Guild Wars 2

General Health.9678:

I would love drone race to be taken to the next level. .. a version of carmageddon

That would be .. amazing. Racing around Tangled Depths, mowing down mordrem. I would pay for that.

OriOri.8724:

Some people are intrinsically motivated. You should try it, it makes games far more enjoyable

What does that mean exactly? Someone is motivated when there’s something in it for them like a monetary reward, the enjoyment of the activity, or maybe you’re obsessive when it comes to completing things, or you have to feed your kids or maybe someone’s got a gun to your head. If you’re suggesting that it’s possible to be ‘intriniscally’ motivated to do something with no actual benefit, I’d like you to give me an example. I’d be genuinely curious.

In the case of adventures, people have argued (rightly I think) that the monetary/loot rewards are insufficient. They have also argued that adventures aren’t fun. I would tend to agree with this. As I wrote elsewhere, the concepts of the adventures are great, it’s just the execution that’s lacking. I like the idea of drone racer, but the interface is so clumsy. Same with ley line run. These are arcade games without an arcade interface. That’s what takes the pleasure out of it for me. If drone racer, for example, had a decent interface it would make a fantastic racing game and I’d be playing it repeatedly even if there wasn’t any loot reward. But I don’t dare hope that’ll happen.

This may be tangential but… I like this kind of scavenger hunt achievement and enjoyed this one…. except that, once again, anet have released another event where there’s just some little niggly annoying thing about it, like a fly in an otherwise excellent soup. It’s as if nobody’s really testing every aspect of these events, maybe doing a few spot checks and calling it a day.

In this one, at some of the posters, the npcs are clustered so closely to the poster that you really have to strive to find a spot where the poster’s Interact action appears instead of a npc Talk action. Usually this is jumping up on a ledge or something on the wall on which the poster is pasted. It’s not a difficult workaround but.. come on, does there have to be a workaround?! The Interact action should override the Talk actions. Or the NPCs should be further away from the poster. I would really love to have one event where I can just say, “Yes. This was a perfect event. I love you, anet.”

Sorry for the interruption. Back to your regular programme.

The elementalist sub-forum might be a better place for this.

EDIT: Or bugs, I guess.

OriOri.8724:

Malediktus.9250:

Mystic Coins are fine as they are. No changes / no new sources are needed in my opinion.

Let me guess. You finished all of your legendaries years ago and don’t want newer players to catch up to you unless they fork over thousands of extra gold just for mystic coins, on top of the already high cost of making legendaries?

Actually, unless I’m mistaken, he DID finish ALL the legendaries, and quite recently. I remember a post where he showed the screenshot. It was impressive. Unless I’m thinking of someone else.

Are there any new achievements to this legendary/champion boss?

Healix.5819:

The problem with masteries is that ArenaNet presented them in place of leveling. People expect to be able to easily reach the level cap, as that’s the standard in nearly every game. If you ignore all that however and simply unlock what you actually need or the ones you actually want, it can be a very casual experience, as simple as naturally playing through the game. The only reason to unlock everything is for legendaries, but legendaries were meant to show dedication to the entire game.

For starters, they need to drop the mastery level as it’s as useless as achievement points and only encourages rushing it. The other problem is that you’re given no direction, which with a few mistakes, can permanently ruin your experience. One of the original reasons for the trait simplification for example, back when traits were 5 points each, was that some people were randomly spending points, rather than going for the actual traits. Likewise, some have done the same with masteries, only to find that it’s nearly impossible to get those last few points and what makes it worse, there’s no way to undo it.

They should have just increased the level cap. Much like masteries, you’d still be level 80, but within HoT, you could reach level 80 + HoT level 60 (say 15 per zone). Furthermore, enemies should have also had these levels so that it would actually feel like you’re progressing/leveling. Masteries on the other hand should have been treated like traits, where you could swap them in and out at will. They would still cost points, but rather than being used to permanently unlock them, they would be the cost to equip them. The only purpose of collecting more points would simply be to equip more masteries at a time. Even the simple change of allowing you to reset your points would make it a far more friendly experience.

