Guild Wars 2

Test.8734:

It’s not a matter of fighting a default and a stronger version of one enemy. Or fighting enemies with different abilities. Rather, what ArenaNet is implying they have done with the Wyvern is to use “same creature” (per their own words) in multiple places, with the single difference being the size of the area said creature is in.

That sounds a bit lazy.

I’d say it depends.

If the Wyvern is supposed to be unique boss then yes, it’s edging on the side of lazy.

However, if the Wyvern is simply a new species spread throughout the new are, that has been designed with better mechanics and AI in mind and isn’t intended to be a unique boss, or if the boss fight is part of an event chain – where you chase the boss through the jungle – then I’d say it’s a pretty normal practice.

Nope, Magic Find just increases the drop rate chance of rarer items dropping.

For example, if an Exotic has a 1% chance of dropping, having 100% MF would increase that chance to 2%.

For the record, I’m pretty sure that the MF cap is 700%.

As above, see below.

I have this from time to time, so I just leave gaming and pursue one of my other hobbies (blacksmithing, game development, writing, drawing etc).

Astralporing.1957:

And “challenging group content” may mean just more open world Teq-like fights. Up to you whether you consider this a “raid-like content”, but it seems that most of people clamoring for raids did not think of it like that.

“Challenging group content” could also be an umbrella term, implying that there will be more than one type of “challenging group content”.

Oogo.4083:

yeah but my question is if can i explore every nook and cranny without gliding at all?

Nope. They said in one of the interviews that gliding would open up previously unreachable areas of the map.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

We have these and more in-game since launch (2+ years). They are “playable” tactics. Heck, you can even have dedicaded healers (cleric ele’s camping water) in the group. Thing is though you will be far far better with the current meta. (Stacking to 1 spot, freeze & nuke) It is the case in every single dungeon.

Is that a fault though with the combat mechanics or the encounter mechanics?

Look at AC, The Lover’s. They have a mechanic where going closer to each other buffs them.

There’s two faults with this fight though: even though it’s the main mechanic, they don’t attempt to go close to each other nearly enough and; the buff isn’t powerful enough to prevent level 80’s just stack and smashing them down.

Suddenly make the main mechanic of that fight something you can’t ignore and you get a fight where all of you can’t stack in one spot. Control becomes more meaningful.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

As long as the whole game relies on dodge roll to avoid damage, and not mitigate it by any kind of buff, healers will never have a spot in meta, neither will tanks. Most of the bosses can one shot you, so what’s the point of having someone healing or tanking? Not to mention that water fields mess up might stacking/blinds etc…

+Also ranged dps is not viable because of no helping the group.

+DoT dps is not viable because of condi cap @25.

+Controll is not viable since you will mess the defiance removal proccess which is 99% job of thief.

Again, that’s down to the encounter mechanics, and not necessarily the combat mechanics (though conditions need reworking. I’ll agree on that). If you had an encounter where you had snipers on some unreachable balcony, suddenly ranged would be needed in a fight.

Also, you don’t need to have tanks and healers to be in the meta to have roles in a fight. That’s a limited view on what a ‘role’ is.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Have you played a traditional MMO which required real tactics?

Usually for a raid you would need:

-2 main tanks (possibly swapping agro when needed depending on boss mechanics)
-1 off tank (either tanking something else, or kiting mobs)
-Healers
-off healer (usually relying on HoT’s that get extremelly powerfull but require time to build)
-buff class
-debuff class
-melee dps
-ranged dps

Yeah, good luck going there with tank & spank tactics. Your raid will make the repair npc a billionaire!

Yes, I have as a matter of fact. I did for around 5 years.

A lot of them mechanics that were essential to the fight though weren’t based around the Trinity as a whole though.

Since we’re going deep into game mechanics, GW2 has:

• Control – Movement (Immobilise, Cripple etc), Damage (Blind, Weakness etc) and CC (Daze, Stun etc)
• Damage – Melee, Ranged, DoT’s (Bleed, Torment etc) and Debuffs (Vulnerability, Poison etc)
• Support – Spot healing (regeneration, splash healing from skills), Condition Removal, Offensive Support (Might, Fury) and Defensive Support (Aegis, Protection).

Then we have things that don’t fit neatly into a category like combo fields and finishers and reflects.

So, tell me: With all of these mechanics at hand, why couldn’t you have engaging raids that are more than zerg and dps?

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

What’s the point of raids without trinity?

It would result in a zergfest (like world bosses), where you just burn things down asap.

With the current game mechanics, the only raid situation that could exist, is 12/24/71152 people stack in 1 spot, hitting the same boss untill it’s dead.

