Bump. I’m betting anet didn’t realize the noise they would get from reducing visual noise.
I’m still terribly frustrated by these visual nerfs, but this post made me laugh.
Colin’s post definitely implied that he was frustrated with some of the player base. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but maybe now he knows how we feel.
I don’t give a kitten if he’s frustrated with some players or not. They ruined a part of the game that I and many others enjoyed, now it’s up to them to fix it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to excuse the patronizing tone of his post at all. I’m just as frustrated with these recent decisions as anyone here, but this is what happens when things are changed with ZERO communication whatsoever. This is why games like Heroes of the Storm have a public test realm (PTR) to test proposed patches and gather preliminary feedback before they roll it out live. Instead what Anet has been doing is throwing out patches that drastically effect player experience and then end up being surprised when they receive less than favorable feedback.
Colin’s post definitely implied that he was frustrated with some of the player base. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but maybe now he knows how we feel.
Regardless of what has been said about the issue, I honestly do believe that they are making these decisions based on pursuing their goal of making GW2 an eSport, and hurting the game as a whole because of it.
And I don’t say this with a smile, either. I want nothing but the best for this game, but recent decisions have left me wondering what’s actually going on at Anet… and where the game I came to love is heading…
Hopefully everything will work out. I’m certainly not quitting the game, but I’m going to sit out for a bit and see how this plays out.
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Combat visibility in general isn’t driven by any sort of “esports” stuff though I realize that’s the easy out that’s cool thing to blame things on this week.
This statement just wow’d me. I mean, what a bitter attitude to portray towards not only your fans and your player base, but your paying customers as well. In fact, the entirety of his post seems to lack any sort of courtesy and professionalism one would come to expect from a reputable developer. I understand that frustrations might build when things don’t work out as planned, but to go to a third party forum and rant about it is almost unbelievable.
When folks come here and rip on stuff like PvP, you’re basically hurting the games ability to grow – and personally I would say shame on you, if you truly love the game, be constructive and give awesome feedback and suggestions: but don’t knock it just cause it’s not PvE.
I don’t understand this statement at all. So now Anet does not want any sort of criticism regarding the decisions that they make? Shame on us if we give anything other than what they consider “awesome feedback?” It is blatantly obvious here that Colin is upset at the fact that these recent decisions weren’t instantly met with the praise and revelry he likely expected. I’m sorry, but after a reaction like this, I’m left wondering whether or not Anet is now making decisions just to spite the player base… and that’s a scary thing for a player to wonder about the game they supported since launch…
ANOTHER round of visual nerfs? 
This obsession with esports is becoming really unhealthy for the game as a whole, especially since PvE is the main part of the game.
Just NO for uppright charr… Enough with cat-heads-slapped-onto-a-human body in other games already. And besides, only flamelegion shamans walked upright.
Just my opinion.
Lol agreed. If I wan’t that I’ll play a khajiit in Skyrim.
But yes, more charr horns please. Elk, deer, ram inspired designs would be indescribably awesome.
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Anet has been doing a really good job of upgrading the staff animations (the AA looks so slick now!).
Other skills still need work, however, especially skill #2. I don’t understand what it’s even supposed to be. You hold the staff at the wrong end and do some weird spinning… punch? I don’t even know. Meanwhile you awkwardly slide across the floor like a chess piece rather than leaping or lunging or something. There’s just so much wrong with the animation that it needs a complete and total overhaul (again, talking strictly about animations here, not functionality).
I’m really happy with the improvements DD staff (and dodges!) has been getting so far. Hopefully we’ll see further upgrades soon as well, most notably the combat stance, running animation, and skills 2 and 3.
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in Account & Technical Support
Posted by: Seabreeze.8437
Same exact issue here too. My internet is perfectly fine.
I was hoping to knock out my dailies before bed. I’ve got work in the morning.
I’m really satisfied with the revamped animations so far. If we could see additional modifications to their idle, running, walking, and remaining weapon skills (weakening charge, debilitating arc, and perhaps even make vault and actual vault with your bo staff), that would make this weapon visually perfect!
I’m gonna repost a snippet of what was said in another thread, as I think it’s a really great idea.
