Guild Wars 2

lordkrall.7241:

This will however create issues with several things.
Including achievements and gear.
You will also end up at lvl 80 (or whatever level you are) with a completely unfamiliar profession, which could make you a liability in groups, which in turn might make it even harder for people to find pugs and so on.

Very true.
I would say race change would be a good aim, but class change is the worst you could choose.

The game is active, there is plenty of people in there but aim for the very high populated servers so you will have a lot of people to play with.

Thats not the way it works and it should never work like that. You guest and do something and you get kicked because you are guesting?
Really? That would make the system useless.

In your shoes I would just do some rounds around map and gather palatine. I often do it while I wait for TQ on Desolation.

It makes time go faster and earns me some TP gold. As for seeing people act like you mentioned. I don’t see it often and I would say it can be seen on most servers, not only yours.

I will strongly oppose any fee for guesting because it would ruin my fun from playing with friends from other servers.

Over all I think you are exaggerating. Only real reason I see is TQ guesting and as far as I know – you can waste that 1h if you really want to kill it or just do something in the map or watch movie and move every 30min so you won’t get kicked.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

videoboy.4162:

Chris Whiteside.6102:

videoboy.4162:

Chris,

I know you can’t give details, but I was wondering if you guys figured out a way to separate the LS from the PS? I remember several Dev comments mentioning that the PS was reducing what could be done in LS (example: Killing Jennah because she had to be alive in the PS.)

This is definitely something we have been discussing.

I cannot give anymore details than that however.

Chris

Darn, I totally tried to phrase it in such a way that you could just say yes or no. LOL I’ll try harder next time. =D

Sorry (-:. Not trying to be evasive. It is just an area I am unable to discuss.

Chris

Please let us know when you will find a way.
I really look forward to know that you found the way since that for me will mean its a start of greater changes in the game.

Shakkara.2641:

And just a reminder, Guild Wars 2 was advertised as having “everything you like about GW1”.

So let’s sum up everything I liked in GW1…
1) Getting max level in a few hours
2) Getting best in slot equipment in a few hours
3) 100s of skills to freely choose from
4) Dual-classing
5) Party-based content with heroes and henchmen
6) Being able to customize heroes with gear and skills
7) Title-based progression
8) Almost all monsters playing the game in an identical way the player would, using skills available to players and having similar HP pool as players
9) Much instance-based content so I can choose who I want to play with (or alone)
10) Repeatable storyline missions with secondary objectives
11) Awesome believable villains (eg Shiro being corrupted over time)
12) Hardcore story (Rurik gets banished by his father and almost everyone dies!)
13) Player-owned towns (factions) – could use improvement but idea is nice
14) Guild Halls
15) Hardcore skill-based PVP with deep tactics due to 3 and 4
16) Being able to burn through the gates and unlock everything very quickly, due to 1 – I finished Nightfall and EOTN in less than 2 days each, upon release, and was then free to access all the content in the regions to capture skills and farm and play dungeons and purchase armor etc. I hate content gates, levels and gearchecks in particular!

And how much of that list does GW2 ultimately have? None with the exception of 2, as promised by Colin, which was then burned down as well with the introduction of ascended.

Which is a shame, as you only need to look at GW1 to see a lot of very clever mechanics that actually can be integrated into GW2 to make the game infinitely more fun. In particular, points 3, 4, 10, 13, 14 and 15.

Although I don’t like the way you write things, because you make the feel very offending. I have to agree that a lot of great quality from GW1 wasn’t transfered to GW2. I really hope it will be added over time.

Especially crucial seems to be fractions, PvP modes and replaying story/living story content so people might catch up what they lost (without unique rewards so items can be an asset for those who played content as it was released).

Chrispy.5641:

Yoh.8469:

Given the Elite Signet some even more though, namely in regards to WvW, I don’t think we should have the idea contorted to fit with WvW honestly broken model.

Here’s what I mean. The core of this idea is about going on a journey to gain new skills.
But in WvW there is no journey, for anything. It’s not designed for that, everything from one point to another is pretty much a straight line on fairly flat terrain, and no real mobs to speak of.

Now if it was more like Edge of the Mists, which actually has decent terrain and effects, throw in a few PvE elements like roaming randomized elite/champion mobs, then this system should work just fine.
The Elite Signet idea shouldn’t be changed to fit in with a badly design game mode, but rather wait until WvW catches up. Until then, tough luck I say.

Using a Signet of Capture in PvE or any game mode doesn’t exactly scream “Journey” to me if all the skills can be aquired in an afternoon. Temporary and Living World stuff should be able to be accomplished that quickly (and mostly, it is). Permanent content should be designed to take significantly longer. I’m not saying an epic 50+ hour investment for one measily skill, but doing a 2-3 hour long task sounds alot cooler than buying a signet of capture, then getting your skill ten minutes later.

I have to agree.
I enjoyed it in GW1, but we should have something a bit bigger in here. Especially since our enemies use unique for them skills. It’s not that good balanced like GW1 was.

I have to say i really admired GW1 for that. Every enemy was as strong like me and I could become like him with the right skills. Thats some great quality that we lost in GW2 and if we will get it someday I will be really pleased.

Exosferatu.2961:

*Extend the level cap to 999.

*Leveling should be extremely difficult from level 80.

*Tome of Knowledge and any item that grant level will not work above level 80.

*Each level grants the character 1+ all attributes/stats .

*Add the rankings for high level characters on the Leaderboards.

*Every time a character reaches a hundred levels they unlock a new weapon (maybe?).

*You don’t have to grind for this because you level up as you enjoy a particular activity in the game like WvW/sPvP/PvE.

*This is for elitists.

I’m sorry but you are proposing a very bad (in my opinion) vertical progression.
So its bad and wrong place for it.

The worst part would be major unbalance. Also as players already said in CDI before, we don’t want vertical progressions. Just check last CDI.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Aeonblade.8709:

Swagger.1459:

I hope that if a “grand journey” to horizontal progression is introduced, the paths are equally offered to wvw, pvers and dungeon/fractal players or you’ll run into the same issues that we currently have with ascended vertical progression.

This, remember, WvW centric players aren’t going to be pleased if they have to farm PvE for their progression, be it horizontal or vertical

I certainly respect your points.

Chris

I have a point in mind also.
WvW has a horizontal progression system already, you can try to modify it and it should be cool.
PvP has rank system and will have some additional rewards soon so I would call it also a horizontal progression.
PvE has… Map completion? Few grindy achievements like slayer, hero and endless daily/monthly routine?

We would need more than anything a progression system that is a core PvE centered and maybe has some equivalents added to other system. That is basically the issue for me that only in PvE we feel like nothing is more to do so we farm gold, because what else can we do after doing map, JP and dungeons few times? Achievements are grindy and only for a short time and after that. If you are satisfied how your character looks you wont change that (it costs too much transmutation crystals) you can only grind more for legendary (which is a boring absurd) or log in once or twice per update to do meta.

For those of PvE players we need systems, juts like PvP needs more play modes.
Please bear this in mind.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

cesmode.4257:

ColinJohanson.2394:

A lot of the ideas boiled down into variations of one of these two options, and really both have a lot of cool concepts and ideas. Can folks think of anything else that’s a bit more outside the box for something bigger?

I had suggested several times about Global Dominance system. Similar to WvW…we as players and as a server, complete events across the entire map of Tyria and receive passive bonuses based on the % of the map that we control as players. So if we leave entire zones(say the lesser traveled zones) to be completely occupied by centaurs, for example, we won’t be receiving maximum benefits. And you can use most of the existing dynamic events to accomplish this. There are many DEs that take over way points and camps that we as players can complete and push enemy NPCs back…thus acquiring a larger portion of the world.

This encourages players to play in more than one zone, get sthem out in the world, etc.

