Guild Wars 2

IndigoSundown.5419:

To wit, how would a pricing process run in a businesses which obtains its ongoing revenue via a virtual store and thus, how would a common MMO industry practice like F2P affect their thinking?

I don’t know, but what you’re showing us is that ANET has increased incentive to adopt pricing strategies in the context of their entire portfolio of products not that they would price independently.

Only ANET knows what specific metrics they use to evaluate the success of their in-game purchase model and so knows how they make pricing decisions for those services, but I would imagine that at some point they have been able to translate either total logged gameplay hours or total active players (as defined by them) to revenue over time.

You might be thinking that it is overly complex for ANET to balance their desire for profit on game sales with their desire for profit from in game sales because they seem like they are in opposition. But if you or I were given the same assumptions used by ANET to predict unit sales at x price and then unit sales*in game revenue/time we could write a linear program model in Excel that would find our optimal price pretty easily.

I don’t have any privileged information concerning the numbers or tactical choices that govern ANETs pricing decision, but I can tell you roughly how it’s being made. That ANET has two pieces of software to price instead of one complicates the process for them, but it doesn’t change the basic process for arriving at the optimal number (which is ANETs goal).

So some of us are being cut out by the model. We’re the ones who at the 50$ unit price are self selecting out of the market for in game services. If all of the assumptions they made in their model are accurate they still have an optimal price.

Yet our position is that (optimal price or not) we want the game to be cheaper (it’s our right to be advocates for our interests and not for ANETs) and that given this thread is now on 112 pages and we still have people saying “Whoa this is too expensive and I don’t want to subsidize the experience for new players” ANET may have gotten core assumptions wrong and need to resolve their model to get an actually optimized price!

What the savvy person needs to take away is that this is the math behind pricing and the marketing language given here (“To clarify: $50 is the price of the expansion. We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.”) is a way of framing the math for customers in a way that (hopefully) increases their perception of game/brand (um…FAIL!).

It’s actually the price of HoT and the wording of that answer that were arrived at as independent decisions, not the respective prices of HoT and the core game.

Ask yourself, to the new player: what is the difference between paying 50$ for HoT and getting the core game free and paying 50$ for the core game and getting HoT free? There is none.

So while ANET is telling us that everyone is paying 50$ for the expansion, it’s equally true to say that only existing player are paying 50$ for the expansion and new players are all just getting HoT for free.

Ayrilana.1396:

BanitO.4361:

Have to disagree that the inclusion of the base game as a “free bonus” is going to benefit new players. How does a new player know they want HoT if they haven’t even played GW2 before? It makes more sense to discount GW2 permanently to about $20 to make it cheap for someone to get into the game. Then they can decide for themselves if they want to keep playing and upgrade to the expansion. Also lets not forget that if someone were to jump straight into HoT content without doing the personal story and the living story they would have no idea what is going on.

You’re thinking like a current player than a new one.

I don’t think so. That’s the exact formula that got me into WoW.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Complain all you want about HoT lacking value-for-cost for you. However, stop betraying your ignorance about how business works by insisting that the price has been jacked up by the inclusion of the core game. All this does is focus attention on the wrong thing.

ANet has set a price for HoT. In order to stimulate HoT sales, they’ve made core GW2 FREE TO PLAY as part of the package. However, they’re doing this in a way that denies gold sellers and other abusers an infinite supply of accounts. ANet won’t admit this, because going F2P is often presented as a sign that a game has failed. Economically, though, that’s exactly what they’re doing.

So, let’s say that focusing on core game inclusion prompts action by ANet. What is that action likely to be? It’s more likely that core game would be un-bundled and HoT price would still be $50 than that core would be un-bundled and HoT price would drop. Why? Because ANet as much as said so.

So, at that point we’d still be left with the question of whether HoT is worth $50.

I recommend focusing on that, rather than the red herring.

Please tell us of your business education! If you go through my forum profile, you’ll find several explanations of how businesses actually do pricing.

