Guild Wars 2

Knighthonor.4061:

I wonder when this will be revealed

If last week is anything to go by, prolly Thursday we’ll have the blog post and Friday we’ll have the livestream.

Has anyone actually considered that the reason they’re not selling beta access currently is because they need to control how many people actually go into the beta?

Answer this, then: How does the Chronomancer go about their flying combat?

What in that image gives any indication the Guardian is flying? And what about Chronomancers? We know they don’t get any flying skills.

Maybe it’s an aesthetic tied to the Elite Spec. Paragons in GW1, for example, used to get wings when they cast certain skills.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Orpheal.8263:

Please dont let it be longbow, let it be shortbows prays

He’s wielding Aether, which is a short bow… so looks likely.

Couldn’t it be Azureflame though?

Well, in an interview with MattVisual, Colin said that the Wyvern wasn’t an example of the challenging group content that they’re talking about; just an example of what open-world fights will be like.

“Shifting back to the original timeline reverts the chronomancer’s health, endurance, and all cooldowns (yes, even the elite skill) back to the state they were in when the shatter was first activated.”

Could this also be a double-edged sword though by also increasing cooldowns?

Valento.9852:

Plot Twist II: F5 will not be a shatter.

Finally and when it comes to the unique mechanic of the chronomancer, they’ll gain access to a new shatter skill on F5.

Actually, it’s more of a case of you activate the F5 skill, do all of that within the duration of the effect – which is unknown, but I’d wager a guess at it being a maximum of 3 seconds (1 sec per clone, based off of Distortion) – and then reactivate the F5 skill.

Not to mention the combo is ruined if you get interrupted.

tramwajarz.2369:

I am almost certain this professions finally reaches necro tier of being useless as other professions will get much more important specs

Well it depends on the mechanics of future content whether it’ll be useless or useful.

While the official blog post isn’t out yet (ANet are sure taking their time since it was on a newsite before they posted) MassivelyOP has just posted an article on the Mesmer Elite Specialisation which is, to everyone’s surprise, the Chronomancer.

It doesn’t really contain any specifics, but there’s a video and a few screenshots there.

EDIT: The Ten Ton Hammer article goes into more depth:

• Chronomancers have access to an effect called Alacrity which reduces cooldowns. Only Chronomancers will have access to this effect (could this mean each Elite Specialisation will have access to a unique effect?)
• Chronomancer’s have access to a 5th Shatter skill: Continuum Split / Continuum Shift. Activating this the first time shatters all of your illusions and records your health, endurance, cooldowns (even elite skills) at the time of activation. After the duration – based off of the number of shattered illusions – is over, the Mesmer reverts to these values.
• The Off-hand Shield skills are called Echo of memory and Tides of Time. Tides of Time launches a wave, absorbing all projectiles, stunning foes and granting Quickness to allies. This wave then returns, applying the same effects. If you pass through the wall on the return trip, a portion of the cooldown is refunded.
• Chronomancers get 4 Time Wells. One well causes all attacks to become unblockable. After the Well ends, allies gain evade for a short time.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I agree last week was great. I was hoping that would be the new pace of information as we got closer to release. Seems most people are happy with the trickle of info though. I guess the expansion is still pretty far off so they need to go slowly.

If you thought last week was great what’s the issue with this week?

Test.8734:

lordkrall.7241:

At least this way they guarantee that the people that get selected actually plays the game.

Correction: that people that get selected grind the game.

That could be HoT’s new slogan: “Only grinders need to apply!”

A big step away from the “We don’t want players to grind” mentality, but I guess that ship has sailed a long time ago.

Bit of a slippery slope argument you got there.

How do you think they should have done it then? Preorder beta access? Mail list RNG?

Welp, looks like it’s going to be the Mesmer.

Dedicated healer (or traditional tanking) was never supposed to be a role in the game.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/guild-wars-2-has-no-healers-or-tanks

@Orpheal

Why would a Tempest be purely under Air Magic?

Personally I think Stormcaller would be a fine profession name, even if the Proffession mechanic stays the same.

After all, there are different sorts of storms. You do get firestorms, hailstorms, sandstorms etc.

