Guild Wars 2

So after all the discussion:

Blindness: Next outgoing attack misses; 33% of all hits are glancing blows (50% damage); cannot achieve Critical Hit; does not stack duration

Aegis: Block the next incoming attack, then gain 15% damage reduction for 2 seconds; does not stack duration

Some existing durations of Blindness and Aegis granted from skills, traits and upgrades, but I trust ANet enough to goof around with numbers. Regardless, Blindness and Aegis are a condition and a boon respectively and therefore should carry with them passive, over-time effects rather than just being a poor man’s interrupts.

poe lyfe.5879:

if they change blindness they have to change aegis as well, what would you have them do convert all incomming damage like your blindness buff? or 75% chance to block? blind work the way it should. you dont seem to realize that not all classes have good condition removal so having a lingering blindness that reduces chance to hit or damage would cripple them. unless you want to give some of their skills condition removal buffs. but that would take away from what you seem to want from blindness. it to be oped.

Blindness is supposed to be crippling. It’s to be used defensively in a manner that reduces an opponent’s ability to deal out damage. However, the vast majority of Blindness durations in game at the moment don’t extend past 3 seconds saving a few that would have to be adjusted. Those three seconds combined with relatively long cooldowns would bring enough to the game that could provide Blindness an active and game-influencing use in GW2 while not completely breaking the game.

But, that’s a good point about Aegis. I’ve also thought about it as an underpowered Boon. However, the only reason it’s probably more difficult to balance is because of the Guardian’s ability to permanently have it up on themselves. The very low amount of skills and traits that actually grant Aegis seems to suggest that it too could go for a buff. Something like:

Aegis: Block the next incoming attack, then gain or 10-25% (debatable amount) damage reduction OR then gain Regeneration OR then gain Protection and Regeneration

Again, the only problem would be how ANet would readjust the durations of Aegis and how they would restruction the function of the Virtue of Courage regarding how it dispenses Aegis regularly.

[/quote]Quite evidently they are used in exactly opposite way – to shut down target while bursting them. How many skills applying it are used defensively? I would say somewhere close to none.

[/quote]
Well, as a Mesmer, I often pop Diversion on myself with the Illsionary Persona trait to stop Greatsword/Snare Warriors or Thieves from insta-killing me with spam on the spot, but I see what you’re saying. I still stand with what I’ve said. A 50% chance to halve all out-going damage across the board (critical hits included) is satisfactory damage control for a condition with the availability that Blindness has in GW2.
I’ve also been enjoying our thread of discussion.

The only reason GW2 doesn’t have capes is because ANet can’t work around clipping issues. However, if you wanted a different way to represent your guild (especially in a battle), you could maybe push for sashimono. You could maybe get several styles: the vertical rectangle, horizontal rectangle, or even pennant flag style options.

Trollhammer.7439:

Swagg.9236:

I still think that a straight up damage denial (complete miss) beyond the initial strike is sort of cheating people out of a lot of damage and combos.

I know right! Imagine if everyone had to bring some condition removal and watch their bars before blowing cooldowns… That would be horrible!

We already have Daze and Stun. Those do what you’re asking (shutting down burst damage—in addition to many other things). Blindness doesn’t need to be that powerful, but it also shouldn’t be as weak as it is right now (it’s currently the worst interrupt in the game instead of a proper condition). I think that giving it an initial total miss (an interrupt) and following that up with a 50% chance for a 50% damage reduction in proceeding attacks (including critical hits; or maybe even a complete nullification of critical hits since, well, you’re blind—enjoy trying to find and hit my weak spot) is balanced step between where it is now and the game-bending effects of Daze and Stun.

TheDaiBish.9735:

How about if a player gets afflicted with Blind, the actual screen goes black, with your vision becoming more clear as it wears off?

For PvE mobs though, I got nothing.

Even that probably wouldn’t work given that there are many auto-targeted attacks. Also, that kind of effect would probably cheapen the impact of a Blindness duration if we knew that regardless of the duration it would blacken out a screen instantly. Furthermore, things like 1-second duration blinds would be aesthetically jarring to see your screen flash from black and then almost instantly back to normal. I think the visual effect is fine as it is. The condition itself just needs some reworking.

My suggestion would also make Blindness more effective on PvE mobs in that it could curb the assaults of fast-attacking NPCs since it would have a duration with an effect similar to granting Protection to yourself or other allies under attack by the NPC afflicted with Blindness.

I still think that a straight up damage denial (complete miss) beyond the initial strike is sort of cheating people out of a lot of damage and combos. That’s why I like the weakness functionality so much. I was thinking of how it could be Blindness: Next outgoing attack misses; 75% of Non Critical hits are glancing blows (50% damage), though. That way it wouldn’t just feel exactly like weakness except for the decreased endurance regeneration. Also -50% damage is pretty effective burst damage control.