On top of this, put in a reward system for completing unique(different) dynamic events in a month. I.E. Complete 90 unique dynamic events in January and receive a Cesmode mini(just kidding). But you get the picture.

Is that big enough and outside the box?

Just catching up now. I really do like this idea, always have. I see this as a base system that would be applied to content across the board that would impact many features and mechanics, not just Horizontal Progression. I bet this idea comes up in many more CDIs as it has already done in the past.

Chris

The idea is good in theory but has one MAJOR flaw – SERVER POPULATION.
The thing is that my server Underworld has a very little players playing, since WvW S1 we lost many more but since those are dead accounts they still count and we see our server has a Very High population.

No one moves in here to play and system like this will be like a slap in the face.
We have a very little people who are in world events, we are maybe not always outnumbered by any server in WvW, and there are alway almost empty Mist area. LA has NEVER overflows and while I do maps I can see 5 characters at most. So when I say we have no people but many dead account I mean it. Its checked across all 24hours in many months, cause I really play a lot.
Many people know that you count dead accounts in server population, even thou you never confirmed it, so I would love a statement on that (but I think we will never get it).

Yet making a system that would harm servers like Underworld even more is just bad.
*If you would disconnect inactive accounts (4 or 6 months+) it would probably make us on medium population and some people would consider joining this server but as it stands now you will only harm us even more.

Eli Stormstrike.8637:

ACCOUNT-BIND/SOULBOUND
To encourage alt’ing even further, I suggest that soulbound be removed whereever possible and be converted to account-bound; considering currencies are account-bound, there is no reason for us not to be able to use the same armor sets for our other characters, instead of having them purchase it again with the tokens grinded for on our mains.

I have to agree. It often stops people just handing over their old stuff or cool skins to their alts. It forces to use double transmutation to whites and all that stuff.
It’s SO ANNOYING for us… Please make all account bound. Freedom of use your stuff is greatly needed if you want people to spend time on playing other characters and still be in game.

Eli Stormstrike.8637:

LEGENDARY DYES AND ACCOUNT-BINDING
This suggestion has been brought up before, I don’t recall where, but it’s yet another method of customization and cosmetic progression which is only positive.

First of all, Dyes should become account-bound on acquire, which would further ease and encourage alt’ing and be a simple quality-of-life update.

As for Legendary Dyes, the suggestion that was put forth was to add effects to the armor similar to those gotten from Legendary Weapons, with fogs and glowing effects added to the character and its armor.

I also agree.
You really have to support alting. It helps people to swap characters and thus makes game more fun and people spend more time in it.

Nobody will make 2 legendaries if they will want to stop playing guardian and start warrior, but having legendary on different character will alway make them irritated…

The same goes with dyes, especially with those very expensive like celestial, abyss, and all those from TP that are worth over 10g and way more. I can’t imagine buying them for more than 1 character and I have 9. So for me it means “color choice will always suck whatever I do”.

Eli Stormstrike.8637:

Eli Stormstrike.8637:

CONTINUED…

HALL OF MONUMENTS, ACHIEVEMENT SYSTEM AND PLAYER HOUSING
One of the great things about the Hall of Monuments in GW1 was that it gave you an overarching goal so to speak; it inspired people to go out and enjoy gameplay and different parts of the game that one might never have tried out without the HoM. GW1 became re-vitalised through the implementation of the Hall of Monuments, because it gave people a goal to work towards, it implemented a new reward system that incorporated all areas of the game, and it encouraged both new and older players to once again become active members of the community, through dungeon running, mission running, vanquishing, zaishen dailies, farming and all manner of different areas of gameplay.
…
I think GW2 would benefit greatly from adding a Hall of Monuments to its core game, to give players a place to show off their achievements, trophies, accolades, titles, rewards, armors, weapons, miniatures and legendaries.

I ask for a HoM for a long time, and I agree 100% we should get a place like that. I would move home instance, all nodes and such to HoM, divide it like it used to be to 2 parts (public and instance). It would again be a gathering spot for many players (I often trades in there. It was the 2nd bes spot for it) instead of LA leads nowhere.

If you would add to it crafting stations and merchants etc you could make it the place to go to spend time every time you need something. Also you can increase character cap and make it rather small map, so people can interact with themselves more and load rather quickly (not like huge LA).

Eli Stormstrike.8637:

There are only benefits and no detriments, and it could be a part of a new Living World Update to retake and rebuild the Hall of Monuments in the game, as part of a Dynamic World Event with a progression tick box, similar to Tower of Nightmares.

Just revive dwarfs that will suddenly wake up because there is another prophecy coming to be and for that they will need again HoM and heroes, so they will rebuild it to find heroes who will be able to aid them to fulfill another prophecy.

It would be neat. I really want do see more dwarfs (and yes, game can still be unique even if we have dwarfs and elves).

Eli Stormstrike.8637:

PVE RANKS/PARAGON SYSTEM
We gain skill points, but we’re still locked down in levels in PvE. Some other games, such as Tibia and RuneScape, have no such lock on levels, but the whole game is based instead on gaining as many levels as possible.

What I suggest is adding a sort of PvE Rank System, similar to the one in PvP. Allow us to level to 80, and then expand into ranks beyond that, similar to the Paragon System in Diablo 3.

This rank system would be separate from levels, as we wouldn’t be gaining power. It would function as follows; a character that reaches level 80 would, in a party for example, have his level color changed to, e.g., blue, which would show his rank level, in a range of 1-80, to begin with. This rank could then be expanded in future updates, but 80 seems like a good number to start with, since that’s where PvP rank cap and Level cap are both at.

At each 5 and 10 level interval we would gain purely cosmetic rewards, for example, new titles and ranks, new portrait frames and so on.

See attachment at bottom for example

This PvE Rank System could be tied to the existing Achievement System, so that we might gain, for example, boosts to Karma Gain, Experience Gain, Magic Find and Gold Find at different intervals.

If ArenaNet desires, they could add different kinds of boosts to this system, for example passive movement speed boosts, loot pickup radius and so on, boosts that would be disabled in competitive environments such as sPvP and WvW, but be active in PvE, to reflect the fact that this is a PvE System.

PvE Leaderboards could then be added, showing the players with the highest PvE Ranks in the game.

This Rank System should be a blend between the WXP and sPvP Rank Systems in difficulty and time, since it’s ment to display personal dedication, experience and active time in the game, the design would be similar in its mindset to that of Ascended and Legendaries; it’s a nice goal to work towards, encourages one to take an active part in community activities, since all PvE activities would add rank points, and is ment to be maxed in an organic manner through normal gameplay.

For me if we could tie it to a master title system like GWAMM and we could give players those cosmetic circles around their character names (check attachment, its from Eli Stormstrike post) it would work so awesome.
GWAMM2:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Vertical/page/22#post3379651
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Vertical/page/22#post3379653

Eli Stormstrike.8637:

Eli Stormstrike.8637:

CONTINUED…

Account-wide Crafting
One measure that I’m surprised hasn’t been implemented is Account-wide Crafting disciplines. Since one character is able to max all crafting disciplines, and since the Achievement System is account-wide, there is truly no incentive for a player to go through the grind once more on a different character.

I suggest merging crafts across all characters to the highest one in each discpline currently on the account, and once unlocked at the highest level once it will be available to all characters on that account.

• ASCENDED PRECURSORS AND LEGENDARY GEAR
  I believe the opportunity exists to enshrine Ascended as milestone towards gaining a Legendary, rather than feeling as if one is wasting their time, spending resources and money to gain items that are on the same level as Legendaries, but sub-par in the sense that they lack stat-switching. I’ve seen much jaded talk about holding back on crafting Ascended in order to wait for the Legendary tier to be added to other slots.

Legendary Weapons are a great addition to the game, similar to how Ascended currently functions they encourage players to partake in activities across a broad spectrum, to enjoy the game to the fullest and work towards this long-term goal organically through normal gameplay.