Tomes of Knowledge will grant 1 level, but won’t help level Masteries at level 80 from what I heard (though whether this is official or not I can’t comment).

Skill Points and Scrolls of Knowledge will be turned into a new wallet currency, currently – and jokingly – named Djinngots.

Nike.2631:

I like the concept (a lot, actually) but it would be a nightmare to untangle each time they reset all our WvW points…

What about tying it to Rank?

Diovid.9506:

Sort of.

Mesmerism
Etymology: From French mesmérisme; so called after Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), a German physician who developed the animal magnetism theory.

Meaning: The method or power of gaining control over someone’s personality or actions, as in hypnosis or suggestion.

The more you know…

Thanks for that

Donari.5237:

Orpheal.8263:

So please ANet.. just prove me wrong and be more creative than somethign like that …

Do you consider “Warrior” creative? How about “Engineer?” Or “Guardian?” Or, as you seem dismayed by naming the spec after something meaning a wild storm (which can be used metaphorically, btw, not just as a weather system … eg "A tempest of protests arose after a convicted thief was appointed to the city council), what about Mesmer? That’s named after an 18th century guy who theorized animal magnetism as a cure for illness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Mesmer

Creativity is in the eye of the beholder.

I always thought Mesmer was based on the word mesmerize, given their penchant for illusions and glamours.

I wonder…

Given how Trait currently unlock later on, can’t it be assumed that so will Specialisation slots?

If so, maybe the Trait and Elite Specialisation tracks won’t be unlocked for players to put points into them until the appropriate level?

Or change the trait so that it is a build-defining trait?

For example, Conjured weapons seem to have only one trait:

Bountiful Conjure

• Conjuration skills produce an extra weapon.
• Gain Might / Health / Condition Removal / [Insert other effect here] when using a Conjured weapon charge.
• Increase stat bonuses when wielding a Conjured weapon (50%).
• Reduce cooldowns on Conjured weapon skills by %.
• Gaining a boon also restores 1 conjure charge (x sec ICD)

Orpheal.8263:

So please ANet.. just prove me wrong and be more creative than somethign like that …

Well, Tempest has been used as a class name before, so it can’t be all that bad right?

• Skill points are being converted to crafting items for the Mystic Forge:

Old skill points in excess of those earned by leveling and skill challenges will be converted into crafting materials for the Mystic Forge. Items and activities that were previously repeatable sources of skill points will now also provide that same crafting material.

• Unless I’ve missed it, there hasn’t been a dev statement on Tomes of Knowledge being removed. Given the change, though, it’d make sense to remove Scrolls of Knowledge, that currently grant skill points.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

smfc.4570:

There is one things tho, everyone can be a healer but there are no good healers, everyone can be a tank but there are no good tanks, every class is just average with some minor advantage on its specialization.

There’s more to it than that. You can be a healer, but there is nothing in the game that requires a dedicated healer. All damage can be overcome by self sustained healing. No one is dependent on their party members. Arguably it’s mostly the boon spamming from guardians and warriors that makes a big difference, plus perhaps reflection for some encounters. But other than that, it’s pretty much a free for all, with very little to challenge the players.

Tanking can be done by most classes, but tanking in the game is nearly impossible. First of all, you don’t need to tank, because defensive boons are spammed instantly across the whole party with very little cost. So it’s not just one player that is tanking. But even if one player wanted to be the tank, how would you keep aggro? The game’s dungeons have very few choke points, and aggro control is none existent. It’s a mess. So even if you wanted to tank, you couldn’t.

In a game that was never supposed to have traditional tanking and dedicated healing, is this really a surprise?

It’s sort of shocking how many people complain that they can’t reasonably play dedicated tanks and healers in a game that was never built around having a dedicated tank or healer.

Now, one thing I somewhat agree on – from your other post – is the need to differentiate how players approach encounters (something that the Trinity wouldn’t actually achieve since you’d still have to approach the encounter with a set group composition).

I don’t think having required, dedicated roles is the way to approach it though.