By this logic the only raid situation that could exist in the Trinity is tank and spank or heal the target, since they’re the game mechanics of the Trinity.

I can also see different glider skins being introduced into the Gem Store.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/coming-soon-beta-version-of-streaming-client/

TL;DR – Players can start playing the game sooner while the game downloads in the background.

Shinji.2063:

With no trinity you also get raids that are a lot less mechanically impressive. Everything has to be watered down since a lot of the raid designs cant be done with a everyone does everything style.

Not necessarily. It’s how you design the encounter to fit in with your systems.

Look at The Lover’s fight in AC. Despite the lack of dedicated tanks and aggro management, that fight has a mechanic where you need to keep both of the bosses away from each other; the only fault with the fight is that the bosses don’t try to go near each other enough.

Just because everyone can do everything, it doesn’t mean you can’t design encounters that require certain things. In fact, I’d say it’s the opposite; because everyone can do everything – and the freedom in which you can build your character – it opens up a lot more in the way of what can be expected of players, since players have more options and aren’t stuck in a set group composition.

Captain Hammer

/15 hammers

Shiki.7148:

And yet again, you did not get it, or you wouldn’t be still riding the “but they need more bandwidth” train. They. do not. need. MORE BANDWIDTH. Like, SERIOUSLY. I wonder why you just won’t get it in your head that 5 mobs on the same map having 20 stacks of bleed each and one mob having 20 stacks applied times 5 if 5 condi-players attack it is the EXACT SAME THING calculationwise?! And, since plkayers get the information on other players transmitted in the former case, they actually need more data transferred->more datause, and that works fine?

I stand by what I say – that more bandwidth would be needed – for the following reason:

Map activity fluctuates and isn’t a constant.

• Let’s say there are usually 50 people on a map and, for the sake of comparison, they all apply 25 stacks of bleed for 5 seconds (so 1250 bleeds). The boss spawns and now there’s 100 people and they’re all applying 25 stacks of bleed for 5 seconds (so 2500 bleeds) because each player gets their own stack. During which time are more conditions being calculated? After all, them extra stacks are going to use up more bandwidth, right?

• During boss fights, it’s easier to apply and maintain a high number of condition x. So, if there are 50 players on a map and they only manage to stack 10 bleeds (so 500 bleeds) on a mob before it dies, then them 50 players go to fight a world boss and they’re maintaining 20 bleeds (so 1000 bleeds), during which phase are more conditions being calculated?

I get what you’re saying, honestly. 5 stacks on 5 mobs = 5 stacks on 1 mob, computationally.

The flaw with your example though is that you seem to be saying that map activity before a boss fight = map activity during a boss fight which I find incredibly unlikely.

Yes, there are a maximum amount of players allowed on a map at any one time. That’s not to say that the maximum is always being filled though. Chances are if they had the same activity before and after the boss fight as during, Anet would have to lower the maximum amount of players allowed on a map to compensate for the additional constant activity on that map.

vpchelko.4261:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Ok, but you called me out on my lack of knowledge of computer science.

I’m asking to point out where I’m wrong.

Rift
World of Warcraft

So what you meant was I had a lack of knowledge regarding the mechanics of them games.

vpchelko.4261:

TheDaiBish.9735:

Please, enlighten me what I got wrong.

Edited.

Shortly – the current condition damage mechanic is mistake. It just shows ANET disability.

Ok, but you called me out on my lack of knowledge of computer science.

I’m asking to point out where I’m wrong.

vpchelko.4261:

TheDaiBish.9735:

sigh
bla bla bla.

Big demonstration of the lack of knowledge of computer science.

Just say – you know nothing.

Please, enlighten me what I got wrong.

Shiki.7148:

sigh

What about my example didn’t you kittening get? The amount of stacks on the whole map <= amount of stacks on one world boss, so same amount of bandwidth and server power used as it is now, even if they did this change. Just because, instead of distributing pieces on a board of checkers, you pile them all on top of each other, they do not suddenly become more pieces.

I got and understood your example.

Firstly (and it’s something that I didn’t finish on my last post), we have no idea of how much bandwidth condition calculation takes up. I’d wager that they allocate bandwidth specifically to certain tasks – in this case, calculating conditions. Given what someone said before – inefficient netcode – chances are condition calculation probably uses up more bandwidth than ideal.

Now, if this is true (and I can’t imagine they wouldn’t assign bandwidth limits to tasks instead of letting it run rampant) they can’t increase the amount of bandwidth assigned to condition calculation (because that’s what happens during boss fights – the amount of conditions being calculated rises because of a) adds and b) the fight is an extended fight that it’s easier to apply and maintain 25 stacks for extended periods of time) without taking bandwidth from somewhere else, thus potentially affecting performance.

