Guild Wars 2

Josh Foreman.8250:

Well, I’m speaking colloquially here, because I’m not an expert nor a designer of virtual economies. I just find the subject interesting. In the real world you can buy all sorts of ‘prestigious’ things. Cars, homes, thousand dollar purses, etc. There are other things like prizes and metals you can win for feats of heroism or intellect or skill that you can not buy. It sounds like you want THOSE kinds of prestigious things. That’s cool.

I think one of the big worries here is that the skins CAN be bought, but only from people randomly granted the unbound versions.

There are two versions of every skin: a masterwork version that is account bound and buyable from Moto for baubles, and a rare version that drops from the chest randomly and can be sold on the trading post. If these items will never be obtainable in the game ever again, it means that certain people chosen completely at random are given the ability to sell an item that virtually guarantees a continuous rise in price in the future.

Think about all the complains regarding speculators and market manipulation, warranted or not. Place that next to the grumblings over how much RNG plays into rewards during holidays for getting special looking gear. Combine them, and you have the current rare super skin drops: an item that is randomly granting people a speculator’s dream investment. Not to mention the simple fact that it spoils the cool factor; the concept of “I was there” is completely eliminated if someone can just throw down gold to obtain the same memento a year later.

I am perfectly fine with these skins being bought and sold. I can certainly accept items only appearing as a one time deal. I sincerely disagree, however, with loot that is only available for a limited time EXCEPT for additional skins which are granted randomly for players to buy and sell as they wish at extraordinary price in the competition-free future. You are basically handing a monopoly over to a bunch of random individuals for no reason whatsoever.

You have to decide: is this a one time prize, or a hot new commodity? The former requires a one-time item that cannot be traded, and the latter demands a reward that will be supplied in the future for equal effort. It will not work both ways, for the pursuit of one will destroy the other.

“We would like to get more build diversity for the Mesmer out there.”

You know, it would be a lot easier to balance build diversity if we could customize our shatter bar.

It’s a lot more difficult to try to balance a single bar working well for every single situation and playstyle than it is to provide a choice of different skills for different situations. Trying to make Mind Wrack viable as both an AoE attack and a single target burst can easily tip towards either side of unbalanced, and making Mind Wrack/Cry of Frustration function for condition builds and power builds is simply inefficient design.

It’s also potentially harmful for us to have our eggs in a single basket. Part of the big concern brought up by the video is the way shatters can do a little bit too much, removing boons/inflicting vulnerability/granting healing/inflicting confusion/AoE damage, all in one ability depending on traits. But we need that level of customization to those abilities, since every Mesmer in every situation is expected to make use of them. Approaching mesmer balance with the simple method of Buff Shatter/Nerf Shatter is extremely dangerous for our profession, since it can lead to a nerfbat taking us out of the competition with one swing.

There are a lot of builds on the site that are extremely well crafted that have found nifty niches within the Mesmer’s utilities and trait system, and it would be excellent if the class mechanic showed them some well deserved tender love and care. If we had ways to customize the class mechanic directly rather than depending entirely on the trait system, it could end being far easier to balance AND provide more love for the different Mesmer playstyles in one fell swoop.

ThiBash.5634:

Another, cheaper way of making the personal story more personal is making NPCs from previous chapters appear in later chapters.

This concept could be expanded upon by adding let’s say, the starter NPCs as fighting buddies (with maybe 1 or 2 lines of text as dialogue, no voice acting). The difference would be which NPC it actually was. For a noble humand, it’d be lord Faren, whereas a Charr could get an NPC from their starter warband, etc.

This is an excellent idea. Tie-ins would help ground the player and make them feel like part of a living world. Watching these NPCs change and grow over time would help represent how Tyria changes overall, while also adding the personal touch.

Bringing back the racial sympathy NPCs would be particularly nifty.

Shriketalon.1937:

Shriketalon.1937:

Enhanced Illusion of Motion:

I agree with every word you said except this point. A fight should be challenging because of the mechanics, not because the camera is uncooperative or the background is disorienting. Like the “shaky cam” found in a lot of action movies these days, it ends up feeling like a cheap gimmick used to disguise other flaws.

This is a legitimate point, and I fully understand the potential problem of mixing cinematic effects with actual challenge. It would be quite terrible to include moments of serious gameplay tension with gimmicky tricks, since that would make them far more frustrating than interesting.

However, I do think there is a place for cinematic effects in the more dramatic sections of a mission. Proper pacing of a conflict requires a bit of ebb and flow, times of extreme adrenaline mixed with moments of calm and respite. Cinematic tricks would help make the latter moments be more thematic and cool, for lack of a better word, allowing players to ease off of the controls and be swept up by the ride for a moment before plunging back into the thick of it.

It’s one thing to have a battle where Kralkatorrik attacks your airship fleet. It’s another to have him whip up a branded sandstorm, smash into your allied ships causing them to careen down in flames, shrug off a megalaser blast like it was nothing, ram headlong into your capital ship, smash it to pieces and leave you hanging onto the tip of his tail by a few strips of stray rope. It’s all well and fun to say you’re standing on a dragon’s back, but it’s far more fun if the beastie is animated with a Phantom Train* technique to ensure that he can juke, turn, and roll midflight, forcing you to cling for dear life as the body upon which you stand whirls hundreds of feet above the ground. And it’s all well and good to say you’re slaying an Elder Dragon, but it’s another to be trying to reactivate Snaff’s device to lobotomize the great beast while holding off his minions atop his own shoulder blades, all while it rams into any reasonably sized mountain, canyon, cliff, or city it can find to scrape you off.

The mixture of randomized content and rewarded extra exploration would be excellent. Dungeon delving that felt like an actual venture into the unknown would be a great experience.

Reading over your list of ideas (which are excellent, by the by), I can’t help but wonder if dungeons would shine with a Free Roaming mode, a method where you could go anywhere in the dungeon and do anything. Randomized and difficult content would appear throughout the dungeon, and players could keep exploring until they felt satisfied with what they had uncovered or felt like they could no longer progress through the difficulty.

Using these simple techniques will allow the production of far more cinematic combat. For example…

Want the dragon to slam into the side of the ship, latch on with its claws, and attempt to tear it apart? Use an induced physics effect when the dragon hits, tilt the horizon and camera just slightly to make the ship appear off kilter, and split the body of the boss into multiple parts. Players must attack the claws of the beast that are gripping the hull while avoiding or slaying the serpentine heads of the dragon that strike from all sides.

Want the beastie to look fierce and terrible? Let is sweep the decks of the ship with necrotic breath, destroying cannons and killing NPCs. Amidst the shattered glass and wrecked debris, let the bodies of Pact members rise to their new master’s call and attack with undead fury. For added drama, let Zhaitan blow up smaller airships in between passes, tearing the Pact to pieces.

Want the players to feel like they actually contribute to the fight, rather than just watch Pact weapons tear the Elder Dragon apart? Have Zhaitan destroy the main cannon when he is injured and rip the engine of the Glory of Tyria to pieces, forcing Destiny’s Edge to ram the elder dragon. Use induced physics effects to make the ship shudder and spin, then jolt forward towards the dragon and slam straight into its chest. “Ride” the beast down through the clouds by making the environment move around the ship until the entire continent of Orr splays out below them. Bust out your entire cinematic budget, letting the music roll in just as the clouds part and the sun rises in the distance. End the conflict of airship and dragon as the two fall like a metor into the center of Orr, then fade to black.

