Guild Wars 2

No one can say if zerker will be the best option for any class, since the majority of new content and potential mechanics aren’t known. One of the masteries does suggest that some mordrem will be immune to non-condition damage until you have the mastery, increasing the value of non-zerker gear.

My guess is mainly stability testing, but I’d pay special attention to the big points folks commented on last time. For example, many people noted how useless some NPCs were and that strategizing beyond “go run up and punch things in the face as quickly as possible” didn’t give much benefit.

DDCarvalho.2071:

Well, I should have imagined that the QQ about tracks taking too long to unlock would take over the thread.

So, let’s focus on the ideas instead of focusing on my opinion about how much time tracks should take to unlock, shall we?

No one QQ’d, we commented on part of your post. If you didn’t want it in the discussion, you shouldn’t have included it.

Your idea 1: If the rewards could be reasonably balanced then sure, why not. Better than getting a djinngot every level you don’t have a mastery to work on (unless you want them, I guess).

Your idea 2: It would kind of surprise me if ANet wasn’t already planning on cosmetic gliders.

Windsagio.1340:

Note that you can also look in the game completion stats for a character to see how many skill challenges you’ve gotten completed. I’ve made a point to make sure that all my characters have at least the 65 for all the base specs.

Or, you know, open the map and see the count :P

I doubt something as radical as cutting some utilities in favor of normalizing the counts would happen. They’d have mentioned it in the stream (such a large change would need to be decided early on). Realistically, it just doesn’t take long to get to 80 with how many ways there are to level up. Any existing engineers sitting at 80 will already be able to unlock most things, if not all (depending on number of skill challenges complete).

There’s no reason for the elite specialization to have a different number of skills from the other classes. 1 heal, 3 utility and an elite are perfectly fine. Plus you have to consider that previously uncategorized skills in all classes will get a type. Engineers, for example, will have 7 kits with the changes (including healing and mortar). Elementalists will have two more cantrips (ether renewal and tornado).

I don’t think the spread is as universally even as you suggest given that.

Some problems I see:

As the tracks currently look, there are significant bonuses for unlocking parts of a mastery. Significant to the point that not having them would make your character unable to access certain content for a very long time (perhaps forever for people that don’t have time to play every day).

From what was seen in the beta event, the second point in a mastery line takes about 4 times as long as the first. With a fairly small number of elements in each line, there would be enormous gaps in progression, to the point that trying specifically to unlock something seems meaningless.

ANet said that they want to continue to add interesting masteries as time goes on, so there’s no reason to make the initial masteries take ages to unlock. They can just add more progression options.

Syione.3046:

I don’t mean to hijack the thread I just want to know if I have this correct.
I have 4 characters that are lvl 80. (I know I’m a slacker) Once HoT is live all of them will have 400 hero pts just for being 80. My ranger Jandu has 351 slot skill pts which means he will have the 65 extra pts so he can become a Druid. Ringil my Mesmer only has 31 which means if I do nothing with him he will have to earn 34 pts to become a Chronomancer. My first question is do I have to have all the traits and for the two characters will low slot skill points can I use the skill scrolls to make up the difference?

Your 80s will have 400 from leveling, yes. However, beyond that, they will only have points based on the number of currently-named Skill Challenges completed (commune spots, for example). Any skill points earned from leveling up after hitting 80 won’t net you hero points. If of the 351 points on your ranger, only 20 are from skill challenges, you would still need to get more.

Also, the 65 beyond 400 is the estimate for unlocking every base part of a class (skills, core specializations). We don’t yet know what it will take to unlock an elite spec.

I made an attempt at the Google method of searching the forums, forgive me if this has been posted.

This has been itching at me every time I launch the game, but the news feed on the launcher is off-by-one on every date! For example (from today where today is the date of posting this):

The main guildwars2.com site put out news on 5.27.2015 about the Community Showcase 2. The launcher displays the date kitten .26.2015.

There really are no steps to reproduce other than 1) open launcher and 2) log in.

I personally can’t wait to drop a Bobblehead Laboratory in the middle of their village.

All it would take is a smattering of encounters that are effectively impossible without a couple good condi builds. We already have tough bark husks that melt under conditions but take a long time to whittle down directly. Just expanding on this (and if in dungeons preventing people from bypassing large portions of enemies – looking at you TA).

