Guild Wars 2

Vayne.8563:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Dondarrion.2748:

Kind of early to complain about lack of challenging HoT content when the expansion isn’t live yet, no???

Kind of too late to complain about it once the expansion launches and it isn’t there, no???

No. lol

If it’s not there now, it’s not likely to be there at launch. But since we haven’t seen what it is yet, it’s too early to start complaining.

Think of it this way. I tell you I’m going to cook you a seven course meal. I tell you about soup and appetizer. What do you think I’ll see if you tell me the dessert is too sweet, before I even tell you what it is?

If I tell you I don’t want crème brûlée for dessert and that what I’d really like to have is banana pudding, what do you think I’ll see if you serve crème brûlée?

Maybe she was doing research for the new frog guys in HoT and she accidentally found out…

The truth is out there!

lordkrall.7241:

A bit like reading. When you start learning to read it is extremely challenging, but when you have learned to do it there is no challenge in it whatsoever.

Have you read Finnegan’s Wake?

I got it! It was right there, right in front of us, all along!

Imbagon!

What if ‘Imbagon’ turned out to be an old Elonian word meaning, oh, I dunno, ‘dragon foe’ of ‘enemy of dragons’ or ‘dragons, why did it have to be dragons’ or ’I’ve had it with these merry festive dragons’ or something like that. Not in reference to Elder Dragons, of course, but to a breed of lesser dragons that once roamed Elona but which were HUNTED to extinction by Imbagons, long ago, and all records of such creatures and events and people have been lost — until now!

Paragon fans kinda sorta almost get their paragon and paragon non-fans have nothing about which to complain! Meanwhile, it’s a happy fun nudge nudge wink wink to ye olde Guild Wars.

>>
<<

harasser
flamebow (flambeaux)
vanquisher
enforcer
firebrand
incendiary

Since this particular branch of the guardian family tree is sprouting from the Heart of Thorns…

Vinebreaker
Thornheart
Mulcher
Hedge Knight
Defoliant
Weedkiller

Defiant
Harasser
Challenger
Lionheart
Gallant
Militant
Iconoclast
Aggressor
Partisan
Votary
Stormcrow
Mender
Bounder

The specs specified for this ‘dragonhunter’ — the longbow and traps — seem more appropriate for a ‘guerrilla’ type soldier than anything else. Rather than ‘hunting’ for enemy forces, which would benefit from some sort of tracking skill --

eh? ya think?

— these guys seem best equipped to harass enemies via hit and run tactics. Some pew pew from cover to draw them out, some traps to mess with ’em when they do. A lot like a ranger, or even a thief, I guess, but whatever. Then again, the heavy armor kinda gets in the way of that, so… huh.

So, anyway, what are some names that might reflect/indicate/inform a guerilla style guardian?

How about commando?

Nike.2631:

Dragonhunter didn’t come out of a hat. Its been compared to and overcome probably every dammed name thrown out here and it did it 6 months ago. Is it set in stone? Not for another 3 months, but for pity’s sake UNDERSTAND if you want to change it you’re not going to insult them into action and you’re not gonna get a petition of 18 random posters and 11 bloggers who all like page 1 generic names to change their minds either.

Dragonhunter is a silly name and the concept from which it was derived is incompatible with the setting of GW2.

At first I was like, well, it’s about dang time, and then as more information became available, I was like, well, hell. So, in answer to the title question, no.

Nike.2631:

Tachenon.5270:

Why would they have to change anything but the name?

Because the name, the armor, the weapon, and in some cases the skill FX work together. The are not independent parts of the design process.

Would wells be so readily accepted as the Chronomancer’s new skill type if they didn’t look like big clock faces?

There’s nothing about the spec that makes it specifically a ‘dragonhunter’. Not the bow, not the traps, not the anything. The spec is fine. The name is silly and is incompatible with the setting.

Why would they have to change anything but the name?

Nike.2631:

Tachenon.5270:

All you have to do is visualize the dragonhunter coming face to face with his prey in a dark valley in some remote corner of the world. What’s he gonna do? Arrest it? Tell it to straighten up and fly right? He sure as nerfs ain’t gonna kill it with traps or arrows or anything else at his disposal short of a Pact fleet with mass quantities of airships bristling with guns and some sort of megalaser or maybe a tactical nuke.