Recycling the hammer animations for these movements is not the way to go when making a fighting style that’s supposed to be convey extreme agility and nimbleness. The hammer animations invoke a sense of weight towards the head of the weapon, as if they’re lugging around a massively heavy hammer, not a lightweight bo staff. If Anet doesn’t want to use the Monkey King’s animation for a battle stance, then something like the first picture here would be a good alternative. The walk and run animations could have the staff situated in a similar behind-the-back position, with the free arm moving like it normally would.
The second picture would just be a cool example of a confident (arrogant even), casual idle animation very suitable for thieves.
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I honestly don’t mind the gated story mode. Collecting the hero points is fun and doing the events is fun, playing the game and getting experience is fun.
However, not being able to do that on the class you were looking forward to isn’t fun.
That is literally the only thing they need to change imo, the elite spec gate
This is pretty much my thoughts on the matter. I don’t really have a problem with the mastery system. Given that it’s an account-wide progression mechanic, I don’t mind it being a lengthy process, since you really only have to do it once. Rather, it’s the elite spec gating that really has me frustrated. I expected to be able to play all this new content with my new elite spec… instead I’m expected to play thru the majority of the new content with my base class, something I’ve been playing for 3 years now.
Also, players with multiple characters, myself included, are in for a verrrrry tedious grind if they want their alts to run elite specs as well. Ugh… I hope this gets addressed as soon as possible. It seems like this launch weekend is leaving players more worried than excited.
its the vocal minority again while the majority are having fun in the game. dust will settle in 2 weeks
Really? Because for being an opening weekend, the new maps have been underwhelmingly barren. I’m aware a lot of people are probably doing Halloween stuff right now, but even so the new maps have been pretty desolate and not indicative of a hyped up release weekend. People are already saying it’s difficult to find help gathering Hero Points since most of them are group challenges.
I had my chat box set to map chat for an hour and there were hardly ANY conversations going on… like, at all.
I am soo happy to see this! AlthougH I am still praying that we will see new weakening charge animations, dust strike animations, and debilitating arch animations. Don’t get me wrong I am greatful for auto chain change, but those other animations should compliment the epic ness of that skill as well.
Very much agreed. That third hit looks sweet! Hopefully we’ll see that level of polish in the other animations as well, namely Weakening Charge, Debilitating Arc, and Vault in my opinion.
But very awesome job to the animation team or individual who took the time and care to make this for us! It’s stuff like this that reinforces my faith in Anet!
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FYI the damage increases weren’t part of a re-work of pistols or anything (something I’ve discussed in the past). We realize it still needs some work to get it to where we want, but we wanted to get it closer to being to that point with these changes. We’ll be looking at pistols more in-depth in the future.
-Karl
Glad to hear that! I’m eager to see what’s in store for this in the future.
I know it’s a tall order, but it’d be great if dual pistols simply had their own skill line. It may actually make it easier to balance since they’d be totally separate from all the other combinations you could have with a single pistol (main hand or off hand). Just something to consider while you guys are brainstorming avenues to take with pistols. I want to feel like a gunslinger!
If the sheer amount of luck gained from doing those events is the same as last year, then hell yes I’m gonna be participating lol!
Lol seriously. The amount of magic find that I boosted from that event alone is unreal. I won’t complain if it’s the same stuff. More luck for me!
I agree with what has been said here regarding male characters. For those interested, I highly recommend checking this thread out, as it focuses on human male hairstyles in general, but also touches on some subjects that could apply across all races. It’s actually been getting quite a bit of attention, and there are lots of good ideas there.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestion-Human-Male-Hairstyles/first
Also…
Define “skimpy,” please.
I think most people are simply using the term “skimpy” to say that we want more armor sets that show skin for males. It doesn’t imply that they have to be running around in Lord Faren’s speedo (although I’m sure a lot of people would be thrilled to do that). Personally, I’d like some medium armor sets that are a bit more light without it being light armor, you know? Like an open vest and sandals.
I attached a pic for reference. Something like this could easily pass as medium armor to offer more variety outside of the massive amount of trench coats we currently have.
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Wow, I’m flattered! Thanks for the acknowledgement and feedback! For those that are curious about my opinions regarding the current animations we’ve got, here’s what I had to say about skills 2-5 in another thread.
Skill #2 – Weakening Charge: Simply put, I don’t know what this is supposed to be. From what I looked at, your character grabs the staff at the head and sort of does a spinning… punch? Meanwhile his legs show no indication of lunging, so you just kind of slide across the floor like a chess piece. Visually, it’s all around bad, like your character has absolutely no clue how to fight with a bo staff.
