Guild Wars 2

Randulf.7614:

Lost coins in more zones

This gave me an idea. Something relatively easy they could do is add some scavenger hunt type content to some old maps. Maybe add a single new weapon set that can be earned through collecting lost objects in multiple zones. Think something like the ambrite weapons. Maybe you collect 250 “spirit tokens” to buy a weapon from a new vendor. Maybe the tokens could be added to the loot table of mobs in various maps. Maybe spirit tokens could be hidden in nooks just like lost coins.

Or it could be a single fun item like the birthday blaster. Maybe a staff that summons sandwiches. Mobs in the Ascalon region start dropping sandwich ingredients. You need 250 slices of bread, 250 slices of ham, 250 slices of roast beef, and 250 slices of swiss cheese. Throw that in the mystic forge for a gift of Sandwichmancy. Combine that with a jar of mayonnaise (world boss drop), some ancient staff components (artificer 400+), and some globs of ecto to craft the Sandwichmancer’s staff.

With something like that they aren’t actually building new maps, enemies, etc. Just adding items to the loot tables and some weapon skins.

Riku.4821:

As said, I am a game designer, and after rereading my first post, it is aware to me it seems all dungeons at once, however, I meant one at a time. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.

I feel stripping one art, level, concept, audio designer and two programmers from the project, which I personally don’t feel everyone at A-Net is working on it all at once. Then have them form a team and either during work hours or paid overtime, depending on how desperate they want this done and back on track, start working one dungeon path, one dungeon at a time.

They wouldn’t have to be completely new or have “HoT Mechanics”. Just “reskinned” and “shuffled” dungeons with new rewards I feel would be enough to fool the Community who aren’t as design-oriented until August.

A single new dungeon path for one dungeon is probably doable, but they would have to get started right now. Even then, they wouldn’t be finished with it for another 2-3 months, which puts it in August which is the suspected release of HoT anyway. And that’s in the case of a brand new path with new assets, scripted events, bosses, etc. Doable, but the timing is bad. They would have to have already been working on it a few months ago to release it before HoT.

Also, copy/pasting old assets into a rehashed dungeon doesn’t strike me as Anet’s style. They would want to build new assets and make something unique. I mean, sure they could (for example) try to copy Lupicus into CoE and add the Flame Effigy boss for a cool double boss encounter, but that’s too superficial in their eyes, and I believe a lot of players would complain that it’s lazy design even if the intent is just to give us something quick to hold us over.

Edit: I feel like I’m derailing the thread now so I’ll try to throw in my ideas to get back on track.

Personally I’m in the camp that I wish they would just open up SAB world 2 again with no new content. Just let us play it again for a bit. I suspect the reason they haven’t is partly because there’s unknown technical issues under the hood that would need to be fixed, and partly they want SAB to be something that always opens with new content each time.

Riku.4821:

@Xenon, I am aware of production scope and time. The second HoT Was announced I knew exactly the time frame they’d think on releasing it. And I am aware of their busy schedules. But to come up with a bunch of Ideas, instead of dismiss them is the point of the thread, as it will be sent to them and they can decide if they want to do any of them, or spark their own ideas. I for one gain a lot of thoughts and ideas of my own by seeing other ideas.

Yeah that’s fine, I was just trying to be realistic. Not trying to dismiss. By all means, post your ideas, but unless they are very minor tweaks, they are extremely unlikely to implement any of this before HoT. After HoT is another story.

For example, new dungeon paths is an awesome idea. I’m all for that. But realistically there is no way they can finish that project from scratch before HoT comes out. The scope described in the OP is just way too big to fit in before this fall.

Could they tweak rewards for dungeons? Maybe. Adjust existing boss health/damage? Sure. But add entire new paths to every dungeon? No way. That requires at minimum designing a new boss encounter per dungeon. New scripted events. Possibly new mechanics. And it all has to be tested and bug fixed. How “new” do you want these paths to be? Reskinned old bosses? Copy/pasted assets? Or do you expect them to actually make new models, environment, animations, enemies, etc?

Maybe you are fully aware of all of this, I don’t know your level of knowledge on the subject. However, I’ve seen time and time again average players just throwing over-scoped ideas around with lots of wishful thinking. I try to explain the reality of game development in the hopes that they have more realistic expectations, so that they don’t end up disappointed in the end.

I really doubt the exp is the reason people revive… People are very easy to condition, just like many animals. GW2 has done a great job of conditioning people to run up to shiny things and press F. Don’t believe me? Conduct this little experiment:

1. Go to Heart of the Mists.
2. Find the big bonfire over by the Wall of Champions.
3. Stand in it until you die.
4. Wait until players come and try to revive you.

I’ve done this experiment many times while bored. People flock to you constantly. They don’t get exp for reviving here. They just do it because they see that icon and feel compelled to interact with it.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

It will all depend on how much they buff conditions.

Currently with 25 stacks of might and full sinister gear:

25 stacks of bleed =4k dps
Burning = 1k dps
Poison = 300 dps

total dps = 5.3k dps (single target)

Meta ele build with 25 stacks of might (stacks it themselves) = 12k dps (AOE)
Meta thief build with 25 stacks of might = 11-13k (Single target)

To bring conditions up to meta status this change would have to more than double the damage from conditions, and even then that doesn’t count build up time.