Engineer skills: They could easily have one racial F5 that covers all non-class elite utilities. That would mean 5 new skills, not 17. And they could easily just give everyone the skills for free, baseline. Most racial skills are hilariously bad and wouldn’t be vaguely powerful even with a direct boost from elite specializations. There are probably some examples counter to that, but those would easily be tweaked down if they were problematic. I still doubt they’d be more powerful than a real class elite in any case.

Guizao.4167:

Nice guessing. I saw in a pic the name “The Tempest”, so I pressume the F5 attunement would be something like the x-men Storm stance…kitten I love that woman.

I’m really hoping they don’t add a fifth attunement. Imagine how hard it would be to balance that. Plus it would be a LOT of new skills to cover all weapons.

I’m sure they will keep the same actors. Why would your character’s voice change just because they are focusing on a new combat style?

The elite reward tracks include special skins, so you’ll probably get those, don’t worry.

At the very least, the video showing off the new deathshroud animation in Lion’s Arch had some notable progress towards the cleanup.

With response to the extra hero points:

ANet said they plan on adding additional elite specs for each class, with just one for HoT. The issue becomes not that there are lots of extra points, but that there will be far too few points.

Some enemy types are immune to certain conditions. Examples:

Dredge are immune to blind (they already are).
Destroyers are immune to burning.

Condition immunity exists where it makes sense, but stacking several immunities on a mob just for flavor’s sake would be awful. Imagine entire builds being not only suboptimal, but literally useless because a particular area/dungeon/etc. is stacked up with immunities.

I really thought this was going to be someone asking for an item that consumes a random thing in your inventory and spits out some bloodstone dust.

You could make a reasonable guess at an explanation for several classes, mechanically/thematically:

Tempest: Given a sword, it sounds like someone that will wade into battle. Since eles are very squishy, the bar could make sense.
Thief: If thieves get a rifle, some sort of bracing for a good shot.
Engineer: Similar to what you said.
Warrior: Pretty self-explanatory.

Ranger seems most dubious as a druid. Not sure where that would come in. I hope warriors don’t get the bar, personally, because they don’t need to be more faceroll-y.

I honestly expected necro to get the bar when they described the attacks as slow and hard-hitting.

Wallace MacBix.2089:

Actually, we know 2 of the lines. Precursor crafting and a fractal line. I really hope there’s more on top of that, but you’re comment is a bit misleading.

We also know that there is a Mastery line for improving combat abilities against Mordrem as well as a Mastery line for jungle mobility (specifically hang gliding).

Over on the Mesmer forums:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Chronomancer-Traits

Posting here because I’m guessing many people, like myself (saw this on Dulfy) don’t hang out on the Mesmer forums. They seem largely reasonable.

Enjoy.

There is no reason to save skill point scrolls unless you plan on using them on a new character before the changes go live. All skill points in excess of the completed skill challenges and those that would be awarded from leveling will be converted to the new wallet currency. You lose nothing by using the scrolls and gain storage space.

BrooksP.4318:

The purpose is to prolong the feeling of the player “Getting Lucky”.

Perhaps even to keep the player up all night in the process?

I have no idea the source, but this suggests Q3 of this year:

http://i.imgur.com/Tu3G4R2.png

Take it for what you will. It coincides with the late August theories.

IndigoSundown.5419:

The question I would have is, “Once another Elite Spec is published, will someone be able to choose two of them on the same character, or will it be one only?”

Previously stated by ANet that it is one only. Options:

A) 3 core specs.
B) 1 elite and 2 core specs.

Tolmos.8395:

When they say “Specializations”, I kind of imagine that each class with have multiple paths to pick from and can specialize in those paths. Is that the case, or will there only be 1 per class? Will EVERY ranger go on to be a druid, and EVERY guardian go on to be a “dragon hunter”, or will there be other choices besides those for each class?

“Specialization” is just the new term for a trait line. All old trait lines will be the “Core” specializations. A player may choose one or zero “Elite” specializations to significantly alter their class (E.g. Ranger > Druid). ANet has stated that they plan on releasing additional elite specs per class in the future. HoT will simply ship with one per class.

Weylin.6478:

Is it really that they don’t want them, or they’re just trolling with 1 line responses and pictures of beating a horse?

They aren’t even a productive counter-argument, just a flat “no”

With all the details I laid out, there’s no discussion, just troll posts? C’mon.

It’s not trolling, it’s implying that these threads have come and gone many times with the same result.