Skill #3 – Debilitating Arc: This ranks with skill #2 for the worst animations the staff has to offer. It honestly looks more like your character is glitching out. Everything happens way too fast and it’s extremely jerky and choppy. Very obvious cut-and-paste and it doesn’t work well at all for an animation.
Skill #4 – Dust Strike: Obvious use of the hammer, which makes the staff look very weighty and heavy, and the technique looks sloppy because of it.
Skill #5 – Vault: One of the very few new animations, yet this is the skill I have the most to talk about. Firstly, as the name implies, the character should plant his staff into the ground and actually vault from it. That would be much more visually exciting than the instantaneous take-off leap they currently do. Secondly, I feel that the crazy backwards corkscrew triple flip is a little too awkward and doesn’t feel right for a move where you typically propel yourself forward. One or two front flips would give the move a better feel in my opinion.
Finally, the landing. Currently, your character drops straight down, bringing his staff down with the power of Thor, slamming it into the ground with such force that the resulting earth-cracking shock wave damages foes. I feel this completely detracts from the theme of the daredevil. For a spec that’s supposed to be nimble and swift, a brutish slam like what we currently have just feels out of place and more suitable for warriors and guardians. Instead, I propose that the character whirls the staff above his head as he’s falling, following up with a sweeping radial strike the moment he lands.
I included both versions of my vault concepts to show how I feel the skill should look.
I’m most likely going to be sketching up some more concepts, as I had a lot of fun making my first batch. I understand that there’s a lot of work that goes into making new animations, but I feel that, given this is a brand new fighting style, there shouldn’t be any shortcuts taken. Just look at the animations for the Monkey King tonic. I would love for that kind of attention to detail on DD staff.
Also,
The biggest thing you have to consider is can you perform these new animations while moving? Any of the attacks that force you to plant your feet would logically root you in place.
I understand your point, and I did consider this in making up these sketches, but when you think about it, there are only two skills that you can perform while moving (Auto-Attack and Dust Strike). Weakening Charge propels you forward, Debilitating Arc propels you backward, and Vault propels you wherever you set your ground target. This is why I got a little creative with some concepts for skills like staff #2 because—while you aren’t rooted—you are forced to move in a particular path. The functionality of these types of moves and whether or not they are good for the daredevil is a topic being discussed in other threads. I’m mainly focusing on the animations right now, because after playing the BWE#2, I found them to be quite… lacking, to be honest.
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I’ve got some ideas for the charr version of the staff skills. I don’t have as much time during the week, so I may not have something to post until the weekend, but I’ll still give my 2-cents whenever I can.
I like the idea that Leviathan suggested here about giving the third auto-attack blocking frames. I think it’d really help provide some much-needed defense, and as Maugetarr stated, it would be easier to balance since it wouldn’t proc any “on evade” traits. If Anet wants to keep the whirling attack at the end of the chain, then having it block for the duration of it would be most beneficial to us (and destroy projectiles, probably not reflect though, that may be too much).
Keep up the great ideas, everyone!
Wow, thanks for all the feedback guys! I’m glad there are so many people here with the same passion to make the staff reach its potential.
I know that there is a lot that goes into animating, and I don’t want to take away from all the positive things Anet has been doing with HoT, but for a completely new fighting style like this (given that staff was previously a magic-only weapon) I feel that there really should be no shortcuts taken. As others have said, DD staff deserves to look as good as it sounds.
Awesome job done on these animations ( I’m almost ashamed of my vault’s ones ^^ ).
this is a side question: what brush do you use and what size ? it gives your charater more consistance. ( don’t answer just to this, it’s still a gw2 focused thread
)
Actually, it was your thread and pics that inspired me to make my own, so thank you for starting it! I really like how your first drawing points out the awkwardness of vault’s current animation. Also, I’m using Adobe Flash with the smallest size paint brush for the model and the third size up for the bo staff. I find Flash to be the simplest program for quick concept sketches like this.
I think that dust strike would makes more sense if the whirling was made after the throw as a finishing stance to get the staff back in place. As I see it, during a whirling the hands are placed in the middle so the wide swing after that part would lack strengh. With the speed of the rotation, I find it hard to get one hand in the middle and one hand at the bottom of the staff.