Masteries have their issues, which I’ve discussed elsewhere, but I find your idea has even more issues.. at least for me. I finished all my masteries in central and hot, excluding raiding. It took time, patience and sometimes a little frustration, but it’s satisfying to have them all done. I feel like I’ve gained a bunch of abilities. Traits don’t give that satisfaction, and your idea of masteries-as-traits wouldn’t either. I like having all my masteries being permanent. I can go anywhere in HOT and not think about whether I have poison enabled or ley line gliding enabled. They’re just there. I worked hard for those abilities. I feel improved for my efforts. It’s a better system than raising level cap, the best we have until something even better comes along.

mbhalo.1547:

Multi-loot Tarir meta is destroying the economy. With how GW2 economy is tightly tied to real money things like this should be hotfixed the day they are reported, not left unattended for months.

So how long does it take to destroy an economy exactly? Just curious.. since you say it’s destroying the economy and has been for months. When is the economy officially destroyed?

Less rewards is fine, but there are achievements for beating the various bosses, which would be trivialised if they were achievable in an easier mode. And I say this as an achievement hunter who doesn’t raid and would benefit from this. I’m not against the concept of an easier mode per se, but I think this needs to be considered carefully to find a way not let down part of the community just to please another part, which has unfortunately happened before and quite recently.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

My biggest fear is that the next expansion will be so awesome that these forums will become a ghost-town and uninteresting to read while I’m at work.

~EW

LOL… you do that too?

Gilburt.9146:

I used to love playing adventures each day, but now that I’ve played them a lot and am more interested in rewards they feel like a waste of time.

And while I’m here, jumping puzzle rewards as well Anet?

Jumping puzzles are their own reward.

But I wouldn’t object to more jp loot. And I do agree on adventures – they don’t offer much replayability once you’ve mastered them. All that’s left is rewards and ..well, the rewards are insufficient.

I’ve been using stealth a lot in HOT to skip mobs I don’t want to engage and I’ve noticed something that looks odd.

That is, I run past a chak. It notices me. I stealth my mes. The chak still shoots me accurately with it’s laser beam thingy as I’m stealthed and moving, as though it’s locked on and can see me in stealth.

The same thing happens with the frog archers. If they’ve noticed me before I stealth, they fire and – once I’m stealthed – their arrows actually curve in the air to follow my toon. Yes, I know that sounds crazy. But unless I’ve lost my mind, it seems to be a real thing.

I have a suspicion that this is because the critters initiate their attack while I’m still visible and maybe the animation of the attack takes some time to complete. The critters do seem to give up when you go into stealth. It’s just that their attacks seem to know where you are in stealth, rather than hitting the spot you were last visible. I’m not complaining about being hit. I’ve got no problem surviving in the jungle and enjoy it.
It just looks weird to have a chak laser follow you when you’re invisible.

Then again, maybe there’s an in-game reason for it. The chak might be evolved to detect my magical energy. But then, why would stealth work on them before they notice you? And how do the frogs do it?

Has anyone else noticed this or have I gone mad?

EDIT: Oops.. probably should have posted in the HOT forum, although I suspect this would happen anywhere in Tyria. It’s just that there’s not much call to stealth in Central Tyria.

Imbune.5497:

Having tradeable skins might confuse new players.

LOL. Those poor new players. Every little thing confuses them.

rhapsody.3615:

penelopehannibal.8947:

I can’t understand why ArenaNet can’t turn certain keys into a map currency so they go straight to the wallet.

It would hurt their sale of shared inventory slots. Seriously, I have at least 8 characters that do HoT map metas, and finally bought five more slots to hold keys.

Would it though? There are plenty of other things to occupy those slots.. salvage devices, repair canisters, teleport to friend, home stone, converters, unlimited harvesting tools, consumables, etc.

Wait… I get that this is /s but .. release next expansion this year is a bad thing..?

I have no fears for the next expansion. Whatever it is, there will be things to do, challenges to overcome, collections to complete. That’ll do me.

Runaway thread should have ended ages ago when OP said he was satisfied with the replies he got. :/

Nero.8047:

And I want a big (and I’m talking BIG BIG) Yellow Hummer to cruise across Tyria and to have thick black exhaust fumes and it’s own built-in Radio to play the latest Hip-Hop Hits.

I’d cruise around searching for horses to hit.

R-R-R-ROADKILL!!!

And I want a 1967 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, hot pink, with whale skin hubcaps and all leather cow interior and big brown baby seal eyes for headlights. Yeah!