His “prey” are Dragon MINIONS, not the whole kitten dragon. The one victory the People of Tyria have had over dragons has come from taking apart its powerbase one lieutenant at a time until the beast was finally made vulnerable. Here we have a faction – as in many – of Guardians who are no longer satisfied to stand watch and wait and guard – they are training to go out and find and kill those lieutenants and knock the legs out from under the armies of other dragons after the success in Orr.

And therefore, they’re not ‘dragonhunters’ after all, neither in the sense of hunting for ‘big game’, nor as the Tyrian equivalent of a witchhunter. The name makes no sense in the context of GW2.

Nike.2631:

What is the established lore you see as contradicting the above?

All you have to do is visualize the dragonhunter coming face to face with his prey in a dark valley in some remote corner of the world. What’s he gonna do? Arrest it? Tell it to straighten up and fly right? He sure as nerfs ain’t gonna kill it with traps or arrows or anything else at his disposal short of a Pact fleet with mass quantities of airships bristling with guns and some sort of megalaser or maybe a tactical nuke. Or two. A dragonhunter doesn’t have those things unless he’s Trahearne, and even then, “Fire! Uh. Oops.”

The idea of dragonhunter might work elsewhere, but in this game, with its established dragon lore, dragonhunter is a silly name.

Sometimes I don’t do the dailies even if there aren’t any fractals involved.

Leo G.4501:

I’d just think it foolhardy to consider the dragons as prey and hunt them down for sport.

In the Splintered Coast region of Sparkfly Fen, Buddy Buddyson, norn dragonhunter, hunted a dragon this afternoon, with, as many would say, predictable results.

As one eyewitness reports, “There was something in the water, and that dragonhunter guy ran toward it, shooting arrows and yelling ‘Ahhhh!’ like he’d had too much of Chef Aldis’ wurm’s egg chili or something, and then ol’ Teakettle popped up for his mid-afternoon show, and that was that.”

Cause of death remains undetermined at this time. The medical examiner in Sparkfly Fen, Dr. Hoolix of Rata Sum, told this reporter that not enough of Buddy Buddyson’s remains remained for an autopsy. ‘Suicide,’ said Hoolix, ‘is probably what we’ll end up calling it. Just like with all the others. Why these microcephalic reprobates insist on hunting dragons is a mystery that is, well, a mystery even to a genius like me!"

Officials have posted ‘No Dragonhunting’ signs in and around the Splintered Coast area, but so far this has not deterred would-be dragonhunters from attempting to hunt the resident dragon, Tequatl, who declined to be interviewed.

Reporting live from Sparkfly Fen, this is your roving reporter, Rroxxi, for WRSN News.

Miss Lana.5276:

Tachenon.5270:

I have a little goblin but he’s ruggedly handsome and quite the charmer.

Those graphics settings certainly don’t help him at all either.

I play on a 9-year old Dell with an 8400 GS video card, and for the most part GW2 runs great! ’Cept in zergy boss fights when everybody attacks all at once, with Maw being the worst. Have to aim the camera at the ground for that one, or else my fps becomes spf. :-D

If I live long enough I may get a better PC someday. Dang priorities…

More names:

Explorer
Vanguard
Paradigm
Provoker
Pursuer
Harasser
Investigator
Sentry
Watcher
Bellwether
Forerunner
Exemplar

I have a little goblin but he’s ruggedly handsome and quite the charmer.

Behellagh.1468:

Doesn’t bother anyone that they resurrected a 15 month old dead thread.

Dead thread redemption.

/e runs away

Obtena.7952:

I encourage everyone to continue proposing whatever names they like, even the most preposterous ones.