The rapid thrust would definetly be one of the best candidate from the auto-attack #3 instead of the “chop-chop magic helicopter” we currently have.
I see your point, and I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing the auto-attack 3 as a rapid thrust attack. The no-hands magic twirl just doesn’t feel right, y’know?
By the way, I altered my original concept for vault and redrew the descent frame to exclude the helicopter spin for those that want to see how it would look. I’ve got some more ideas that I’d like to sketch up, and I’ll probably do some more when I get the time. Thanks again for the comments, guys!
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^ I absolutely love the idea of creating a separate dye panel for hair accessories, especially if we start getting hairstyles with more intricate accessories like some of the dreadlocks suggested with multi-colored beads and wraps. Anet should actually totally separate accessory color and hair color, treating the former as armor dye.
Awesome idea, Leviathan! I totally dig it!
^ Hey, thank you so much for your comments, Endlos, I really appreciate it!
I’ll admit that when I was drawing up the descent part of my vault concept, I thought that the helicopter spin was a little over-the-top too. Coincidentally, my first draft of the concept didn’t have that wind up, but I got a bit zealous with it and decided to throw in a little flair. Regarding the landing part, the reason why I chose the radial swing is mostly because the attack itself is an AoE damaging move, so I figured a circular sweep would be a better indicator of the exact range of your attack, especially if there is a cool disc-like special effect (nothing magical, just something that emphasizes the speed of your strike). As I said earlier, I just don’t like the current warrior-like ground-shattering slam that we’ve got.
Thanks again for the feedback! I really enjoy seeing other people’s points of view, and I do want this elite spec to improve in every aspect, especially the animations.
(edited by Seabreeze.8437)
Now that the beta weekend is pretty much wrapped up, I’d like to give my opinions/criticisms of the specialization, mainly in the animations. I’m gonna skip the combat stance and the auto-attack chain for now since it’s been well noted (but I will come back to them with my ideas for them later). This is going to focus on skills 2, 3, 4, and 5. Also, I played as a human male. So let’s get started, shall we?
Skill #2 – Weakening Charge: Simply put, I don’t know what this is supposed to be. From what I looked at, your character grabs the staff at the head and sort of does a spinning… punch? Meanwhile his legs show no indication of lunging, so you just kind of slide across the floor like a chess piece. Visually, it’s all around bad, like your character has absolutely no clue how to fight with a bo staff.
Skill #3 – Debilitating Arc: This ranks with skill #2 for the worst animations the staff has to offer. It honestly looks more like your character is glitching out. Everything happens way too fast and it’s extremely jerky and choppy. Very obvious cut-and-paste and it doesn’t work well at all for an animation.
Skill #4 – Dust Strike: Obvious use of the hammer, which makes the staff look very weighty and heavy, and the technique looks sloppy because of it.
Skill #5 – Vault: One of the very few new animations, yet this is the skill I have the most to talk about. Firstly, as the name implies, the character should plant his staff into the ground and actually vault from it. That would be much more visually exciting than the instantaneous take-off leap they currently do. Secondly, I feel that the crazy backwards corkscrew triple flip is a little too awkward and doesn’t feel right for a move where you typically propel yourself forward. One or two front flips would give the move a better feel in my opinion.
Finally, the landing. Currently, your character drops straight down, bringing his staff down with the power of Thor, slamming it into the ground with such force that the resulting earth-cracking shock wave damages foes. I feel this completely detracts from the theme of the daredevil. For a spec that’s supposed to be nimble and swift, a brutish slam like what we currently have just feels out of place and more suitable for warriors and guardians. Instead, I propose that the character whirls the staff above his head as he’s falling, following up with a sweeping radial strike the moment he lands.
I spent some time over the weekend sketching up some storyboard concepts of what I feel skills 2, 3, 4, and 5 should look like, along with some notes about them. To anyone interested, please feel free to take a look at them and let me know what you think.
Daredevil staff truly has the potential to be one of the flashiest new weapons HoT has to offer, but after seeing and playing with it in the beta, I can’t help but feel like there wasn’t much care put into the animations. I sincerely hope that there are plans to improve or replace them with unique, mind-blowing animations deserving of a brand-new fighting style (you really can’t compare a staff to a hammer, they’re worlds apart). Looks are so important to the satisfaction of playing a certain class, and the current animations just aren’t satisfying, I’m sorry to say.