Malediktus.9250:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Malediktus.9250:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Malediktus.9250:

There were a lot of things I only did to get an edge over other people

Ah. There’s the crux of the issue. When you measure yourself against others, you will never attain happiness in yourself. Or so my fortune cookie said.

I don’t believe in “everyone is a winner”, for everyone who is a winner there has to be someone who is the loser. And Anet clearly intended AP to have a competitive nature or at least something that lets you compare yourself with others or there would not be a leaderboard for it to begin with.

There are situations where that is true: someone wins, someone loses. Then there are situations where everyone wins or everyone loses. I guess I just don’t have the competitive instinct. Measuring yourself against others seems ephemeral to me. But if that’s where your happiness lies, more power to you.

I am decently happy with it, the only thing bothering me is that a lot of my competitors are account sharers and Anet does not do anything about it despite it being against the code of conduct/terms of service. If Anet would rollback them I would be happier.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

EDIT: Since you added more to your post, I’ll respond to that. I’m a late starter in the game but I’m all for opening the ceiling for you vets to reach as far as you can. I don’t care to catch up. I’m enjoying completing my own goals, and the AP and skins that come along the way are just a bonus. I think newcomers that are building their hopes on catching up with long-timers are setting themselves up for disappointment. There are far more enjoyable goals to set yourself in this game than trying to grow that AP number. But each to his own.

If you played as much as me – around 11000 hours since release – then AP is the main drive to keep playing, because you have seen everything and probably own every item you care for. That does not mean I dont enjoy playing different parts of the game, but I definitely would not play an average of 8 hours a day if AP wouldnt interest me.
I would probably resort to only login if the WvW matchup looks interesting to me, if my guild wants to do a raid or if there was an update with new content if that would be the case.

You make an interesting point and when I get up to that stage, I’ll be keen to see if I feel differently about the AP.

Malediktus.9250:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Malediktus.9250:

There were a lot of things I only did to get an edge over other people

Ah. There’s the crux of the issue. When you measure yourself against others, you will never attain happiness in yourself. Or so my fortune cookie said.

I don’t believe in “everyone is a winner”, for everyone who is a winner there has to be someone who is the loser. And Anet clearly intended AP to have a competitive nature or at least something that lets you compare yourself with others or there would not be a leaderboard for it to begin with.

There are situations where that is true: someone wins, someone loses. Then there are situations where everyone wins or everyone loses. I guess I just don’t have the competitive instinct. Measuring yourself against others seems ephemeral to me. But if that’s where your happiness lies, more power to you.

EDIT: Since you added more to your post, I’ll respond to that. I’m a late starter in the game but I’m all for opening the ceiling for you vets to reach as far as you can. I don’t care to catch up. I’m enjoying completing my own goals, and the AP and skins that come along the way are just a bonus. I think newcomers that are building their hopes on catching up with long-timers are setting themselves up for disappointment. There are far more enjoyable goals to set yourself in this game than trying to grow that AP number. But each to his own.

Malediktus.9250:

There were a lot of things I only did to get an edge over other people

Ah. There’s the crux of the issue. When you measure yourself against others, you will never attain happiness in yourself. Or so my fortune cookie said.

Blacksarevok.8104:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Blacksarevok.8104:

So I just got done watching a Smokescale, Jungle Boar, Veteran Bristleback, and Elite Chak Zapper fight each other.

Wow! Where did you see that?! Obviously Tangled Depths… I’m thinking near the Scar Bivouac? That’s the only place I can think of that has chak and bristlebacks together.. am I close?

Southeast-ish of Teku Nuhoch, in the area where the Champ Chak lobber likes to patrol

D’oh! I was way off. xD

“Is GW2 dying? Just a question..”

A rather loaded question, don’tcha think? As opposed to something a little more objective like “How do you guys feel about GW2?”

It’s like the difference between “How is your mum?” and “Is your mum dying?”

Zorbakpants.5792:

most DLC of this price point would add the following:
- more than 5 hours of content
- added features that aren’t walled behind 20+ hours of grind

HoT added neither.

That must be the best 5 hours of content in the world, cause I’m still playing that 5 hours of content since HOT came out and enjoying it.

Moyayuki.3619:

Razor.9872:

General Health.9678:

Razor.9872:

What if I told you that the only videos I have watched were for raids?

I’d say you were defeating your own argument.
My “watch a video if you are stuck” suggestions applies to people who are a) stuck and b) in-game or on the forums complaining they can’t do something, can’t get somewhere, that the maps need fixing / nerfing. All those things.