I’m certain burning ticks for more than 1k at 25 might. Also these numbers don’t take into account the following:

• New condi scaling
• New vuln affecting condi
• New burn/poison stack
• New confusion DoT
• New damage potential beyond 25 stacks

It’s nice to speculate, but I hope you realize they aren’t going to have time to fit your ideas into their production schedule before HoT. The release is going to be sometime in the fall; possibly August 28th (GW2 anniversary). Studios plan their productions out months or years in advance, and production itself takes months. HoT is between 3 and 7 months away. Believe me, they already have plans for up to 12 months or more. Any suggestions you have here would have to be carefully considered by Anet and placed near the end of their current plans so as not to disrupt things they are already working on.

There is a ridiculous amount of stuff going on with this map. New players and pugs have a hard enough time dealing with the mechanics of simple conquest maps. Now they are asked to learn about supply, summoning NPCs, and other advanced strategies which may change moment-to-moment.

First suggestion: Improve conveyance of NPC summon spots. At the moment it is very convenient for experience players because you literally just drop down, turn around, and press F right at the start, then rush mid or whatever. The problem is when new players encounter this map, they may drop down and keep running. I only found out about the summon spots near the end of my first match, which was very confusing.

I’m not asking Anet to dumb Stronghold down. I’m just suggesting you make it more obvious and intuitive that you need to return to the spawn area to interact with these summon things. Right now they just look like doors that are part of the scenery, and they are located in such a way that you would have to turn around and face back towards spawn to see them. I personally would have never known had I not seen a team mate channeling in front of one. The first impulse I’ve always had in pvp is to get out of spawn and get into the fight as quickly as possible. These summon door things are a complete 180, figuratively and literally.

It’s going to be very frustrating for solo players and new players who have to learn to break established behaviors for one specific map.

Second suggestion: Make the lord regen out of combat, or add some way to heal him through map mechanics. Every game I played was pretty much the same. One team would be first to break into the lord room. Then all that team had to do was rush in, attack the lord, die, and repeat. As long as they kept trickling in, they could constantly chip away lord health until it died. This forces the other team to attempt to bunker down and stop anyone from entering the lord room, or else lose the game.

This situation occurs with far too much time left on the clock. Its nearly impossible to keep all 5 enemy players out of that room for a full 6 minutes, especially when they have stealth and teleports. The only other option is to try to rush their lord faster, which weakens your defense of the lord room and allows them to spike the lord down even quicker. It feeds back into itself. The more you try to defend, the less chance you have of turning the battle around, and the more you try to turn to offense, the faster you lose. The game basically snowballs the moment the first team breaches the lord room.

A simple out-of-combat regen or healing mechanic would force the enemy team to mount a proper attack every time instead of just trickling in steadily and chipping away.

Xenon.4537:

Most common suggestions I see in this thread and others:

1. Add “toggle” for upright stance for Charr.
2. Armor “wasn’t designed” for Charr, fix it (tail area, helmets, other clipping issues).
3. Add body proportion options in character creation.

And now we come to #3. Adding sliders for body proportions would be basically the same as the facial sliders. In older engines this is all joint driven, which means in order to add it to an existing character in GW2 would mean changing the rig. If you are unfamiliar with rigging for animation, go ahead and look it up. I won’t be surprised if your head explodes.

Every joint in a rig is yet another thing the game engine has to process. Adding more and more joints to a skeleton just for body sliders, and then having anywhere from 1 to 150 of that character on screen in GW2… Yeah.

Not to mention once they actually make the new rig with the new joints for the body sliders, they then have to rebind the skin (attach the 3D polygon mesh to the skeleton and paint deformation weight values on it). Then they have to make sure none of the new proportions clip through existing armor, and if so, they have to rebind those armors to compensate. You’d probably end up with even MORE clipping issues than you were attempting to solve in the first place.

Some newer game engines can support blend shapes, or morph targets, which basically are deformers which animate the vertices themselves, but this is just as much work, if not more. I’m not sure if GW2 uses them or joints, but adding either of them in after the fact… you might as well ask Anet to create an entire new race from scratch. It’s just as much work for them in the end.

Xenon.4537:

Most common suggestions I see in this thread and others:

1. Add “toggle” for upright stance for Charr.
2. Armor “wasn’t designed” for Charr, fix it (tail area, helmets, other clipping issues).
3. Add body proportion options in character creation.

So I would say #2 is the most likely area where you could expect fixes/changes. They could conceivably attach a small piece of tail armor to every outfit to cover up the ugliness of tails clipping straight through things. It would basically mean creating a new piece of geometry, making sure the shader matches the original outfit in question, and parenting it to the tail part of the skeleton. There might be some other technical hurdles, but that’s the gist of it. The toughest part I think is the fact that there are so many different outfits in the game, that it would be a significant job for a single artist, or a smaller job for a bunch of artists. Either way, that’s resources Anet could use for HoT, or future LS episodes. I’m not sure Anet will ever bother with it, but there’s always hope.

As for other clipping issues, I assume you mean horns sticking out of odd places, shoulder pads clipping through horns or helmets, and legs clipping through skirts. Horns are an issue for certain helmets, like the gas mask. It’s really difficult to align horns on a head which can be shaped and resized in many ways during character creation. Not to mention the horns themselves stick out at different angles. Addressing this would be an incredible migraine and I doubt Anet would find it economically viable to spend time dealing with it. You would need to create some kind of offset variable for every horn type based on the head shape from character creation (that means the custom head proportions YOU input with sliders), and that variable would have to adjust for the “horn hole” in the gas mask to make it line up perfectly. And then they would have to do that for every other helmet in the game which has this problem, because every helmet is shaped a little differently.