Here’s one here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/HoT-Price-Feedback-Base-game-included-merged/5248640

Suffice it to say they did not at any point in time put a price on HoT independently from their decision about pricing core game. That is not how businesses (any businesses) do pricing. Please drop your attitude.

Kidel.2057:

Maple Taurus.1637:

Maybe I have issues with OCD— but adding weapon swap is the stupidest thing they could have done. Revenant was SUPPOSED to match Elementalist and Engineer, to be the heavy armor profession without weapon swap. You wanted more versatility, and to not be locked into certain skills in any way? Go about it a different way— like attunements, or kits, or, you know, channelling different Champions. But weapon swap? Now there’s no balance. 3 Light, 3 Medium, 2 Heavy.. oh wait, here’s another heavy, good there’s balance. 1 ‘no weapon swap’ light, 1 ‘no weapon swap’ medium, 0 ‘no weapon swap’ heavy… oh wait, here’s one, oh wait, never mind, we don’t like consistency.

first of all learn to respect people that work.

Elementalist has no weaponswap because attunements already give them 20 consecutive skills, 35 if you add conjured weapons.
Engineers have toolbelt and kits, that are so many you can’t even equip all of them.

Revenant has nothing to compensate for that. Legend swap barely compensates for the lack of customization on utility skills.

Weaponswap was asked a lot and needed a lot. Many original suggestions were inferior to it, like swapping weapon with legend. It was pretty stupid, since legendswap should be feequent to stunbreak or get energy, while weaponswap is moved by things like range or cooldowns.

Yeah, this player has the weirdest take on balance. It doesn’t unbalance the game for the revenant to get weapon swap, because…soldiers are not a faction…! It just feels like a band-aid to mask the ultimate weakness in the class design. They need to flesh out each legend so there is more synergy options across weapons and different ways play within the defined roles by exploiting added utility skills (each legend has got to have more than 5 obviously or this class has a total of 1 meaningful decision to make!!!). For example, a tank like Jalis might do some mean ranged damage if he could swap out 1 skill and exploit a trait so that gets tons of damage when bleeding a taunted foe or something…..I don’t know…haven’t played it…..

I don’t know. The whole revenant class is looking less and less interesting the more information they release. Haven’t played it yet so I guess we’ll see but with other classes, even though one some weapon options are really viable, each class seems like it has more than 4 possible play styles. For example, My warrior likes pairing a hammer with physical utilities and getting confusion stacks from interrupts is his sole reason for being. Other warriors could pick up the hammer or the physical utilities and play differently, which is making the revenant seem more and more boring by comparison. While the rev need weapon swap, it sort of just confirms that there is so obviously only one way to play each legends they had to add weapon swap in to save the whole class. Combined with the kitten show that has been their pre-order pricing and added character slot controversy and the other really disappointing choices they have made* it looks like whether I’m still with Guild Wars after HoT will come down almost entirely to whether the Rev elite spec can modify the classes mechanics enough to breath some life into it or whether the Warrior elite spec is worth $50.

*YES, I AM TALKING ABOUT RICOCHET, AND YES I THINK IT’S WORTH TYPING IN ALL CAPS TO EMPHASIZE WHAT A COLOSSALLY STUPID kitten JOB THAT WAS!

Actually, I’m surprised that no one is talking about OH sword more.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

My only real problem with the expansion is:

-It seems priced to include the price of the core game, which I already have. So it looks like a complete rip off, considering it is just a small expansion.
-It doesn’t include a free extra character slot, unless I preorder. And to Grenth with preordering! It is just a bad deal for me as a customer. I know that the expansion is really $10 bucks more expensive because of that missing character slot.

So, please offer existing players an upgrade to just the expansion, for around $35 bucks, which includes a free extra character slot. Now that is a good deal that I can be happy with.