Fade in a moment later to find the PCs in the wreckage of the airship, the elder dragon pinned beneath it but very much alive. Let the final conflict be a simple duel to the death between an elder dragon and five heroes, both injured, tired, and very, very angry. The grand finale of the Personal Story should be an intimate and brutal affair, tearing victory literally from the jaws of death incarnate.

Heroes are defined by their villains. To build a better personal story, we need a better baby-feline dragon.

Now then, there’s one more thing we have to talk about…

A hero is defined by their villains, and that is where we have a bit of a problem. Observe, if you will, the Elder Dragon Zhaitan…

This will not do.

We all know that this is the climactic battle of Tyria against a great Elder Dragon in name only, but it’s another thing to discuss what to do about it. Thus, I need to talk a bit technical. I’d like to take a bit of time on the soapbox to discuss ways to enhance the more dramatic moments of the Personal Story, specifically regarding motion, bosses, and moments of cinematic flair. It will be a tad disorganized, but please bear with me.

To make a better boss battle, we need three different elements. First, we need a better way to present a massive foe in a way that human sized players can fight. Secondly, we need an enhanced illusion of motion to allow a more physical battlefield between airship and beast. Third, we require an alternate approach to player power as it waxes and wanes, specifically in regards to down states and the battle’s end.

Fortunately, GW2 already has the coding for all of these. It just needs to be used to full effect, which is what I’d like to discuss today.

Rethink the Body of the Boss: one of the conundrums of designing a boss battle is the way the foe must have all its power crammed into one package, a single foe meant to take on many.  But like all good theater, one doesn’t actually need a single player, only the illusion thereof.  A more fantastic foe can often be crafted by blending multiple entities or mechanics into a thing that seems like a single foe rather than the sum of its parts. For example…

Hydra Style: create a boss composed of multiple “heads”, each of which is a separate enemy.
Giant Enemy Crab Style: create a boss with weak points hidden on its body, must open it up or flank.
Chimera Style: create a boss with multiple parts but a single healthbar. Each part fires independently to attack multiple targets.
Colossus Style: interlace physics objects into the boss’s body, allowing players to climb up body parts.

Add Drama to the Mix. Certain simple effects can vastly improve the tension and excitement of a battle by making it look far more epic than it might otherwise seem. Cinema has known about these for decades, and they should transition easily into actual gameplay.

Enhanced Illusion of Motion: the ability to animate the background and make it spin is a nice way to make it seem like a still object is turning. For better results, allow the background to be spun horizontally and vertically (thus allowing dipping), and use sudden movements to correspond to impacts (something hits the airship, and it shudders under impact).
Induce Physics: forced movement effects can make the illusion of motion seem real. Throw players and NPCs around in response to the battle going on around them and the shaky camera effects.
Shoot to Thrill: as demonstrated by the diorama, blowing things up is rather fun. By making many portions of the environment destructable by enemy fire, it is easy to show the opponent tearing a ship to pieces and seeming far more dangerous.

Finally, there’s one other undervalued mechanic in the game that can be used to great effect: the Downed State. Consider it’s most basic description, a mechanic that transforms the player’s skillbar completely in response to a certain state while changing the way they control their character. At the moment, it’s just used to avoid death, but there are other amazing things it could do, including…

Grappling Attacks: the boss grabs you and hoists you into the air. The camera zooms in dramatically, and you have four skills to use to attempt to struggle, slice, dice, and squirm your way out of a jam, entirely based on your chosen profession.
QTEs Done Right: quick time events are usually loathed because they are purely reactive, but the multiple buttons would allow a psuedo-downed state to empower the player to leap obstacles, climb cliffsides, or perform other cinematic movements.
Hyper Mode: when the going gets tough, the tough call in force multipliers. Certain cinematic moments could allow players to become larger than life, gaining a bar of elite abilities to blast away the nonplayer competition.
Finishing Moves: At the climactic moment, players could latch onto a boss and proceed to murder it in a most heroic manner using a profession-specific finisher set.

Good evening, everyone. Today I’d like to ponder the future of the personal storyline (in the proper subforum), particularly where it can be improved in relation to the past. Rather than focus on certain elements commonly repeated, vegetable or otherwise, it might be wise to consider the overall tale as it relates to our hero. First and foremost…

Bring It Home

One of the most significant narrative problems with the personal story is its disjointed nature. By breaking off each storyline every ten levels, the game couldn’t bring back many of the NPCs you met early on and use them to interact further with your character. There were a few exceptions, but they had usually forgotten about you by the time you got to that point in the story and did not recall anything prior. Not feeling the love. Likewise, the story had a particular problem in regards to focus, becoming less about you the longer you progressed.

To fix this, begin the next phase of the story right back where we started with the Journey Home. All this dragon fighting has doubtlessly changed the hero, and the best way to explore that growth is by taking them back to the beginning. Return the player character to their race and let them deal with the changing face of Tyria in the wake of an Elder Dragon’s defeat. Nobles and commoners of Kryta will return to the city, soldiers of the Black Citadel report back to their legion, academics of Rata Sum swagger in to their colleges in search of recognition.

In doing so, you can return the personal element of the personal story, writing dialogue from an individual’s perspective rather than the same lines for everyone. Likewise, it will allow the return of NPCs from the first few level brackets for further development. Finally, it will help further demonstrate the changing nature of both Tyria and the hero.

Similar steps can be taken in each future expansion, returning a player to their place of origin for a time. The initial choice may no longer be important (once you decide to be a Seraph/Shining Blade/Vanguard, it doesn’t matter if you were a street rat or noble), but the return to your people will help keep everything grounded and personal.

The one exception should be a system of callbacks. An ideal storyline system should have moments designed to act as references to what has come before. There may be a moment when the Racial Sympathy spells out who comes to your aid in a dire moment, and the consequences of orders given during the assault on Arah may have repurcussions. By planning these moments into the general storyline, the hero’s journey will seem far more cohesive.

Find Our Voice

Writing and voicing enormous amounts of dialogue is tough. We get that. Yet at the same time, it is simply unreasonable for a barbaric norn from the savage north to eventually end up talking like a chivalrous-yet-naive Sylvari or a sweet talking Asuran lady’s man. Likewise, it’s even worse when an engineer is told that a machine is too complicated for them to understand or a Sylvari who rescued someone thirty levels ago is told how they were valiantly saved by someone else.

We need a reasonable amount of selective voice acting.

During dialogue writing, I humbly suggest that Anet get used to adding bonus tags to just about everything. One special line just for necromancers conversing about death magic? Done. Special line if you’re norn and chatting about spirits of the wild? Jot it down. Need a reaction from the player, and not sure if it should be Charming, Ferocious, or Dignified? Do all three.

It will take more work, more effort, and more money. But at the end of the day, the Personal Story won’t be personal without it.

Awaiting Orders

The 10-level-gap method may have worked for the path to level 80, but it’s time for sidequests and diversions to have their day. We’ve joined orders, forged friends, established bonds of kinship, and now it’s time to capitalize on those endeavors. I suggest that future storytelling structure itself a little bit more like Eye of the North, allowing multiple tales to run in succession. That way, Anet can focus on writing a unique long form storyline for each Order, running alongside the home storyline focusing on friendly factions.