As for clipping shoulder pads… That’s an even more annoying issue to go back and fix after the fact. The easiest solution would be to resize the shoulder armor so that it’s small enough to never clip anything. But then people might complain the shoulders on certain armors are now way too small. After all, the clipping only happens in this case during an animation. See my previous post about animation… It’s simply too much work to overhaul animations just to fix this specific issue.

Your best bet here is to voice your concerns on Charr armor clipping, and hope that Anet takes this into account when designing future armors. It’s somewhat unlikely they would go back and overhaul old armors, especially when there’s plenty of money to be made releasing new ones in HoT and the Gem store. Afaik most of the armor released post-launch have been much more considerate of Charr body design and have less clipping issues than old armors.

continued…

Hey everyone, I just wanted to point out the issues from a technical standpoint. I am a character animator, and I know quite a bit about what goes into making a character for a game or film. Don’t take this as a “it won’t happen” post, I just want to be realistic for those of you who are unfamiliar with 3D modeling, rigging, animation, and armor design.

Most common suggestions I see in this thread and others:

1. Add “toggle” for upright stance for Charr.
2. Armor “wasn’t designed” for Charr, fix it (tail area, helmets, other clipping issues).
3. Add body proportion options in character creation.

For #1 (part A), making a character stand a certain way is done through animation. Literally any kind of movement or deformation of a polygon is animation. Let me tell you guys, animation is one of the most expensive parts of making 3D assets. That’s why you don’t see nearly that many new animations coming into the game after release. Heart of Thorns will bring plenty of new ones, but that’s due to the HoT budget.

Now for #1 (part. Animation in video games is more complicated than you might think. Every character has a set of loops that are cycled through depending on the action you perform. For example your character might turn his head and scratch his neck from time to time when idle. Then when you press W your character transitions into a run cycle animation. When you let go of W, the character transitions back to the idle. In fact in GW2 every character has a “stop running” animation where they kind of throw their weight forward as they stop running, to show their momentum being slowed down. So in GW2 when you stop running, you transition from “run cycle” -> “stop running” -> “idle”. Each of these animations must flow together smoothly without any weird twitching, twinning, teleportation, spazzing out, etc. They must feel natural, otherwise the animator has failed at his/her job. So not only does every single animation loop have to look good, but they all have to transition between each other smoothly, usually through some kind of network or game engine system, through which the animator must define the relationship between each animation and it’s associated action.

What this means is that “adding a toggle” is much more complicated than simply making a check box and pressing some magic “stand upright” button in the game engine. The stance would have to be created. It would need an idle animation. It would need to transition into other animations smoothly.

This is getting long so I’ll continue in another post…

Duke Nukem.6783:

i like the affects on pve, buuuut wvw needs an overhaul anyways im tired of seeing big zergs and it would be nice if small groups could defeat them

I hate giant zergs too, which is why I barely go to wvw. I feel like the changes should have made it easier to split an enemy zerg by dropping walls on them, but maybe I’m wrong?

It should also be noted that the stab changes were made with HoT taken into account. There will certainly be many changes in the meta. Whatever happens, Anet can always increase or decrease the number of stacks each skill gives to balance it out.

Crystallize.8603:

Tell me why many players would choose to pay extra $ to gw2 after they have left for a break and taken up/got interested in another game. One that is releasing free updates?

Because I prefer the combat of GW2, the art direction, and the lore. I’ve already invested many hours into my GW2 characters and don’t feel like abandoning that so easily for some korean grindfest. The GW franchise are the only MMOs I’ve ever enjoyed. Everything else has been clunky, pedantic, and monotonous. Those are my reasons.

This thread is hugely depressing. These people work 40+ hours a week on your video game. In fact during crunch time many of them work 12-15 hour days, pull all-nighters, etc. There’s a reason many of these studios have those fabled snack bars. It’s not because they want to spoil themselves and throw a party. It’s because sometimes they simply cant afford to go home when a project is in full swing. They bust their butts and you think they don’t care…

All a mesmer has to do is bring some boon strip to get rid of that stability, then the interrupts may flow once more.

I don’t understand how flipping is harmful to the game. If someone is trying to sell an item for a high price, anyone can come along and set a lower price… Then the flipper has to buy that item, and the next one, and the next one, etc, just to maintain his stupid little corner of the market. Meanwhile the people selling for lower prices take his money.

People outside the GW2 community have the impression that GW2 is dead because it’s almost 3 years old, and other communities (pretty much WoW and every other MMO) love to host at least 1 GW2 thread on their forums touting how much they hate GW2 and why they quit. Basically a bunch of non-GW2 players trash talking about a game they never liked in the first place, probably never played, and are going off information from September 2012 before any of the countless additions to the game were made.

There’s also a massive number of former GW2 players that tried the game at release and quit about a month later because it just wasn’t for them. Those people didn’t just vanish, and they probably still hold their negative opinion on the game and love to spout it whenever the topic comes up.

My advice is ignore those people. They have bad information at best, and at worst the game simply isn’t their cup of tea and they refuse to get over it.