Or better yet, Blindness could be 50% of all hits are glancing blows meaning that its glancing blow effect would widen to encompass even critical hits. That would really be better for curbing spikes, but it would still let people eek some damage, conditions and combos through (No more “Ah, you have Blindness? Time out. Go sit in that corner until it’s over.”).

Gummy.4278:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

There are some of those in the game already.

• Modus Sceleris
• Skritt Burglar

I believe there are others besides these.

Its funny maybe ten minutes after I posted this I got the “Jackoloping Along” achievement. What it did not feel like, was something special. "Oh look a skritt is making away with the treasure! Kill it! Bam! It was over that quick.

I didn’t know that that was a rare spawn. Met that little Skritt in Ashford. Also Modus Sceleris should serve as a template for future boss fights. I want to fight a team of hardened individuals with unique abilities coming after me and my dungeoneering buddies.

I wonder if ANet could maybe just give Portal Exeunt an area placement circle (or whatever you would call the green or red circle that one is able to place on the ground for ground-targeted skills). It would just have a monstrous range and would go red if it ever exceeded that range like a regular ground-targeted skill. Most importantly, though, it would at least alert a Mesmer to when his or her would-be Portal chain had exceeded its maximum range.

Bump
I added a thesis in bold now.

I don’t even want to change any names and I’m waiting for name change.

This is actually a pretty nice idea. I like the potion idea since it’s the least intrusive. I would totally be down for the back-flag idea except that (in the case that ANet EVER IMPLEMENTS SOME SORT OF FIRST-PERSON CAMERA MODE LIKE THEY HAD IN GUILD WARS 1) it would look a little silly if, say, a group of people were to try and film a machinma in WvW somewhere. Suddenly everyone has back-flags! Hurray!

But in all seriousness, this would be a great convenience for a lot of people and I support it. The only danger would be if one world decided to abuse it by filling their WvW roster with non-combatants, thus reducing their world’s overall warpower.

Zero Angel.9715:

Interesting mechanic. How about ‘attacks within x amount of time have a 50% chance to miss’ (stacks duration), or alternatively ‘next attack and following attacks within 3 seconds will miss’.

As for your first suggestion, like I said, I really do think that that first guaranteed miss really serves important purposes (avoiding huge attacks with cues without having to use active dodge, saving an ally from an enemy flag stomp attempt, ect), so I really think that it should stay. Regarding your second suggestion, three seconds is a lot of time in a game like GW2. I also wanted to avoid the sort of Blindness that one saw in Guild Wars 1 which was effectively just that. I think that having one guaranteed miss with a trail of happenstance half-misses not only best reflects the actual condition of being temporarily blind, but would have a stronger, longer-lasting impact on combat without being overpowered.

At the moment, Blindness in GW2 is like an extra active dodge—except it’s worse because you don’t actually move anywhere and doesn’t really allow you to evade several attacks at once. “Next outgoing attack misses.” This sounds like a description of temporary Blindness from a turn-based RPG, not a face-paced, active-dodging, attack spamming MMORPG based on latency and loaded with channeled attacks that pump out several pips of damage with a single skill. Aside from that, the visual effect of Blindness on the screen screams something more dire than “Oh-ho! Lummie shoot mah arrows/swing mah sword ’n get rid of this black gunk in my eyes!”

It’s asking for a buff. However, I want to avoid the “90% chance to miss all attacks throughout the duration” Blindness that saw action in Guild Wars 1. Instead, I think that GW2 Blindness should be reworked into:

Blindness: Next outgoing attack misses; 50% of Non Critical hits are glancing blows (50% damage).

This new, non-stacking, weakness-inspired version would prevent huge durations of Blindness from being thrown onto a player, pulling their DPS into the depths for 10 or more seconds. However, it would retain the “free dodge” aspect of Blindness that really is quite clutch in many situations and serves many a great purpose in active combat. Most importantly, however, it would allow a lone someone to target an opponent, inflict Blindness, and have it honestly press an influence on a battle aside from removing one single hit out of the equation. For the most part, the current respective durations of Blindness are already rather short compared to the recharges of the skills that inflict them, and this change could probably sleeve rather easily into the game. However, there are a few that would need some duration adjustments: for starters namely Dust Devil, Blinding Flash and maybe three ranged Thief skills since they use Initiative and lend themselves to be spammed.

The point is, a rather simple change like this could really update this backward-feeling condition and bring it into meaningful play.

Right. I guess the point was that there are some pretty neat PvP armors that aren’t available to PvE characters.

It’s not bad. It’s face-paced and engaging when you’re fighting other players and a couple of bosses and NPCs. It’s a little dull in PvE, but I won’t go into that because it’s a HUGE discussion that I’m not ready to begin in this single post.

It’s not that deep though. It’s literally nothing except interrupts, damage and conditions. GW1 combat was fathoms thicker in how you had to manage your energy and also had access to things like Hexes and Enchantments that (in addition to often having passive effects applied throughout their duration) had begin and end effects that could trigger on enemy and allied players (including yourself) that hinged on various conditions. GW1 combat was crazy deep, especially when you rolled a spellcaster.