As an example, let’s say that 40% of the total assigned bandwidth for condition calculation for a server is constantly in use during the down-time between bosses. During boss fights, this jumps up to 55%, meaning that the required bandwidth being used for condition calculation during boss fights is 15%. That’s for 25 shared stacks of bleed, confusion, torment etc etc. Obviously you don’t want to be using 100% of bandwidth at all times, since you need a buffer for times where there is unusually large amounts of activity.

Now imagine each player got their own stack for damaging conditions.

How much more bandwidth do you think that would require? Because if that amount of bandwidth required exceeds 100%, that would cause lag in the condition calculations.

Secondly, the amount of stacks on the map at any one time are for the most part going to be far, far less than during a boss fight for a variety of reasons (mobs have lower health and so die quicker, the majority of player activity tends to follow the bosses, groups of mobs spawn during the boss fights etc).

I cannot see a map having the same activity in terms of condition calculation before and after the boss fight as during the boss fight, unless you have reason to assume otherwise?

Which brings me back to the original point. The amount of condition calculation would drastically increase if each player was given their own stack on a world boss, simply because the amount of activity in the game increases when a boss spawns. Thus stacks are limited to prevent bandwidth usage spiraling out of control.

Brahmincorle.1264:

If you are talking about WoW than this is no longer true. Damage of every tick is now calculated from your current stats – not from stats you had when you applied your DoT.

Huh, interesting. Can a boss also have multiple copies of a DoT on them then as well? Last time I played – think it was about 6 – 7 months back – I remember my DoT’s getting overwritten by another player.

Shiki.7148:

Now, on that map, there can be, let’s say, 500 players. Now these 500 players fight 500+ mobs, and they all use conditions. Guess what is happening? Right, the server calculates 500+ 15-20 bleeding-stacks, 1000+ healthbars, 500+ times poison, 500+ times torment stacks etc etc. Every player receives the info about his own stacks, the stacks on other mobs nearby fighting other players, all of the mobs healthbars, movements etc.

Next, all of those 500 play+ gather up for the world boss event. And what happens now? The server has to calculate ONE Hp-bar, exactly 500 15-20 stacks of bleed, exactly 500 times the poison damage (but only factor healing reduction ONCE), torment etc. Which is EXACTLY THE SAME as what it calcuates if the 500 players were roaming around. Now for the players: they receive the info of their OWN stacks. They do not, however, need to see everyone elses stacks, it is enough to get the update on how the bosses HP is fairing.

Conclusion: the server CALCULATES THE SAME GODkitten AMOUNT OF INFO. Actually less, because only one HP bar is involved (I’ll leave eventual adds out of here). The players are sent THE SAME AMOUNT OF INFORMATION, or even less, because they do not need to receive the info for the other players’ stacks like they would if they were fighting two seperate mobs with a system that makes you apply stacks to the same DoT, meaning you need to receive that information.

Get it now? There is really no difference in processing power and bandwidth needed. At least not if you implement it correctly, meaning only sending the info of the results (the decrease of the bosses HP bar) instead of sending info about the damage every stack does, and even THEN, same thing applies for power-moves.

1. I know players only need info on their own stacks. However, bandwidth isn’t an issue only the players have the deal with. Remember Anet needs to balance their bandwidth for the entire game, while we only need bandwith for what we’re currently doing.

2. We don’t know how much bandwith processing

Shiki.7148:

As for your idea… you see, if that new DoT wouldn’t factor the effectiveness and duration of the stacks used to build the 25 stacks, it would actually be a huge NERF for condition classes. Because you could simply use power-users that take zerker or assassin gear, meaning 0 condi duration or damage and would get the SAME RESULT, turning those two stats even more ineffective than they are currently.

Which is something I addressed – the exact same concern as you just said, funnily enough – in the original suggestion if you look.

Personally I don’t think conditions in the open world will be fixed with a single change, but rather a number of changes.

ZannX.4058:

This is a 10+ year old solved issue (see every other MMO, notably you know what).

There’s a key difference though:

• In the game-that-shall-not-be-named and most other MMO’s, DoT’s tend to have very little variation in the damage they do; the only damage variable tends to be if it crits or not.
• In GW2, if 25 bleeds got applied in 1 second, every single one of them bleeds could have a different value, and so would technically count as 25 different conditions.

Not to mention it’s somewhat inane to say ‘well, this MMO can do it so this one should be able to as well’ since, chances are, they’re both different under the hood.