And while we’re at it, the tale can use the mentors to better effect. Do you wish to avenge Forgal and help his kinfolk seek vengeance? Do you want to learn how Tybalt escaped his untimely demise and what kept him from returning to the Order? Do you want to assist Sieran in coping with the fact that she is now a ghost haunting the living, a state which she is enjoying with far too much cheerfulness? The continuation of the Order storyline allows far more development between the player character and the friends they have forged.

While crafting is certainly viable as a mechanic to boost leveling, there have been some serious complains about its viability once you have hit level 400 for fun and profit.  For the latter, I cannot help you, as the free market ensures that anyone’s easy way to moneymaking will be used by most until it no longer functions.  The former, however, is what I would like to explore today, a way to make crafting in the endgame both interesting and viable for producing nifty stuff, namely…

Bejeweled Inscriptions

Crafting currently faces a bit of a problem dealing with some of the more exotic stat spreads. It’s tempting to give them a way to respec any gear in the game, but that might cut into gem sales just a tiny bit. But what if the two were combined together in a simple recipe?

Primary stat rare crafting component + secondary gem + secondary gem + fine transmutation stone

Would combine together into a Bejeweled Inscription with that stat spread. When used like a transmutation stone, it would take an item and give it the relevant primary and secondary statistics, replacing whatever spread it used previously. These recipes would provide a solid revenue stream for Anet and crafters alike, since it is far more reasonable to hunt down a desired skin and buy a Bejeweled stat spread than purchase a second armor set for the stats to transmute.

Single Piece Armor Sets

Similar to the gloves and helms from GW1, the armor crafters could feature a number of legendary equipment pieces independent of any set, meant to be comined with others. Examples might include…

Heavy: exotic pauldrons, helms, and gloves.
Medium: non-duster tunics of all shapes and sizes, gloves and masks.
Light: the incredible invention of pants, as well as masks, gloves, and scarves/cloaks.
Back items: capes, cloaks, scarves, packs

Some might include special race items (back items designed as charr tail decorations, for example). In addition, all character creation armor should be included in these sets.

Imbue Legendary Auras

While some legendary items were certainly given more love than others, the system itself is far more interesting from a technical perspective. The ability to adjust footfalls, motion trails, and armor coloration presents an interesting opportunity for making everything legendary.

When Ascended quality items are rolled out for everyone, perhaps crafters should gain the ability to turn any weapon in the game into a legendary piece of equipment. Assign each piece a possible aura or two based on the already existing animations and their relevant skin. For instance, a Destroyer weapon might gain a flame aura for all its motion blurs, while a Steamblade would gain a smoke aura. Combine this system with a way to upgrade items in quality (paying a relative price, of course), and it will easy allow the Ascension of the crafting system to a new tier of gameplay.

The Craftsman’s Quest

Allow master craftsman to embark on a journey of masterful skill and wondrous discovery.  Players receive these quests from the various Crafting NPCs, listening to their tales of mystical items and choosing to pursue their legend. Each quest involves far more than simple gathering and clicking.  The Black Citadel wasn’t built in a day, and neither will the most magnificent items forged by mortal hands.  Each quest semi-randomly selects from several different objectives, including…

-Forging a significant number of goods, or creating Gifts.
-Visiting places of power and using them to make recipes.
-Tempering your creations by slaying certain foes or completing certain tasks.
-Completing certain meta events.

For example, a quest for a flame related object such as the Spark or Volcanus could have you build a cage to contain the essence of fire, go kill the Flame Elemental in Metrica Province, then refine that flame over time. Burn down one of every harvestable tree in Tyria, sacrifice a hundred steam creatures, and go kick Rhendak the Crazed in the pants a bit, and you’d have a blazing heart of pure fire. Forge a hammer from bloodstone imbued with magical energy, create a jeweled anvil from the heartstone of a mighty beast, and temper everything with the oil extracted from the kidneys of a dragon champion. Take the whole mess to the place of power within Mount Maelstrom, and you forge the item of power within the beating heart of the volcano. Volcanus is yours.

Crafting quests might be limited to keep people from farming them, likely through once-per-week or X-times-per-month limitations to keep things balanced.

By using locations, events, and enemies already in the game crafting quests minimize the work necessary for Anet while providing plenty of exploration, adventure, and heroics in search of shiny objects.  It also provides a better sense of lore and significance for what we are doing, making the forging of a great object more than simply the collection of wealth.

And in turn, dungeon durability can make Fractals more fun.

The fractal system offered some bright ideas and some painful drawbacks, requiring further polish to be rid of the latter.  The current difficulty method is severally lacking in both community cohesion and practical application.  Cranking the numbers up on all the monsters feels far more like fake difficulty than actual danger and forces everyone to run bunker builds.  Meanwhile, the linear upgrade has already split the community, and the upcoming change will simply ensure that people have far less reason to trust one another.  Fortunately, a few adjustments could overall the system dramatically.

1) Consider a Difficulty System similar to Bastion.

For those who have not played it, Bastion is an excellent isometric hack and slash RPG with a nifty method of providing replayability.  Bastion allows you to unlock shrines of the gods which can be activated as you choose, each making the world a little more difficult via specific rules.  One will make enemies harder to kill, another will make foes move faster, a third will make each enemy explode on death, etc.  The more shrines that are activated, the more reward the player gets for progression.

Perhaps a similar approach to Fractals would improve gameplay.

Eidolons could be arranged within the Fractal hub, each corresponding to a particular nefarious effect, each with individual levels.  One might add healing and condition removal, another upgrading attack power, a third producing nasty environmental traps. Players can choose whatever combination of Eidolons they like for each run, activating the various levels of power of each condition to face a formidable fight on their terms.  Unfortunately for them, the random nature of fractals will fight back, preventing them from picking a perfect run.  Monsters get buffed accordingly, with slightly enhanced stats for each tier of Eidolon activated and all relevant buffs and skills applied.  In turn, a more difficult run is more rewarding, allowing the activation of higher tiers of Eidolons and providing more shiny, shiny loot.  Speaking of…

2) Ponder the potential of Spiral Knights heat loot.

The Random Number Generator is a harsh and uncaring mistress.  Her callous disregard for players leaves many unfulfilled, since they require the approval of a random loot generator to find the ascended items they need in the stats they require.  The system could be far better.

For instance, consider the way Spiral Knights handles heat.

In this adventure game, player weaponry increases in power based upon the heat generated through each adventure.  Running dungeons allows the heat to build until the weapon ranks up to the next tier.

In a similar system, players might achieve ascension not through RNG, but by wool gathering the essence of the Mists in their travels.  Add another “gathering” slot on inventory screen which allows the placement of ascending items.  Points are added onto these items in an inverse of the way points are reduced from gathering tools, with the exact number based on the difficulty of each Fractal run.  When the item is filled to the brim with misty essence, it can be mixed with another item (just jewelry, for the moment) to upgrade it to the ascended tier.  Likewise, certain infusion items can be equipped into the same slot to boost them up to the level of infusing a slot.

3) Embrace Fragmentation

To continue adding spice to the fractal concept, there are several ways to ensure that each run becomes a unique experience and nothing is ever old hat.

-Amp up the random deviations.  Several fractals vary between two modes, such as the underwater darkness/dolphin pairing.  These should be increased and expanded, so that each individual fractal has several possible scenarios.