Alexander.9810:

I am almost positive these are the utilities that the elite specialization uses. That suggests that the new class is some master of storms / winds.

Well…this makes more sense than my post

You’re probably right.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

The new trait system is just the latest of many problems. They also have removed 4 PvP maps, 1 WvW map, All water combat from multiple zones, traits, armor, outfits, and some other things that I can’t remember at the moment.

What 4 PvP maps? I thought they only removed Capricorn.

I’m also almost positive they said the WvW map will be part of a rotation, so it’s not getting removed per se.

Personally I think the new Trait and Specialisation system is an improvement as opposed to a problem.

Devildoc.6721:

Question 2: Some of the traits that are getting culled are actually ones that are getting used and traits that are remaining are ones that people would have preferred seen culled. From the example of water magic that we saw today, one of my favorite traits, vital striking, is getting culled, why and where can we make up that 10% dps loss?

Some of the traits are getting merged.

For example, Vital Striking is getting merged with Aquamancer’s Alacrity to make Aquamancer’s Training in the Master tier.

So, on one of the images on this blog post, we can see one of the reward tracks labelled as Tempest.

Is this the new Elementalist specialisation, I wonder?

1. Does this Specialisation Primer mean that the coming weeks are going to be revealing the actual specialisations?

2. Are weapon skills unlocked through the new reward track system? I ask this because in the image, I spied icons that looked like weapon skill icons.

3. Since Skill Points are being retired, what currency will Miyani take now, assuming you aren’t firing her?

4. Will the difference between gear tiers remain as they are now or will it increase?

5. Will Condition Duration and Boon Duration undergo a similar rework to the Crit Damage to Ferocity change to make sets of gear that have these stats?

Horizontal progression isn’t just about cosmetics though; it’s about options and tools as opposed to climbing stats.

If you can’t do something – jump on mushrooms – because you lack the ability and then you train a Mastery to gain that ability, it’s horizontal progression; it doesn’t make you more powerful, but it gives you another tool to explore.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Just checked “news”.. LS3 confirmed. Another recap..I dont even..

Cant w8 to that awesome next blog soon about “mushroom lore” or another recap.

Recap of all recaps we had so far, a bit more lore about how gliders were invented and maybe a sentence about awesome rewards and/or challanges.

Where is this article? I’m looking on the front page and can’t see it anywhere.

PorceleinEve.2973:

TheDaiBish.9735:

In reference to the bolded, how is Anet supposed to know what you feel is wrong with something if you don’t let them know?

Anet: So you’ve said this is what’s wrong with it and this is how we’ll change it.

Consumer: Nope. I’m still not happy with it.

Anet: Like this?

Consumer: Nope. I’m still not happy with it.

Anet: What about this?

Consumer: Nope. I’m still not happy with it. Screw it, I’m going to another game.

Can you see the issue?

Nopes, that’s a gross mirepresentation….

let’s try it…

me – this expansion is small
anet – what’s wrong with it
me – no underwater combat, no new race, limited landmass, specs seem flaky, masteries feel like a grind, no new dungeons

that’s a critisism, don’t ask me to go about and solve these problems on my own for anet, i don’t get payed for that… and folks have been saying that, and that’s constructive enough. the problems have been outlined, don’t ask of the consumers to produce the solution too…

Ahhh. I was interpreting the whole ‘just let them know you’re dissatisfied, constuctive criticism isn’t needed’.

What you just gave was an example of constructive criticism. It doesn’t need to propose solutions as long as it outlines the issues you see with it.

With the fight against the Elder Dragons taking priority, chronicling the vast history of Tyria has taken a step back for the Durmand Priory.

As such, the Durmand Priory has asked the adventurers of Tyria to keep an eye out for any artifacts while they roam the world.

What is Archaeology?

Archaeology is digging up old stuff.

Players would use a refined version of the VOED in order to detect artifacts from past ages.

For those who aren’t versed in the history of Tyria, the Durmand Priory recommends adventurers search around Points of Interest already marked on their map. Although these sites have had cursory glances taken at them – thanks to history books – no actual excavations have been carried out.

