t need to play with minions.

I think you missed a very important aspect of game balancing, in that reasoning.

Game balancing isn’t just planning.
It’s also working out what goes wrong.

Sure, energy+cd takes more planning than just energy or just cd, but causes less balance issues.
If you break less, you spend less time fixing.

And it’s more than just about balance:
- Just Energy or just CD makes the skills harder to feel unique (you see alot of skills that work identically because of this)
- Just Energy causes spam issues (thief), and just CD causes burst issues

And implementing Initiative+Cooldowns doesn’t have to go to the extreme from the get go.
Thieves could get small cooldowns on their skills at first, just to discourage/prevent spamming, while still keeping Initiative as their main resource.
Initiative could be introduced to other professions simply as a means to prevent massive skill chaining, while still keeping cooldown as those professions’ main resource.

Essentially, Thieves would have Initiative as primary resource, and cooldowns as secondary resource; while the other professions would be the other way around.

The transition could be done gradually, this way, slowly aiming for the perfect spot.

It could be done in combat as long as it’s not efficient.

In terms of UI, assuming pets get 2 more skills, let’s imagine:
With Pet:
F1 – assist/attack my target
F2 – pet special skill #1
F3 – pet special skill #2
F4 – return
F5 – Change Pet
F6 – Dismiss Pet

Without Pet:
F1 – Stance/Aspect #1
F2 – Stance/Aspect #2
F3 – Stance/Aspect #3
F5 – Call Pet #1
F6 – Call Pet #2

- If you are using a Stance, you must wait (at least) 15 seconds AFTER the stance ends, before you can use Call Pet
- If you are using a Pet, you must wait (at least) 15 seconds AFTER dismissing the pet, before you can use a Stance.

I say 15 seconds, but could be 30.

Nox Aeterna.2965:

Most likely due to extra balancing that comes with it. Atm they only need to worry about balancing the cd of each skill and such for availability.

With mana they will need to balance the cd with the mana cost for every skill every class got.

Energy + Cooldown is much easier to balance than Energy alone (Initiative) or Cooldown alone, because it allows the team to balance powerful abilities (cooldown) with a limited ability to chain them together in a short time (Energy).

Having Initiative alone or Cooldown alone is very flawed and makes me seriously doubt GW2 will ever become an e-sport.

Likewise, Runiir, there is nothing wrong with wanting to play without a pet.

Effectiveness (or lack thereof) aside, I personally enjoy alot of the animal-esque weapon skills the Ranger has access to, in particular the Sword+Dagger or Sword+Axe sets.

On one hand, I know the pet is holding the ranger’s personal damage back.
On the other hand, the pet doesn’t feel very interactive.

Here’s what I’d love to see change in the Ranger profession:

1. Give Pets 1-2 more skills that the Ranger can manually use like F2, so that we can play a true Beastmaster closer to how you could in GW1
2. Give Ranger the option to play without a Pet, instead gaining access to some Stances/Aspects.
   However, Rangers would need to wait 15 seconds without a Pet before becoming able to use a Stance/Aspect, and vice-versa.

MF instead of other stats is a brainless design.

The underlying psychology behind MF snowballs into a despicable gameplay mentality:
- The missing stat may not mean much in solo, since you will kill slower but also get more average loot per kill; but when it comes to group, your group is paying for your reduced effectiveness, but not benefitting from your bonus loot chances
- You’re probably going to be playing a build with as much AoE and tagging potential as possible in order to maximize the amount of loot you are entitled to, even if your actual contribution is further reduced.
- You’re probably going to adopt a behavior that protects your goal – wealth – by playing defensively and evasively, even if your actual contribution is further reduced.

That being said, I have little against MF in itself.
I am, however, completely against MF replacing combat stats.
It should either:
a) function like paragon levels in Diablo 3, a permanent passive boost meant for dedicated/veteran players
b) have a Fortune slot in equipment, dedicated to MF upgrades

MF food should also have its own type, not conflicting with other food

The problem with these threads is that they rarely have ANY sollutions presented on how to deal with the issue.
Everyone just says “remove”, “fix”, without actually suggesting HOW.