-Randomize all bosses.  Take the swamp fractals’s variable finale and expand it to include all fractals, so that each one has different possible endings.  Some may include a change in boss type (face a giant enemy crab or shark with a laser beam strapped to its head instead of a giant jellyfish in the water fractal), while others may have different inner mechanics (the dredge power suit might have several ways to make it vulnerable, from pouring lava to planting mines, playing sonic chimes, or using another power suit in a rock ’em sock ’em bout).

-Reward flexibility.  Replace the concept of a daily run with weekly bonuses for each Eidolon.  Even if players find a specific sequence for optimal runs, they will still be rewarded for trying out all potential difficulty enhancements.

Taken together, this should help Fractals become a kaleidoscopic experience full of endless possibility.  Combine it with a little bit of love every season to intermix new Fractal zones, and the dungeon will remain interesting throughout the lifespan of the game.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I come to you today with some thoughts on Dungeon Improvement. When Anet rolled out the Fractal design, they said they were experimenting with tweaked dungeon design. Some of it was a big hit, some of it was a bit of a miss, so I’d like to discuss some potential improvements both sides of the coin could make by learning from each other, as well as other sources. We being with all things dungeon delving, and the simple axiom…

Everything one needs to know about improving dungeons can be learned from Legends of the Hidden Temple.

1) Entangled Paths.  Within each explorative run, present the players with a series of randomly generated encounters.  At three distinct stages, they will be given a choice between two activities.  These can range from mini bosses to horde rushes, tricky trap segments to jumping puzzles.  The initial choice allows them to approach the dungeon as they desire, encountering new things or avoiding hated situations as they choose.  It will also keep each explorative run unique and interesting, allowing players to choose more difficult and more rewarding segments or walk the path of least resistance as desired.

2) Obtain the Pendants of Life.  Corpse running is bad for the game, obviously, but a total loss for a split second error may not be fair either.  The simple compromise is a system of “lives”.  Each dungeon run begins with a single Pendant (or appropriately named token) which allows the party to resurrect at a waypoint if they are all slain, with no ability to return to a waypoint while the rest of the party is alive.  Each party revival consumes the token, but players can earn more in certain parts of the explorable by completing bonus objectives, taking more difficult paths, or completing certain checkpoints.

3) Cash Value for Prizes.  Everyone loves loot, but sometimes people want different shiny objects.  To make dungeons highly appealing, provide a better selection of potential rewards for dungeon tokens.  Allow them to be converted into lodestones and shards, raw ectoplasm, as well as one or two appropriate rare crafting materials per dungeon.  If dungeon running is infinitely more fun than farming, allow it to achieve similar goals for those interested in crafting rare items or legendary weapons.

4) Keep Track of Leaders.  Introduce a Challenge Mode to the dungeons which rotates a series of bonus objectives on specific, unrandomized paths.  Each week, different paths on each dungeon are given different bonus conditions, such as speed clearing, highest damage spike, least damage taken, etc.  Some of these bonuses would be specific to that explorable, while some would be global.  Leader boards track the best participants of each challenge throughout the week, as well as the three top groups of all time for that specific event.  Shiny rewards and glowing recognition await the best dungeon delvers out there.

By increasing the amount of variation in both challenges and rewards, each dungeon can become a font of endless possibilities.  Explorable runs become more interesting for the casual player and dedicated runner alike, and challenge modes provide a way to push your PvE skills to the competitive limit.  Fractal formulations help keep Dungeons dynamic.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

The Durmand Priory likes to raid tombs

ahem

The Durmand Priory enjoys engaging in archaeological expeditions to further the understanding of the past, thank you very much. :P

Perhaps you should look at it from another perspective.

This year, we have an Asuran Toymaker, and a focus on presents and commercialism. Since he’s an Asura, things will go haywire (is that racist? Because it’s statistically pretty valid), and it might threaten to Ruin Wintersday!

Cue next holiday. The humans want their festival back, and they know that revenge is a dish best served cold. The snowball-toting monks return with an icy vengeance, exacting their merry reprisal through a combination of guilt-tripping carols, sappy stocking stuffers, and visions of spirits of Wintersday past, present, and future telling Tyrias to change their ways. Wintersday is saved!

Or is it? Next year, the Norn decide it is their turn! The jolliest giant rallies his trained griffins to pull his massive warsleigh full of gifts. And what better gift than monster eggs to grow up and make the children strong fighters? Or perhaps a few Charr have decided that this time of the year is really about the Festival of Smites, a time when an Iron Legion squad thought they only had enough fuel to continue a siege for a single day, but it lasted ten? Or perhaps Sylvari begin growing mistletoe in very….unfortunate places.

Relax. It’s Wintersday. Don’t worry about it too much, let it happen, then judge whether or not you liked it. If it is good, it’s all fine. If it can be improved, holidays come once per year.

-Thunderhead Keep, holding the line against armies of Stone Summit and White Mantle via siege weapons.

-Augury Rock, fighting a doppelganger party.

-Hell’s Precipice, taking the forms of Mhenlo (staff/scepter guardian), Cynn, Aidan, Eve, and Devona.

-Unwaking Waters, with potential forms of all five of the main hero crew, plus Togo (reskinned turret engie), Danika, Argo, Talon Silverwing, and Nika. Anyone not chosen is an NPC helper.

-The last segments of The Deep and Urgoz’s Warren.

-Tihark Orchard, an entire fractal based around party games, dancing, and general upper class hobnobbing. No combat required.

-Ruins of Morah linked to Abaddon’s Gate, consecutive boss fights.

-Assault on the Stronghold, with actual siege mechanics.

-The massive naval battle of Lady Glaive and the sunspears.

-The last stand of the spirits at Gunnar’s Hold, holding off Jormag.

-Scorchrazor’s battle against the Flame Legion and the victory of the Charr rebellion.

-The ancient battle against the dragons, with five heroes: one Jotun, one Seer, one Mursaat, one Dwarf, and one Forgotten.

-An “alternative” history segment, where the fate of Tyria lies in the hands of the five new “great” races: Skritt, Quaggan, Grawl, Ogre, and Hylek. Very tongue-in-cheek.

-The original Guild Wars and the Battle of Kyhlo.

-A “Food Chain” puzzle based map. Everyone starts out as a weak creature, and you earn new creature forms by eating other beings in the area. Progression requires a balance of power and utility, using different animal forms to your advantage.

-A vehicle battle, sailing ships or flying ornithopters via skill transformation and exotic movement.

-Arcade segments. Oakhearts versus Risen tower defense, Turtle Command blasting juggernauts with Luxon jade cannons, Junundu Smash providing cooperative pac-man action, etc.

-Voltron-style inverse boss battle. The players control one segment of a world boss (legs, arms, head) and must hold off an irritating horde of player races rushing in to farm you for loot.

-Karkacalypse. An endless swarm of karka hatchlings chase you through an obstacle course.

Crazy ideas, you say?

1) Siege weapons are all mobile. Some require packing up (the trebuchet is disassembled and converted into a cart via a ridiculously long channeled skill) and some move agonizingly slowly, but they can all move. However, siege weapons are now built in specific locations: workshops found in keeps and the exterior world. You must escort your siege to the battle site, giving the enemy time to counter, but the flipside is you can salvage siege after combat.