I don’t understand; how does my quote defeat my own argument? My quote emphasized that one can quite realistically get un-stuck, do stuff, and go places without the need for watching a video.

The only reason I did so with raids was so I didn’t slow others down. But with the HoT maps, videos are rarely ever necessary.

Here you say that with HoT, “videos are rarely ever necessary”, yet it’s the #1 thing you propose me and other people who struggle with HoT do. So that’s kind of hypocritical…

No at all. It just means that you and other people struggling with hot fit into that “rarely” where videos may help. It makes sense for videos to be the #1 thing if they’re the most effective way to get you out of the rarely zone and into your happy place.

Blacksarevok.8104:

So I just got done watching a Smokescale, Jungle Boar, Veteran Bristleback, and Elite Chak Zapper fight each other.

Wow! Where did you see that?! Obviously Tangled Depths… I’m thinking near the Scar Bivouac? That’s the only place I can think of that has chak and bristlebacks together.. am I close?

The mention of baby raptors got me thinking: when they’re waiting for a player they just stand around… doing nothing. They don’t graze, they don’t wander. They just …stand still. It’s unnatural. Some critters seem to wander about at least, feigning some kind of life, but the baby raptors I’ve seen – apart from the hoarde in AB which roams around – seem to just stand like dummies until you get close enough. Wish they’d at least move around a little, pecking for worms or something.

Moyayuki.3619:

General Health.9678:

Watch the videos, look at the maps at dulfy.net.
Getting around in the new maps with minimal masteries and no xp is how we all started out. Once you can see where you’re meant to be going in VB, it makes it a lot easier to get there. Once there you start getting the XP you need for the mastery. You may never love any given map but there is player provided help if you need it.

I think that’s bad design that you must look at guides to know where you’re supposed to go. Hell, most games I play, I beat on my own but then use guides to get all the extra, fun things once I’ve exhausted my attempts to find/collect/do them on my own. The HoT maps are just an awful clusterfrak…

…in your opinion. I enjoy them. Each to his own.

The Uninspired?

“Cause we couldn’t think of a better name so…”

Ardid.7203:

Rockin Twilight Sparkle.2615:

The Special Committee for the Removal of Overgrown Lizards and their Ilk.

Best one ATM, by far. Would choose it in an instant.

Come on. You know tasks done by committee are always over budget and over time, if they’re finished at all.

I think you missed the “SPOILERS” in the title.

Rytlock’s Roughnecks?

Come on you apes. You want to live forever?

STIHL.2489:

Overwatch is not balanced at all, everyone plays Reinhardt and Bastion while being healed by Lucio, often with Pharah as a Offensive, and then one more random, show up with McCree and everyone is gonna think you’re noob.

But it has “excellent framerate” and excessive sexualising of Tracer’s butt!!!

/s

It’s all rather confusing. If these things have to be locked until they’re ‘unlocked’, why not display them as locked rather than making them invisible? There are other achievements, like Grawl Antiquarian(?), that appear as locked until you get some specific item. That would let us know what we have to work towards. But mystery whatever.

I’m all for the idea, but would you be able to do any achievements while you’re there? The ones that don’t relate to killing bosses, like the one where you find the badges of the fallen soldiers?

Getting something similar in Brisbane, although I did manage to finish Fungus on silver eventually (albeit with 1 second to spare).

Daddicus.6128:

Each alt would fill the bar only for himself. He would fill the bar for the account to 1/3 or 1/4 (whatever the divisor is) …The alt gets the mastery at, say, 1/3, but the account bar doesn’t gain it all, gaining perhaps 1/2 or 3/4 of what the XP would have netted if not split.

Okay, I think I understand, mostly. However, there are problems with your idea, which have to do with your next point.

Daddicus.6128:

The whole point is to encourage people to play multiple alts at a time, so as to get the whole account fully-mastered, but not in such a boring fashion.

There’s an entire discussion there whether it’s a pertinent goal to encourage people to play multiple alts. Anet’s stated goal has been ‘play as you like’ which means a player could stick to a single toon if they want. Putting that aside..

You idea actually undermines your goal of encouraging people to play multiple alts. Given that any one toon can get masteries at a fraction of the XP of the current system, it encourages the player to stick to that one toon.