The end goal should be to have Legendary Items available for all equipment slots currently in-game, and with the path to acquiring them, with perhaps the exception of Legendary Weapons because of the already-existing precursors, going straight through Ascended.

As was mentioned earlier, I proposed expanding the Infusion mechanism to incorporate Ascended weapons and armor, as this would allow us to progress further into Fractals, give the brackets more meaning and disperse the rewards across a broader range of levels, whilst also expanding the progression of the Ascended tier, another goal to work towards to infuse all of one’s gear.

This Infusion mechanism could then be used in the crafting of Precursors; the precursors for Legendary Weapons are already in-game as exotics, and changing this might be difficult at this stage, as I would propose using Ascended weapons as precursors instead.

However, for Legendary Armor and Trinkets, Ascended could be used as the precursors. Once a piece of Ascended armor has been infused, one is able to use it as a precursor component to crafting a corresponding Legendary piece; this will ensure Ascended is not perceived as a waste of time, won’t place it in competition to legendaries but will instead become an integral component to it, and will also connect these different kinds of progression to one another, so that those who have Ascended gear at the moment, and those who are working towards it, won’t feel as if their efforts were reset on a treadmill once other legendaries are gradually released.

One proposal given by Shriketalon.1937 was to craft Legendary Trinkets through the following method:

Uisng different orbs to craft exquisite jewels, these can then be combined in sets of 4 in order to create a “Chimeric Prism” and an “Iridescent Prism”. Combining these 2 with a “Chaos Diamond”, from salvaging Ascended items, and Thermocatalytic Reagents would then yield an “Inscribed Secret”.

This “Inscribed Secret” is then combined together with an Augur’s Stone and 2 items made from recipes containing the yet-to-be-added Ascended materials, Xunlai Electrum Ingots and Crystalline Ingots, which would then yield a Legendary Trinket.

See attachment at bottom for detailed description
Image is curtesy of Shriketalon.1937 (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Vertical/page/5#post3369475)

To conclude: One should be able to acquire Ascended items through a wide range of activities, ranging from Fractals and Crafting to general PvE. These Ascended items should then be expanded, allowing players to infuse them to gain Account-wide Agony Resistance. The Infused versions of these Ascended Weapons, Armors and Trinkets should then become the precursors for crafting their legendary counterparts, creating a chain of progression for players to go through until the end goal of full Legendary is achieved, through normal and organic gameplay.

For me it would be bad if we still craft legendaries with normal items instead of only account bound.
We need to stop making legendaries run a cash farm way. Ascended can be for that, but legendaries should be about the skill and variety of things you do.

The idea of diamonds is great thou and with some modifications it would be great.
I would prefer using dung tokens (PvE) and some other components dropping from PvP/WvW, with laurels and karma instead. People who just play have those. Those who farm gold usually don’t. So that makes a difference.

ColinJohanson.2394:

A lot of the ideas boiled down into variations of one of these two options, and really both have a lot of cool concepts and ideas. Can folks think of anything else that’s a bit more outside the box for something bigger?

My thoughts outside of boxs seems to go mainly for EXPLORATION.

IMAGINE: We get map over Frostgeorge in Living Story? and pact is getting into there and fight off Jormag minions, on the next update we get some bases built in there and for next month story could be frozen as Pact gathers resources (or some little tweaks planed) and at that time we can go look for some frozen masters, joutan ancient forges from the time they were mighty, we might explore do some mini dungeons, learn some skills or recipes in there. After that we go even deeper into Jormags territory. We might tie some alliances, trade some or our skills (like creating weapons for pact or joutans that would tie our character to work in camp and log out for some time, after that time we could log in). Those skills, weapons etc could be used on that second map to change the map control. You can use some kind of mini WvW on that map and each day we hold some points we progress few steps ahead with front line.

The idea would be to do things various ways, use our skills to gather informations, gather resources use war schematics (WvW) to progress into enemies territories and move front line. In that ares there should be almost no WPs (3-5 per map), there should be more populated with each update by mostly military forces, we should get works in there to help in various ways, but it should be kind of permanent investment. Our actions should move front line by little over time, not like in WvW when zerg comes and crushes as pleased. We should not be able to do it with elder dragon minions. We need to see fortresses being build from the scratch, getting stronger, with more supplies that we get them (like event to get supplies every 2 hours). Our effort should be awarded with fractions progression (after making system that would count actions in LS like that and hearts toward support to selected fractions). With participation our rank should increase (thats a hard part after being just below Trehern) to allow us access to cool ares or more dangerous parts of those new maps (ares where monsters would outlevel you maybe for 1 then 2 levels). Those would also come with better drops and nodes with new kind of materials, non-craftable for us but materials that would be used by Joutans or other special crafters that would make weapons for solders only which would again give us support for fraction (capped weekly).

Well this is only a war idea, but there are way more that you can do with few additional systems in game. Fracion support system is the most important for me and it should be tied with the idea, that even char what did a great dids for Krytans could became one of them and use seraphs armors as a honorable reward for his effort.

cesmode.4257:

The Lost Witch.7601:

Septemptus.7164:

I mean having system that would progress your character after level 80 with some horizontal progression by adding to it points that you participate in or another set of xp like Wxp.

Is it horizontal though? Is not vertical? The WvW wxp system is vertical. You become stronger the more you play.

Septemptus.7164:

Somehow people in WvW weren’t scared off but they were very excited by the idea.

The specialisation is pretty cool. I like the idea of being good at shooting cannons or carrying supply. And I think that it is the specialisation bit that the WvW crowd is most excited by. The problem for me lies in the fact that it is not just specialisation. Unlike the trait system there is no maximum to it. It works like this: play more = become stronger. Which may still be really cool for WvW veterans and progression fans. But not so much for players like me. (Who still play a lot, but not as focused on one thing)

I would like it to work in a way where you can easily reach the maximum amount of points, and spend it through specializing. (Perhaps you can respec by using excess specialisation points gained through WxP)

I guess I desire to one day be able to say: My character is complete.

Instead of an ongoing strength progression like the one in WvW.

I disagree that the WXP system is verticle. You become stronger but not in the sense that it makes it verticle. In a straight up fight between you and me using only the class abilities at our disposal, pure skill (and, yes gear) will determine who wins. Having a fully maxed out Siege Mastery or Guard Mastery(I cannot remember the name) will make little difference.

What septemptus might be looking for is the system in Rift. You hit max level, you still gain levels(althought your actual character level never changes) similar to how we ding and get skill points. But in Rift you can spend those points to beef up your preferred style of gameplay. For instance, if you are a warrior that used axes, specifically, you can put points into axe mastery to increase crit chance, increase crit dmg, and whatever else. Its actually a honeycomb(literally, the GUI is a honeycomb) of skills that you unlock via points.

That may lean more toward verticle… Maybe a modification of this idea is needed. Instead of power increases, have other sorts of buffs or horizontal progression changes. Like a consumable(infinite amount but on a CD) for a speed/swiftness increase(I know most classes have switfness at their disposal..just throwing a thought out) or unlockable skins(put points into the honeycomb to reach the weapon skins you want to unlock). Holy crud, I actually like my own idea there, I will post in its own response.

I think you cached my point.

Conski Deshan.2057:

Septemptus.7164:

Making legendaries creatable by only account bound items and allowing legendaries swap looks from menu (like stats),

It’s too late for the current round of legendaries to implement this as even if they did it now their prestige value is gone. They could however do it for the next round of legendaries and the further legendary items. I support the all account bound approach to getting a legendary.

No it’s not.
There will be new legendaries, new types, new weapons.
You can even change the recipe and those few in TP would rise the price and vanish soon after.