I made a thread about 2 possible ways to deal with Magic Find:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Sollution-to-Magic-Find-Customization/first

Added a new alternative, similar to Diablo 3’s Paragon System.

There’s no point in giving penalties.
The only sollution is rewarding those that stay firm.

Suggestion:

• Each dungeon boss or semi-boss you help kill gives you 1+ stacks of Morale
• Morale stacks
• Morale improves your loot on all bosses & chests
• Morale is lost when you finish the current dungeon, exit the game for more than X minutes, or start a new dungeon

This rewards those that do not skip bosses
This rewards those that stay and finish the dungeon

I think with the above suggestions you can actually start building what you like, rather than being forced into stat+build combos that everyone uses, with minor changes to an Utility Skill and/or Major Trait or two.

Included a link to related suggestions I’ve made in the past that, in my opinion, complement this one.

Here are some suggestions regarding improving the game, specially its customizability and fun in experimenting with builds.

After each suggestion I try to give a brief explanation on the logic behind it.

Related Topics:
Skill Variants
Sollution to Condition Stacking
Trait Concepts
—-

Conditions, Hybrids & Stats

1. Condition Damage renamed Malice once again
2. Every single damage skill in the game is given a coefficient for both Power and Malice.
   - Single-hit attacks benefit mostly from Power
   - Conditions benefit mostly from Malice
   - Multi-hit (Hundred Blades) and periodic damage (Symbols, Traps, etc) benefit from both Power and Malice
3. Allow Conditions that do NOT stack Intensity (Burning, Poison) to benefit from Precision and Crit Dmg (either becoming able to Crit or having their damage modified directly by the Crit & Crit Dmg percentages)
4. Add Traits adjusting the Power and/or Malice coeficcient(s) of specific skills, in order to create a compromise.

What’s the logic behind this?
Currently, the way Stats interact forces players to invest in specific groups of stats, like Power+Precision+CritDmg

• Malice only interacts with Precision if you have specific Traits (like Bleed on Crit).
• There’s nearly no point in mixing Power with Malice
• There’s absolutely no point in mixing CritDmg with Malice

By allowing non-stacking conditions to benefit from Crit and Crit Dmg, professions that don’t focus on Bleeds can effectively play around with Malice
By giving periodic damage skills a Malice coefficient, you can have builds that focus on Power + Malice.

Healing & Vitality

1. Remove Healing Power from the game
2. Make Power and Malice affect outgoing healing (dealt by you to others and yourself) at less than 1/2 the effectiveness of the current Healing Power
3. Make Vitality affect incoming healing (received) at less than 1/2 the effectiveness of the current Healing Power

What’s the logic behind this?

• Healing is the only support that requires stat investment.
• You can support your teammates at full power through Protection, Aegis, Blindness, Daze, Stun, Condition Removal, Convert Conditions into Boons, etc, regardless of your stats.
• All the defensive Boons (except Healing) scale with incoming threat.
  - Protection will reduce incoming damage by 33% whether it’s 1,000 or 15,000 damage.
  - Blindness will make the attack miss whether it deals 1,000 or 15,000 damage.
  - Condition Removal will take care of your Bleed whether it has 1 stack or 25 stacks.
• But if you want to heal at full power, you have to sacrifice 1 Stat, and it doesn’t even scale with incoming damage.
• Vitality is also a stat that does not scale with incoming damage, unlike Toughness, and serves only as a Buffer.
  You take the same amount of damage no matter how much Vitality you have. It just makes you take a few hundred damage more to die.
  So combining Vitality & Healing Power for incoming healing makes Vitality a little better, more on par with the usefulness of Toughness.

Trait Lines & Stat Bonuses

1. Replace Power, Malice, Precision, Toughness, Vitality and Healing Power with interesting bonuses that actually scale with your gear.
2. Examples of fun bonuses can be found in several Traits:
   - Increased damage versus X (poisoned foes, etc)
   - Chance on Crit to do X (apply condition, heal, etc)
   - Chance when you apply a Condition with a skill to apply it again.
   - Bonus to Stat A equal to X% of Stat B

What’s the logic behind this?