2) Supply caravans drop supply when slain. Raiders can grab the supply to steal it from the enemy, while defenders can repel a caravan raid and salvage the remainders even if the doylak bites the dust. Hopefully, 1 combined with 2 will ensure that running around raiding rather than zerging is extremely rewarding.

3) WvWvW gets its own economy. Fighting rewards a specific currency instead of gold, and badges of honor are awarded on the fifteen minute score interval for player kills and attacking/defending. There are no repair costs in WvW, but waypoints cost the specific currency (thus dying penalizes you). Equipment is available for this currency, but the gear cannot be sold or salvaged. Thus, WvW has zero impact on the overall economy, unless Anet decides to specifically add that in.

4) Every race gets a specific siege device. Asura have their golem suits. From the sylvari, Vine Seeds can be used to create temporary barriers. From the charr, Siege Devourers can be ridden, using their twin tails to lob explosives and shrapnel. From the humans, a divine artifact allows players to construct a temporary respawn point. And from the norn, a Hunting Horn can be used to gather the wildlife into a massive mob train, good for crashing into an enemy zerg headfirst.

5) The WvW umbrella is split into several game modes.

Borderlands are a 24/7 affair, but are restructured to provide more variety. The different servers are structured in a ring fashion. So Maguuma might be defending against Sea of Sorrows and Anvil Rock, but Sea of Sorrows will be defending against Maguuma and Darkhaven, while Anvil Rock will be defending against Maguuma and Yak’s Bend. That way, no server can ruin the gameplay for two others by becoming demoralized and folding.

Borderlands contribute a bit to scoring, but it is more important for the weekend event: Eternal Battlegrounds. Battlegrounds requires a payment of WvW-specific currency to attend (including buying higher priority), and gets its starting position based on two factors. The longer you held your own Battlegrounds, the more fortified your starting stuff is in EB. The more you successfully raided the battlegrounds of others, the more supply you get in the beginning to construct siege equipment. Eternal Battlegrounds opens Friday afternoon and ends Sunday at midnight. During this time, the Borderlands transform into a more hectic mode, releasing world bosses upon the zones and turning the battle into a more casual frag fest before the reset.

A third gameplay mode is added for those who just want to jump into sieges: Guerrillas in the Mist. This randomly sends the player to the Green, Blue, or Red sides of an eternal struggle, allowing anyone to jump into massive battle. Essentially, hotseat WvW for the disorganized gamer.

And finally, for the hyper organized gamers, Guild versus Guild WvWvW structure. Guilds may issue challenges to one another, and face off in 25-100 versus 25-100 sieges, with a choice between Attack/Defend (one side must hold a keep, the other claims it), Guild Lord (two keeps enter, one keep remains stationary but in a triumphant fashion), and Field of Ruin (each army has five minutes to prep siege equipment for a massive open field battle, then mauls one another in a No Respawn deathmatch).

“I have to say that looking back on it now, it was probably the singularly best, most creative and most well-concieved story in any RPG I have played.”

……..Did we play the same game?

The Prophecies story was absurd. Hilarious, fun, amusing, and rather enjoyable, but absurd. To pull out some examples…

-You say GW2 feels disjointed. Prophecies had you fight the charr, then abandon the fight to run away. While running, you fought the stone summit, and then dropped that when you got to Kryta. There, you fought the undead, until you realized the Mantle were bad dudes and chucked undead hunting in favor of fighting mantle. And when that went poorly, you ran over to the desert to ascend for absolutely no reason conveyed in the actual storyline, and then returned to fight more mantle by slaying your way through the summit. At the end of the game, only one of the four antagonists presented in the campaign is actually defeated, and the others are just left out completely (leaving the Sorrow’s Furnace update, EotN, and GW:Beyond to pick up the slack later on).

This was the campaign that had you slogging through undead creatures from Orr, and then introduced you to a wizard from Orr who had the power to control the undead. And you are supposed to be shocked when he turns out to be a bad guy. Likewise, this was the campaign that gave characters like Marcus, who betrays you to the Mantle, exactly one line in the entire plot, yet still expects you to hunt him down with a personal vengeance. And let’s not forget the epic drama, including “As a boy I spent much time in these lands. Look at them now, just look at them!”

Prophecies had some great ideas, but if you’re going to fault GW2 for presentation, you can’t look at GW1 with nostalgia goggles. Both have some epic themes and grand arcs, but both suffer from some awkward presentation and a lack of background lore.

Step 1) Give WvWvW its own currency, account-specific like karma.

Step 2) Eliminate repair costs, but make traveling to WvWvW waypoints cost currency (namely on death).

Step 3) Allow players to buy T1-6 loot bags and equipment via this currency.

Step 4) Award this currency on the fifteen minute intervals that points are calculated based on normal play. Also, make WvWvW events provide this currency instead of gold.

Done and done.

1) Have another one of your characters join the Priory.
2) Buy that item via that character. It will be bound to them.
3) Use a transmutation stone to transfer the skin to a neutral item. That item won’t be bound.
4) Put that item in the bank, withdraw on the first character, wear item.
5) Impress everyone with your suave apparel.

crawlkill.6174:

so not. so not. every response with any content so far has been “but ArenaNet said it was supposed to be this way.” that’s an explanation, not an excuse.

Then try thinking like a plant for a moment.

A tree grows. A parasite feeds. All things have a right to grow, to flourish, to choose their part of life and extend themselves outward. Corruption is something else. It seeks to usurp the growth of others and impose its will upon them, either converting or destroying them for its own ends.

You have the right to fight a disease with your immune system. A tree has a right to create natural defenses to ward off maggots and grubs. A vine has a right to secrete poison to avoid being eaten. In each of these situations, an outside entity seeks to “grow”, but only by destroying what has already flourished. Defending one’s own being from these sources is not the same as seeking the destruction of an innocent.

Peace is not the same as pacifism. All things have a right to grow, but nothing has the right to corrupt. Diseases of the body, the mind, or the soul are to be purged, for they are parasites upon this world. Just as the gardener will prune the withering branch to save the rest of the plant from infection, so too much some fallen leaves be removed to allow the rest to blossom. It is a sad task, but the alternative is the complete corruption of the garden. And that garden has a right to grow.

Well, when a dragon and a mountain love each other very much….

Evening, everyone. Got a simple thought for you.

Engies apparently have a bit of a problem with kits, and the way they don’t use stats, sigils, and other bonuses associated with weapons. Leaves the poor things a tad underpowered and restricted, and that won’t just do. They also have this annoying little restriction on mainhand weapons, regardless of what the player wants to equip. But what if both problems could be solved quite easily?

Use weapons to “build” kits.

Give the Engineer four weapon slot pairs in his inventory, the first corresponding to his main weapon choice and the others as placeholders for kit recipes. Condense the kit utilities into three skills corresponding to the three slots (Backpack, Satchel, Knapsack, or something like that). Make the Engineer’s Inventory screen operate a little differently from everyone else’s. When a normal set of items is added (pistol+pistol, pistol+shield, rifle), the Engie’s weapons would act as normal. However, when certain combinations of items are added, they become a kit instead.

For instance, put a pistol and a torch into the same set, and it is treated as a flamethrower that derives its stats from those two items. Replace that torch with a pistol, and you have an elixir gun instead. By simply adding in recipes for every kit (some of which may be a little abstract, not much corresponds to grenades), the game can easily ensure that every kit can be customized to the same degree as weaponry.