It’s just that certain part of the community enjoy the fact they can farm they way through everything without an effort. That is why legendaries lost so much of meaning and got tagged as “farmer items”, or “TP players items”.

Because there is nothing hard except having time to get them/farm gold to get them.
They aren’t outstanding visually anymore after so many good looking items, swapping stats aren’t worth few thousands gold, they have no prestige since you can buy them always (supply wont vanish), they have no meaning since only gold is needed to obtain them.

The Lost Witch.7601:

Septemptus.7164:

ColinJohanson.2394:

What sort of systems of horizontal progression unlocking would you like to see that’d accompany a system like extended class progression?

I still dream of a system that would look a lot like WvW progression in PvE. There are countless things you can store in there: more dmg/def to champs/elites/veterans.

Since this is in response to the question about unlocking systems: do you mean, just progressing for playing? In the same way that we progress the WvW ranks through just playing WvW?

Because I can imagine that this would create a larger gap between those that play a lot, and those that play less regularly.

Making the game too easy for those that play it often, while perhaps too hard for those that do not.

In addition to that, it could scare off people that jump in and see that they’ll probably have to keep playing for months or even years before they’ll be at the same level of strength as their guildmates. And by then, those guildmates are probably far ahead. Personally, I dislike this system in WvW, and I believe it should work more like traits. (Where you have a limit as to how many points you can spend instead of becoming stronger indefinitely)

I mean having system that would progress your character after level 80 with some horizontal progression by adding to it points that you participate in or another set of xp like Wxp. Somehow people in WvW weren’t scared off but they were very excited by the idea. You don’t have to add a lot to the system. WvW gives you like 10% after 225 points/levels. Thats a lot of play before you can max that.

This is a simple and fast example. Imagine what you can do if you sit and think a bit about it. This system can provide you with one system of experience or few.
One like Wxp or few like combat xp for all kinds of fighting, fraction xp to increase your support for fractions like asuras, orders and such, dungeon xp tied to reward at the end and maybe some resists. There is a wide range of you can do with system like that and WvW provides a template for that already.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

There has been a huge amount of discussion around sub classes. I would love to see you guys close out this particular area by either putting a sub class proposal together (Sentence detailing how it would work) or deciding as a group that it isn’t relevant at this point.

Personally I like the idea behind sub classes and see quite a few of the counter arguments based upon assumptions around balancing etc. Where possible we should try not to make decisions around feasibility of ideas through assumptions.

In short I would like to see if the CDI group thinks it is a relevant part of Horizontal Progression at this stage of GW2’s life?

Chris

As for classes I think we have everything we need.
On the other hand going for specializations would be great.

I would see it like the school system. You specialize more and more into some ways you work, just like real live.
You are a guardian and that is abase class.
Then you can specialize to become “defender” and you loose the ability to fight 2 handed weapons but you get some neat bonuses when you use a shield and any other one handed weapons. It would work like very defensive guardian build with extra tiers.

On the other hand you could become a “holy knight” and loose shield but focus on two handed weapons or torch with one handed weapons, but you would not get any additional boosts to defensive, yet a lot to offensive.

I think both paths can have progression not bound to level.

You should be able to switch them like crafting: NPC will do it, you can pay (very little or none fee) and you will be swapped to another specialization to exactly the point when you stopped your previous progress in this path.

You can add a way to swap auras around guardian holy/dark. It can be purely cosmetic.

Elementalist idea
Specialization in here could go 2 ways (5 ways)
Specialization in any attunement. Like “Fire Master”. You would regain the ability to use 2 weapon sets but you can only use fire spells. Of course additional tiers to make fire better, stronger etc.
The same with mastery in earth, ice, thunder.

The last one would be an “Arcane Master”. He could use all schools like now, but his spells would be weaker (on the level of normal elementalists). He would have more utility than strength.

There can be any other ways to improve classes you have now, but I would not add purely another class. Maybe aside from 3rd heavy class, but subclasses/specializations would be way better.

ColinJohanson.2394:

What sort of systems of horizontal progression unlocking would you like to see that’d accompany a system like extended class progression?

I still dream of a system that would look a lot like WvW progression in PvE. There are countless things you can store in there: more dmg/def to champs/elites/veterans.
It can be also used to gather support for fractions political/racial like skirt/humans/orders etc, that would unlock some nice vendors, skins even non racial cultural armors for those that have the most support. Clearing maps should allow 0c usage of WPs. Mastery in crafting that would reduce cost or give a chance for that.
There are many, many things that you can add for some higher goals.
I would love to rebuild HoM and make it a great convenience spot similar to royal trace or guild hall or personal instance that would allow us not to go to WvW to use banks/crafting stations already.
Making legendaries creatable by only account bound items and allowing legendaries swap looks from menu (like stats), making ascended items evolving weapons, by allowing to add stat combos and looks to the by rituals or mystic forge (to make them mini legends – then legendaries will have convenience and still have a cosmetic advantage).
Allowing for spreading ascended for cheap for alts especially for 2+ alts.

All my general ideas of what would move me a lot is in 2 posts:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411436
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Character-Progression-Horizontal/page/7#post3411437

It would be great if you even consider those points of my that I wrote in there.

Rouven.7409:

As soon as one scrap is guaranteed in a box I might consider it.

So true…

I still am amazed you bother with trying to make RNG look good, when almost all players learned its the worst part of GW2.

Good luck, whoever is in charge.

basepi.9768:

+1. This and a trait reset NPC would make this place perfect.

Yes, it would make it perfect!

Also agree with OP, it needs to be fixed, I should not have to hold the pass in the hand to enter. Just check inventory. Its basic method.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

Quick update. I will be afk for 2 days for family celebrations.

Let’s continue to here the communities top 3 lists and discuss ideas and then on the 1st Jan we can put some proposals together and dive into the specifics.

Chris

1. Ascended gear – making it items that can be upgraded by unlocking stat changes and unlocking skin changes. Also making them available for alts cheap.

2. Map progression, new areas that we get to know with little WPs that will let us get into exploration, it can be very well tied to LS as progression into dragon territories and such. Many ideas how to use them but I think we need a new map like each 2 months so people can play in there a lot and explore some more. (Please make them count to world exploration and add Southsun in there.)

3. Fraction questing (both orders and races and maybe some other fractions). This should make orders really something and should give us a way to get cultural armors when you are favored by certain race (custom made cultural items after certain effort put into reputation). Free WPs in certain areas, new great looking skins and such extras. Some custom quests only for each fraction or quest with versions based on your fractions.

Caveth.3268:

• Each jumping puzzle you do could reward 1 Lost Token. These Lost Tokens can be traded eventually for armor or weapons from a collector in Lion’s Arch. The armor and weapons from jumping puzzles should have a theme of exploration, discovery, secrets, and intelligence shown off in them; perhaps weapons and armor made of clouds, magical runes, feathers and light.
• Fractals already grant tokens, but the weapons are still RNG drops and there is no armor set – only a back piece and weapons; a Fractals armor set could potentially look amazing if it has the same theme as the weapons.
• Guild Missions have an exclusive weapon set already, but releasing an exclusive guild armor set for Guild Commendations would be a great idea as well. If they use the same theme as the weapons, they might look absolutely amazing.

Permanent Unlocks

Additionally, unlocking any of these skins should unlock them on your account or character permanently; after which, the player may re-use the skin on as many times as they want. The same should be done for pretty much any skin in Guild Wars 2; most should be soul-bound unlocks, but some could unlock on the entire account permanently (like the Hall of Monuments skins and the Achievement point skins).

The Living Story has a habit of releasing one-time only skins that can only be applied to one piece of armor and never is usable again; instead, these skins from the Living Story should be permanent account unlocks that may be applied over and over.

I very much like the idea.
Hopefully others will also.
We really lack a good rewards for things like JP and that is why nobody does the seriously. Skins from LS – also great point.