Huggywuggles.2814:

LOL@Fleshwound. Actually, I ENJOY the forums (I did so with my last game as well). I think they offer a great deal of insight to not only the players but also a great deal of fun and a fantastic source of making new friends and accquaintances.

Lol I’m glad you have such a positive outlook on the game and community. I wish more people like you would post and let Anet know they are doing something right for at least some part of the population. I feel the same way about the game, but I tend to get very cynical with some parts of the community.

Ephemiel.5694:

Xenon.4537:

Ephemiel.5694:

Go back in time to the early days of GW2 where even guild groups had huge problems clearing dungeons.

We don’t have a time machine… Idk why people keep bringing this non-answer up…

We have Chronomancers

Lol you got me there.

Ephemiel.5694:

Go back in time to the early days of GW2 where even guild groups had huge problems clearing dungeons.

We don’t have a time machine… Idk why people keep bringing this non-answer up…

laokoko.7403:

The thing is you guys make it sounds there is anything difficult.

Sure things are difficult the first 10 times you done it. Nothing is difficult after you did the same thing 100 times.

Just because you figured out how to beat a boss doesn’t make that boss magically easier. The boss didn’t change. YOU did. You learned how to beat it, so you became a better player. This is the very definition of relativity. You became relatively better, so for you it became relatively easier.

This is the very reason we are asking for more new challenging content. We finished the old stuff (TT wurm, Fractals, Aether) and now we would like more. There’s nothing wrong with developers creating new content and adding it to an MMO. MMOs have been doing that for decades. It’s not like we are asking them to stop creating other types of content. We would simply like our interests to be addressed in addition to the other segments of this community.

And I should be rewarded more for doing pug. Why should those people who do farm status premade be rewarded more. They are doing easier content than me with 4 other good player.

I’m sorry but this is just nonsense. Rewards are rewards. They should be the same for everyone.

Azala Yar.7693:

Xenon.4537:

Azala Yar.7693:

There are groups of gamers that play different MMOs they have enough members to organise most things in an MMO.

Whats wrong with that?

It means that if you make exclusive geared grouped content, such groups can farm it…

Whats wrong with farming? Individuals can farm… groups can farm… there’s different areas of the game to cater to different types of play. Everything does not need to be so homogenous.

And there’s nothing wrong with earning some gold for your effort in an MMO. One person having more gold than another isn’t some form of oppression. People with less gold have plenty of access to ways to earn more, and in fact the type of raiding I’m talking about is fully accessible to pugs and new players.

…with little effort in getting a group together.

Nothing is stopping individuals from forming groups, or joining a group. My guild kills TT wurm every week with 50%+ pugs.

So not all players are on an equal footing.

Except that they are on equal footing. Everyone can form a group. There is no magical barrier preventing you from doing so. Everyone has the same opportunities in this game.

Azala Yar.7693:

There are groups of gamers that play different MMOs they have enough members to organise most things in an MMO.

Whats wrong with that?

Azala Yar.7693:

Xenon.4537:

Azala Yar.7693:

Xenon.4537:

Azala Yar.7693:

If people want better loot with harder content then they don’t carry about harder content just better loot.

It’s as simple as that.

Another straw man argument. We want harder content because its more fun to us. We primarily play games because they are fun. The rewards are simply there to keep us playing long-term.

Raiders in WoW doing the same raids for the loot. Doing the same raids over and over isn’t fun, in the end it’s about the loot.

That’s WoW, this is GW2. They are very different games. In WoW the loot has better stats and there is a clear gear treadmill for stats. In GW2 the only exclusive loot should be cosmetics. Are you arguing that it is unacceptable to have exclusive cosmetic skins in GW2?

Sure as long as those cosmetics are account bound.

Why?

IndigoSundown.5419:

Hannelore.8153:

- Open world agony on lv80 maps to push ascended gear into mainstream. Everyone has access to ascended trinkets and 30AR+ without fractals anyway. (Just sell versatile infusions from laurel merchants.)

Not a fan. If Agony wasn’t just a cheap mechanic originally put in solely to justify the Asc. tier, I might think otherwise.

I agree, I’m no fan of the idea of gating content behind agony gear checks. It’s exclusionary and forces people to grind to access content. To be fair, Fractals is the only place right now that does this, and the content at Fractal 1 vs Fractal 50 is essentially the same, just harder.

I don’t see a reason to put this sort of difficulty progression on, say, a world boss such as TT wurm. TT wurm works perfectly fine the way it is, and anyone is free to participate in that fight free of arbitrary gear values.

Azala Yar.7693:

Xenon.4537:

Azala Yar.7693:

If people want better loot with harder content then they don’t carry about harder content just better loot.

It’s as simple as that.

Another straw man argument. We want harder content because its more fun to us. We primarily play games because they are fun. The rewards are simply there to keep us playing long-term.

Raiders in WoW doing the same raids for the loot. Doing the same raids over and over isn’t fun, in the end it’s about the loot.

That’s WoW, this is GW2. They are very different games. In WoW the loot has better stats and there is a clear gear treadmill for stats. In GW2 the only exclusive loot should be cosmetics. Are you arguing that it is unacceptable to have exclusive cosmetic skins in GW2?

Azala Yar.7693:

If people want better loot with harder content then they don’t carry about harder content just better loot.

It’s as simple as that.

Another straw man argument. We want harder content because its more fun to us. We primarily play games because they are fun. The rewards are simply there to keep us playing long-term.