Why does this not have a PvE equivalent?
I want to be a wild shaman that wanders around Lion’s Arch preaching the end of days. That and it just looks great. I’d be a nice light armor addition somewhere in some high level area that one could buy for karma.

I’m honestly rather astonished that all that GW2 has for PvP at this point outside of ZergvZerg is a wonky amalgam of Random Arenas and Alliance Battles with a grand total of five maps; all with the same objective. Half of the charm of GW1’s PvP was its sheer variety and the balanced sizes of the maps relative to what they contained. More importantly, depending on what mode of PvP one chose in GW1 often required one to respec and play differently according to the objective of a given map.

This is where GW2’s PvP falls short: if the objective is the same thing every time, then the PvP mode will develop a very narrow meta game in which a very specific classes and builds will tend to consistently dominate.

It would do GW2 PvP a healthy dose of good to develop something like 15-person (3 teams of 5 that are pre-organized before joining a match) escort/shrine capture maps like Jade Quarry or fortress-taking like Fort Aspenwood (but with each team trying to capture a castle instead of just one attacking force laying into one defensive force). ANet could probably even pull a TF2-style payload race map if they really wanted to (just make the cap point a small circle around the cart that needs a presence for the cart to move forward on the track) given the relative balance and flow of the game with regards to the professions. Honestly, by varying up the game styles, we could start to see how maybe a Ranger or Engineer could consistently outplay/be more useful than a Warrior or Guardian simply because the main objective isn’t just standing a rotten circle anymore.

I think the reason that there isn’t something like that is because GW2 isn’t fully instanced. Is Jade Dynasty a fully instanced game (in that everything is just one big map with no breaks)?

Don’t immediately make more weapons in order to make more “Weapon Skills.” Instead, make more skill options for Weapon Skill slots 4 and 5 from which players can choose as they would choose Utility Skills.

I can understand the reasoning behind defining half of a player’s skill bar based on which weapon he or she is wielding. It’s flavorful, it’s easy to balance and it also telegraphs to other players (both allies and enemies) possible attacks or combos to come. It makes for fast-paced combat that is somewhat predictable while still retaining a sense of tension given an opponent’s particular attack progression and choice of secondary skills.

That said, many times—even with the option of swapping weapons—this system proves to be limiting (especially when compared to GW1 standards). A locked skill slot in GW2 is an enormous commitment, and effectively denying full customization to half of one’s skill bar can really damper a profession’s ability to produce multiple playstyles. In the spirit of Guild Wars 1, I think that there can be room to grow within the current Weapon Skill system for each class while still maintaining not just the flavor of a weapon, but also a sense of balance.

Guild Wars 1 was known for releasing new skills at several intervals (typically at the outset of new expansions). I feel like a good target for new potential skills would be for the 4 and 5 Weapon Skill Slots (hereby referred to as “WS slots”). Those two slots, often more than the preceding three, truly help define a weapon or weapon combo’s flavor. In this light, I think it would be best to explore expanding the possibilities for the kinds of effects that Weapon Skills 4 and 5 generate.

This suggestion is for adding more skills to the individual 4 and 5 WS slots. For an example, we will take the Mesmer Greatsword. WS slot 4 is Phantasmal Beserker and WS slot 5 is Illusionary Wave. The ideal would be for ANet to add two more skills (perhaps another Phantasm and another utility ability of sorts or maybe just raw damage or an AoE). Then, a Mesmer who equipped a Greatsword would have his or her first 3 WS slots fixed for them, and then given a choice between the last two among the new four skills in a manner similar to how one chooses Utility Skills. One could even equip two Greatswords and then utilize two different combinations of 4 and 5 WS slots for each weapon. The only caveat about that would be that the recharges of each weapon would probably have to be shared (i.e. you can’t have Illusionary Wave selected on both Greatswords, use it on one, swap to the other and then use it again because it would still be on recharge; the same principle would apply for any skill on any shared weapon set in that instance, even slots 1-3).

WS slots 4 and 5 are sort of like psuedo-utilities in that they really expose the flavor of a profession in both their visual effects and in how they impact a battle. By opening up that crack into a profession’s identity between the Smash-Face/Damage/Condition WS slots 1-3 and the Utility Skill slots, I think ANet could really add a new dimension to GW2 combat with new levels of possibilities for individual and even large group encounters, the ends of which could vary wildly based on the 4 and 5 slot utility choices of individual professions.

I like this suggestion to.o. While I’m finally mostly used to the range system in this game, things like sudden changes in terrain can easily throw me off when I’m casting a ranged targeted spell. This would be a nice way to mitigate that or even (in the case of maybe defending high grounds in WvW) to teach and familiarize players the range limits of their abilities and the range system in general.

Also, I play an Asuras Mesmer but recently made a Charr Elementalist and HOLY STARS, getting used to that scale change is a bit disorienting. I even have trouble adjusting the Elementalist teleport cantrip to maximize distance covered even though I have no issues doing the same thing with Blink even though both skills have the same range.