Caveth.3268:

Gem Store – Exclusive Rewards

The same unlock system should be done for any armor or weapon sets purchased in the gem store; they should be usable as many times as the player wants on their account. If someone spends ten dollars to buy a skin, it should definitely be usable as many times as they want for any character.

Speaking of the Gem Store, to reward players who actually buy gems with real money and support this game being free, Arenanet could reward exclusive armor and weapons to players. The more gems they buy with real money, the more unlocks they can choose.

There would be a full range of items to choose from: all weapon types, boots, shoulders, chest, leggings, helm, gloves, back pieces, aqua breathers and perhaps even mini pets, town toys, finishers, or tonics; there could potentially be other items as well. There may also be temporary awards (like a Royal Pass); adding in Royal Passes will encourage players to continually spend gems to keep their royal pass active.

Reward Ideas (every 400 Gems bought):

• 400 Lifetime Gems Bought: Choose one of the following Weapons, Armor pieces, Back Pieces, Mini pets, Toys, Finishers, or Tonics from this exclusive set; this will unlock it permanently on your account. Also awards 1 Royal Pass (2 weeks), and a random item from the Gem Store.
• 800 Lifetime Gems Bought: Choose one of the following Weapons, Armor pieces, Back Pieces, Mini pets, Toys, Finishers, or Tonics from this exclusive set; this will unlock it permanently on your account. Also awards 1 Royal Pass (2 weeks), and a random item from the Gem Store.
• 1200 Lifetime Gems Bought: Choose one of the following Weapons, Armor pieces, Back Pieces, Mini pets, Toys, Finishers, or Tonics from this exclusive set; this will unlock it permanently on your account. Also awards 1 Royal Pass (2 weeks), and a random item from the Gem Store.
• 1600 Lifetime Gems Bought: Choose one of the following Weapons, Armor pieces, Back Pieces, Mini pets, Toys, Finishers, or Tonics from this exclusive set; this will unlock it permanently on your account. Also awards 1 Royal Pass (2 weeks), and a random item from the Gem Store.
• 2000 Lifetime Gems Bought: Choose one of the following Weapons, Armor pieces, Back Pieces, Mini pets, Toys, Finishers, or Tonics from this exclusive set; this will unlock it permanently on your account. Also awards 1 Royal Pass (2 weeks), and a random item from the Gem Store.

Please leave gem store out of systems of this kind.

Ronah.2869:

Most MMOS if not all focus their progression in 2 ways: increasing the level cap or adding more better gears. Both mechanics imply they need to add more High level content while the low level content is ignored.

My idea – which is not new to some MMOs – is to add levels to the skills which in GW2 style they don’t mean to be more powerful due to the scaling down system, but they need to have better visuals.

I will give different examples:
A lvl 1 “barrage” will have visually less arrows then a lvl 3 “barrage”
A lvl 1 “stomp” will make visually less dust then a lvl 3 “stomp”
A lvl 1 “minion” will be visually smaller then a lvl 3 “minion”
etc.

I would say the idea is very nice but most wont look into it and too flashy effects like “more dust” might hurt the game due to less visibility.

I would prefer other ideas joined to that. Skills might get better dmg or time of conditions by some minor % or maybe some additional effects that would imply that you have mastered it, but please don’t make the game some kind of titan’s fight.

Ronah.2869:

Make a zone in the middle of nowhere in which people can build their houses. Let it be an open world zone which territory will increase the more houses people are building
People can buy land and start building a house from a few basic patterns
The house will be account bound and will be related to the achievements.
The houses will develop into others the more achievement points an account has.
People can set up their house as “open to public” or “closed to public”
This will build up a sort of Divinity Reach but all houses are own by players.

I would prefer to rebuild HoM into a bigger and customizable in place of my home and trophy room. Maybe this time the whole building and only last room would be a trophy room?

Convert house instance to guild area. Choose one of the 5 and make it into guild area, then allow people to in there by summoning stone or portal in other home instances.

Nadesh.7953:

Random Factor

This idea came to me when i saw the Fire Shaman with the “Toxic Corruption” buff. It had this small spiders helping him. Then I thought, what if the big bosses have a random buff (among 50 or more posible ones) that spawn different kinds of minions to help them? some of those minions could be strong and help the bosses to deal damage, others could heal or give buffs. Or like someone suggested (in the thread i suggested this), could even give them new skills (like a new aoe, or summon a turret, etc).

I also enjoyed the buffs on bosses and those were very nice random factors. I would love to see more of those in the future and maybe some chance to see those mini spiders again every 50 champs or so.

Sirendor.1394:

OPEN WORLD PLAYER BUILDING

• Allow us to customize PvE zones:
  - Herboreal Mastery: Allow us to gather seeds from existing trees and plant new ones in areas where it’s possible for them to grow: variety! Special zones & climates > Special trees. Seeds will drop from specific trees, aka. Ancient Trees, that are permanent (not able to cut them down) and player-planted trees, that are not permanent. You’ll have to go out in the world and gather seeds yourself!
  [Trees will sprout from the ground without players aswell, by chance]
  - Deadwood Mastery: Allow us to cut down player-planted trees on a limited scale (say 1 tree/account/day): trees should give a realistic and big mass of wood. If you cut down a tree planted by someone else, you have to pay that person with seeds from that tree. It is possible to scavenge, but there will be a prize on your head if you do, so be wary thieves!
  - Delving Mastery. Allow us to delve for ‘metals’ (not compared to the ore gathering we have now) in special spots per zone that are rich with ore. You can find spots that are able to be delved (destructible earth) with an ability.
  - Stonegrowth Mastery: Stimulate existing mines to produce more rich metals. This involves dwarven and alchemic rituals. [Ores will be produced by mines without players too, by natural processes]
  - Construction Mastery: Use materials you gather: different kinds of wood, different kinds of metal, rock and earthly materials to build something in the world, also in pre-restricted areas that have stable foundations etc etc.

• All the materials for these masteries should be accountbound and gathered through exploring the world yourself. It is possible to build things in group.

• The beauty of the idea: despite it being restricted to certain areas, everyone will have their shot at all these masteries. Constructions will decay from weather, atmosphere and occasionaly a storm or a monster invasion. They will be damage-able, but not by other players, UNLESS you decide to build in WvW… The need will always be there to explore and master your crafts. You might need a group of people in order to build one house, or be a very dedicated solo player. (it’s possible to build a guild house, or to gain dominance in a city as a guild).

• Adding affiliation in the mix: npcs such as refugees (Frost & Flame) can be convinced to build their own homes around existing player structures, by helping them with heart quests and somesuch.

• The world will become truly dynamic, with NPC’s on the move! This means existing settlements can be abandoned, take Fort Salma in Kessex Hills. NPC’s will migrate and hearts will too! Enemy NPC’s will be able to destroy those existing settlements and change zones with enermous expansion, if nobody stops them.

EDIT: To differ the general principle of these mechanics, it shouldn’t be like a generic ‘kill and gather’ sort of thing:

• Woodcutting could mean… climbing, with risks involved (O_O)
• Delving could mean… exploring underground (also climbing).
• Different classes could also get different ways to gather these resources:
  - Would you like to shoot an arrow up to a tree branch, tug it and test it’s strength and pull yourself up at risk of breaking the branch or wrenching your hooked arrow loose, as a ranger?
  - Would you enjoy dropping a couple of bombs on top of the tree and time-racing to get out of the tree before it explodes, as an engineer?

This really opens up a LOT of possibilities for adventure, challenge and fun!

I love the idea!
You can just plan areas when it can be done and this would be a ton of additional fun for PvE.
If done wisely also in WvW.

Nike.2631:

Conner.4702:

I’m fully against all forms of hardmode, not because I dislike challenging content (when done well), but because it will take away people from an already desolate area.