ZannX.4058:

The current design is on purpose, it has nothing to do with technical limitations.

The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Technical limitation can dictate design.

Unless you got other information, the only information that we have to go by is that it’s done because of bandwidth and performance.

Shiki.7148:

TheDaiBish.9735:

4. Full stacks are consumed and turn into another condition

When a damaging condition gains full stacks, that stack is replaced with a condition that is fire and forget.

For example, 25 stacks of Bleeding get consumed and turn into Hemorrhaging, which is a short duration, high intensity bleed with a set damage amount that is refreshed with every 25 stacks.

This would allow Condition users to contribute to the fight without being hindered since the cap would essentially be removed, but it doesn’t really take into consideration each individual’s CD, meaning power users could bring a lot of low-damaging bleeds to trigger it.

Idea #4 is quite nice. But it still needs similar processing power, because the new condition would need to factor in every single bleed’s duration, damage etc. for its own duration and damage. instead of processing the stacks of each player at the same time by multi-threading or similar methods, it would need to do it in one instance every x seconds, x being pretty low when considering world bosses.

Well, the idea was that this new condition wouldn’t take into consideration the amount of time left on the bleeding stacks, damage or player stats.

The condition would be set in terms of duration and damage. So, for example, Hemorrhaging would do 6k damage over 2 seconds, and would only refresh / reapply when the Bleed stack hits 25 again.

Shiki.7148:

And as for the bandwidth-problem… same as i said before. The game can process the stacks of every player on a map if they all played condition already and it doesn’t cause lags for anyone with a decent connection. So, why would it suddenly increase so much the server would be overwhelmed or the bandwidth would need to process so much more if those stacks were on ONE target instead of spread over a ton of mobs for which HP, conditions, buffs, movement etc. need to be calculated seperately while all players bombing down one ONE boss would only need the processing of ONE HP bar and mob-mechanics?

Because the amount of calculations it has to do is still limited at 25 per stack, since new conditions overwrite old conditions.

Removing the cap or giving each player their own stack to maintain would mean that the server would have to recieve, process and return a lot, lot more.

For example, a world boss has 100 players. Let’s say that 50 of them players apply bleed frequently.

Under the old system the game would only have to calculate 25 bleeds.

Removing the cap would mean that the game would have to process a lot more bleeds.

Giving each player a stack means that the game would have to process a maximum 1250 Bleeds (50 × 25 stacks) at any one time, all with potentially varying values, durations etc just for that boss encounter alone.

And that’s just bleeds. Add Torment, Confusion, Burning and Poison into it as well, and that’s a lot more bandwidth being used just to process conditions for a single boss encounter.

Remember, bandwith isn’t limited to just the player’s side; Anet have a limited amount of bandwidth to work with as well. Given how they coded the condition system, chances are that they know the limits of what they can get away with.

There’s a few problems with this:

• People have sunk a lot of time and gold into getting the best gear (Ascended). To take stats off of weapons and armour at this point would negate all of that and undoubtedly cause uproar.
• Runes and some sigils have stats tied to them. How would you rework these components?

Level already dictates your stats, in a sense. A level 70 character has a lower maximum potential stat ceiling compared to a level 80 character because of the gear they can equip and the stats they gain as they level.

Monoman’s idea is, IMO, a lot better; give players the opportunity to unlock stat combinations on their Ascended gear. The main advantage it has over your suggestion is that it doesn’t negate what players have currently put into getting Ascended stats.

Shiki.7148:

1. Other MMO’s usually have a ton of different dot-effects ticking alongside each other.

2. Oh, another fun fact: adding, subtracting, and multiplying are extremely cost efficient in terms of "power"usage of computers.

1. There’s one key difference though.

In most other MMO’s, the game very rarely has to work out differences in the space of a second. DoT’s tend to have a set value or range that, once their fired off, the server only has to return that it’s been applied to the enemy. GW had the pip system where bleeds were one pip of health degen, while burning was something like 5. WoWs DoT’s tended to have DoTs critting as the only variable.

In GW2, while in a fight, conditions are worked off of player’s current condition damage. During a fight, that condition damage can change in the space of a few seconds (Might stacks usually being the case). For example, Necro Scepter autoattack: The first bleed could be based off 100 CD, the next 160 CD and the poison (which has a different formula) 190 CD. That’s 3 different damage calculations that have to be sent to the server, calculated, and then the value returned to the player.

That’s essentially three different condition damage values that the game has to send to the servers to calculate, and return the value to the player.