• Condition Duration, Boon Duration, Crit Dmg and Mechanic Recharge (Burst/Virtue/etc) are interesting and fun bonuses
  - They also scale with your gear
• Power, Malice, Precision, Toughness, Vitality and Healing Power are boring
  - They also become weaker as your gear becomes better.

Actually, I think the exact opposite.

Lower costs for new accounts = easier time for bots = bad

I say costs should be roughly the same or a bit higher by default, but:
a) once you complete a zone you get reduced costs on that zone, forever.
b) once you reach a certain level you get reduced costs forever.

Pick one of the above.

Giving a nickname to your weapon would be fine, imo, as long as it binds the weapon to you (or to your account at least).

It’d be very good for ANet to show some better communication with players by replying to constructive threads as often as possible, letting players know what they think are decent ideas, or awful ideas.

cpg, a grace period penalizes legitimate players.

If there is such a thing as a grace period, then the guild shouldn’t gain Influence from that player either.
Why would a player contribute influence without getting anything from the guild? Freebies is exactly what I’m against in this thread.

I wonder if it’s possible to ever get a Developer so much as hint at whether this is a decent idea to think about, or complete rubbish.

Sacros.7418:

Personally I think they should put their emphasis on new skills and variations rather than gear grind. Definately going the wrong direction with Ascended Gear , they should be listening to the old Gw 1 players not to the former WOW’lers

Amen.
GW2 would be a bigger success if it didn’t have ANY of the wow’ified mechanics like Lv80, gear tiers and whatnot, and went back to GW1’s progression:
- skill hunting
- skin hunting
- perfect Upgrade hunt (due to randomized Upgrade bonuses)
So a +X% damage Upgrade that goes up to 5% could drop with anywhere between 1% and 5%.
Everyone would want the 5%, but you wouldn’t feel so awful for having the 4% or even 3%.

Can it really be true that players are fine with monsters popping up somewhere randomly without any kind of “entrance”?

Onshidesigns.1069:

Many bosses should be a little taller then a Nord at-least.

Seriously? WoW syndrome?

If it’s a human it should be as tall as a human, period.

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

3 pages is a lot of complaining to read about so sorry if my 2 cents has already been thrown in…

can we get the ability to inspect armor for the skin names? I really could care less what stats people have – I did MK as a level 80 with 4 people who were leveled 32-46… it was fun.

But I would love to see some of these skins people wear and what they’re called, since your PvP locker is STUPID and the Trading Post has no way to preview.

Yeah, that’d be fine.
Inspecting skin names with white color (no hint at the gear rarity) and no visible upgrades, no visible prefixes or stats would be acceptable.

So instead of an exotic Berserker’s Zomg Greatsword of Bloodlust, you’d see white Zomg Greatsword.

Putting reflect projectiles just rips off Ranger skill.
Just increase the damage and/or give warrior stability or something of the sorts.

No.
The whole mentality that comes with inspection/gearscore/armory is a disease in any game.
It eats the community from within.

I completely agree that it’s absolutely ridiculous that enemy veterans and champions/bosses are balanced around a gazillion HP and 2-shot skills.

It’s okay if they’re beefed up compared to us, but at least make them have to use defensive skills, healing and whatnot.

As I’ve pointed out in another thread that was inevitably sunk by the trash floating in the suggestions forum, PvE should become more similar to PvP, and both modes should have the same skill effects.

For GW2 to be an e-sport, there needs to be coherence in skills, and a solid behavior in all the game, from monsters to players.

GW2 doesn’t even need to have levels.
GW2 doesn’t even need to have damage numbers popping up because you can see the enemy’s health.

I don’t mean to be rude, but if you’re in the suggestions forum, could you post actual suggestions?

Saying “remove magic find” is the same as “magic find is bad”, wich isn’t a suggestion at all.

There are threads that actually have suggestions on how to address this. Post there.
I made one such thread myself.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Sollution-to-Magic-Find-Customization/first#post781863

Skill hunting and having fun with different builds is what made GW1 so popular.