It would also have additional benefits.

1) It could allow the equipping of kits to the main weapon slot. Balance permitting, engineers could use a kit as their sole weapon by equipping a recipe combination to their main loadout.

2) Anet could use it as a foundation for Kit Aesthetic customization. Different kits could have different appearances based on the item (for a flamethrower, for example, the nozzle would depend on the pistol, and the backpack correspond to the torch). This would help the engineer’s sense of character growth and let them match skins to their armor.

3) It could seamlessly integrate any number of future kits. Since the mechanic would use three standard utility skills (which would provide relevant tool belt skills and a swap as normal), Anet could update the engineer with as many kits as necessary by simply adding in a new recipe combination.

Constructive criticism/improvements on the idea are welcome.

I would pick one single mechanic and make it the main. Not three.

If it’s clones, they would work like so. All clones have your HP, but last for a certain number of seconds. Clones are produced when you dodge; you blur and break target, creating a clone in the opposite dodge direction. All clones deal damage + confusion to their killer when slain automatically. The F1 key can command your clones to shatter, and this attacks’ effects are based on your current weapon (all clones swap when you swap). F2-4 keys govern clone behavior, causing their AI to attack, evade, or flee on command.

If it’s phantasms, I would give the Mesmer a pool of nine potential phantasms, with the ability to equip three at a time. Each would have a distinct appearance (custom armor set in dark purple to contrast with light pink body) and hex-like effect (no direct damage dealers, the mesmer herself would deal ~85% of the damage by default). All three share a cooldown on the F1-3 keys, thus allowing you to cast them unpredictably. Phantasms are fairly tough, but are designed to feel like spells instead of pets (the hex effect begins the instant you cast, then is maintained by the summon).

If it’s shatters, add different vectors to the Mesmer weapons. Right now, shatters require shepherding NPCs, relying on them to travel to the target, and then check for contact when exploding. This is absurd. Instead, every weapon would have a single illusion it creates, each of which acts as a different attack vector.
*Greatsword’s Mirror Blade flies out and back, then hovers in the air. It shatters as a projectile, but can’t be killed or targeted in any way.
*Staff creates an Air of Enchantment, a ground targeting zone which bursts on everything in the area.
*Scepters create clones, but when they shatter they cast hexes/beams for instant attacks.
*Sword summons a Mirage Cloak, a whirling scarf attached to the Mesmer herself, which creates point blank AoE effects.

That way, each illusion has a counter (dodge projectiles, avoid zones, destroy clones, keep away from the mesmer attempting to snuggle you), but no one mechanic trumps everything, and the mesmer has abilities designed to deal with many different situations.

These shatters would be activated by 3-4 keys (Dissonance, Diversion, Distortion, etc), but the effect would depend on the vector. Mirror Blades would impale their target for direct damage from Dissonance, but an Air of Enchantment would shatter into serrated shards for bleeding, etc.

pyronix.4081:

All I see here as counterarguments are of the “lrn2play better” types. You people don’t get it. You don’t give someone a brand new car with flawed brakes and then when they crash into something tell to “lrn2drive”.

Although I’m on the opposing side of the debate, I do appreciate their point of view.

Imagine, if you will, a classic sports car. Magnificent frame, beautiful engineering, incredible handling, with more style and flare than one can possibly imagine. It’s got a more complicated design, which means people need to learn more about actual driving than these modern hold-your-hand luxury cars. As a result, while many student drivers stall out on the roads, those who master the classic car tend to appreciate its nuances far more than someone coasting through life, onboard GPS in hand.

The natural reaction to anyone suggesting a change is going to be hostile. After all, who would want to replace that amazing handling and capable turning with disposable modern parts, gimmicky electronics and, horror of horrors, automatic steering (shudder). However, that’s not the point. Some things have to be fixed, especially if the tires can’t handle icy terrain, the electrical system shorts out on occasion, or turning on your blinker causes the AC to shut off. Likewise, if a modern vehicle can outperform the older model on certain roads, no amount of initial skill floor will make up for the fault compared to equally skilled drivers. The classic sports car can keep its handling and design, but it needs to meet modern standards for safety, emissions, and all that jazz.

So too, the Mesmer. Amazing concept, beautiful thematics, superb utility list, hilariously good time trolling people, but it’s got some grinding gears under the hood that need fixing. The natural reaction to saying the class mechanic is flawed is going to be hostile, because that statement is usually a request to either remove the intricacies of the profession (dumb it down), or to impose another playstyle onto the profession instead. Personally, I want neither. The Mesmer should be a complicated mystical mastermind manifesting multifaceted magics, but it still needs to have the flexibility and adaptability to suit all the given content. The feel is good, and the handling is perfect, but the core engine block needs a bad case of updating and refurbishing to be viable on every road.

This is actually the thing that bothers me. It seems that people are upset they can’t do both shatter builds AND having Phantasm-afk at the same time. If an Elementalist said he wanted to be able to burst people down from 100% to 0 like a Thief, AND also do top-tier condition damage, AND have survivability, AND receive daily massages from their favourite gosh darned masseuse, you’d say they were being unreasonable.

I understand your premise of having and eating one’s cake. However, I would make a counterassertion to this point.

It’s not that mesmers cannot have both. It’s that they cannot choose one or the other.

Every mesmer is required to role out with clones, phantasms, and shatters. These three mechanics don’t play nicely together, but everyone is expected to roll out with them 100% of the time in every single build and situation. Phantasm builds end up with four buttons that delete their cool things. Shatter builds are handed a resource balanced around persistence, despite the fact that they have no interest holding up the pain train. Effect-on-death clone builds get weapon damage balanced on the assumption that you’ll have damaging NPCs or massive explosions, even if neither are occurring. Meanwhile, things like mantra builds and duelist designs are crowded out by the need to create damage, condition, control, and support traits for clones, phantasms, and shatters alike.

Any of the three mechanics could easily be implemented as an optional utility set. It would actually be very easy to do so, and it would leave breathing room for the other one or two mandatory mechanics to gain flexibility and adaptability. But forcing them all on every single mesmer just means that anyone who wants to specialize is running around with vestigial limbs dangling off of their skillset. Some setups make use of all three mechanics, but those same setups would be possible if certain mechanics were made optional as well, or if the system was fined tuned for flexibility.

When someone wants to eat the cake, they shouldn’t have to balance a slice on their head. Nor should someone who wants to avoid the cake have it thrown at them repeatedly in the middle of a romantic date with destiny. Mesmers should be able to drink tea and eat cake as needed, with more control by the players over what skills are brought with them on their bars, and which ones are left at home.

kostbabis.8791:

well what you propose coult take months..We need hot fixes now.Just let the events scale more and let the mobs get tougher..It would be better to ensure that there is proper scailing first and events work at the basic level and then make them more complex..

Time would be a significant factor, this is true.

The simplest method might be to start in Orr, and work backwards. Use only a few areas and their event chains to refine the method and perfect the “endgame” open zones, and then gradually sprinkle the design they find best backwards into the lower level zones while adding new content. That way, there isn’t an overwhelming amount of work to do, and the problem is addressed where it’s a more apparent crisis.

ToxicToothpick.4396:

That would work as well, but the actual leap animation in GW2 is so badarse that it would be prefered. If you and the clone do it? Twice the badarse.