• Foebow — like Foehammer, ’cept bow-y.
• Exterminator — Dragon? Exterminate!
• Peacemaker — Dragons and/or other malevolent miscreants? Disturbing the peace? Aw, hell, naw!
• Pathfinder — though the night is dark and full of terrors, I shall light the way to a reckoning, and guide those who seek justice, and let the dragon beware, for when next we meet, he/she/it shall be my little puppy!
• Trappist — because preposterous pun.
• Regardatore/Regarder — because look up park ranger on the wikipedia.
• Armiger — so they can be armigerous!
• Wingclipper — because maybe they could shoot ’em with paralytic poison arrows in carefully selected wing parts or something, I dunno.

Myrden.2456:

If you can pass through them on foot in the game you can pass through in the air.

Well, I seem to be the only one who feels this way, but to me, that’s disappointing.

The sort of trees one tends to find in most terrestrial jungles tend to ‘branch out’ at the tops. While one might be able to walk between the boles, barring any heavy undergrowth, of course, moving easily through the branches would be an entirely different matter.

Sure, this is fantasy ‘gliding’ in a fantasy ‘jungle’. But all fantasy, all the time gets old. A little touch of ‘reality’ here and there can make the fantastic even more so. Ah, well. I guess it doesn’t matter. Here’s hoping someday we’ll go kayaking in the sands of the Crystal Desert.

What about the trees?

They are dragon minions, whether they know it or not, waiting for their master’s call… waiting to hear…

The Bloop of Bubbles!

Farzo.8410:

The story how the dragonhunter came to be is a long one with a lot of anger, sadness and a will of justice.

And, in at least one case, the Tyrian equivalent of Pym particles.

Spec: Offender, a heavily-armored warrior who dominates the field of battle due to intense martial prowess and an unmatched repertoire of dynamic crowd control skills.

Offhand: rude gestures.

F1: point at target and laugh
F2: insult target’s mother
F3: ‘nannner nanner boo boo’
F4: moon target(s)

Dante.1763:

Do my pictures look like inquisitors? because thats exactly what they are.

Picture #6 is Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane in everything but name. Sword/pistol and staff. Alas! If only thieves were getting the staff instead of rangers.

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

Diovid.9506:

Tachenon.5270:

heck, how about a holodeck in LA in which individuals or groups (of individuals) could relive past glories (replay old missions or seasons) or (re)experience new old content salvaged from temporaneity! If that’s not a real word it should be.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractals_of_the_Mists

In its current form the fractals thing won’t do what I meant, that being, let the players choose specific missions or story arcs to replay.

Second edit: kinda like Ouroboros, in City of Heroes.

lordkrall.7241:

No matter what it is people would be disappointed.

I’m a people and I wouldn’t be disappointed with free pony rides and ice cream!

See also: water slides in LA, hang gliding in LA, jousting arenas in LA — heck, how about a holodeck in LA in which individuals or groups (of individuals) could relive past glories (replay old missions or seasons) or (re)experience new old content salvaged from temporaneity! If that’s not a real word it should be.

I saw the word ‘visionary’ in a post that had nothing to do with guardians and my first thought was, “Hey, not bad! Much better than ‘dragonhunter’.” I even recommended that the poster post that title over here, but if he or she did I’ve not seen it. So, anyway…

Visionary.

High concept: Whether striking from afar or drawing the forces of evil into deadly snares, these intrepid guardians share a VISION of a world free from the fear and tyranny of dragonkind.

Whee. More:

Revelator
Luminary
Purifier
Big kitten Hero
Appetizer

Excludee.3850:

Palador.2170:

Excludee.3850:

HawkMeister.4758:

I must admit this caught me totally by surprise AND IT IS AWESOME!

Oh yes, scaffolding and wooden boards with no playable content whatsoever sure is awesome.

I’m really hoping that this isn’t the “big news” for the week.

They’re working on rebuilding Lion’s Arch. That’s not really news to anyone. And the NPC conversation about Hero-Tron being in charge of putting people to work kind of told us already that it was going to speed up soon. For this to be the big news would be … laughably bad.

You and I both know that this is probably it. The stream this week is just gonna be about “Oh man you can decide the names of the squares! Visionary!”

Visionary! Not a bad name for the new guardian spec. High concept: a guardian who uses a bow and traps to help realize his/her VISION of a Tyria without dragons.