Beldin.5498:

Belenwyn.8674:

I am quite sure hat the vast majority of players does not want really hard content. Really hard content would mean: not farm-able, no speed clears and each run would feel like the first one.

I think most people want content that is more profitable and with restricted accessibility to rule marker segments as soon as they start to talk about challenging/hard content.

And the players that want hard content, want that also mostly just when they can
get much more loot/money there than anywhere else. Mostly it must be also
“exclusive” loot, so they can show off how great they are in front of all those
unworthy noobs ^^

You are making a filthy straw-man argument. We want harder content because we find it more fun than boring afk auto-attack content. It has nothing to do with lording our loot over others. Thank you so very much for making us out like egotistical monsters. That’s an ad hominem. 2 fallacies in one paragraph.

Here is my thread if you want a more detailed point of view on what I believe harder content should be like. The short of it is that GW2 can easily accommodate hard group content which everyone can access with no gear or time gates. TT wurm is the perfect example. My guild [Att] runs it every week with 50% or more of pugs who we heartily welcome.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestion-Raids-in-a-GW2-Context

Else if its just that its all to easy, they could solo dungeons naked with a white
level 5 weapon and no traits ..

This is not an acceptable answer. I’m sorry but intentionally weakening my character just to enjoy this game a little more is completely backwards to good game design.

NoTrigger.8396:

Altair.8402:

I believe I speak for a lot of people when I say I want difficult content not in the sense that open world events like Silverwastes Breach is sometimes difficult, due to zergs not knowing mechanics and not being organized.

I want content that’s difficult for an organized group in the sense that it’s mechanically challenging to all players involved.

the only way to do that is instanced content.

Not true. TT wurm is a perfect example. Again, my guild [Att] runs it every week with more than 50% pugs, and we kill it 99% of the time because we have great commanders and use Teamspeak.

Valky.2574:

I rather they focus on world boss’s that every one can participate in none of this 5% BS
it’s a wast of time and money if you want raids plenty of games out there
TT is a good example of the Casual-ness of this game that fight is not hard at all simple scripts and yet 99% of pugs will fail

If 99% of pugs fail, then it’s not exactly casual is it? I’m not asking for some mind-blowing complex boss. I am in fact asking for something which everyone can do if they want.

For the record, when Attuned runs TT wurm, we usually have half or more of the zerg made up of pugs. We usually have maybe 30-40 [Att] and 50+ pugs. We welcome them to join us, we provide food buffs and Teamspeak. It’s a wonderful community-building experience for everyone involved.

Additionally, just because a boss exists in a multiplayer game does not entitle every single individual in the game to the rewards without making the marginal effort to talk to other players and coordinate. You act like it takes some herculean effort to follow a commander and maybe hop on Teamspeak.

It is absolutely not a waste of time or money to improve the game. Improvements give customers more reason to invest time and money in the product. Adding more challenging world bosses will give guilds something interesting to do in PvE which will only strengthen the community and the endgame.

Gear Requirements, or lack thereof

As I said earlier, GW2 is very different from traditional MMOs. This means it’s raiding structure doesn’t have to be anything like those games. Right now the only content in GW2 with a strict gear check is Fractals. I say we keep it that way. Granted, TT wurm greatly incentivizes everyone to be in Exotics or better. However, Exotics are honestly not that hard to come by. You can run a few dungeons over the course of a week and get most of your gear casually. A player who saves their karma while leveling can get a full set of armor and trinkets by the time they hit 80.

Most of us who run TT wurm each week are in exotics, and everything works out just fine. Ascended gear is only about 5% better. In the spirit of keeping content open and accessible to players, I see no reason to change this.

Gear checks and DPS meters are the biggest fears I hear from players when the word “raid” is mentioned. The GW2 community in general wants to keep toxic elitism at a minimum. There’s no need for any of that in GW2, certainly not in raiding.

Reward Structure

This is important for long-term player activity and interest. I would think most people play games for fun, but they don’t necessarily play them for very long if there’s nothing interesting to work towards in-game. Here is the structure I believe would make sense for GW2.

1. Each raid boss should have a chance to drop something unique. A mini pet or unique armor skin are perfect examples. Unique drops give players a reason to participate in a wide variety of content rather than congregating on one small section of content (see CoF farming right after launch).
2. Raids should have a chance to drop great rewards like exotics, ascended chests, and materials. There are many things in the game which already shower you in rewards. Raids should have an appropriate reward for the time and effort invested in defeating the boss.
3. Dungeon tokens could be used as raid currency. We have all of these different currencies available, but they have very specific uses. There could be a raid related to Ascalon Catacombs which rewards around 500 tokens for winning. Extend this to other dungeon themes. This creates more variety in ways to earn gear.
4. Dungeon vendors should start selling ascended gear, or ascended crafting materials. Why not give people more options in upgrading their gear? Vendors could sell a bolt of Damask for 1000 tokens, or whatever price sounds reasonable. With these last two points, dungeon vendors would double as raid vendors. This would allow raid rewards to fit right in with other reward structures, while keeping raid rewards from being completely exclusive.

Conclusion

We already have content in GW2 which qualifies as a raid on a basic level (TT wurm). I, and many others, simply want more of this. Ultimately what we want is a stronger PvE endgame, and something fun and challenging for PvE guilds to do.

