Guild Wars 2

This was an interesting discussion. I only want to add a suggestion that was implied earlier in the thread. We need open world content where groups are required not only to beat bosses but also to navigate the zone.

They should make it more into an event. 1. Reduce the number of portal drops. 2. Any person who gets a portal can invite as many people as they want to the bata by equipping said portal and zapping people around them 3. The portal has a 15 minute expiration if you wp, zone, or die the portal disappears 4. Said person with portal gets a shield over their head and mordem attacks begin

Also does anyone else see the potential for muli classing under this new system? Mechanically it could be as simple as selecting two elite specs. I haven’t seen any speculation about this but the possibility seem very real.

You can always send it to me!!

How many gems is that?

foste.3098:

…

It is probably to soon to judge but if every class gets uber strong elite specializations then no one will run the base ones, because there is no reason not to take the ones that up give you super strong new abilities. This is not the idea that was set up earlier this year, where it was said that players would have reason to stick to the core professions (specializations).
…

I think you’re right that no one will play the core specs after a while but it’s a short term issue that will be resolved once they add more elite specializations.

Will thieves get any benefit from chronomancers?

I think some of the earlier post where making some interesting suggestions. What if its still a pure vote but the vote gets weighted based on how much you’ve participated in the dungeon. Late comers still get a say but just not equal to the people who’ve actually done most of the work.

Traits have icons now!? How will I know what number trait I’m selecting?!

Lucky Shot.7650:

I was actually talking about the +10% damage with conjured weapons.

I didn’t know that people picked up this trait for the damage bonus. It’s nice an all but I so rarely grab grab a conjured weapon that it seems mostly wasted for that reason. On the other hand, I steal at least a few times a fight… depending on the encounter of course.

kash.9213:

The ideas people have about thieves and rifles in these threads makes me think they just want another warrior. If we take what people have posted about the thief and the rifle, we’ll have a bunch of “thieves” walking around a map Terminator style shooting bazookas from the hip with pirate hats and night vision goggles. Just give us an un-armed specialization with some nice new animations and give the fluffy blouse commandos a better rifle to steal.

I think the people who what rifle just want a 1200 range option. I’m not opposed to rifle I’m opposed to the idea that optimal play on a thief should be 1200 units away from your target.

A long time ago I posted a rifle concept on the thief forms where the thief would basically shoot into the shadows and the bullet would randomly exit the shadows to hit your target at unpredictable angles to misdirect them. I think rifle could be interesting just not the long range version that most are asking for.

Zero Day.2594:

You might not want the extra stolen item in some situations. Like an extra Throw Gunk….

What you don’t like conditionpaloza?

Lucky Shot.7650:

Improvisation is a pretty powerful trait in dungeon setting, it doesn’t need to change in my opinion.

I use it all the time… it feels like winning the lotto when I get two caltrops in a row. Thought maybe to replicate that on the item side. The damage bonus is just boring.

Just had a random idea. What if the trait for Improvisation was:
Stealing recharges all skills of one type AND you have a 33% chance of stealing a item from the closest foe after using a stolen item

So junk the bonus and instead you might get another stolen item without having to burn a steal. Is this crazy or overpowered?

I really hope the new weapon for the Thief is no-weapon off hand and that they do something with those empty slots using the steal mechanic.

Hamfast.8719:

Ayrilana.1396:

Nope. It’ll be forever changed as part of their living world.

Kessex Hills might wind up different from what it used to look like, but that doesn’t mean it has to remain trashed. A living world does not have to be forever changed… it has to be forever changing. There’s no reason they can’t sweep the rubble aside in Kessex Hills, Lion’s Arch, and wherever Scarlet’s Probes were left lying around.

“Living” not only refers to change, but also to life. The world isn’t as “alive” if all that’s left is dead remains. I am all for sprucing up the place. I tend to avoid the ugly areas just because they’re, well… ugly. Especially if they were once dear to me. I don’t like seeing my favorite places lying in rubble. So the more they tear things up and not repair them, the smaller my world becomes.

Oop! Ack! Thpppt!!

Maybe cleaning up the place is not the right approach. For example with the probes they can be re purposed based on who is around. The grawl would probably make a god our of them. I can see various charr factions trying to weaponize old probes or the nightmare court making shrines. I don’t know what quaggan would do with a probe but I would love to fine out….

I agree with the OP. Rifle sounds is uninteresting. I play a thief so I can skirmish. Sitting out at 1200 … why?

What if the new weapon for the thief is no-weapon off hand. They can take the steal mechanic and turn it up. We could get new skills based on who we are fighting and even change mid fight. That would be fun.