As for the special surprise, well, I like the picture at the top of the article, but can the ground upon which LA stands support such a structure? What I mean is, was the structure build upon the existing topography of LA, or did someone just design something that looks cool and plonk it down without regard to the underlying terrain as we’ve known it for nearly three years now? Or! Is this even the same location? That much rock — where is it coming from? Will a quarry appear on an adjacent map? Inquiring minds want to know!

Further wonderment: will the revised Personal Story missions that take place in LA use the old LA, or the soon to be new and improved LA?

Obtena.7952:

No one has shown their explanation isn’t logical at all. Simply dismissing their explanation does not make it illogical. Besides, who determines it’s logical? It’s part of a made up story that they make up. It can be whatever they want. Obviously they think it fits their story.

The dragonhunter concept is not compatible with the established GW2 setting, specifically in regard to the nature of dragons, whether of the elder or lieutenant/champ variety. Anet can ‘explain’ it until they are all blue in the face (playable largos, plz) but it won’t make any difference. Until and unless Anet alters the setting to accommodate the idea that an individual can hunt down and deal with dragons with some reasonable chance of success, a dragonhunter in GW2 will continue to make about as much sense as a cthulhupuncher in a Call of Cthulhu game.

Aiee, I try to resist, I try, but…

“Just when I thought I was out… I found some arrows on a dead dragonhunter.” ~ Cornleorne the Ranger.

“I was once a dragonhunter like you, then I hunted one down.” ~ on a tombstone in Sparkfly Fen.

Question for the dragonhunter proponents: what is a dragonhunter going to do if he/she actually encounters a dragon while out hunting for one? Will he or she…

• Run up to it and scold it for being evil and unjust?
• Set traps under its feet?
• /e Bard the Bowman with his trusty Black Arrow (book Bard, that is, not the unreasonable facsimile from that awful movie).
• Set up an easel and do some quick sketches for later use in expanding his/her award-winning dragon art collection, cleverly titled ‘My Dragon Paintings’?

Do you think he/she’s going to KILL it? How? Well, megaserver, of course, will surely keep him/her from ever fighting a dragon alone… but for the sake of argument, let’s say it’s just the dragonhunter vs the hunted dragon. How’s that gonna go?

Point: what’s the point of being a hunter of a thing you can’t do anything with, about, or to?

More alternate names:

Corpse.
Deadguy.
Splotch.

The concept of dragonhunter, high or not, doesn’t fit the world of Tyria, due to the nature of Tyrian dragons as presented in GW2.

lordkrall.7241:

Alright, lets say that there was a large dangerous bear running around killing livestock and people in this small medieval town.

Who do they send out to track down and kill him?
They send a hunter, simply because a hunter already have the skills necessary to track down and take care of said dangerous bear.

No, they’d run up to the nearest player character, regardless of profession, and pester him or her for help. Over and over and over. Even if that character had already killed that kitten bear a hundred times before. Ahem.

Anyway, your scenario… I can see it now….

Sheriff Mortin: Uh, I just… Uh, I just wanna tell you what we’re planning so far…

Armorsmith: What about the meadows, Sheriff?

Sheriff Mortin: We’re gonna to put on the summer… the extra summer deputies as soon as possible. And then we’re gonna try and use, uh, bear spotters in the meadows.

Merchant: Are you going to close the Super Beerdrinker’s Keg Event?

Sheriff Mortin: Yes, we are. We’re also planning to bring in some experts from the Spirit of Bear Institute in Hoelbrak—

Vaunn: Only twenty four hours.

Sheriff Mortin: I didn’t agree to that.

Vaunn (firm): Only twenty four hours.

Bartender: Twenty four hours is like three weeks!

[Sound of asura fingertips squeaking on chalkboard]

Bearhunter Quinnt: Y’all know me. Know how I earn a livin’. I’ll catch this bird for ya, but it ain’t gonna be easy. Bad mammal. It’s not like going down to glade chasin’ tomcats or billy goats. This bear – swallow ya whole. L’il shakin’, l’il tenderizin’, down ya go. Now we gotta do it quick, that’ll bring back the beerdrinkers, that’ll put all your businesses on a payin’ basis. But it’s not gonna be pleasant! I value my neck a lot more than three copper, Sheriff! I’ll find him for three, but I’ll catch him… and kill him… for ten gold! Now you gotta make up your minds. Gonna stay alive and ante up? Or ya wanna play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don’t want no volunteers; I don’t want no mates. There’s too many bosses on this island. Ten gold coins for me by myself. For that you get the head, the paws, the whole kitten thing.