GW2 is losing that because:
- you pay to change traits,
- you pay loads of money for each set of equipment

There were no Stats in GW1, wich made it practical to change build, including the equipment, because you could just replace Runes in your armor, and maybe swap weapon; you could change attributes in town for free, anytime, and you’re ready for the new build.

GW success is allergic to WoW mechanics.
I just hope ANet realizes that before it’s too late.

Monsters should have proper spawn mechanics, including spawn animations and sounds.

Spawning should be slightly slower, giving you a hint that something’s coming.
Risen groans, boar grunts in the distance, Centaur shouts and warhorns, etc.

If I’m not mistaken, Wurms and Grubs already have a proper spawning animation, but lack proper distinguishable sounds.
The other species are worse, because popping out of the blue is plain silly.

1. Risen
   - by default, should crawl up from the earth with distinctive sounds, groans and moans
   - humanoid Risen should start as a corpse on the ground, start making sounds for a few seconds and then finally get up
   - The body of a fast-respawning Risen should never +de+spawn, and when it’s time for it to +re+spawn, it simply rises.
2. Centaur
   - should run in from the background and you should hear shouts or warhorns as a warning
   - should shout and THEN come out from their tents

I think this is enough to give a general idea.
Instant respawns while you’re fighting is an awful and frustrating design.

Bard skills (change weapon skill bar):
- Air Guitar
- Earth Drum
- Water Harp
- Fire Sax

Huehuehue

Seriously, the concept of a true Bard is really cool.
With music and such.
ANet would have to develop non-annoying sound effects, and the abilities should be very distinguishable from other professions.

Made some changes to the suggestion, namely how 2-handed weapons would be named when you apply the various possible combinations of prefixes.

Please discuss.

I think when someone tries to enter the Ring of Warding (skill #5 from Guardian Hammer) and gets knocked back, the Guardian should say “Can’t touch this!”

The suggestions below aren’t really complicated.
The post is only long because I’m trying to anticipate questions regarding potential issues with them.

Here’s how I think Magic Find should be revamped:

1. Create a Fortune Slot available in all pieces of equipment.
   - Works like Infusion Slots, but you can only add economy-related Upgrades such as Copper Doubloon for all Equipment, Rune of the Pirate/Adventurer for Armor and Sigil of Luck for Weapons.
   - You can have more types of upgrades available to the Fortune Slot, like XP, Gold, Karma, Gathering, etc.
   - You would have the usual Upgrade Slot, Infusion Slot (Ascended only) and Fortune Slot
2. Magic Find consumables belong to their own category and no longer replace any other kind.

Now the problem is how to transition to this system without screwing anyone?
I see 3 ways:
a) Conversion

1. - Improve the effect of Doubloons
2. - Change all the gear that has Magic Find into the closest possible prefix without Magic Find and place a Doubloon in the Fortune Slot that is equivalent to the Magic Find lost.
   Assume the Doubloons are changed as follows:
   - Copper = 1%
   - Silver = 2%
   - Gold = 3%
   - Platinum = 4%
   - Mithril = 5%
   - Orichalcum = 6%
   Hypotetical changes:
   Pillaging -> Strong + Copper Doubloon in Fortune Slot
   Explorer -> Berserker + Copper Doubloon in Fortune Slot
   Traveler -> Rampager + Copper Doubloon in Fortune Slot
   Traveler + Copper Doubloon -> Rampager + Silver Doubloon in Fortune Slot

b) Revamp (personally my favorite)