Mounts fulfill no need in this game, and adding them would be a massive waste of resources when actual content could be created instead.

phys.7689:

Palindrome.8904:

People should stop trying to imagine up class hybrids as specs. Chronomancer has NOTHING to do with Necromancers. They share Wells, but the Wells don’t even operate in the same way! And Necros don’t have shields!

I seriously expect shouts on the Tempest, and less seriously could see elixers on necromancers (Alchemy and its ties to reanimation/ever-lasting life). The weapon doesn’t have to make sense.

actually someone mentioned recently that necro original death shroud was a rewind mechanic. Other peoples have mentioned it gives you a kind of extra HP

but its not so much that the classes become exactly like another, its that they will borrow the skill set from another class. and some of their playstyle.

its not fully guaranteed yet, it could just be these two. but regardless, its a pretty good bet that they will spread the skills around, and not reuse them.
i doubt anyone else will get wells, and anyone else will get traps.

But Split/Shift is nothing like DS. It can kill you as easily as save you. I genuinely don’t see enough functional similarity to back the claim.

Leo G.4501:

Palindrome.8904:

Word has it that thieves are getting a rifle, which would point to a sniper/infiltrator type theme.

I think the OP means, the devs said a profession is getting all shouts as their elite spec (I think that’s what they said…don’t quote me on that) and he’s asking you to speculate on which profession it’ll be and what name it’d have.

And it likely won’t be Ranger, Guardian or Warrior who all have a kit of at least 4 shouts already.

Right, but he also proposed thief as getting shouts and a warhorn, which was why I posted why I did.

I think Tempest will get shouts. Tempests (storms) are very noisy in nature and it’s an odd twist on Elementalist. ANet loves their odd twists.

Ojyh.9842:

Palindrome.8904:

On topic:

Necromancers could get elixers in some form, as there are ties between alchemy and animating the inanimate/ever-lasting life. An Alchemist spec, perhaps?

That would be a disaster… Everybody is expecting the Alchemist to be the next Engineer elite spec (aftet the first one in HoT).
But if they can make a Guardian become a Dragonhunter, they can totally make a Necromancer become an Alchemist… It will just be called Ingredientmixer.

Disaster? That seems a bit strong, especially since making an Engineer spec heavily focused on something they already have seems counter to the popular expectation of the elite specs.

People should stop trying to imagine up class hybrids as specs. Chronomancer has NOTHING to do with Necromancers. They share Wells, but the Wells don’t even operate in the same way! And Necros don’t have shields!

I seriously expect shouts on the Tempest, and less seriously could see elixers on necromancers (Alchemy and its ties to reanimation/ever-lasting life). The weapon doesn’t have to make sense.

Nothing about the Chronomancer has anything to do with Necromancers other than the fact that they share Wells as a skill family. The Wells don’t even behave the same way. There isn’t likely to be anything meaningful behind describing an elite spec as a ‘combination’ of classes.

They said they are toning down some aspects of LH and FB that they see as too cheesy (using FB for the AoE and ditching it), but they said they are looking to improve other conjures to be… possibly useful.

Going to echo people talking about relative levels. If something is more than 3 levels above you, go somewhere else, generally. The scale is brutal in most cases.

There are several zones for each level range.

ErazorZ.5209:

Well, im sure its not an illusion, its just being lucky at the start and then fate decided me as a person should stop being lucky. Seems its out of the hands of anet and in the hands of a higher power, i guess the force wasnt as strong in me during may the 4th.

Same reason why ‘fate’ decided that i should be hacked during the 3rd week after release and lose everything but decided to give me my most prized possesion back (the gold seller missed my corrupted weapon lol)

No, the perceived streaks and “lucky” periods are the illusion. Any random distribution will have places that appear to have an unbalanced spread, but that’s because humans are wired to see patterns in the world.

Word has it that thieves are getting a rifle, which would point to a sniper/infiltrator type theme.

On topic:

Necromancers could get elixers in some form, as there are ties between alchemy and animating the inanimate/ever-lasting life. An Alchemist spec, perhaps?

Still calling Elementalist as the shout class:

1) It would be weird, and ANet likes weird.
2) Um.. tempests (storms) are generally loud/noisy?

If you legitimately have people harassing you, there is a report feature for that, which would probably be the best solution to the issue. People that get foul just because of something like this are likely a toxic element of the community anyway.