Um, if you’re saying all future content has to take place within the maps we have now for fear of spreading things out… that’s pretty much the definition of Dead Game to me. And there were no more worlds to conquer – just maps to endlessly rehash.

While I have lobbied extensively for more Dynamic Events layering, refreshing and expanding the stories of the zones we have now, it was NEVER with the belief that what we have now should be the full measure of real estate the game shall ever present.

If the Living Story has taught us anything, it’s that the Devs can focus population where they want it for as long as they want it. Often to the detriment of any hint of challenge as the zerg consumes all.

Yes, that very right.
We need more space or even more people will go.
I personally struggle to see other games just to explore something because it’s such a dead space in GW2 :/.

Kulvar.1239:

But HM Zone need an interest for players not interested by challenges.
So it means new content (resource, equipment, recipes). And it imply that the old stuff became useless…

Because a HM Zone will be a “general” HM, not a personal HM as I suggested. Or an expansion.
Personal HM let player choose what level of difficulty he want, without impose it on others.

Many player can do HM areas once and be feed by it and never come back.
On the other hand those who need challenges with sit in those areas a lot.
Thats perfectly fine.

Antara.3189:

In GW1 HM was preffered by veteran players due to the upgraded loot tables and for title farming. Of course some players do prefer HM just for the challenge, but for the majority, I found that reward increases were the reason it was played.

I felt the same way in GW1.
This should be the case in those HM areas.

Caveth.3268:

There are many zones that are empty or nearly empty at most times because there are little to no reasons to visit them after world exploration. Encouraging players to revisit these zones might not be too hard.

The idea I have is that the Asurans want the players to collect data from various things in different zones and with each bit of data collected, the player’s account gets reduced waypoint costs to that zone permanently.

(…)

Data Collection Ideas:

World Exploration (points of Interest, Vistas, etc.)

• Reward: +3 (per PoI, Vista, etc.)

General Exploration (just roaming the map and passively collecting data)

• Reward: +1 (per 5000 range treaded by your character)

Collecting Skill Points

• Reward: +5 (Per skill point gained)

Completing Events or Heart Tasks (if the zone has any of these)

• Reward: +3 (per event/heart task completed)

Collecting Lost Asuran Data Crystals (hidden throughout the zone)

• Reward: +500 Data (each Data crystals is a one time only find)

Vanquishing Certain Enemy Types (Destroyers, Inquest, Risen, etc.)

• Reward: +1 (For every 10 of one type killed)

Completing a Dungeon in that Zone

• Reward: +25 (Per path completed)

Killing Champions

• Reward: +3 (Per champion killed)

Jumping Puzzles

• Reward: +25 (Per puzzle completed)

Gathering (trees, plants, etc.)

• Reward: +1 (Per item gathered)

Speaking with NPCs

• Reward: (Case by Case basis)

Personal Storyline Completion (within the zone)

• Reward: (Case by Case basis)

Living Story Completion (within the zone)

• Reward: (Case by Case basis)

Achievement Points (while in the zone)

• Reward: +1 Data (per Achievement Point gained)

Guild Missions (within the zone)

• Reward: +50 Data (per mission)

Progression and Diminishing Returns:

Level 1:

• Requires: 100 Data
• Reward: -1% Waypoint Costs to this zone

Level 2:

• Requires: 200 Data
• Reward: -1% Waypoint Costs to this zone

And so on… The amount of Data needed should increase with each level – perhaps by 100 per level; the reward will be the same with each level gained. At Data level 100, the player will have 100% reduced waypoint costs in that zone (although 100% is unlikely to be reached with diminishing returns).

This is interesting idea.
This mechanics fits very good into fraction ideas.
We already help many fractions doing hearts in the open world.

Kulvar.1239:

Chrispy.5641:

Hard Mode

I have a better suggestion, an idea that came a long time ago in a different context.
I’m a roleplayer and a thing I would like is to use game events and ennemies in roleplay. But when you are 20 it’s worthless to consider each single wolf because he’s instantly obliterated… The idea meet yours.

+ Level adjustement customization
Currently when in a low level zone, our levels are automatically adjusted. (and it’s a wonderful mechanism to play with friends of various level.)
A new option give the ability to setup the level adjustment from 0 (same as actually), to 10 levels of difficulty.

Example : I’m with my 80 in an area where monsters are level 41, I’m automatically down to level 42, but I want a bit more difficulties so I set my adjustement to -3 and instantly my level became 39.

It make fight harder for people like you and for roleplayers in group they can set their level to be threaten by monsters.

This is a very good idea.
I would like this.
We already see events spawn mobs on levels 82-84? if I’m right and they change difficulty of the encounter a lot so thats nice idea to use.

It can be used to redo maps similarly to vanquisher title in GW1. Complete all maps (hearts/kills?) with on heighten level. That could work nicely as an achievement.

Maybe hard mode for guild missions with some extra rewards?

The Lost Witch.7601:

Would I need to unlock hardmode for every single character for the feeling of progression? Or do I only need it for one? Or will it count the progress over all my characters?

I would say one. It would be way to grindy to do it for every character.
We can do normal map completions for every character and thats a lot of work.

chemiclord.3978:

You WILL have legions complaining that your idea has ruined the “sense of community in game.” You WILL have people whining that you’re creating two tiers of rewards based on “gimmicks.”

Thats always in there… Yet you have to watch out for those people always.

chemiclord.3978:

“Arena.net loves warriors so much that they’re giving them improved loot! My [insert class here] can’t do hard mode! It’s favoritism!”

Thats already a problem and that is objective since that many people speak about it.
Unfortunately no balance patch ever touched the problem so people will stay sour and leave the game eventually.
Just look how many LFGs say warrior only. This is a real problem in GW2.

Necros were overpowered at the very start, then a lot of people used the way to overpower engineers and thieves. It was all balanced nicely, yet warriors especially in PvE are like the only way to win if you think about people with at least medium skill level.
I will hope we will see it fixed soon…

chemiclord.3978:

And how long do you think that would last before people started flooding the forums screaming that other players are making their events harder because they are engaging Hard Mode for themselves and thus dealing less and taking more damage?

Over/Under line set at 3 seconds after the patch notes are released.

I have to agree to this.
Hard mode won’t help the game one bit.

GW2 should have areas designed to be hardcore for those who needs a challenge and fractals is one of the areas. For some dungeons are (at least 50% of them).

Adding more of those areas will help hardcore players, but they will always scream for more, thats the reality.

As for me horizontal progression should be about many things that you can do on level 80. Working towards something that will show that you spend time actually playing (not gold wise because I’m sick of farming).

So quantity and variety of things to do. Many nonfarmable achievements/activities or those that should be divided in time. That is what I feel as most important for the game. Also rewards that are cool, because lately all the cool stuff is kinda gem bound.
I have problems with thinking about very good looking rewards what didn’t come from gemstore or black lion chests.

Last time it was around election I think that we had those cool looking items like Desert Rose and crystal themed back pieces (I don’t mean that we have to get back pieces, but something cool). The way ascended armors look is kinda terrible and it costs fortune, last updates gave us rather strange items than good looking (but some might not agree). We also have way too many special minipets and too little real rewards like armors (aside from achievement armors which shoulders always look terrible on norns – they are too big).

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

Horizontal Changes related to Armor: The following would be upgrading componants that could be applied to armor like dye, so let’s start with that one.