I’m in the guild Attuned. We kill Triple Trouble wurm and Tequatl multiple times every week, as well as guild missions and other activities. We recently killed Claw of Jormag in less than 5 minutes. I don’t write this to brag, but to illustrate how invested our community is in large-scale challenging group content. We are a friendly group who has come together because we love killing big world bosses together. We have been craving more challenge for a long time, and we aren’t the only community like this.

Now the following is my personal idea regarding Raids in GW2 (this is not necessarily the view of everyone in Attuned).

GW2 is obviously a very different game from other MMOs like WoW, ESO, Wildstar, or Rift. GW2 has many combat mechanics, reward systems, and player interests which vastly differ from those games. I want to explain how I think Raiding can fit the GW2 model, and how it is something everyone can potentially enjoy as a natural next step in the GW2 world.

Mechanics

I’ll be using TT wurm as an example because it is the most challenging world boss to date, and the mechanics are solid.

TT wurm has the following properties which I really like:

1. Zerg Splitting – Great because it cuts down on the lag, and requires coordination. Coordination is essential to an engaging multiplayer experience, and the formation of strong guilds.
2. Non-DPS mechanics – Great thing because it adds flavor and breaks up the monotony of stacking and grinding the boss’s health bar down.
3. Non-Berserker-Vulnerable Enemies – Excellent because it breaks up the “zerker meta” and gives other builds a purpose.
4. A unique mechanic for each group – Each wurm head has a different Non-DPS mechanic. This is awesome for keeping the boss interesting, adds more flavor, and further complexity which makes the fight interesting each time you participate.
5. Multiple Phases – This is yet another thing which adds flavor to the fight while adding another element to coordination. It also adds a sense of urgency which intensifies the experience and makes it that much more fun. For example when the 3 wurms are decapitated, you only have 2 minutes to kill them. The sense of urgency gets your blood pumping and greatly increases the payoff of winning.
6. A Strict Failure State – This is absolutely essential. TT wurm is relatively unforgiving in it’s failure states compared to other bosses. There are timers and all 3 heads need to be decapitated at the same time. Without this, the fight would be too easy, and the whole purpose of organizing a group goes down the drain. Most other world bosses are too simple. If half the group dies, they can just waypoint and run back and keep auto attacking. There are few, if any auxiliary mechanics to deal with. It’s just stack and burn. It’s very hard to actually fail most world bosses because the failure state is so lax. Without the threat of failure, there’s nothing at stake, and the payoff of victory is severely diminished.

(cont…)

The reason zerk is the best is because all mobs die faster to it. If you make some mobs die faster to condi, or make some fights about survival instead of dps, then you effectively changed away from a zerk meta.

I really feel like they should add some offensive scaling to defensive stats to break up the zerk meta. Let toughness, or vitality somehow improve stuns or CC. This could work really well with the new break bar system.

Oslaf Beinir.5842:

I actually wanted the scythe’s blade to be even bigger xD

gotta spook em good!

9002spooky9004me

This reminds me of the joke that the Reapers in mass effect turned out to be. 1st game they made a big deal out of how “our motivations are so far beyond your comprehension” and it turned out they just wanted to procreate by harvesting dna…

It seems like everyone forgot about the break bar mechanic that is replacing defiant. I know chill is not related to defiant at the moment, but that doesn’t mean the break bar mechanic won’t include it somehow. This is just wild speculation of course, but I believe anet must be aware of this glaring issue.

LucosTheDutch.4819:

fluffdragon.1523:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

(PS: I’m a freelance 3D artist myself who studied 3D visual effects and I’m currently studying game art & development, I’ll be getting my Masters degree next year if everything goes well.)

Please continue to wave your “credentials” around. It’s truly so very inspiring.

I’m still amazed you haven’t caught on to how the very faces and “skulls” in the game you’re talking about even work.

At least I have some credentials?

I know exactly how the faces and skulls work on this game and that’s why I know that you can’t simply put a hairstyle designed for the skull of a male norn on the skull of a female norn with the click of a button. You’d have to alter the hairstyle or in the worst case, completely rebuild it.

Considering the fact that artists in this line of work get paid $50,- per hour on average (at least that’s what I get paid and many of my colleagues too), “simply removing the gender-lock” is gonna be a very costly undertaking. That is time and money Anet could better spend elsewhere.

I feel your pain right now Lucos…

@fluff dragon

You aren’t winning any points by treating 3D artists with experience like dirt… Intuition alone is not sufficient to understand how 3D systems work. You shouldn’t dismiss those who have more knowledge about a particular subject. 3D modeling, rigging, and animation are full time careers for these folks. They aren’t throwing you armchair comments about a hobby. This is their livelyhood.

For example, you talk about facial sliders which create variation. That is accomplished by something called a Deformer, or a Blend Shape. It is not built for the purpose of fitting (for example) hairs to a head. They are strictly to control facial expressions (in the context of the face. Deformers can be used for many things, but they are not magical “fit-it” buttons. They require skill and knowledge.). The hairs themselves must be fit to the top of the skull which doesn’t deform. A Deformer might be used on the hair itself to emulate swish and movement while the character moves, governed by a script, or simply animated tediously.

fluffdragon.1523:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

[…] they’d have to adjust them to fit the female head shape, and vice-versa. The time it takes to do that could just as well be used to create entirely new hairstyles, which they are doing now.