Hmm.

What if you leaped to the target, stabbed him with the sword, vanished in a burst of pink butterflies, then reappeared to one side while a clone appeared on the other?

Three times the badarse.

ToxicToothpick.4396:

• Illusions that die as a result of thier target no longer being alive should use /bow before they die (their death coming near the end of the animation)

Amusing and clever. I like it.

For Illusionary Leap, what if it used the Flash mechanic instead of leaping, and used positioning to deceive the opponent? For example, “Flash to the side of your opponent, creating a clone on the opposite side. 50/50 chance of flashing to the left or right.” The randomness may not be the best way to go about it, but that would create a moment of hesitation in your opponent each time, plus it would allow you to use the ability at point blank range without your clone getting immediately attacked adjacent to you.

Moonpuncher.7250:

What a colossal waste of time spent reading your post. Also, I love the part about how basic game theory “says” this is stupid. Are you quoting a book called “Game Theory”? I love tossing out bold claims with zero evidence to fall back on. Maybe I’ll say modern medicine tells me you’re a moron.

You’re quite a lovely little gem.

Game theory refers to the study of decision making. In this circumstance, it refers to when people decide to shatter or not shatter. You can see this in other threads, where players refer to the problem where 3 phantasms are dealing more damage than shattering and resummoning those same phantasms. In these circumstances, especially when a player has heavily invested traits into the phantasm mechanic, there isn’t any reason to even bring shatter skills along.

That’s the problem with bringing contradictory mechanics, something Anet realized when making the Warrior’s adrenaline mechanic. If you consider me a moron for agreeing with them, I will allow you your opinion.

gurugeorge.9857:

but how is the current design not somewhat pet-class like?

In the fact that illusions are disposable and meant to be disposed of quite often, for various reasons, with various effects, and in various circumstances. That is, precisely, the shatter mechanic. It’s this constant flashing into-and-out-of existence of the illusions, combined with things like decoy swapping, blink, etc., that give the Mesmer the mercurial quality you (rightly) note as the hallmark of the class as a “magic” class.

Yet this is obfuscation. While that may be fitting (it is the Mesmer, after all), it doesn’t answer the question. It’s still summoning NPCs and relying on them to hurt the opponent, either through three different bombing attacks, or through passive damage. However, perhaps it’s more of a semantic debate.

Striking from several different directions through several different means is certainly “mesmery”. But perhaps I can better explain my point that way: please consider the current mechanics in regards to how “mesmery” they truly are.

Is forcing everyone to bring the exact same four shatters instead of chosen/weapon specific shatters allowing more mind tricks, or less? Are clones more deceptive standing stock still waiting to be commanded to explode on the target, or actually moving around with an AI and applying damage/confusion to whomever kills them by default? Do phantasms provide more tactical depth when they’re like the Duelist, spamming damage, or like the Warden, altering the battlefield? If you consider three ways the mesmer can daze or stun a target (Magic Bullet, Mantra of Distraction, and Diversion), which one is fastest and most reliable, and which requires the most delay and can be countered most easily?

If there was a way to polish the current illusion/shatter mechanics in such a way that provided more freedom, more optional builds, and more adaptability…….wouldn’t the result be even more “Mesmery”? After all, a magician doesn’t perform the same trick over and over again, she dazzles the crowd with many different manipulations and illusions, always leaving them guessing.

Deneroth.2854:

…….But the class is still fun to play. Claiming its outright broken is an overstatement. Sure it needs tweaks here and there but this is achieved by good suggestions not blatant “its broken and will never work” statements.

Perhaps there is a kinder way to phrase it. The Mesmer has a magnificent aesthetic, a fun set of quirks, and the bestkittenutility list in the game (bar a few select oddities). The idea of playing mind games with the opponent is a very good one, but the problem is that they’ve put things in the wrong order. Placing the resource generation on the weapons and then making damage a class mechanic isn’t helping the mesmer branch out, it’s keeping it constrained in a single model.

I appreciate that you find it fun to play, and I definitely don’t want your fun to be ruined polishing the mechanic. But it can certainly be better.

Consider, if you will: would your play be damaged or enhanced if you could choose your shatters? Would there be anything wrong with tying clone creation to the dodge mechanic instead of uneven weapons? Would anything be degraded if phantasms were a utility unlinked to the shatter mechanic, thus allowing you to bring “the damage one”, “the blocking one”, “the crippling one”, and “the debilitating one” anywhere you wanted?

gurugeorge.9857:

It seems to me (correct me if I’m wrong) that you conceive of the Mesmer as a pet class, and you want to make it a better pet class.

You are wrong, therefore I must correct you as requested. My apologies for any miscommunication. Mind games, multidirectional attacks, and metamagical mastery are all the halmarks of the Mesmer, both in GW1 and the present.

Right now, however, we have minion bombing. The current Mesmer creates NPCs, and either leaves them DPSing about, or commands them to rush the target and snuggle it to death. Either way……I know you clearly don’t like pet classes, but how is the current design not somewhat pet-class like?

Ideally, less reliance on NPCs would be good. Putting damage into the hands of the player rather than AI would improve the class and provide flexibility for things like AoE. Giving them more control over their class mechanic would make them far less predictable to their foes, and more adaptable in situations not suited to minion bombing. And finally, evening things out would ensure that the basic system works, rather than trying to cram each case into an awkward framework by creating exceptions to the rules.

And further still…

5) The Mesmer’s reality is unhealthily dependent on the trait system.

Intentional juxtaposition is intentional. If there’s one thing that describes half the Mesmer stuff out there, it’s the phrase “sucks until you trait it”. The system is way too dependent upon optional builds to fix mandatory systems.

Shatters hit like a wet noodle? There’s a trait for that.
Phantasms taking a nap between attacks? There’s a trait for that.
Shatters STILL weaker than your phantasms attacking? There’s a trait for that.
Oh, you wanted conditions on your shatters? There’s a trait for that.
Clones are being annihilated by damage and need more health? There’s a trait for that.
Illusions still being torn apart by AoE, and you want to get something back? There’s a trait for that.
Illusions being produced too slowly? There’s a trait for that.
The main mechanics have no support options? There’s a trait for that.
You need AoE? Are you sure you’re playing the right class? Well, no matter, there’s a trait for that.
Oh, you want traits left over for your weapons and utilities? Too bad.

We don’t have that many traits, and relying on them to fix situations where single-target-fragile-NPC-minion-bombing doesn’t work is not good design. Too many problems with the system are “solved” by making optional builds for mandatory mechanics that actually function. A better design would be viable out of the box, augmented by further choices.

6) The Mesmer is held together by hodgepodge balance.

The Mesmer profession has a universal system of clones, phantasms, and shatters, but in practice none of it is working right. In every instance, the system is full of workarounds and quick fixes that negate the entire point of making the system universal.

*Staves get terrible damage out of shatters, since Mind Wrack is direct damage and staves rely on conditions. Thus, staff clones deal far more damage than other clones.
*Swords create illusions at point blank range when they’re in an enemy’s face, allowing melee hits to strike master and clone. Thus, the vulnerability bone has been tossed in their direction.
*Scepters can’t reliably generate clones with their counter skill if they aren’t being attacked, thus they get two clone generators via the main attack chain.
*Greatswords are supposed to attack far away, but illusions have a greater delay to their minion bombing as a result. Thus, greatsword illusions are generated right by the target. Hope you didn’t want to deceive anyone.