1. Give equipment multiple slots:
   - 6 Inscription (weapon) or Insignia (armor) Slots
   - 1 Upgrade Slot
   - 1 Fortune Slot
   - 1 Infusion Slot (Ascended)
   - double the amounts for 2handed weapons.
2. Split Inscriptions and Insignias into Minor, Major and Superior
   - Minor = occupy 6 slots, representing the first tier of prefixes such as Mighty because you can only have 1 of them per equipment.
   - Major = occupy 3 slots, representing the second tier of prefixes such as Strong because you can have 2 of them per equipment.
   - Superior = occupy 2 slots, representing the final tier of prefixes such as Berserker because you can have 3 of them per equipment.
3. Item prefixes are based on the combination of Inscriptions/Insignas.
   Example:
   1 – You add a Superior Mighty Elder Inscription (+ Power) to your Sword.
   2 – It becomes Mighty Sword (+ Power) and now has 4 Inscription Slots left.
   3 – You then add a Superior Precise Elder Inscription (+ Precision).
   4 – It becomes Strong Sword (+ Power + Precision) and now has 2 Inscription Slots left.
   5 – Finally you add a Superior Adept Elder Inscription (+ Crit Damage).
   6 – It finally becomes Berserker’s Sword (+ Power + Precision + Crit Dmg) and now has no more Inscription Slots left.
4. Two-handed weapons, since they’d have 2×6 Inscription/Insignia slots, would be named with a combination of prefixes.
   Using the same combination twice results in “True” prefix.
   Examples:
   - Condition + Precision + Toughness & Power + Precision + Crit Dmg = Rabid Berserker’s
   - 2x Power + Precision + Crit Dmg = True Berserker’s
5. Equipment would be considered white without any Inscription/Insignia
6. Lowest Inscription/Insignia determines the quality of the item, therefore if you mix Fine + Masterwork + Exotic you get Fine
7. Inscriptions/Insignias would be replaceable, but replacing an Ascended Inscription/Insignia with lower quality would destroy whatever was in the Infusion Slot.
8. Equipment modified by Inscription/Insignia becomes Account Bound so that it can’t be put on Trading Post.
   This prevents massive amount of equipment combinations in Trading Post, since you’d only see:
   - Inscriptions/Insignias
   - raw white Equipment
   - dropped equipment (wich would come with preset combinations as it does now)
9. Very easy to convert equipment to this system, and alot more customizability to build equipment.
   In the case of an Explorer Weapon, you’d end up with the same Weapon, but with 2 Superior Inscriptions: Mighty and Precise, and 2 free Inscription slots (the missing Magic Find), as well as an appropriate item with Magic Find in the Fortune Slot.

Alternatively, Magic Find could become a Permanent Bonus reward for Dedicated & Veteran players (if ANet is going to copy Diablo, at least use copy the Paragon system, instead of Magic Find on gear).

1. Magic Find could be removed from gear completely, and instead be rewarded as a permanent boost for:
   - Completing Story Mode
   - Completing an Explorer Path (you get bonus once per path)
   - Completing a Zone
   - Certain goals/achievements in PvP & WvWvW

Wait… so using skill points that can be earned by leveling up or doing challenges is boring, but spamming skills isn’t?

Now seriously, obtaining Variants by spamming skills doesn’t really make a fun progression, imo.
Making use of the surplus skill points you get by leveling (and continue getting every certain amount XP after you reach 80) sounds pretty good.

On the matter, I think the ideal would be:
- Must have all default Skills unlocked first
- Each Variant becomes available to unlock/purchase by beating a specific enemy
- You unlock/purchase a Variant by using Skill points

So if Destroyer Harpy gives you the Burning Whirling Wrath (Guardian Greatsword), you must kill one so that you can unlock/purchase the skill with Skill points.

So the “grind” would not be that much of a grind. It’d be closer to the GW1’s skill hunt, involving exploration + combat + leveling (skill points).

That doesn’t really work unless ANet predetermines X “skill sets”, wich isn’t fun at all, as you wouldn’t be customizing each skill individually, but all 5 weapon skills would change according to your gear – probably weapon.

That’s not my intention at all.
The point of this suggestion is allowing you to change each skill individually.
Example: Greatsword guardian may use burning for the trait that increases damage agaisnt burning targets by 10%; or for a condition damage build.
That means you might or not want to use condition damage gear when using that variant.

Oh, but that comes with every little change.
Even adding 1 skill can cause a ripple that changes the whole metagame.

So careful and well-planned changes are a must.
—-

Anyway, the variants don’t have to be stronger.
I just think it’d be a nice way to make the skill progression have more of an impact, without being too strong.

But yeah, I agree maybe it’s safer to introduce variants based on tradeoffs rather than improvements.