Mechanics

Detecting Artifacts

Players would equip the VOED which would then change the first 5 skills of the skillbar. Unfortunately, in order to maintain accuracy at different distances, the wavelength of each skill is different, meaning that each skill has a certain range of ranges in which it can detect items:

Skill 1: 2000 – 1500 units
Skill 2: 1499 – 1000 units
Skill 3: 999 – 500 units
Skill 4: 499 – 0 units
Skill 5: Dig

If the VOED detects something, then it will show on the minimap in a certain radius. The closer you are to the artifact, the more accurate the location is marked.

The types of artifacts found would depend on the location’s history.

Progression

Players will unearth a bunch of stuff that can’t accurately be identified (giving them a wider chance of getting rarer relics).

However, as their Archaeology levels up, so does their eye for items increasing their chances of gaining rarer relics, which can be exchanged for the higher tier rewards.

Rewards

Hand-In Rewards

Players give the artifacts to the Priory in exchange for a number of rewards, including:

• Unique Weapon Skins
• Unique Armour Skins
• Crafting Recipes for old GW weapon and armour skins
• Lore snippets unlocking at that particular PoI

These rewards would be dependent on what kind of artifacts they found. So for example, if a player handed in Deldrimor Relics, depending on the rarity of the relics the player has handed in, can obtain anything from a Dwarven Tonic to a Recipie: Deldirmor weapon.

Collections

For completing a collection, the player can obtain Ascended gear of choice with a unique skin.

For example, completing the Dwarven collection (Deldrimor and Stone Summit Relics), the player can unlock:

• Ironhammer’s Platemail (Heavy)
• Deeprunner’s Leathers (Medium)
• Alkar’s Vestements (Light)

rotten.9753:

TheDaiBish.9735:

They’ve also said that they haven’t discussed any of the ‘challenging group content’ yet – Whyvern doesn’t count, apparently.

Discussing new content vs saying “yes, there will be new fractals”.

Your point?

Last time I looked, Fractals were ‘group content’.

rotten.9753:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Again, why is it ‘apparent’ that they won’t release Fractals with the expac? Where’s your source for this?

Because they haven’t mentioned them. If there were any new fractals they would mentioned them.

They’ve also said that they haven’t discussed any of the ‘challenging group content’ yet – Whyvern doesn’t count, apparently.

Csele.1647:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Csele.1647:

1 new class (no dps class useless?)

They haven’t finished revealing all the parts of the Revenant yet.

The rest I’m not going to comment on since we don’t fully know what it all entails.

Csele.1647:

1. no fractals
2. no pvp maps
3. no “real challenging stuff”
4. no dungeons

1. Source? I’d be surprised if we didn’t get any new Fractals, since there’s a Fractal Mastery track.

2. Stronghold was a PvP map the last time I looked.

3 + 4. Source?

oops i moved my post

I’m sure they will release more fractals , but not with the expansion apparently
about stronghold yea you are right my bad there still wont make any difference.

3-4 as i said “it looks like” isnt confirmed.. but what are the odds they release dungeons or real challenging stuff (not open world bosses) that isn’t challenging stuff , unless you are 3 or 4 years old

Again, why is it ‘apparent’ that they won’t release Fractals with the expac? Where’s your source for this?

And at no point in your post did you make out it was speculation, which is why I was asking for sources (There have been a few times where I’ve missed bits of information, which is why I tend to ask for sources for things I haven’t heard about).

As for ‘challenging’, challenging is a wholly subjective thing.

PorceleinEve.2973:

You’re wrong, they serve the greatest purpose of all. To communicate the fact that folks are dissatisfied. That’s -all- they need to know. Constructive critisism is unecessary. I don’t get payed by arena net to propose solutions or make analyses of the parts of the game that don’t work. I’m the consumer. It’s not my job to be constructive. I -only- have to say that this is a problem for me. The rest is their job. All we have to do is express our concerns. And obviously we’d like our problems to be addressed. It’s the job of the consumer. As for the official recognition. That’s arena net’s choice. But eventually disatisfied customers go away. How they want to handle them is up to them obviously.