Now, for examples sake, let’s say that there’s 20 necromancers with scepters at a boss. In the space of a second, that’s 20 bleeds applied to the boss. Unless every necro is operating under the same condition – that is, they have the exact same condition damage at the point that they fire off their bleeds – then the game will have to send 20 different damage values, one for each individual bleed, to the server.

Which brings me onto point 2:

2. Bandwidth has always been quoted by Anet as to why conditions are capped, as opposed to processing power.

Potential Solutions

1. Conditions are calculated client-side instead of server-side.

The advantage of this being less bandwidth needs to be used (less data is being sent – the total CD is sent as opposed to the condition and the Condition damage at time of application – and received), while the disadvantage being that it’s easier to tamper with the conditions if everything is done client-side.

2. Weapons have 2 skill sets.

If power from gear is over a certain amount (i.e. the gear’s primary stat is Power), then the weapon selects skill-set 1 which is full of skills that don’t apply damaging conditions, but have slightly higher co-efficient to make up for the lack of CD. If the CD from gear is over a certain threshold (i.e. the gear’s primary stat is Condition Damage), then the weapon gets the second skill set, which causes the skills to apply the condition while having the existing damage co-efficient.

This would help make conditions better in smaller group content, but it doesn’t really help with OW PvE and pretty much kills hybrid damage / condition builds.

3. Might no longer adds Condition Damage; formulas adjusted to compensate.

This removes the element of constant calculations the game has to do on an individual basis, but doesn’t really solve the issue that the game has to calculate for every condition applied i.e someone with 100 CD and someone with 200 CD.

4. Full stacks are consumed and turn into another condition

When a damaging condition gains full stacks, that stack is replaced with a condition that is fire and forget.

For example, 25 stacks of Bleeding get consumed and turn into Hemorrhaging, which is a short duration, high intensity bleed with a set damage amount that is refreshed with every 25 stacks.

This would allow Condition users to contribute to the fight without being hindered since the cap would essentially be removed, but it doesn’t really take into consideration each individual’s CD, meaning power users could bring a lot of low-damaging bleeds to trigger it.

jia li ng.8415:

Let’s see is Rytlock an undead ..

Where does it say anywhere that Rytlock is an undead?

jia li ng.8415:

You can rationalize the meaning and definition of the word to be whatever you wish, it doesn’t change the fact of the true meaning of the word …

revenant
noun rev·e·nant \?re-v?-?nä?, -n?nt\
Definition of REVENANT

: one that returns after death or a long absence

Source

Forum bug again

cletiscake.9173:

Essentially, it means that Grandmaster traits could be picked up if you invested 2 points in the tree, instead of the current 6-points of investment.

So basically a player could invest at least 2 points in every line to get the best traits in every line?

How would that not be broken? Think about it; a player could essentially slot every Grandmaster trait if they invest 6 points into a line.

cletiscake.9173:

Imagine if you could expand upon that even further, and produce unique Support builds that are still able to almost fully invest in Support, but are also able to pick up some DPS traits that might have been out of reach before.

Then you remove choice. In order for there to be depth in a system, the player has to choose.

If they can suddenly focus on being support while having top-tier damage / control traits as well with little investment, it removes a lot of the decision making the player does.

Let’s take the Warrior as an example.

They invest most of their points in trait-lines that increase their damage, then they put the last 2 points to get Phalanx Strength.

All of a sudden the Warrior also has access to powerful offensive group support (reliable Might granting) while sacrificing very little.

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

I saw Gwen marry Logan…

Don’t you mean Kieran?

As Lazaar says, chances are they’ll have to be on the same drive.

However, given how GW2 installs, moving the entire install is as simple as dragging and dropping the current installation folder onto the new drive and creating a new shortcut

Ardenwolfe.8590:

11. GW1 has no dailies. GW2 does.

Not strictly true:

• when you reach level 10 in Pre-Searing, you get a daily quest to help levelling towards the Legendary Defender of Ascalon title.
• There’s 4 Zaishan dailies: Mission, Bounty, Combat and Vanquish

Larynx.2453:

TheDaiBish.9735:

On the HoT page, they have:

New adventures await you in the heart of the Maguuma Jungle. Confront the growing hordes of Mordremoth’s minions, discover allies from ancient civilizations, and battle new enemies.

• Tackle challenging group content.
• Explore new open world jungle maps.
• Experience new events and storylines.
• Test your mettle in new boss battles.

What this ‘challenging group content’ is is anyone’s guess.

Could be open world events, dungeons or Fractals. Heck, it could even be raids (we had a Raid CDI and they hired a raid designer a while back).

Some people considered the Shadow of the Dragon challenging group content. It’s meaningless buzz that promises nothing.