When they make another toon, what will they find? They have to level up some masteries again for that toon. Yes, the account may have progressed enough to unlock some of the masteries, but you’re more than likely have to work on masteries you’ve already unlocked on your other toon.

Ironically, you’re creating the grind that you’re trying to avoid.

Daddicus.6128:

Then it struck me: the reason I hated HoT so much is because I had to earn all those mastery points and XP on one character. But, I didn’t really have to; I was just taking my best-equipped and strongest character there.

As you said, you didn’t have to earn it all on one character. You didn’t even have to take your best character there. You can use multiple characters, do different parts with each of them. Every profession gives you ways to survive. EDIT: Took out mention of DS again, as it’s not pertinent to this point.

Daddicus.6128:

But, that boredom was in many ways self-imposed. I could have done several characters, like I do everything in core. I just never thought of it. And, more to the point, lots of people probably never thought of it.

This idea gives incentive for players to do exactly what I didn’t do (and may have even enjoyed).

It’s to your credit that you see the problem was self-imposed, but as I said above your proposed solution isn’t going to help with this. It’s actually going to produce the opposite effect.

RabidCoqui.1983:

Anyone else have the Thwart the Inquest achieve disappear? I haven’t completed it, but it no longer appears under Current Events category.

LOL.. that’s one way to solve the problem of people being unable to get it, anet.

Why should this be limited to the Charr? I say give us a general posture toggle for all races. I want my sylvari to be a hunchback.

Waiting on OP’s response(s) with baited breath…….

A variation of the ‘create gw1 in gw2’ meme?

Daddicus.6128:

Anyhow, the grind discussion is, as I thought it would, destroying the thread. So, I will not post any more responses to such claims. Or, for that matter any statements not related to the subject.

The thread is about whether it would be a good idea to put graduations into masteries (especially HoT masteries) such that individual characters could progress faster than the account as a whole. The standard account mastery progression would not change at all.

Unfortunately, instead of calling this thread “suggestion: graduations into masteries” you put grind into the title, dooming it to perpetuate the grind discussion. You also started your original post explicitly talking about grind. It’s no use bemoaning that the discussion you started is destroying the thread and claiming you forsaw this.

But on the subject of graduations into masteries, I personally think your idea is an attempt to get something with less effort than it currently requires. As tempting as it is to fall back on words like laziness and entitlement, I truly don’t want to inflame or derail the discussion, so let’s examine your idea and discuss why it bothers me:

Daddicus.6128:

One of the reasons it’s hard to get masteries is because you’re locked out, especially early on (gliding becomes required very early in VB). You have to earn those XP.

But, masteries are account-wide, which means they really deserve to have a high threshold of XP. If they were character-based, the XP requirement could be a lot lower.

The problem with that is that masteries by their nature deserve to be account-wide. If not, then much of their value is lost.

Why not split the difference? Allow each character to get his masteries at 1/3 of the total (or 1/4). But, give it to the rest of the account once the original XP requirement has been met, across the whole account.

Under the current system, a single mastery tier requires (A) amount of XP to fill. You are suggesting a system where, using alts, you want that same bar to fill in (A) / 3 or (A) / 4. Is my understanding correct?

Consider this: XP is the easiest part of completing masteries. It comes from everything you do and with boosters it flows in very effectively. In my own experience, a single run of DS with boosters netted me 25% of the bar in the highest mastery tiers.

I’ve finished my masteries now and frankly I can’t even remember filling them up. It went by so quickly. The mastery points were the hardest part and there are certainly plenty of discussions on making those more readily available. Further to that, there’s a feeling of satisfaction to beating that challenge. The bar was set at a certain level. You can argue whether that level is appropriate but beating it is satisfying. Asking for the level to be lowered…. not as satisfying. And the benefits are dubious, considering extra programming would be required to implement this system.

It also intrigues me that you specifically used the fractions 1/3 and 1/4. I suspect you’re imagining doing this with 3 or 4 alts. But what about players who have 20 alts? Would they only need 1/20th of the XP on each character? Where would you draw the line?
There has to be a line somewhere, or it would lead to an alts arms race where players would create as many as they can and the requirements would dwindle to almost nothing, destroying any challenge or satisfaction.

So, in response to your question:

Daddicus.6128:

The thread is about whether it would be a good idea to put graduations into masteries (especially HoT masteries) such that individual characters could progress faster than the account as a whole. The standard account mastery progression would not change at all.