ErazorZ.5209:

John Smith.4610:

I’m not aware of Bandit Chest loot having the concept of DR.

Oh i meant the Embroidered Coin Purses, excuse me. But i assume that also is fully based on RNG then? This is really interesting. Because now i really dont know how or why this constant diminishing returning happen to me fully based on RNG.

Any ideas? Or is it really just tricks my mind is playing on me for playing too much?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clustering_illusion

That link should be in John’s signature, I swear…

Garth Thurgen.1380:

I like to think that Eles specializing in Tempest will actually be able to have their Summon Elemental summon Firestorm: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Molten_Firestorm

Calling it: Elementalists will have the shouts.

yolo swaggins.2570:

Neigh.

Can’t neigh: this horse was beaten to death then beaten some more.

RoseofGilead.8907:

brokenrabbit.6538:

RoseofGilead.8907:

What the two above said; MF won’t affect champ box loot.

Oh I know that. I mentioned MF as it pertains to me finding golds on Skelks and such. That’s why the statement about MF begins a new paragraph: new topic.

Ah, gotcha. And yeah, while I enjoy getting the t5 and t6 mats from the champ bags, I’ve always found them to be pretty underwhelming as a reward from a champion. I mean, I don’t expect an exotic every time I kill one, but yeah. I get what you mean.

While it pretty much is impossible to implement on a champ-bag level (since they are wholly independent of what dropped them), maybe champ drops being inversely modified by the number of people nearby would be a nice boost. That is, champs have a base loot chance for their tables for, say, four (random number) people fighting it. Fewer people means better odds at better loot, every X additional people reduce this chance.

It would simultaneously reward people for successfully doing something difficult, and penalize champ training. The real trick would be to find thresholds that don’t harm reasonably large groups. I.e. maybe five people is the base level for a champion, but the event it is in could easily involve ten people without them farming champs.

If anything SW is TOO rewarding. Either it will need to be extremely reduced (events and the buried chests) or one of two things will happen:

1) People will just continue to farm SW after HoT comes out, assuming the content is still available as-is.
2) The loot earned from HoT zones will be absurd. Given that I can get 100 champ bags from a chest train in an hour in SW, I can’t imagine them increasing loot elsewhere to get people out of that zone.

I don’t believe there are plans for ANet to rework old dungeons at this time (could be wrong).

Traits: You can currently buy traits with gold and skillpoints from the trainer NPCs. Prior to the expansion, traits are going to be overhauled and unlocked just from points earned via leveling and skill challenges (same ones that are in maps today).

Yes, because the drop rate doesn’t care if someone got one. That said, someone could have 1000 of them, and it wouldn’t affect your odds of getting one. There is probably a cap on slots, but that doesn’t equate to a cap on portals.

Grimlin.4567:

Palindrome.8904:

If there was a deterministic way of getting in, all slots would have been snatched up within an hour of it being available. If it could be bought, there would be none to buy.

Also, there are massive legal implications about selling beta slots. If you go in looking to farm that portal, you will be disappointed. Go to the zones looking to play the zones, the portal is a bonus. Besides, it’s a beta event. You won’t be in there playing HoT until it’s released. You’re basically asking to pay ANet money for the opportunity to work for them (a beta tester should be finding and reporting bugs, not playing for the fun of playing).

Additionally, they said there will be no NDA, so you aren’t missing on information or anything either.

Let me guess you got a portal?

Nope, I also haven’t bothered farming for it. I have been to the SW for the sake of playing in the SW though.

You get flagged to be part of it, but don’t expect anything until it happens (presumably aside from information saying when that will be).

I wouldn’t, because I know better than to go in looking to grind something like this. I’d go to the zone to play the zone if I wanted to. In this case, SW has great loot, so that’s what I go there for.

If there was a deterministic way of getting in, all slots would have been snatched up within an hour of it being available. If it could be bought, there would be none to buy.

Also, there are massive legal implications about selling beta slots. If you go in looking to farm that portal, you will be disappointed. Go to the zones looking to play the zones, the portal is a bonus. Besides, it’s a beta event. You won’t be in there playing HoT until it’s released. You’re basically asking to pay ANet money for the opportunity to work for them (a beta tester should be finding and reporting bugs, not playing for the fun of playing).

Additionally, they said there will be no NDA, so you aren’t missing on information or anything either.