• * *

Substitute dragon for bear as I’ve substituted bear for shark and there’s another interpretation of our esteemed dragonhunter.

Wait. Another thought just came to me. Those guys hunting bears, in pre-searing Regent Valley in Ascalon… yeah!

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Bear_Hunters

A source of inspiration?

Dondarrion.2748:

This QQ thread is about 2.5 years late and was to be expected when Ascended gear got announced way back – but after all – it’s nice that Anet added ascended even though they missed doing so on launch. Just leave that ball dead now; no point ripping up the old wound.

Nah, it’s all good. ‘Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it’, and so on and so forth. Especially considering the changes wrought to the game since launch, which, in retrospect, indicate that the game started out as a dreadful mess, regardless of how well-received it may have been.

CookieMonster.5869:

It should just be for fractals.

Yes, ascended gear should have been just for fractals, and even there, just for the agony resistance, with stats otherwise no better than exotic gear.

Knighthonor.4061:

And Dragon Hunters fit, since they are similar to Demon Hunters in theme from Diablo 3…. Except we hunt Dragons in this universe.

Dragonhunter doesn’t fit, because we (should) know from experience/observation that dragonhunting is a group effort, and we’re not talking parties of five, we’re talking armadas of skyships and megalasers and stuff like that for the big ones, and mass quantities of people who know just where to stand for the smaller ones.

Dragonhunter: Ah hah! Vile wurm! I have hunted you down at last! And now with my trusty bow and clever traps, I—

Dragon (turns around to see what’s making that whining noise, steps on dragonhunter and squishes him, doesn’t even notice): Dang, they got big mosquitoes ’round here.

Mordeus.1234:

Now you could argue that Bow is uncharacteristic of the Paragon but there is are no ground combat spears in game and no guarantee that they will ever happen.

My paragon in Guild Wars ran around using whatever weapons he dang well pleased, including, on occasion, various bows, of which there used to be many more varieties besides long and short, but evidently that’s now lost technology. Further, I would argue that arrows are essentially spears anyway, just small and with a high tech delivery system that compensates for their lack of weight. So heck yeah. Bring on them paragons!

Rhiannon.1726:

Words with “angel”: Too “religious”.

Justiciar, Seraph or other words which are/were used as ranks (or for a group of people) in GW or GW2: That would just be weird.

A seraph is a high-ranking angel. So angelic names/ranks are already in use in game. That’s why I included cherub and ophanim in my suggestions for alternate names for the (sigh) dragonhunter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraphim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_angelic_hierarchy

Surely anet knew how provocative and inflammatory a spec title like ‘dragonhunter’ would be. Finger on the pulse, and all that. I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps ‘Publicity Stunt’ would have been a more appropriate title…

High Concept: game company uses silly name to get people fired up and talking about their game, thereby attracting more attention.

“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” ~ Oscar Wilde.

Are we, fellow forumites, being played like a 1-pound bluegill on 20-pound test line?

Like Red Jay said a few posts up, like I said myself, long ago — use the unexplored other half of Orr to carry on with what happens after the end of the Personal Story, accessible only after one has completed the Personal Story. Leave the current ‘Pre-PS’ portions as is. Something for everyone. Hooray.

Tossing out a few more. Whee.

Farseer
Intercessor
Rectifier
Redeemer
Illuminator
Kindler
Luminaire
Revelator
Morning Star
Shepherd
Guiding Light
Watcher
Cherubim (ya got Seraph already, so there)
Ophanim
Holy Order of the Kirk Drop Kick

Okay, maybe not that last one, unless that can be a skill/trait or something.

I like Trahearne, too, but I think he should have resigned as leader of the Pact once Big Z was handled, and stayed in Orr. His work there is far from being finished.