There isn’t a single main weapon choice that works by default. Every single one of them is working around the universal system rather than with it. Since that’s the case, why is the system using a universal standard in the first place?

7) The Shatter mechanic has no future.

Bit of an alarmist statement, I admit. But consider this: there is no where for the mechanic to go. Everyone is using the same shatters. Everyone is expected to have larger and smaller single target illusions summoning at approximately equal rates. Every new weapon will have half its recharging skill slots dedicated to doing the same thing we’ve already seen with slightly different numbers attached to it. 100% of Mesmers in every scenario are supposed to make use of fragile NPCs and minion bombing, regardless of whether or not those things are actually helpful.

This is not good design. The Mesmer is being held back by its three mandatory mechanics and its disparity, rather than thriving on a single main mechanic and the interweavings with many optional builds. Thus, I finish with Anet’s own Golden Rule #5…

Do it well or don’t do it at all

Shattering is not done well, and it is not up to par with the other class mechanics. The Mesmer design deserves far more polish, especially with attention towards the lessons learned from other professions. “At the end of the day, if something doesn’t quite turn out the way you wanted, it’s not failing, it’s playing—and you grow for having done it.” Anet has had a lot of time and energy to play with the Mesmer, but it’s time to grow out of the flawed assumption that single-target-fragile-NPCs-that-die-when-target-dies-and-get-sacrificed-for-minion-bombing-maneuvers is a viable design for all forms of gameplay.

Continuing due to post length limits…

3) None of the mandatory mechanics are fulfilling their original purpose.

When presenting the Mesmer, Anet presented each of their mechanics to strut their stuff. Clones allowed the Mesmer to trick the opponent and fool them into not knowing who is real. Phantasms were the revamped hexes, allowing the Mesmer to sustain unique spell effects on their enemies. And Shatters made the Mesmer unpredictable, throwing the foe for a loop and compounding the mindgames.

Put all together, however, these mechanics have poisoned one another.

Clones can’t even deceive a blind goldfish. All the ranged clones stand stalk still, something no player ever does. They don’t use the master’s healthbar and instead get conjured at full health, they don’t mimic skills to any degree, and they don’t even wield offhand weapons still, even after that bug was reported months ago. Anet hasn’t lifted a finger to make clones more deceptive since the Mesmer was first introduced, and the result is a pathos-inducing mechanic hoping to find a reason to exist. But hey, at least they shatter.

Phantasms also shatter. In order to make that work and magically overcome the problem that forced a change to the Warrior’s adrenaline, phantasms have sacrificed and sacrificed. Their low health, slow-as-mud fire rate, and their lack of persistence beyond a single target’s death are all due to their shackled state. As a result, the “living hex” mechanic has produced exactly two viable forms: phantasms that deal damage, and the Warden. The former is completely unnecessary: not only does it contradict earlier Anet design via the passive/active thing, but it means taking damage out of the player’s hands so that NPCs can deal it out.

The Warden, however, is a breath of fresh air. I would also argue that it’s how all phantasms should work: a battlefield control ability that persists until killed. It’s a pity the mechanic is being wasted otherwise. The point of being a persistent hex is to be persistent, and chaining them to the shatter mechanic makes the phantasms system lackluster at best, impotent at worst.

And finally, we get to Shatters, and their extreme predictability. Every single build focusing on the main mechanic currently does the same thing: produce as many illusions as possible and bomb the hell out of the foe. While this is a perfectly valid playstyle option, it makes little sense to demand that everyone bring the exact same four attacks that are massively telegraphed in the name of being unpredictable and adaptable.

None of these mechanics are allowed to flower to fruition, and it’s a direct result of requiring everyone to run with clones, phantasms, and shatters despite their blatant hostility towards one another.

4) The Mesmer philosophy is incompatible with the trait system.

Despite the above claim that the mechanics poison one another, there is a claim that harmony can be found in the discord. If there is a golden ratio of recharges and relative damage, the Mesmer can ride the wind and find the calm eye of the storm, summoning and shattering in a rhythm that makes everything work. The resulting mastery of the mechanics produces a potent prodigy of powerful paradox. Get the ratio right and balance the class correctly, and all will be well.

That is, until you throw traiting into the mix.

See, even if there’s a golden ratio, it falls apart the instant you let the player dictate power over their build. Since players can choose to beef up phantasms or empower shatters, they are basically forced to pick their favorite of the mandatory mechanics and leave the others by the wayside. No matter how much balancing Anet does, players have the ability to throw off that ratio and make one of the contradictory mechanics outside the others. And speaking of traits…

Good evening. I have a simple suggestion.

Nothing should be character bound. All bindings should be for the account.

Plain enough. There is no reason to bind to character, and the inconvenience it puts on the players does not provide any advantage for the game. If someone forges a legendary weapon, they should be able to shuffle it around to any character that can use it. If someone gathers items for a heart quest, there’s no harm done if they bank it over to another character for when they do that same activity. There’s nothing wrong with sharing gathering tools, or karma recipes, or any other feature in the game.

At the end of the day, it’s all time and effort spent by one person. It shouldn’t matter which character they play, and restricting items earned by that player makes no sense whatsoever.

Thus, the suggestion. Eliminate character binding. Always use account binding instead. Thoughts?

What if the system used a sort of placeholder recipe set? In other words, allow engineers to “create” their kits by mixing weapons?

For instance, you get three slots in your inventory, that correspond to Kit 1, Kit 2, and Kit 3. Place certain items in these slots, and they generate different weapon types. Pistol + Torch = Flamethrower, using the pistol and torch’s stats to dictate its abilities. Exchange that torch for a Focus, and you get an Elixir Gun that continues using weapon stats. To activate any of these kits, equip the relevant utility and it supplies you with the kit as normal. This would provide several advantages.

1) As long as all kits have recipes, all kits could use standard item stats.

2) If Anet extended the kit concept to the main inventory slot, Engies could equip weapons directly to their weapon choice instead of using a utility skill.

3) It opens up the possibility of customizing kit appearance. For instance, a flamethrower might have different models for the nozzle based on the pistol, and different packs based on the torch.

Gentlemen and ladies, something must be done about the Butterball Crisis.

With the recent addition of certain dairy products and derivatives of the coco plant into loot bags, the main source of cloth and leather has vanished into thin air. Decent armorers yearn for the tools of their trade, but instead find only a fast track to heart disease. And thus, I come with a simple suggestion.

Cloth and Leather should be gathered or hunted.

Cloth would be simple, as most are derived from plants or animals. Thus, including them into the standard gathering set would be easy.
Jute should be a plant in the world, akin to its real world analogue.
Wool should be found by shearing or slaying sheep.
Flax should be gathered and spun into Linen.
Silkworm nests should provide spun silk.
And finally, ancient magical spider nests or such should provide Gossamer. Use your imagination.

Leather doesn’t have a particular gathering tool, but the current game presents a simpler route. Neutral mobs like deer, cattle, doylak, and moose already roam the world. Take these neutral mobs, and add basic hides to their loot lists alongside slabs of meat. Slay the animal, tan the hide, and you get leather……exactly the way real leather works.

Every basic material that forms a pillar of the crafting collection should be gathered in the real world, not reliant on roundabout loot methods.