To Grenth with pre-ordering indeed. Buying early is usually equated with buying at a lower price, but this is bound to turn out being the opposite. You should not pre-order this game. It’s a bad package deal.

100,000 pre-orders amount to kitten loan players are making to ANET that is absolutely free, no associated costs and no interest at all. Usually, players are compensated for the interest free loan with a lower price tag or the promise of getting the product even if it sells out.

Without any of those incentives, I would definitely not pre-order.

VOLKON.1290:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

VOLKON.1290:

Let me slow this down for you.

I pay $50.00 and get exactly what I expect for the money I’m spending.
New players pay $50.00 and also get the same expansion, and so they can actually access the expansion they also get access to the core as well. The core that I already have and have had since closed beta.

The core that you are paying for AGAIN with the expansion.

No, I’m not paying again for the core. I’m simply not getting the core again (for no cost) because I already have it.

But… let’s take a moment and assume your fallacy resembles reality just for gits and shiggles. How am I losing anything? I already have the core. I’m paying the set price, that I accept, for the expansion. The only perspective that matters in this is mine. I’m gaining the expansion and losing nothing. What others get or don’t get is irrelevant.

Oh my! I always love the words of the obviously young. I’m just popping in to see if there were any developments oh this yet and restate for ANET’s benefit that I have absolutely no intention of pre-ordering this game at that price tag nor of buying it at release without a free character slot included but….

Because there are still people acting smug and making this argument (while calling other people fallacious no doubt) I’ll go through yet again how pricing works in businesses.

When a company has an option of pricing two goods separately or together they will run projections of expected cash flows in both scenarios considering their expected volumes and customer bases. I can, as an MBA, guarantee you this was done at ANET (in fact on this thread I have 3 or 4 times before now). A decision was made between (for example) selling the expansion for $35 dollars while offering the base game for $20 and selling both together for $50. ANET expects that the majority of people people buying the expansion would buy only the expansion and chose a pricing model that will yield higher revenue by asking veteran players for and additional $15, which is kicked backed between new players who are receiving a five dollar discount on the base game and ANET which will just rake in a crap ton more money.

Of course these numbers were chosen by me and don’t reflect any real numbers ANET chose to analyze, but this is still an accurate picture of the process they followed and the decision they made. I guarantee it! This is how pricing is done!!!

Scar.1793:

Your love for getting a rifle clouds your reason.

Thief already have dual pistols. What difference would rifle make? More powerful so Thief end up with another useless weapon set ?

Staff is more than fine, and no I don’t play thief anymore.

I think you’re forgetting that P/P is garbage now!

Yea…Not good enough. I’m not going to pre-order this game without more information and not buying the expac at all if the character slot is not included.

Forget it! Why suggest all these changes when the obvi fix is to just put Ricochet back? P/P IS GARBAGE without it, it was barely viable with it! I’m pretty much taking a break from GW2 at this point. I just pop in to see if they’ve announced new specializations from time to time to see if something is going to be able to get me excited about HoT again. So far…….

P/P Did work! In Skyhammer, when you got get above a group fighting over a point! It was awesome. Gone is the joy of perching up in the torches over the gate in Silent Temple and almost all reason I ever decided that PvP was enjoyable instead the realm of awful people!

That sucks!

Oh what’s this? FFXIV has a two week free trial….

Don’t mind if I do.

MrQuillen.3014:

There are those of us who are rather casual players and played thief solely for the joy that was firing off the number 3 skill. We were fine with being less desirable in Dungeon groups…
fine with killing mobs one at a time while playing outdoor zones…
fine in WvW with being the least effective roaming thief spec…
fine in WvW with being handicapped with single target dps in a zerg…

If the desire is to not have thieves play it at all… then just give the dual pistol and # 3 skill to any other class. Ranger, Elementalist, Warrior. Don’t care, just don’t understand beating into the ground one of the most underutilized skills by a class in this game.