Most of the negative people around here already say the most important thing, they don’t like something. Non constructive critisism is the only critisism that can take place, since it’s not our job to solve the game’s problems for free. If that’s poisoning the dialogue in the community then they need to solve the problems faster, address them in the forums and produce positive results. All of the concerns are legitimate. If someone doesn’t like something, then he doesn’t like it, and it’s a very legitimate concern. Anet, or you, can’t tell people what they have the right to complain about or not. What matters in the end is the volume that each complaint is getting. That’s why we need folks to keep complaining about stuff. So they can gauge what are the most pressing issues with their customers.

In reference to the bolded, how is Anet supposed to know what you feel is wrong with something if you don’t let them know?

Anet: So you’ve said this is what’s wrong with it and this is how we’ll change it.

Consumer: Nope. I’m still not happy with it.

Anet: Like this?

Consumer: Nope. I’m still not happy with it.

Anet: What about this?

Consumer: Nope. I’m still not happy with it. Screw it, I’m going to another game.

Can you see the issue?

Csele.1647:

1 new class (no dps class useless?)

They haven’t finished revealing all the parts of the Revenant yet.

The rest I’m not going to comment on since we don’t fully know what it all entails.

Csele.1647:

1. no fractals
2. no pvp maps
3. no “real challenging stuff”
4. no dungeons

1. Source? I’d be surprised if we didn’t get any new Fractals, since there’s a Fractal Mastery track.

2. Stronghold was a PvP map the last time I looked.

3 + 4. Source?

TPMN.1483:

I was playing the beta – it scaled.

Ahh ok. Thanks for the answer

TPMN.1483:

It scales – e.g. more players = more CC’s needed when the bar goes up.

Was it said in one of the interviews or Points of Interest? Must have missed it.

1. Gliders will have a Mastery that will allow players to ride air currents to reach higher places.

2. There were never meant to be dedicated tanking (aggro management) or healing classes in the game – the whole premise was ‘bring the player, not the class’. Heck, there was never meant to be a dedicated healer or tanks for encounters whatsoever.

3. Last time I looked Ascended weapons cost a lot more than 2g. Personally I’m against Legendary weapons being statistically superior than Ascended, and that the only things their currently missing is Sigil swapping and an actual Legend.

4. While you may find getting stat increases on gear a driving force, for a lot of the people who bought the game the whole premise of not needing to replace gear every few months was a big selling point. Personally I’m one of them people and the never-ending stat increases isn’t something I’d like to see brought into the game.

No thanks.

IMO the flaw with the current Legendaries is that for the most part they don’t have their own lore or place in the world, and thus they don’t have their own Legend. Not that it’s not more powerful than Ascended weapons.

The only thing that I’d say that should be added to Legendary weapons is the ability to swap Sigils along with stats and a back story as to why they are Legendary.

Will the new Defiance system scale depending on the amount of players at the fight?

Note: I’m fully aware that these numbers may or may not be the actual numbers. They’re just there to provide context to the example.

For example, let’s say that the Defiance bar of the Wyvern has a value of 20 when there are 5 people at the fight.

Will the Defiance bar’s value or regen rate raise as more players join the fight – helping to keep a certain level of difficulty – or will it keep at a constant regardless of how many players join the fight – potentially making triggering the Defiance mechanic a lot easier?

TheDraco.3965:

A bit of a bold statement but hear me out. Its been nearly 3 months since the announcement of the expansion and the only information given about “challenging group content” is pointing at an open world Wyvern boss.

Actually, in one of the interviews Colin said that the Wyvern fight was just an example of a tough open world boss:

…the Wyvern is an example of just a tough boss in the open world. It’s not a mega boss, it’s not some super, crazy challenging group content that we want you to do. It’s just an example of what world bosses are going to start being like.

Source

Orpheal.8263:

The point in this thread clearly is…

What do we learn out of the information we all receive out of the blogpost?

That, despite being told to the contrary, players will always latch onto something and jump to conclusions?

Orpheal.8263:

What stops Anet from doing what they did there in regard of animations with NPCs with our Player Characters also too??