• Dye Duplication: If you are going to keep dye soulbound. Allow Alts to copy a dye from one character to another. So let’s say I find a Celestial Dye and put it on my Main, now I get a dye duplicator and copy the Celestial Dye and put it on an Alt, another duplicator, another Alt etc. These duplicators could drop in the same manner as dyes or maybe you earn them by completing certain quests or there is always the Cooking Craft.
• Blended Material Component: If armor is made of different material it will have a different look. For example a Gossamer/Cotton blend Light armor might have deeper saturation levels but if it was a Gossamer/Silk blend it might be shinier. The same could be done with Tanning agent for Medium Armor or Alloys for Heavy.
• Paterns: Stripes(horizontal, vertical, diagonal), dots(small, medium, Large), checks, tie-dye, camouflage, heck even paisley would be an option. Each pattern would Not be armor weight dependent so the same pattern drop could be applied to light/medium/heavy.
• Grandmaster Upgrades: Upgrading armor looks would also be possible by using an elite crafting option available to Grandmaster Crafters.
  Light: Beading, Patching, Embroidering
  Medium: Stamping, Alternate Material Layering, Studding
  Heavy: Gilding, Emblazoning, Etching

I LOVE THOSE IDEAS!

I hope they will come to be!

FalconDance.1637:

Which brings me to this point —- Anet, do you see how many times references have been made to the original GW? Granted, it is not a perfect game, but if something is ‘broken’ (several things in GW2), why reinvent an already existent fix? Please listen to us veteran players when we suggest some mechanic similar to the ancestral game.

Mechanics can be hard to connect, but I would say many things that were in GW1 are needed in GW2.
GvG, Guild Halls, Alliances, elite instances, enemies that fight with builds instead of sea of HP, statless items (or items with swapable stats), and many more.

Again this goes also to the fact that people who wanted to read stories were able to and GW1 had so much lore that you try to cut us off.

Please remember horizontal progression is also gathering lots of lore in game.
This bores some and for the others is the reason to play.
You should never expact people to read, but ability to read will be used by 30% of people for sure and they will be more bound to the game that way.

So add books, add rich dialogs or even journals for a character (similar to personal story?)
Maybe make a collection of books that you discovered in place of personal story (my journal will be one, first position) and allow people to read all books you fount in Tyria them in spare time?

There is plenty of room for lore in this game and it’s a horizontal progression also.

Panzerov.4017:

I want Guild Halls, like in Gw1. This would be a great way for horizontal progression and a great way to be able to interact with your guild.

I will back up the idea with another thought.
Make them more alive. Let NPCs wounder around.
Make more like a city, not few NPCs and thats all.

I would see guild halls more like home instance, and home instance more like HoM.

FalconDance.1637:

A REAL cartography achievement, not this go to X point then bounce to Y point, etc. GW1’s cartography demanded you visit maps and corners of maps that otherwise were ignored because there wasn’t really anything (quests) in them. A player had to become very familiar with the entire region, and it took a bit of time.

And it was an issue for many players so people created a mods for that.
No thank you.

I don’t want exploring like this.

McWolfy.5924:

what i miss is a little more shiny for the wvw players. ok, i understand. we all want to avoid pve farmers in wvw. but we need more the ascendeds as anybody else. military always need the best weapons. pls let us to buy ascended chest for badge+laurer. like this we need time and active playing

If they do that you will see a sea of PvE farmers.

Besides I farmed mats for ascended in WvW. I don’t know where do you play since my server (Underworld is one of the most empty servers since S1, ask people), but getting ascended mats in WvW is extremely easy.

Gralo.7230:

Part 1
The current state

If you take all the underwater areas in the game it at the very least makes up around 4 entire zones, or roughly 1/8 of the current playable map. So why is 1/8 of the world in such terrible shape as far as combat and content goes, and why has there never been a serious discussion or anything addressing underwater development from Anet (as far as I have searched)?

So to start I will list some of the current problems with underwater content that drives many players from it entirely.

1. Current trait builds have little to no added benefits for underwater combat.
2. There are no joined underwater/on land traits, so pretty much everyone suffers underwater.
3. Breathers cannot be crafted, the highest quality of breather is “rare”, and they only are obtainable as a rare drop Tequatl or on the TP for an exorbitant price.
4. Breathers only have 3 available skins (white, grey, and red)
5. There are no World Bosses for underwater content.
6. Dungeons with underwater parts are avoided or disliked due to the disadvantage of
   playing in them.
7. There are no Major Dynamic events that take place underwater, and those dynamic events that do are often flooded by mobs and undoable by single people (talking about the inquest event in bloodtide near Sorrowful Waypoint.
8. Ground targeted utilities have no use underwater as you can only target surfaces.
9. Thief, Necro, Guardian, and Elementalist have only 1 elite that works underwater.
   Warrior has 2, however one is a banner (see above for ground targeted skill problems)
10. No races have any underwater Elites.
11. Most Area of Effect skill ranges are impossible to determine while underwater, unless against/near a surface.
12. There is a lack of diversity with underwater enemies. (dragon corrupted -primodus, sharks, 1 whale, inquest, pirates, krait, hylek, baracudas, skelk, wurms, jellyfish, maybe 3 largos, and drakes)

We have traits that add dmg for land and water combat, but thats it.
I have to agree we need more water areas.
Maybe some archipelagos in center of the map near karka island.

Only few real islands with merchants and fishermans and a lot of vast underwater areas to explore. They can look so great and I love how underwater works in GW2.

xarallei.4279:

Twinny.9304:

7. Mini pets: I have a few mini’s but never use them as i see no point, perhaps if they have an ability like renew food buffs when they expire (providing u have some in ur inventory to renew with) or +2 to each stat or +5 to a specific stat certain mini’s connected to certain stats etc etc. this would not only make them more appealing to use but also more appealing to collect.

I greatly, greatly disagree with this. Minis are supposed to be vanity items only. They should not add stats or do anything to give an actual in-game advantage to players. Especially since so many minis are in the gem shop. And I’m saying this as someone who actually owns minis from that shop and would have that advantage over others. They are just cute pets to have following you around.

If they want to do something with the minis it should be something like polymock.

I agree very much.

xarallei.4279:

Septemptus.7164:

I would say rewamping zones and adding to them is important. I already wrote that I love the idea of regional achievements, but new zones should be really a priority. It’s just because many people like me feel like suffocating when we run the same zones over and over again and for half of the year I had to revisit almost all of them to do some LS that forced me to repeat the same things on various maps.

So I would say new zones, them please add some regional achievements so we have something fresh and some new things to do in spare time if we want. Not like “it’s the only thing you will get so zones can be reused”, I think we all are past that.

Yeah, I want new zones badly. Not just because it’s fun to explore new places, but because of the stories/lore that could be introduced from places like Far Shiverpeaks, Cantha and Elona. I’m telling you Anet, if you did a Cantha or Elona expansion (or massive patch if you insist on this no expansion thing…I think that’s a mistake though) people would come back for that. People want to know what is going on in those areas.

Lets face it.
We want stories to explore, with many pieces, many informations about the word and all that we knew from GW1, GW2 and more. Try to explore stories you established. We need new lore pieces as bad as maps.

Twinny.9304:

3. Currency Conversion: Since there are so many currencies in the game each specific to different sectors of the game, it would be wise have the ability to convert currencies. For example: I do not play fractals but find some of the Fractal rewards appealing, but have no other way to get these rewards. Or I need a new set of ascended trinkets but used the last of my laurels on ascended weapon/armor recipes. I may have masses of 1 particular dungeon token or WvW badges or Karma which could be converted to the currency i require at that moment in time. which makes things less time gated and forcing ppl to do something they don’t enjoy to get something they want/need.

I would love a way to swap these.
Maybe some dungeon tokens or karma, ascended materials like bloodstone into dragonite ore and imperial fragments or those 2 together.
There are lots of possibilities and of course you have to be balanced by the aquisition time, but it could work nice.

Twinny.9304:

4. HoM for GW2: A place to be proud of and continuously build to improve upon, where all ur achievements/titles/armor sets and mins can be displayed. See GW1 HoM, say no more

Just as I wrote about GWAMM, the master title, we really need things to measure some big scale progress.