Taking the long view, what will happen to the dragonhunters when there are no more dragons? Will they retire? Will they hunt something else? Or will they become… dragonreminiscers?

“This one time, at Claw of Jormag…”

Speaking of which, instead of traipsing around in the wilderness hunting for dragons and/or other beasties, why don’t they just check the dang timers like everybody else.

Gibson.4036:

What does “high concept” even mean?

According to dictionary.com, high concept is a…

noun
1. a simple and often striking idea or premise, as of a story or film, that lends itself to easy promotion and marketing.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-concept

Example: ‘What if there was a world dominated by giant cave asura who ran around terrorizing people with their limited vocabularies and big clubs!’

Star Trek, for another example, was pitched to the TV guys as ‘Wagon Train to the stars!’, Wagon Train being a western TV show about a (wait for it) wagon train making its way from Missouri to California. So the ‘Wagon Train to the stars!’ was the high concept there.

I’ll jump in one more time. Re: the dragonhunters are like witchhunters ‘cept different ’high concept’:

If anet really wanted to go for the witchhunter ‘high concept’, a pistol would have been a better weapon choice. Nudge nudge wink wink Solomon Kane. Ahem.

Anyway. Ye olde witchhunter could go out hunting witches and if he found what he thought was a witch, he could deal with it.

Given the nature of Tyrian dragons, a dragonhunter, no matter how high concept, who goes out hunting dragons in Tyria is a prime candidate (see also: poster child) for the Tyrian equivalent of the Darwin Awards.

Unless they meant for the dragonhunters to be like, ya know, spies. Spotters. Target callers. Commandos! “That’s a big chicken.” In which case the title dragonhunter is still pretty darned cheesy.

It seems odd that the thief doesn’t have access to some sort of club. See also: sap, blackjack, nightstick, truncheon, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_(law_enforcement)#Sap

I play, in no particular order…

Thief, human female, Ascalonian
Mesmer, human female, old school Krytan
Ranger, human male, Ascalonian
Elementalist, asura male
Warrior, human female, Canthan
Guardian, human male, Kournan
Necromancer, human female, Istani
Engineer, human male, Vabbian/Canthan ancestry

Ranger, human female, Ascalonian/Krytan ancestry
Mesmer, asura female
Warrior, asura male
Guardian, sylvari female
Necromancer, sylvari male
Elementalist, human female, Orrian

Elementalist, charr male
Ranger, sylvari female
Thief, human male, Ascalonian/Krytan ancestry
Engineer, asura male

… because I am an altoholic and being stuck with one class/race/gender/whatever to play would be BORING.

We all (presumably) saw what happened to the last group of people who went hunting dragons in Tyria. Despite all the airships bristling with guns, despite all the massively focused firepower, it didn’t (ahem) end well. For someone — some one — to call himself (or herself) a ‘dragonhunter’…

It’s just silly. In my sainted opinion, of course.

Call them Dragonsfoil.

(Then retroactively introduce a plant named dragonsfoil that’s been around forever but most people think of as a weed and kill it whenever it sprouts, because hey, we need our rhubarb or whatever, but which has magical qualities that not only withstand but can even counter a particular plant-like dragon’s corrupting influence, and only a few people still remember [druids, maybe, or alchemists, or some other very ancient elite-type specialist that time and everyone else has all but forgotten but which, due to the circumstances at hand, is making a timely comeback] that this otherwise useless plant has these now quite desirable qualities.)

If I won a million dollars I’d invest the money in holographic landscaping and wait until the physical landscaping industry was almost defunct at which point I would buy up every remaining company with any ties to physical landscaping and lawn care, then I’d manipulate the media into revealing that prolonged exposure to holograms causes a rare form of chronic flatulence that if left unchecked will within a few years cause the planet’s atmosphere to reverse direction and throw everybody into space, and while everyone scrambled like mad to go back to real grass lawns and bushes and trees and stuff I’d become the wealthiest person on the planet, which is when I’d make NCSoft offers they couldn’t refuse to purchase City of Heroes/Villains and Guild Wars/GW2, and then I’d start my own game development company and put mounts in GW2.