When Anet is clearly able to merge animations of a NPC Character together with another NPC Model of a giant beetle to make basically out of 2 seperate models one merged character model that has also a merged health pool for both creatures at the same time, what in the hell does stop then Anet to do just the same also with Player Character Models and Mount Models, to merge them together at the moment, making out of both models one merged body model with merged animations and a shared health pool/skill bar.

This kind of gameplay mechanics is EXACLY that kind of game design, which would favor greatly all kinds of gameplay mechanics based around MOUNTED COMBAT SYSTEMS, because of the game merging your character with your mount and making out of the mount basically a “part of your character”, while you ride it, where all of your combat skills gets changed for the time you ride your mode and where you health pool gets increased (Siege Golem exactly also works like this, just with the difference, that the Siege Golem is no Animation Merger, but instead is an Animation Replacer!!, because usign them completely replaces your characters body model and animations with that of the Siege Golem, because Siege Golems are nothing else than mobile battle suits, where it makes sense that threy are animation replacers and not mergers.

Anet is clearly testing out again more and more very sublte the boundaries of how far they can go with mount mechanics, this time implementing them first into enemy gameplay.
Serious, theres nothign what would hold off Anet to do the same mechanics with our playable characters, when they are willing to implement mounts with animation merging mechanics into the game for some enemies in the upcomimg expansion so that we will see there the first mounted enemies that will use mounted combat skills against us that will have alot more health than the usual normal unmounted enemies of the same type, due to the game merging the enemy with the mount together as if you would basicalyl fight against 2 creatures at the same time, when it is actually by its animations just 1 body model that the game has to calculate.

Thats exactly also that kind of mechanic, that would solve the problem that many mount naysayers have with, that mounts would increase the screen clutter/lags of the game by increasing the workload for the game to claculate thigns due to an increased amoutn of body models…
If bodymodels get just merged and the mount becomes just a part of your own body model of your character in regard of mounted combat mechanics that exchange all your skills out with completely different mounted skills, the workload for the game would stay untouched, because the game woudl still have to calculate the exact same amount of skills in the game and there would be no increase of body models that could create more thigns that would have to be calculated at the same time, because due to the merged animations, its still just only 1 body model, just that one with a different body shape then while you ride your mount.

I wouldn’t be surprised, if mounted enemies with merged body models and shared health pools will be just the beginning and the final door openers, that we might see finally somewhen sooner or later when the time and the moment in the games story is right for anet to also introduce player mounts with the same gameplay mechanics, or similar ones, that ANet uses with HoT now for mounted enemy combat mechanics and animation systems.

We have no idea how the animations work.

Are these actually two entities that merge or they one entity right from the get go? Do the actual Hylek dismount from the beetles and wander off or are they simply NPC’s that stay on their mounts because they are one model? (Kind of like Necrid Horsemen in GW).

Neural.1824:

zcearo.1897:

but they are listening to the forum .

How do you know if they are listening to the forum, or if it is merely coincidence that the forum complaints happen to be the same as the data they are receiving from in game, sampled from thousands of users?

That’s part of what I’m getting at here. The forum complaints only appear to get addressed. What is actually going on is simply coincidence.

On the flip side, how do you know that it’s merely coincidence if nothing is being said otherwise?

Read the very bottom:

Zintl fanatics and their beetles do not use a proper mount system but instead share animations and a single health pool.

Mojo Gris Gris.5941:

zcearo.1897:

The announced upcoming NPE changes are strongly indicative that Arenanet IS listning .

I missed that announcement. Anyone got a link?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Traits-Part-2/first#post4776953

Now that the HOT is out of the bag, we’re able to update this thread with more details. With the introduction of the new account based mastery system for end-game progression and growth in PvE, we’ll also be re-evaluating our other systems of character progression to ensure they match our over-all pillars and goals for Gw2.

In doing so: we’re going to be removing the current trait unlocking system currently on live and replacing it with a more simplified system that supports where skills-traits-specializations are going in the future. We’ll go into more details between now and the release of HOT on how skills, traits, and specializations will work in the new Gw2 world.

I could see the Druid specialization having a strong focus with Spirits, given the lore surrounding the Druids.