Goodness, as though the technologies of having mappable bone structures that allow us to dynamically change the size and shape of the head and facial features (that themselves can cause things like the scalp, forehead, and even temples to change drastically) do not exist! Surely they must have developed 1000+ variations of each hairstyle to explicitly fit the shape of all these combinations of head and face sliders! I suppose the hair styles that move and bob too must have a dozen or so different shapes to provide the illusion of motion, as most certainly they too are entirely static!

Warlord.9074:

Because it takes, work and money to do that and this is a free game.

By the six, you’re right! A game we’ve paid for and will continue to do so while ArenaNet monetizes on Cash Shop items that are only available through transactions of real money. And let’s not forget that expansion that’s coming out or all the Living Story content they gave us.

Their interest is in selling the game and keeping us buying things. If that means needing a Makeover Kit to swap between gendered customizations, so be it.

Do you know anything about character rigging? Please do some research before you pretend matching parts of one model to another is somehow simple because a magical computer system might exist.

For the record I am a 3D animation student about to graduate next year. I know a hell of a lot about Maya and the technical aspects of 3D modeling and animation. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer when I get home later.

I would like to add that they need to remove the function where you cast-in-place if your cursor touches any part of the UI. For example if you cast Blink while mousing over the skill panel, mini map, chat box, health globe, score panel (top of the screen), enemy name plate, or party UI. Your character will cast Blink, but remain in position. The skill will go on cooldown, and you will still be in the middle of enemy fire should this be a combat situation. This occurs for any ground target skill in the game.

I tried to explain this to a dev once and he literally had no clue what I was talking about and simply said “well don’t do that.” I’m sorry, Anet but that attitude is just unacceptable.

Countless times I have died because I tried to blink away from danger only to waste my teleport due to the intrusive UI. In the heat of battle I often lose track of my cursor’s exact position on the screen. A few pixels too close to the mini map, and bam, I’m dead.

My suggestion is to change it so the skill fails to cast should you mouse over the UI while casting it. Seems like the simplest fix. Otherwise allow it to cast “through” the UI as if the UI weren’t there. Make the ground target affect the actual ground beyond the UI in the game world.

glehmann.9586:

Xenon.4537:

glehmann.9586:

(btw, it’s “My life for Aiur!” that Protoss zealots say)

I know. I was making a joke that’s rather common among Starcraft fans. Nothing against starcraft, or zealots, but I feel it’s an unoriginal name for this spec and doesn’t quite fit the bow theme.

I’m so out of touch with the jokes the hip Star Craft kids are making these days…

I don’t have a problem with Zealot as a Guardian elite spec name, but it definitely doesn’t sound any more original than Dragonhunter to me. And I agree that it doesn’t sound like something that fits a longbow and traps.

If they did Zealot as a guardian spec, I would expect it to be more about dual wielding swords or maces with an extremely glass-cannon melee theme. the word “zealot” means a person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals. In the context of a combat spec, I see that as being fully in-your-face offensive with no regard to defense. It’s someone who is so obsessed with fighting for their cause that they forgo personal safety and fly into a frenzy. The name certainly doesn’t fit the theme of the bow and traps, but I wouldn’t be against that spec being added in addition to the Dragonhunter later down the road.

Trap skills in GW2 have always felt more like generic aoe skills, and now Anet is planning to put a delay on when they activate, making them more difficult to land in combat.

Using traps in the middle of combat has always felt way out of place to me. In GW1 traps were something that took a full 5+ seconds to plant, and then there was an activation delay (iirc) and the effect was devastating compared to the fizzle that GW2 traps have. In GW1 you had to plant traps ahead of time before combat in a place that made sense, like a choke point or an objective. They actually behaved like real traps. You couldn’t see them.

Now I’m not suggesting we make traps OP invisible nuclear bomb things, but I think traps should be tweaked to be a little stronger in their debilitating effects (such as cripple, chill, poison, CC, boon strip, etc). And to bring them back to a context consistent with ambushing, or blocking traffic, we should bring back the longer cast time. Maybe 3 seconds? 3-5ish. This would make it clear that these are meant to be applied outside of combat as a means of map control, rather than in-combat generic “fire and forget” aoe skills. There should be some tactics involved, yes?

To help make them less OP there could be a subtle trip wire. Something small and hard to notice if you are busy checking your inventory while running, but easy enough to spot if you pay attention.

Additionally they might consider deactivating a trap if you unequip it from your utility bar after planting it, just to avoid making them this extra thing that has no consequences to the user.

glehmann.9586:

(btw, it’s “My life for Aiur!” that Protoss zealots say)

I know. I was making a joke that’s rather common among Starcraft fans. Nothing against starcraft, or zealots, but I feel it’s an unoriginal name for this spec and doesn’t quite fit the bow theme.

Malkavian.4516:

I thought the term “Dragonknight” would be more fitting since the base class is a Guardian, which is kind of more knightly in terms of the theme. Otherwise, I thought the name is okay. Not creative. Just okay.

You really think Dragonknight sounds better than Dragonhunter? Did you even try saying “dragonknight” out loud? I’m honestly tired of hearing this opinion… It’s sad.

I like the name. It was pretty unexpected, but I think it fits the context of the story quite well. The best defense is a good offense, and clearly Anet wanted the guardian to have a more viable ranged DPS option. As far as lore goes, it seems to me that guardians decided to become more aggressive in their tactics for taking down dragons.