Would love to see any metric they can provide showing a thief playing dual pistol having an advantage in any facet of the game. Seriously, would love to see it so I could at least believe their was some thinking behind this beyond what feels like “there just wasn’t room for more skills and we think dual pistols were a mistake to give thief in the first place”.

Yep, well said. SWTOR is offensively bad (i tried it out today) but I guess I’m going to be putting a little more time into it.

Yea I just put together this awesome p/p build! Oh…No I didn’t, because anet took pistols and ran them over with a kitten truck! Just class A stupidity. There is literally no reason to even have the whole weapon class in the game now.

THERE IS NO LOGIC TO THIS. Anet made a giant mistake.

Seriously TF? I can’t even believe this. Richotte was SERIOUSLY the only thing P/P had going for it, they have completely killed a FUN build, and that build was the only thing that made thief PvP enjoyable for me….which was the only thing that made PvP enjoyable for me. I’m absolutely at the end of my rope. This is kitten stupid. I might seriously quit ALL PvP play now…and frankly that doesn’t spell well for continuing to play GW once I’m bored leveling characters up because….oh yeah there is still no end game.

THIS WAS A BIG MISTAKE. I guess I can recycle my 80 Thief.

It’s definitely a step in the right direction. I’m still probably not pre-ordering until we get more information, like the total sum of new content and the release date. I’m gonna go explore SWTOR just until some new info comes out. I’m due for a break anyway.

Otokomae.9356:

Well this is the generation of people that feel entitled to having things for free or paying less too get more. Making a good game costs money as people that want this game too continue we should be happy to do what we can to keep it going.

So you probably haven’t been around very long. But paying less to get more has been a favorite thing of EVERY GENERATION EVER! No generation to come before “us” (most likely before “you”) has made paying more than something is a worth a thing of theirs.

Also so many people are using the word entitled like it’s a negative in this context.

I do feel entitled. It’s my $50 and they want it! What part of that says I’m not entitled?

Blanche Neige.7241:

To clarify: $50 is the price of the expansion. We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.

In marketing, what you say is irrelevant.

What matters is what potential customers perceive from what you said.

And clearly, people perceive that they are buying the core game a second time when they buy HoT. You have 3000+ messages posted in the last 24 hours or so in this thread that proves it.

You may say the contrary as much as you want. Your message is not going to pass through.

If you ( meaning Anet) don’t modify your positions, it may hurt you (meaning Anet) a lot in the long term.

Again, gotta chime in here. It’s more than perception.

They did NOT set a price tag and then say, “Oh you know what would be nice…”

That never happened.

They considered potential cash flows from offering the TWO products bundled and unbundled and chose bundled based on math.

If you “Perceive” that you are buying the original game all over again, it’s because, you are! You may not be paying full price for it, but I can assure you, you are paying something to the pot to make it cheaper for new players while maintaining Anet’s total revenue goal.

Or at least that was how it was supposed to work out, but Anet never did seem to get beyond the spreadsheet when making this call…

AND WE CAN ALL LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKE!

Jornophelanthas.1475:

What you could have done was convert gold to gems and buy a new character slot with those immediately after the Revenant was announced as a new profession.

Thanks Captain Obvious. That doesn’t make offering the exp without the new slot a good idea or a good deal. That gold has a monetary value of $10 to me. That’s what I would have to spend to get that gold. It’s exactly the same as paying cash just less (a lot less) liquid.

Me Games Ma.8426:

The Expansion would have costed 50$ anyways but they’re giving new players the base game for free in addition to the expansion.

You’re letting their marketing message work against you and buying into it like it’s a natural law. It’s not like $50 is an intrinsic value attached to the expansion. Their price decision was made in the context of offering the core game free to new players, and it was compared to the alternative of offering a lower price to existing players. YES, I promise you, as an MBA, they raised the price of the expansion when they decided to bundle the two together.

karenlynn.4012:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

To clarify: $50 is the price of the expansion. We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.