I think you missed the point I was trying to make.

It was more about that they’ve mentioned group content but haven’t given specifics rather than the difficulty of said content.

Orpheal.8263:

I wouldn’t call it “Break Bar”

I personally would call it the “Mentality System”, because when your mentality is “broken”, then you get into an “Apathy” State, which leaves you being weakened, like in the case with the Wyvern, where Player attacks will deal then triple times more damage, than normal.

Break Bar in my opinion just sounds stupid :/
But having a Mentality System I think would sound just alot better, than Break Bar…

I’d say Break Bar is apt since you’re breaking down their resistance to CC effects.

On the HoT page, they have:

New adventures await you in the heart of the Maguuma Jungle. Confront the growing hordes of Mordremoth’s minions, discover allies from ancient civilizations, and battle new enemies.

• Tackle challenging group content.
• Explore new open world jungle maps.
• Experience new events and storylines.
• Test your mettle in new boss battles.

What this ‘challenging group content’ is is anyone’s guess.

Could be open world events, dungeons or Fractals. Heck, it could even be raids (we had a Raid CDI and they hired a raid designer a while back).

I feel RNG is good when it surprises the player, rather than it being relied on as a method of obtaining something.

Quick example, Black Lion skin weapons.

Instead of having scraps subject to RNG, just have every chest contain a scrap so the player knows how many chests and keys they need to buy in order to get.

However, keep the whole ticket as RNG. This way, while players are opening chests, they have the chance to get another ticket as well.

By doing achievements. Is this a trick question?

If you open up your achievement tab, it shows what achievements you haven’t done and how many AP they’re worth. Jumping puzzles, for example, are worth 10 AP each.

Basics

• 25 YO Welshman who can’t speak Welsh.
• ‘Lone parent’ for my sister.
• IT Technician / Sales Assistant / Accountant.
• IT and Design student.

Hobbies

• Overall magpie for knowledge and learning.
• Aspiring game designer.
• Bookworm (Dresden has some of the best one-liners ever).
• I enjoy cartoons, anime and manga.
• Metal and rock are my preferred genres of music.
• Martial Artist for over 20 years (Karate).
• Learning blacksmithing as a hobby.
• Part-time gamer.

Random Trivia

• I only drink once a year (New Year’s Eve), have never smoked or tried recreational drugs.
• I passed my 1st Junior Dan at the age of 11 with a fractured wrist. Two years later I passed my 2nd Junior Dan with a fractured ankle (despite them being junior Dan grades, I still did the same training as the adults).
• I don’t understand the off-side rule.
• Despite needing glasses and having very poor vision, I play pool better without my glasses (how does that even work?).

Given the Revenant’s mechanic, I can imagine a famous Monk being the Support based channel, simply because there are a few old Monk skills that used Upkeep cost that they could draw upon. For example:

• Essence Bond – Gain 1 Energy when nearby allies are struck.
• Mending – Nearby allies regenerate health.
• Purifying Veil – Conditions on nearby allies expire faster.

Orpheal.8263:

Best example for this is the Thieves Longbow or Rifle debate.

A Longbow does fit to the style and the theme of a thief, the silent assailants that snipe their targets from far away from stealth.

Isn’t that what snipers with rifles do as well?

Orpheal.8263:

A Rifle compared to a Longbow does only fit to the theme of the Thief. enabling them to get played out as snipers, but it absolutely fits in no way to the style of this classes gameplay design, which is being silence and stealth….

Ninjas used firearms and explosives (whether they be bombs or arrows), and they were all about infiltration and staying hidden. Just something to think about.

Given how GW2 is a media, I’m pretty sure that they could create sound effects that produce quieter sounds for the Thief if they were to use a rifle.

Heck, there are already a few skins in game that could be construed as sniper rifles (and before anyone says anything: yes, I’m fully aware that a suppressor doesn’t actually silence the gun to the amount shown in films).

Given the lack of stats and level on it, I’d wager that the Revenant’s starting skin choice is out of different blindfolds.

Test.8734:

Which leaves us with a new status effect that is useless in everything we have today. And even in the best case scenario – that the new content will be different from what we have today so CC will become useful – what does taunt add that the current status effects don’t already do?

The ‘pull’ aspect of taunt isn’t the only aspect.

If a player – or boss – gets taunted while in melee, they’re forced to auto-attack.

This opens up boss mechanics – or player usage – that can make good use of conditions such as torment (the person is forced to move, though I’m unsure if pull triggers the bonus damage) and confusion, as well as boons such as retaliation.