This is the thread for us crazy people who don’t think “Dragonhunter” is such a bad name. In fact, I personally like the name. I hear people call it “childish” as if a 12-year-old thought of it. And in the same breath those people suggest things like…

Guardian Angel
Archangel

Angels are associated with the christian and muslim god, and are supposed to be divine, immortal, and incredibly powerful beyond mortal means… Not exactly GW2 flavor.

Zealot

What is this, Starcraft? MY LIFE FOR HIRE
….no….

Janissary

What is this, Age of Empires?

Sentinel
Celestial

Naming things after gear now? Why…

Centurion

Cylons? Frakk that.

Vanguard
Justiciar

What is this, Mass effect2?

Legionnaire

There are already legionnaires in GW2, and they are exclusively related to the Charr military structure.

Monk

There was already once a class with this name in GW1, and it was almost purely supportive and designed for healing. Anet clearly wanted to give the guardian an aggressive ranged option for combat. Monks were never about range or pure DPS.

Savior
Sanctifier
Saint

Too religious… Christian in particular… Sorry but not all of us are Christian, and Anet has always been careful not to put any specific references to real world ideologies.

Diviner

Do you even know what divining is? What does that have to do with combat, particularly aggressive offense with a bow and mobility?

I just want to say that my personal take on the Dragonhunter name is that Anet took the established theme of the guardian as the “master of defense” and applied the adage “the best defense is a good offense.” In kungkittenis it said that the hand which strikes also blocks. Mordremoth presents a clear and present danger to the world, and Tyrians must adapt to the threat to survive. The Dragonhunter is a specialization which was born specifically to tackle the dragon threat. That’s the lore side of it anyway.

On to the practical side of the name. Anet clearly wanted to make a ranged attack spec for the guardian, should they want it. Something a little less defensive, and with the ability to tag mobs at range like everyone else. Guardian core spec has plenty of melee already. When coming up with a name for anything, that name must convey a sense of what that thing is supposed to be and do. You don’t name Game of Thrones “Fluffy Bunny Fuffles.” There is a purpose to a name beyond sounding cool on its own. It needs to convey the context of the item it describes.

phys.7689:

Xenon.4537:

What a lot of people want (my guild especially [Att]) is something challenging they can do together as a cohesive community. We want to feel like a team when we take down a boss. It doesn’t have to be open world, but if it is, then we want to be able to engage that boss as a coordinated group, not a random congregation of random people from the megaserver.

And this isn’t about excluding outsiders. Anyone can join [Att] to take down the wurm with us, as long as they get on teamspeak and listen to commanders.

On top of that we want more challenge to validate the effort it takes to coordinate 100+ people for one event. Wurm is great, but the next best thing (Tequatl) is too easy and we only do it right after wurm as a habit. Nothing else in the game is worth organizing for besides guild missions which are a completely different experience.

The wyvern honestly doesn’t look like something that would fit this bill. The platform is kind of small, and it’s been demonstrated with only smaller groups fighting it. It looks great as an open world boss, but not as the challenging raid content we want.

If you don’t want outsiders, you don’t want open world.
This discussion is about open world, not saying they shouldn’t discuss instanced content, but that’s a dif discussion

Hey, I said it right there in my post lol. We don’t exclude outsiders and we aren’t trying to be this elitist cult of a guild who wants exclusive raiding. We just want some challenging pve content we can form a community around, and the only thing in the game so far that satisfies this is triple wurm. And from what we can tell about the wyvern, it’s not the type of boss we are looking for.

What a lot of people want (my guild especially [Att]) is something challenging they can do together as a cohesive community. We want to feel like a team when we take down a boss. It doesn’t have to be open world, but if it is, then we want to be able to engage that boss as a coordinated group, not a random congregation of random people from the megaserver.

And this isn’t about excluding outsiders. Anyone can join [Att] to take down the wurm with us, as long as they get on teamspeak and listen to commanders.

On top of that we want more challenge to validate the effort it takes to coordinate 100+ people for one event. Wurm is great, but the next best thing (Tequatl) is too easy and we only do it right after wurm as a habit. Nothing else in the game is worth organizing for besides guild missions which are a completely different experience.

The wyvern honestly doesn’t look like something that would fit this bill. The platform is kind of small, and it’s been demonstrated with only smaller groups fighting it. It looks great as an open world boss, but not as the challenging raid content we want.

I had an idea a while back that goes along with raid reward structure. Basically for a world boss like Triple Trouble, you would have a vendor selling ascended gear, and the currency would be from an existing dungeon. Say for example Twilight Arbor. The ascended gear would cost 1000 TA tokens per piece (or more). Additionally The TT wurm would drop a cache of TA tokens (maybe 200?). This would allow people to work towards ascended gear via two methods: classic dungeons, or new world bosses. It would also help solve the excess currency issue.

Horus.9685:

Oh, thanks for the enlightenment, so this is really nothing I should hope for? Well fair enough, but i once more Gw2 could be modded

Like I said, it’s totally possible for Anet to do it, it’s just unlikely because it’s a significant amount of work that could be better spent elsewhere. They are mainly focused on getting HoT ready. Maybe in a year or so when they have less on their plate, and enough demand for the feature. Still it’s hard to say because animation seems to be an expensive thing Anet tries to avoid. And this feature would require animations for 5 races, a dozen or so weapons, and tons of skills.