This is a very generous bonus, and I bet new players will really appreciate it. As an existing player, I have no problem with the cost of the expansion. But as a consumer I expect to receive the same value for my money as any other customer buying the same product. So what bonus will I receive, as I won’t get the free included game?

Excellently phrased.

The price is not necessarily the killing point, but as an MBA with some understanding of how companies do pricing, I can basically guarantee you that they are not just handing out the core game for free.

Someone put a spreadsheet together that projected likely cash flows considering [lower expansion price + discounted core price] v. [higher expansion price + free core game] and decided that the second yielded better numbers.

Good on them, but don’t pretend like they didn’t bake the core game into the price. They did.

I would gladly pay $50 for the expansion, provided I got a new character slot (& a bank expansion tossed in certainly wouldn’t hurt either).

There is certainly no incentive to pre-purchase.

Yeah…so should I buy the expansion for $50 and then shell out $10 more to actually use it, or should I just buy a whole new account for $50 and get 5 new slots free?! ANET is making an arbitrage opportunity (bad) and seriously hurting the player experience to do it (really bad).

nexxe.7081:

Disappointing. I never expected Anet to be this greedy. I can’t believe they aren’t including a free character slot for the Revenant.

The character slot would be FAR from “free.” You’d be paying for the expansion with the understanding that entitles you to play all the new content immediately.

Well based on the pre-sale information the most basic package will NOT come with a new character slot (or so it seems). That’s LAME. It really is lame for them to do that to their users, as buying the expansion does not immediately let you participate in all the new content. It’s an HIDDEN CHARGE that I would not expect from them.

I sincerely hope that I am wrong, and simply mis-read the pre-sale info (or you get 2 new slots total for the elaborated version), because if I’m not…I might not stop playing…but my satisfaction and opinion of ANET will definitely change. And with a lot of MMOs moving free to play (SWTOR? You can play for free 30 mins from now) the MMO “switching cost” is disappearing.

Also, have they started accepting pre-orders before they have announced a release date? I am not excited by that. If I’m going to pre-order (so much better for their cash flows; don’t let them pretend like they are doing you a favor by letting you give them what amounts to an interest free loan) I want more than access to their unspecified number of “weekend betas”, especially considering their poor communication around betas past!

It’s a good option from where I am. Running mostly double daggers with wells, I really don’t want to be forced into ground targeting either.

I do at least think Rev’s need to have signets that they can swap in and out in legends. Doesn’t seem to be any reason for them not to, and it would add in some flexibility if anyone just hates or find a utility skill useless. There’s really no reason for them to be a signetless class.

It does seem odd for a martial, situational character to not get weapon swap. I see there point for why it’s excluded (and revs are well compensated to the exclusion), I just don’t think it was absolutely critical in order to keep the professions balanced. Weapon swap is such a core feature of GW2 it seems odd that they would jettison it on the only new profession we’re likely to ever have.

Rev utilities do or don’t have cooldowns? That would certainly color someone’s opinion of them getting weapon swap.

Maybe at this time they should reconsider pathing for a lot of things. I know fractal players get use out of teleports like infiltrator’s arrow, but if you don’t do many fractals they seem kind of useless, and contribute little to dungeons or PVP.

The pathing problems are supposedly so we can’t cheat on jump puzzles?! But engineers, can cheat on jump puzzles. Seems a little silly that infiltrator’s arrow has to have less utility than jump shot considering jump shot also does hella damage.

Teleports should have better pathing, like they should behave like you can kitchen teleport!

And infiltrator’s arrows and other teleports should also be leap finishers, IMO.

I also see a potential for them to zap some fun from the game, similar to when WoW locked players to 1 specialization and things like Blue/Green DK builds were killed. They argue that the choices are more “meaningful” but they are also much more constricting. My thief only currently goes to 1 GM trait so he can max out his combo attack and still have Ricochet (Yep, I SPAM Unload; Deal with it!!!). But I guess if I can go ALL THE WAY with all three traits it’s okay.