A note, though – ANet just added Ascended gear to the game, wich – since the offensive stats interact by multiplying each others’ effectiveness, and offensive stats are usually 2/3 of your gear – makes the game move towards more damage being dealt.
But more damage being dealt, makes toughness, vigor, blocking, aegis, blindness and protection more useful as well – for every profession.

Only healing gets the shaft xD

Why would the outcome be more unbalanced gameplay?
Both the offensive and the defensive skills would have variants, so it’s not like damage dealing or survival would be getting ahead of the other.

With my suggestion, the concept of multi-guild is no longer flawed. Problem solved.

And I disagree with “find a guild that does everything”.
That’s utopic.
There are alot of guilds that – even if they try to do everything – ultimate focus on 1 aspect of the game more.

Guilds can be “hardcore” in PvE and “casual” in PvP or WvWvW.
If a player wants to be hardcore in both, it’s perfectly understandable that it will be very hard for him to get that in a single guild.

Or maybe he simply got to know some people he likes to PvE with and joined their guild, and then met some people who he likes to PvP with who are in a different guild, and wants to concile everything.

It’s legitimate, and the multi guild system addresses that.

To be honest I’m disappointed that ANet adopted a “WoW’ish” item nomenclature style.

They should’ve simply given pieces of equipment multiple Insignia slots, like 6, and then make 3 types of insignia: minor, major and superior (placeholder names).
- Minor = occupies 6 slots;
- Major = occupies 3 slots;
- Superior = occupies 2 slots
Now you mix what you want:
- Minor Might Insignia/Inscription = full Power
- or Major Might + Major Precise = Power + Precision
- or Superior Might + Superior Precise + Superior Resilient = Power + Precision + Toughness

This way you could make your own stat combination.
Adding an Insignia to an armor would make it account bound, equipping it (rare and above) would make it soulbound.

This would solve all “potential” trading post issues.
You’d see Insignias/Inscriptions and “empty” armor/weapons for sale.

Sacros, sure it could start as 2 variants and slowly expand.
Maybe it could vary from skill to skill – some would have 2, others 4, others 3.

The thing about the variants being stronger than the original skill, simply mean unlocking all skills is a goal, after wich you can start unlocking “slightly” better versions of those skills – the variants.

The variants wouldn’t be much better. A +5% damage increase, or applying a 1s Burn, or replacing A with B, small things, but slightly better nevertheless.

You easily get the baseline skill, but then you have 2-4 branches of specialization.

I respect the concept of multiple guilds for a simple reason.
Say you’re part of a pve guild.
What’s so wrong about also wanting to do guild pvp?
Being in multiple guilds fixes that.

My suggestion makes it so that you must actually contribute to whatever bonuses you want to benefit from, wich means the “guild hopping exploit” actually becomes IMPOSSIBLE with my suggestion.

Removing the ability to be part of multiple guilds actually doesn’t change anything regarding “guild hopping exploit”, because, well, you can still change guilds…

So I don’t understand what relevance that example has to this suggestion.

I only hope they do get seen.

You are missing the underlying gameplay.

If you tumble to ignore the duration of a knockdown, etc, you give up 1 Dodge – and dodging a powerful attack is just as important, if not more.

The same with Parry being similar to blocking, and sprint being similar to swiftness – since they spend Endurance (unlike blocking or swiftness), it is completely different in practice.

Though I understand that’s not the easiest thing to imagine without testing for yourself.

NinjaEd.3946:

People run in “circles” because some professions destroy stationary targets. Plus skill shots would be all too easy to cast if someone was standing still to recover endurance a little faster.

That’s precicely why Parry & faster Endurance recovery while Still are balanced suggestions.
It wouldn’t be a “buff”. It’d be an alternative.
Standing still for 2 seconds wouldn’t feel such a wrong idea, and, to be fair, moving 24/7 annoys the hell out of me.

I’d like a healthy, skill-based mid-term.
Move a little, stand still a little, dodge/parry when appropriate.

They want GW2 to become MSORPG (Massively Soloplayer Online RPG).

I think improving the base combat system is alot more important than adding new content.

New content is consumed.
A solid combat system can make content eternally replayable.