Test.8734:

And if ArenaNet is probably not going to rework the encounter design in the whole game, that means taunt as a player ability is as useless as any other kind of crowd control we have. Reworking Defiance is not enough, and even improving the AI is not enough: with the abilities the mobs have, there’s no situation in which it would be better to CC them (even if it worked) than to just kill them. This is not something ArenaNet could fix by making generalized changes; they would have to tweak enemy by enemy. And do you honestly believe ArenaNet will do that?

Like I said, they probably won’t go through the core game and adjust the encounters – they’ve said they won’t be doing vast changes like the Twilight Arbour path, after all – but who knows.

However, even if they don’t rework all encounters in the game, if the new content and encounters are constructed different then taunt and every other CC will become useful – at least in the new content.

Like I said, even in the core content, some encounters have interesting design. The Lovers in one such encounter where control could have been a driving force where the encounter succeeds or not (at level appropriateness, we found control was very handy to have around, making the encounter easier).

However, the mechanic isn’t enforced nearly enough; it’s something that can be ignored through sheer damage when you reach max level.

I’d probably recommend the GW Wiki, since all of the titles have guides for quick methods of acquisition.

Sigils don’t stack.

So, using your example, no; you can’t have 2 Force sigils on the same weapon set and have 10% increased damage.

Couldn’t you have just quoted the parts you changed and then put a small note on what you changed about it?

Anyways:

Orpheal.8263:

Then it wouldn’t create also problems with the Racial Skill System looking completely incompatible to the new Class and in fact under this design would it be a real profession, that is in fact also a profession and feels also like being one and not just being an undead status taken from a real world mythology.

• How is the racial skills completely incompatible? The last time I looked the Revenant didn’t give up their racial backgrounds.
• Revenant also comes from the Latin meaning of ‘to return’. Quite apt, given a) Rytlock returned from the Mists and b) these legends of the past are returning to the now through ‘possessing’ – for lack of a better word – the Revenant.
• I’d say professions aren’t so much a job than they are a calling: Elementalists feel the call of elemental magic while Rangers feel the call of nature and so on. Revenants feel the call of the Mists, and so their profession is to draw upon the Mists for their power.

Orpheal.8263:

Lore Based Abilities > Lore Neutral Abilities (how professions should be all)

The Revenants abilities are lore neutral, with a basis in lore. Regardless of whether you’re Human, Charr, Norn or Skritt, King Jalis was a historical figure who fought the Destroyers and performed the Rite of the Great Dwarf. Mallyx was a demon in the service of Abbadon. The lore of the world doesn’t change based on race.

What you’re referring to is that they aren’t culture-neutral. King Jalis wasn’t a key figure in the history of the Charr, for example.

However, this doesn’t matter since these figures still existed; since they existed, they can be called upon and Revenants – Rytlock especially – don’t care what they call upon:

“This ties in to bring Rytlock back as the first revenant,” Peters says. “He has a very ‘whatever it takes’ attitude. If he can get powers from Mallyx, he will use them. He’ll do whatever he needs to in order to be more powerful. Revenants are a little bit darker in that way.”

Source

As for the mechanics and lore, I feel that it sounds more interesting rather than getting another weapon swap / attunement swap profession with some half-baked Ritualist skills brought in. Again though, that’s all personal opinion; kinda like how you feel your concept has more depth than the Revenant concept, despite the Revenant being more grounded in the GW universe.

Not to mention if the main mechanic revolves around weapon skills being decided by what Urn you hold, what’s the point of weapons outside of stats? And if you equip and use a weapon, how does the Urn decide the skills since you’re not using the urn? How does one wield an urn and What of utility skills?

Seems to me you didn’t really think that one through (unless you did and it got lost in the wall of text you just swapped a few words out of).

Orpheal.8263:

Mystic Barrier

This is not brand new, this just just a thief’s smokescreen improved with mobility gluing the skill to the characters movement!! Seriously Rocket Science to call something like that brand new ANet!! You invented the cycle new, Congrats)

Rudeness aside, if you can name another skill that follows your movement that destroys projectiles, go ahead. If you can’t, then it’s obviously a brand new skill.

Orpheal.8263:

Axe

Dimensional Rift (Temporal is so unfitting here too, makes you think as if the Class would create Time Distortions and the only Profession, that should be able to do that would be the Chronomancer, but a rift between dimensions is something different)

Temporal can also mean things concerning the worldly rather than spiritual.

Given how the skill is making a rift in the world, how is it unfitting?