I see the bigger issue being balance between class builds and the elite specs. Because the first minor trait of each elite spec so far looks like a straight massive buff far exceeding what most current GM traits can do, I"m worried that elite specs will become mandatory!

So the Beta entails no new released information on the Revenant? Thought the full set of weapons skills would be released at least. What a let down. ANET really needs lessons in info teasing. Guess I’ll just obsessively follow something else until the expansion actually drops.

lordkrall.7241:

Or maybe people should stop thinking about betas as preview events and accept that they are actual tests and as such doing short burst is logical and makes sense?

Yea, no. A beta is an extended large user test. It’s the LAST round of testing. What they are doing is an Alpha test or an Alpha.5 at best! I think without ANET announcing that the beta they planned would look nothing like any of the MMO betas that people are familiar with, the OP’s object is super valid. I didn’t spend that much time grinding for a portal, but still I find this super annoying. I get that this is the first GW2 expansion, but there are a lot of role models they could have followed to have done this right. For example, I’m assuming that elite specs and so far unannounced revenant legends won’t be included? Lame.

I would love some OH burst skills! Yay f2! seems to also suggest that our new weapons will be an OHder. Can get behind torch really. Remembering FFX, when Auron would make a tornado and light it on fire! That please!!!

And for the OP…I have no idea what a sage is or what one does.

I think they want all elites to fit into the traitable categories of the primary utility skills—-so this is a long shot. Not sure how they are accounting for mesmers’ moa or the other transformation. But you’re suggestion doesn’t seem likely.

I’d imagine that yea, you’ll lose things that you “earned” mearly because many traits are going way. But I also have faith in ANET not to take away that which translates over nicely. And no one has “earned” elite specialization traits or skills, so yea you’re going to have to play the game for those.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

At what point would you classify a lesbian relationship as not being fan service?

When it exists in a collage of other reasonable and proportional displays of sexuality. i.e. there should be some gay guys too. And when Kasmeer starts dressing like she is actually traveling though a dessert/jungle and not attending a college Halloween party!

Romantic relationships don’t need to be included at all, but they are. So because they are it’s fair to want to see a fair representation. And it calls into question anet’s “positive intentions” when the only ss couples are “hot” lesbians. One could accuse anet of fetishizing women’s relationship with each other for the titillation of there supposedly “all” straight male audience. And that’s annoying to gays, to lesbains, and I would imagine to women as well. Playing in an 8th graders wet dream…really breaks immersion for me!!!

Paragon is an outright stupid profession name. Paragon of what?!

If you’re choosing master traits over grandmaster traits isn’t that a sign that they failed at balancing? I assume most of the reason for doing that is to load up on both straight weapon buffs & movement speed traits, but I sort of doubt that the movement speed traits will survive the system change.

RabbitUp.8294:

Riku.4821:

Thief: Rogue. Sword offhand. Very mobile and dps.
I’d like to see that.

An alternate playstyle to the current immobile, low dps base thief?

Ha, right?! I’m kind of sold on the thief = snipe concept that’s been floating around. We already have some mid range redundancy on the thief so getting some viable long range would be fun. Plus we all just like rifles and they are under utilized. Makes no sense not to add them to someone’s rep.

I like the DH name (and after seeing it in action even like the traits and abilities). I’ll point out that at no point did anet say that consistency was a goal of theirs. In fact they said the opposite, that they were mixing generic fantasy, tyrian fantasy and high concept fantasy pretty freely.

And sorry, gamers tend to be a tad bit reactionary. And as I read examples of who the DH breaks consistency, no one is making a good argument for why we need consistency or why I should care that it’s broken.

As they have described class—you’re either a ranger or a druid. I.e. when you decide to make your ranger a druid, as some level they cease to be a ranger. So it really doesn’t bother me that guardians don’t seem to have a natural connection to dragon hunting as rangers do to druids…because we’re talking about people who have made the choice to stop being guardians.