I hope we don’t get rifle at least the 1200 version that everyone post about. Really I could play a ranger…

Instead it would be interesting to play something like the risen jesters in Orr. They could make the torch work.

Nah your gonna have to achieve the rank of phoenix in PVP so before your revenant can leave the mist.

Lights and shadows right?

We’re getting main hand torch; it’s going to be used like a melee weapon. The new mechanic will involve summoning clones that stealth.

I always wondered why Anet didn’t make unlocking traits just like getting skill points. For me the most frustrating thing was figuring out where I had to go. This problem was already solved; put an icon on the map. Secondly tying specific events to specific traits is what really kills the replay value. I think the skill point system of earning and spending gives the right amount of freedom. I’m exploring the map anyway being told exactly where to go is … heavy handed.

This is an interesting idea only what if it were more like a two handed focus. It would be to a staff what a hammer is to a two handed sword.

Palador.2170:

…I think traditional raids are a very VERY bad idea for GW2….

Came here to say this. Was really hoping to hear more support for open world raids despite the challenges that it presents. It would feel truer to the game but if it’s not meant to be …oh well.

If we do go with instanced raids please bring the dynamic event system to vary how players can complete the raid. I really like the idea of branching paths. For example the raid can progress quite differently if the player decide to attack quickly and catch the enemy off guard or take strategic positions and draw enemies into a trap. You did a great job at this kind of thing in the story and I’d love to see more of it.

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

On scaling: it is true that we have a certain amount of “magic” scaling in the game, commonly seen in dynamic events. The intent of that system is to keep difficulty consistent across a variety of player counts. The sticking point for myself on raids and scaling is that while we can scale enemies, it is far more difficult to meaningfully scale objectives.

To elaborate, in a 10-player raid, each player is responsible for approximately 1/10 of challenge. As you add players, that challenge share diminishes, so in a 20-player raid, the individual role is about half as important as it would have been with 10 players (challenges of coordination aside).

Of course, group content is rarely so singular and for a good reason. If we have 3 objectives, we divide the focus of the group and your ownership of a 20-player challenge goes from 1/20 to 1/6ish.

Is it possible, then, to just scale objectives along with the player counts? Perhaps. But it seems that would equate to just making many tiers of the content which, to me, sounds like a good way to diminish the total amount of content we could build. What do you guys think?

Have you ever thought of adding other high value targets as part of your scaling scheme? For example a few more vets or elites is not going to change the dynamics of an event with a zerg of players but a healer or summoner or some kind of high damage berserker might. You would need awareness to know that these guys showed up and also coordination to know who fights what. I’m actually surprised that players haven’t had to do something like plates and scouts on main target/ scholars on adds.

Proposal Overview
Open world raid maps
Open world raid bosses are great but I think players miss the crawl.

Proposal Functionality
Everything in my proposal steals from systems already in place except for one and that’s how waypoints are used. I’ll get to that in a second.
The big idea is that there are full non instanced maps that are dedicated to raiding. These maps would have broad linier paths that lead to boss fights of increasing difficulty. The basic format would be a map with three major paths; let’s call them upper, middle and lower.

So the beginning of the map would be solo-able but once you pass a certain point everything is balanced for a group of five a little further a group of 10 further still a group of 25. Events will still scale from there but the assumption is you have at least 25 players with you.

Dynamic Events – So again at the beginning of the zone you also find npc groups that have some interest in exploring this new territory; let’s say each of the orders are there. There are three Orders and three paths. Which Order gets what path is decided by some kind of event. Let’s say that it was decided that the Priory is going down the upper path. This will spawn a series of dynamic events as the players help them though the zone. Think of these events like an escort on steroids. Your setting up base camps and defending them, doing reconnaissance, trying to turn the natives into allies, creating and defending supply chains, attacking entrenched enemies, and generally pushing the front line forward.

If it were the Whispers it would be a different set of events. If the Priory had taken the middle path a different set of events would ensue. Bottom line 3 npc groups x 3 paths equal 9 unique dynamic event arches but that’s not all there would also be a line of dynamic events that occur in absence of the npc group so there are 3 more series of events one for each path. This last group should be considered “hard mode” because the players are doing it without the support of npcs. Players could control the advancement of the npc group to get the most out of a path by first doing the events without support then bringing up the front to complete a new group of events in the same area.
Bosses – Bosses are spawned by events. Some events spawn multiple bosses on timers so if you have a large group you can split and try to take on both or focus on one and let the other run amok and destroy the base you help the vigil set up. I’m not going to go into boss fight mechanics because others have really great ideas. I do want to see enemy healers though.