Invictus.1503:

HAMMER: Drop the Hammer – This one is a ground targeted AOE knockdown. You target a large area, swing your hammer, and then a giant Mist hammer comes swirling out of the nether knocks everyone in that area down. It’s only got a 15 second cooldown for now, but a higher Energy cost… still, imagine this in WvW?

Does that mean this skill isn’t bound to the 5-cap limit of regular AoE’s? Or was this misrepresented?

Esrevinue.4016:

I like hanging back a bit, always battling but not necessarily up close all the time.

Well, with every profession that has weapon-swap ability, you have the option of equipping a melee set and a ranged set (i.e. Rifle and Axe/Mace for Warrior) so you can go melee, deal a burst of damage, switch to your rifle then knock them away and start shooting from afar.

Elementalist is a bit different since they don’t have a weapon-swap meaning you’re somewhat tied to the range of your weapons.

Welcome!

Race-wise, it doesn’t really matter what you pick outside of the first half of the Personal Story since racial abilities tend to be sub-par to profession abilities; go for the one you find most interesting.

Profession-wise it’ll be down to opinion. I’m currently leveling up an Elementalist and enjoying it more than when I leveled my Warrior. What sort of playstyle are you looking at?

I wonder of Specialisations will get their own rune sets as well? Anyways:

1) +8 to all stats
2) +5% Condition Duration
3) +12 to all stats
4) + 10% Condition Duration
5) +16 to all stats
6) When using your Elite, create a small temporal rift at the location, pulling all nearby enemies in after a short delay (120 second cooldown).

Carlin Sanders.3587:

It may be just a ‘beta’ thing, but i happen to notice no weapon switch option on the revenant skill bar. does this indicate revenants won’t be able to switch weapons?

Revenants don’t have access to weapon swap:

“This profession doesn’t have access to weapon swap, but its legends more than make up for that, which you’ll read about below.”

Test.8734:

Let’s assume Defiant is fixed. Better yet, let’s assume Defiant is removed from the game. Would it really change anything? Instead of using control effect after control effect to keep a boss stun locked, wouldn’t it be more effect to just get a lot of DPS to kill it as fast as possible? Which is exactly what we do today?

Even if Defiant were reworked, the current PvE in GW2 makes control effects irrelevant. There’s nothing worth interrupting that you couldn’t simply dodge. Between choosing to get a control skill or a DPS skill, there’s no situation in which the DPS would not be a better option.

Taunt, as far as a player ability goes, is nearly useless.

Not necessarily.

We don’t know what changes they’ve made to the AI, Defiance or mob design yet, nor do we know what mechanics these new bosses have.

So Taunt, as a player ability goes, is untested.

Test.8734:

What it does add is one more tool to be used against the players. And honestly, one thing GW2 shares in common with many bad MMORPGs is the reliance on stuns (or effects similar to stuns) to make PvE encounters more than just trading blows with an enemy. Just take a look at the Season 2 and see how many of the enemies there relied mostly on stuns and etc than on any kind of different or unique mechanic.

Stun mechanics in monsters are a crutch designers use when they want to add something to a fight but don’t know what to do. Taunt is basically adding more to that crutch, as opposed to adding something interesting to the game.

You claim that taunt is being added for this reason without knowing what mechanics are being added to the game.

ANet have shown that they’re able to design encounters with interesting mechanics. The Lovers in AC Story and the Snowblind Fractal for example.

Their general problem tends to be, though, that they don’t enforce the mechanics enough so they can be brute-forced with sheer damage.

Test.8734:

(“Oh, ArenaNet is going to change the combat system to CC is more important!” Hah! In the entire game we have today? Of course not, there’s no way they are going to rework everything.)

Probably not, but who knows.

Knighthonor.4061:

rotten.9753:

Knighthonor.4061:

no thanks. but you should post here
http://www.ihatemmorpgs.com/

We found ArenaNet to innovate so Guild Wars 2 is our opportunity question everything, to make a game that defies existing conventions. If you love MMOs, you wanna check Guild Wars 2 and if you hate MMOs, you really wanna check Guild Wars 2.

Any more questions?

Well clearly thats not working for you since you hate MMOs.

Where did rotten say they hated MMO’s? Or are you strawmanning?

Defiance and encounter design aside, I prefer the way GW2 handles the control aspect.

Control doesn’t mean speccing to increase threat generation like in games where the Trinity is a forced thing; control is solely down to skill usage.

Taunt will merely be another tool in the player’s kitten nal without relying on forced aggro mechanics and passive aggro generation.

Rinhara.6450:

Uhm… how about slow = chill?
Just without chill’s effect on cooldowns, I guess?

Nope:

• Chill increases skill cooldown
• Slow increases skill activation