Looking forward to HoT, everything (including the Dragonhunter & its name) looks awesome, but this is not the first thread I have made to call out some of the obvious UI inefficiencies in the game, and I hope you’re using HoT as an opportunity to fix them.

The auction house is still in dire need a revamp to make selling faster. You should have the item screen give a check box next to each thing so players can select everything they want to sell immediately and then do it with one click. I would personally even prefer each item be default to sell rather than not.

That might be a lot to ask for, but can you please at least streamline our interaction with armor repair merchants? Right now after repairing your armor, if you want to sell junk too you have to close the dialog box, deselect the NPC and click “I’d like to sell.” Adding that option to the dialog box after repairing seems like a no brainer and turns what’s now three clicks into one (and shows that as technology professionals you understand and appreciate the importance of HMI and take pride in your work).

Of course ideally we’d ask, who with broken armor will be a an armor repair npc and not want it repaired? Probably no one. So it’s an even better idea to just have that one click repair your armor and open the sell window!

EDIT: Like the anvils…which are a fantastic addition…don’t need to open a dialog box at all!

Now my next pie in the sky UI request? I’d love to be able to customize what I consider to be “junk,” I could include minor runes, white gear not worth salvaging, and mats that reliably can’t be auctioned (like harden leather and some gemstones…or all the gemstones but sunstone).

These suggestions could really “expand” my game play experience.

yea, while i do think the most exciting part about today’s guardian reveal is that they made a pretty cool looking longbow skin, i hardly think that the Dragonhunter (a name I like BTW) will ruin anything. You get an “option” to use a bow as one of 2 weapon sets you can equip. calm down.

For the rest? Who know. I think I would like warriors to get pistols, because daggers and short bows don’t sound like a fun option.

Thieves, never really understood why they could use maces, but since they lack a good range option I can get behind riffles.

Elementalists will stump me, because I think everyone really wanted a gun-mage and I’m not sure why they didn’t run with it. New mechanic idea could have been attuning your main and off hand pistol separately to create combos.

I would really hate to see engineers become a pet class. Though i dont really play one currently, i love the other hammer playstyles in the game and i want to like this too. I kind of predict that they won’t get pets though because whats the point of giving the engineer a melee weapon AND a pet? Pet’s are for not melee! Engineers currently lack good melee options, and I dont think they would introduce ranged hammer skills on two classes at once. So no pet. My prediction will be various types of equipable armors like auras that they will need for their new melee prowess!

Necros, love the great sword in just about any professions hands, and I love my necro, so I’m nothing but excited about this. Would love to see a few more direct damage utility come into the necro kitten nal.

Eh, seems like the most exciting thing about this reveal is that they made a pretty cool looking long bow skin.

Warriors (and I love mine) will just have to accept that there are few weapons that can be added to the profession because we already have almost all the weapons. So unless you want to make a credible argument for a scepter wielding Warrior, it’s either going to be daggers or pistols. And I vote pistols. Yes, short bows would be an option, but I don’t think anyone would prefer that.

I also don’t see how guardians getting either the long or shortbow would make an appreciable distance. I think it would be great to give them a bow. It’s right in line with their love of fire. And short or long probably not a big breaking point. Though I think there is a nature argument for long, because they have never been a long range class before.

I don’t know. I guess I’m also a “stupid” ele, but I don’t use EAtt, and it does seem like too much to just hand out for free.

I use Prayer to Kormir for PvE where utilities really don’t count for much. It’s handy. I also think Hounds of Balthazar has certain uses with lots of mobs you want dead. Or when you just feel like conjuring up some hellhounds. #puppymancer

Remember when GW2 said they were going to be an MMO without grinding? Seems like they are going in a new old direction.

Hey last time I played as an engineer my net turrets fired exclusively on stationary objects! I’ve never really thought that ranger pets were that bugged.