We have HoM in GW2.
Maybe by any chance norns or humans could find it and restore it.
Maybe some stone dwarfs would be awakened by it’s magic and they would work as its guardians and restorers?
It can be connected to raise of destroyers…

There are so many possibilities.
I have to add that I loved HoM in GW1. It was just so great in many ways…
It saddens me when I go in there in GW2.

Twinny.9304:

5. Make use of dead maps: All these champ farms have created a large influx of players to certain maps i.e Queens dale and Frostgorge (I do it myself occasionally), but this has made other maps less attractive to go to. I love going to a map that’s full of life, players everywhere each doing their own thing, weather it be in groups/guilds or solo. A place that I have always been fond of is Timberline Falls (but it’s completely dead), this is just 1 example, there are many more. Perhaps Weapon Skins and titles specific to zones which require items from that specific zone to craft said skins, thus creating constant player usage of each zone/map.

Thats the old topic.
I would say – make maps unique with some LS, like Kessex now is only area where remains of toxic alliance are. That is great and I hope it will never change.
That’s all I would do to maps.

We need new maps and a way to explore them and see changes in them.
Very little WPs in there (2-3 max), maybe after months another 2 and thats it.
In that time the map needs to evolve. Maybe some pact camps will be created, maybe events will change around them. We need world that is alive.

Then after some time map will become kinda frozen when it will be established.
We need more maps that count to world map.

Twinny.9304:

6. Build Templates: This is a big one and needed so much, Perhaps keep the cost of resetting traits by purchasing crystals from the traits guy at the current cost, consume a crystal when loading a new build, by loading a new build the armor and trinkets will be automatically slotted as per build providing the armor and trinkets are in your inventory.

Simple yes.

Aeonblade.8709:

•Account bound all magical items you use on your character. Why can’t I use my Guardian’s old gear on my Warrior? It’s not like I can sell it on the TP. Or do anything at all useful with it.

If you want the looks you can transmute it to while items and transmute it again to the final item, but it sucks….
It should be account bound on use instead of soulbound on use.

The way it work now is very bad for anyone who wants to just try any other classes.

Donari.5237:

Cesmode, that’s what this polymock is that everyone speaks of. Apparently GW1 had it? So everyone keeps hoping their minis one day will battle in the polymock arenas.

YES, PLEASE.

Kulvar.1239:

+ New Races/Classes
Arena.net already have difficulties to give time to every race and manage each class. Asking for new ones when they can’t take care of the existing ones will be regrettable if implemented.
When Arena.net have the ability to develop lore and story for every races, new ones can be considered, but not currently.
Also, new classes mustn’t be implement for satisfaying the “new class” envy, but to add a completely non-existent and solid gameplay mechanisms.

I know that races are pain when it comes to armors, but I would really want to get more and more races into the game. (Psst, KODAN FOREVER!)

As for classes I think we have everything we need.
On the other hand going for specializations would be great.

I would see it like the school system. You specialize more and more into some ways you work, just like real live.
You are a guardian and that is abase class.
Then you can specialize to become “defender” and you loose the ability to fight 2 handed weapons but you get some neat bonuses when you use a shield and any other one handed weapons. It would work like very defensive guardian build with extra tiers.

On the other hand you could become a “holy knight” and loose shield but focus on two handed weapons or torch with one handed weapons, but you would not get any additional boosts to defensive, yet a lot to offensive.

I think both paths can have progression not bound to level.

You should be able to switch them like crafting: NPC will do it, you can pay (very little or none fee) and you will be swapped to another specialization to exactly the point when you stopped your previous progress in this path.

You can add a way to swap auras around guardian holy/dark. It can be purely cosmetic.

Elementalist idea
Specialization in here could go 2 ways (5 ways)
Specialization in any attunement. Like “Fire Master”. You would regain the ability to use 2 weapon sets but you can only use fire spells. Of course additional tiers to make fire better, stronger etc.
The same with mastery in earth, ice, thunder.

The last one would be an “Arcane Master”. He could use all schools like now, but his spells would be weaker (on the level of normal elementalists). He would have more utility than strength.

There can be any other ways to improve classes you have now, but I would not add purely another class. Maybe aside from 3rd heavy class, but subclasses/specializations would be way better.

Kulvar.1239:

+ Mounts
Asura’s waypoints is faster and enough. It will prevent overloading issues and NPC obstruction too. Also, it feel more appreciable to me to see my character go afoot in his journey, dodging and fighting ennemies instead of running like a steamroller across countries without looking at the landscape. We’re adventurers and the world is so rich and beautiful ! And it can be enrich

Yes, yes, YES!

I really love the idea.
*There is just one problem. *

Mount combat.
I would say that when you want to attack from the mount you would jump on the ground. It can’t work like town clothes to disappear when attacked.

When you fight and have mount it can be your pet, just like ranger pets.
(Just make additional buttons over the area when rangers have their pets, elementalists attunements etc.)

Then everyone can catch special pets all over the maps to ride them.
I already proposed to make catching them like this:
You talk to the friendly animal (you can use ranger pets), then it triggers little instance when you fight elite/weak champion and a pack supporting them. After the fight you get one animal, then you take some time to tame it. Maybe it goes near you but you cant ride it yet, after taming the pet is yours.

I would make them as thought as ranger pets thou and on kill they would disappear until you go out of combat.

Mount’s can be used only on maps, not in dungeons.
I would allow them in WvW thou. It would be nice addition.

Thats how I see mount system.
It would make really fine horizontal progression.
(not that with mount you would get like 150-160% total speed boost, but it would not stack with any other boosts)

Mounts really have a nice place in short trips and side quests.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Imho factions reputation could be interesting, when done in a non-grindy way. Instead of doing the same events for the faction over and over again, maybe it could work when finding a certain number of unique events for that faction hidden all around the world and do each of those once.

If you do like 20-30 different events in the world or maybe small chains of events (2-3) you can use them to get fraction exp aside from normal ways like doing hearts, maps, whatever you place in here.
Those events would rotate once a week and can be done only once a week, but they would only give some extra fraction xp, aside from normal stuff.

Bear in mind that supporting fractions should be gained retroactively for every heart (etc) done already per any character so people who went for map completions wont get in bad positions.

Please make fractions reputation and make it a way to obtain cultural armors.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

-) sturdiness (no durability loss)

This would fit nicely on legendary armor and ascended armor unlock feature.

Ken DeBoer.9268:

2 – I would love to see Meta award skins be listed in the achievement pane for you to use more than once (I won’t be greedy and ask for all skins)

+1, We really need that.

cesmode.4257:

An idea Id like to toss out to see if it sticks:

From the WoW days, they introduced a system called reforging.

Example:
Armor has
45 power
47 precision
+3% crit damage

I am able to visit a reforge NPC to change up the stats a bit. Via a pre-determined scale, I am able to take, for example, 9 power out of the ‘45 power’ portion and I can place it into Precision(to give me 56 Precision) or into a new category, for example Condition damage to give me 9 condition damage.

Just an idea. I think Blizzard is removing this mechanic from the game, or already has, since they have a better system in place. But this wasn’t a terribly bad system either. It gave you a bit more flexibility on gear.

Interesting idea, but it could really be bad in the way it works.

I would prefer recrafting armors/weapons to make them from exotics to ascended. It should need some effort but should be usable as an alt gearing support system.

Items should remain with their looks and stats template but became ascended.

Patrikan Habaton.2548:

So I throw in some Ideas as well:
- Gambits for dungeons
- instabilities for dungeons
- Special achievments /titles for dungeon done with certain instabilities / gambits ( Don’t make em random so People reroll or have luck let People choose and make achievvments like dungeon completed with x instabilities ect / certain gambits. Have Special titles or even Skins for People that are unique to those achievments and NOT buayable..

I love it.
Well as long as they will become unlockable instead of random drops – similar to SAB tribulation mode.