No, it would not be a good idea, as you proposed it.

Endless Soul.5178:

Nocturnal.5023:

Still remember the time when I swam underground to discover a hidden area which looks beautiful with the crystals and all, with a secret jumping puzzle that led to the secret asuran dancing room with an achievement. We need to appreciate this kind of design more.

Yep, that was an amazing discovery. Immediately told my guild when i surfaced and saw all those crystals,and waited for one of them to show up before proceeding. I had heard about the dance room beforehand, but didn’t know it was at the end of the crystals.

A good day indeed.

Yes, I found that room by accident too. I was just swimming around picking paths at random, saw some crystals and branches that looked climbable and ..bingo!.. there we are.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

the EXTREME paucity of waypoints

Bravo on the use of ‘paucity’. I like.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

Game design 101: If you place your save points too far apart, people will stop playing because they don’t want to do the same thing over and over.

Some people will stop; others will keep at it because they’re drawn to exactly that challenge, and plenty of games attest to that including Super Meat Boy as you mentioned.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

There is a reason that “torture platformers” like Super Meat Boy have short levels. You can only make a level so long and bank on the determination of people to show their skill so much before the annoyance of repetition kicks in.

Even so, I found the levels of Super Meat Boy too long. I hated it. Should I be arguing for SMB to be made easier? Or just leave it to those that enjoy that sort of thing?

Boogiepop Void.6473:

By the way, that is literally part of the Game Design 101 class. An entire lecture was on that topic.

Classes need to be taken with a grain of salt. I was working in IT at the same time as studying it and I remember a few lectures that were out of touch with the reality I saw at work. Classes are great for teaching theories, but when it comes to practical applications and providing content for customers who are paying you to do so, rather than lecturers whom you pay and who couldn’t give a stuff if you learn what they teach, it’s kind of a different ball game.

Do we need yet another thread on this? This subject has been thrashed to death in the threads that already exist (and were merged) for it.

If anet were smart, they’d take the feedback here and start another poll, with more options. They’re only names, right? Nothing’s been coded yet. So what’s the harm in offering a dozen options and seeing what’s popular?

stephanie wise.7841:

well most people do not know what is the difference between the dx version and what it means for the game in the first place. so to have a big number of people to vote on this with out knowing what it is about is kind like of hard. you would have to first explain that the games run on dx 9 what is the drawcall limit and limitation of dx 9. then do the same with dx 12 and what it would help the game with like the cpu bound…..
WALL OF TEXT
WALL OF TEXT
WALL OF TEXT

Seriously Stephanie.. you need to format your posts better. I can’t read them as they are, and apparently they’re full of fantasy that I’m missing out on. I like fantasy.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Wow. Guess my post was confusing.

When stating “that’s why they own multi-m/billion game companies”, I was referring to the armchair devs (forum posters) who know best.

Perhaps the poster(s) in this thread who have superior knowledge can get a job at ArenaNet or merge their companies.

Sorry for the confusion.

I.. don’t know what to say. Your post was fine. And funny. I can’t believe it caused confusion. Guess it’s not safe to joke without using the ‘/s’ anymore. O_o

This should probably be in the lore forum. That aside, the question of what’s going to happen as the dragons are killed has intrigued me too. More magic available in the world must surely mean everyone’s magic gets a little stronger? A possible explanation for the power creep of the elite specs….?

Doesn’t confusion provide for #5.. and possibly a little of #2?

But yes, more unconventionality (is that a word?) would be cool. How about a variation of the stealth mechanic where you can take on the appearance of a target (e.g. mordrem sniper) so you can run by them unmolested?

Or, create a holographic projection at a target location that copies what you do, albeit without causing any actual damage? Imagine there’s a group of enemies you want to get past. You create an illusion of yourself off to the side and their follow it, then you sneak past.

Or, the ability to case a mirror at a target location and use it to reflect projectiles or beams around a corner?

Or, a portal that only transports npc enemies – you can cast it at a target location and if an enemy runs across it, they get teleported a short distance away. For example, you see an ally downed and about to be charged by something. You drop a portal between him and the enemy and it gets teleported past him, wasting its charge and giving him a chance to revive.

Or, the power to briefly disguise an ally (perhaps downed) as a tree, so enemies don’t charge them.

Just my 2 coppers