Waypoints – Waypoints are only available to players fighting in the surrounding area. So you get a certain buff by fighting in the 10 man zone of the upper path that allows you to use the wps in that area. The buff would be limited duration but it’s easily refreshed just by doing stuff in the zone. The idea is to keep the numbers of players down. For this type of content people should be rewarded for the crawl as much as the boss fights.

Associated Risks
Open world content breeds zergs. I’m hoping between multiple paths, multiple boss pops, and restricted waypoints the numbers will be kept down. But I would love to hear from other people ideas on managing player numbers in an open world environment.

I have a Rusttooth in my bag if I can manage to get all the bloods for the reaper of souls I’ll be a happy murderous thief.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rusttooth

I’m sad this post isn’t about mob AI but I wonder if an event can be created specifically for the crowd that like to fail events to farm champs. Maybe an event can be created that keeps producing champs until you fail to kill them? I don’t know how you would justify that except for an arena type setting but failing the event would stop the champ zerg rather then keep it going.

After 300% luck should decay. Let people go beyond it they want but you’ll have grind harder to stay beyond 300%.

Gibson.4036:

The problem is, given the way they typically price trading post items, it’d probably be cheaper to change gems to gold and buy three years worth of single-use transmutation charges than what you’d pay for one infinite-use transmutation item.

Yeah infinite sounds problematic. What if they did something like a three month wardrobe pass that allows to change at will for the next three months.

UnitedChaos.8364:

…
If Los broken, will not run into stack
If players stack, mob will try to stay ranged, or separate players(stomp?)

Increased damage/health if players stack

I always wondered what would happen if Anet turned on player collision in dungeons.

It would be fun to see the skritt as a playable race but…
1. Players would have to be able to control a pack of skritt not just one individual
2. I don’t think the devs should do it because there is no way they can come close to how I picture it in my imagination and anything they design would just be disappointing

I played a sub rogue in wow many ages ago. My advice is
1. be prepared to be really bad at the beginning – when I unlocked scorpion wire hilarity ensued… for days…
2. play the game for a while and ignore the guides – None of that stuff matters for low level pve anyway. Also some things look great on paper but might not really mesh with your play style. Get to know the weapons and play around with different tactics until you know what you like
3. Take your time.

Palador.2170:

So, cross Tower of Nightmares with the Lion’s Arch invasion?

Yes if the tower has multiple branches with bosses at the end of those branches…and there are three of them.

ipan.4356:

nopoet.2960:

…Anyway that my idea for end game and I think it fits with the intended spirit for GW2.

How about no WP’s (except the one at the entrance). Since it’s open world, you could log out anywhere in that zone/dungeon.

Or, since I can already hear people complaining about this – very few waypoints. Like very, very few.

What if you die and no one can rez you. You wouldn’t want to have to go all the way to back to the beginning of the zone. They have to be close enough to the fight so you have a chance of diving back in. I was about to write something about keeping waypoints active via events but then I though of Orr…

maddoctor.2738:

nopoet.2960:

…Anyway that my idea for end game and I think it fits with the intended spirit for GW2.

You mean you want something like the Tower of Nightmares?

Kind of but the size of a full zone.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I agree with you. Suggestions would be wonderful: Practical, reasonably expressed, and clear. Here’s the challenge, and we’ll see if it’s possible and reasonable: Share your opinion about how to improve the end game in (roughly) 100 words or less…

What about an open world dungeon? I invision an entire zone with broad linier paths that gets harder as you progress. So maybe at the beginning there are three paths to choose from (upper, middle, bottom) and only two are available at a time (for population control purposes) and the further you go in the harder it gets. So you can solo up to a point but eventually you’ll need help to progress. The end bosses would essentially be raid content but gated a little because you need an organized party to get there.

The only mechanic that would need to be built is restrictive way points. Perhaps enemies in the specific paths drop (common) items that you need to use way points on that path so you can’t just port in for bosses if you are on the other side of the world. Event’s, branching paths, and multiple boss pops with timers can be used to break up/ reduce zergs.

Anyway that my idea for end game and I think it fits with the intended spirit for GW2.

Crossplay.2067:

Objectively, the biggest issue is the amount of calculations that the server has to do for each stack of each condition that each person uses. Using the present system, any improvement to conditions would have to lower that amount of calculations. Your idea actually add a condition which will add more calculations.

Not necessarily. We would end up with one calculation every three seconds with two variables; 1. Number of stacks and 2. condition damage of the user. Bleed is much more complex than that.

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

That seems… awful. And complicated. …

I’m doing a bad job explaining. Here is an example how it works.
-Enemy has 20 stacks of bleed
-Someone applies Fester
-Someone applies 10 stacks of bleed
-The 10 stacks of bleed are added to Fester instead of Bleed
-The 20 stacks of bleed continues to tick as normal
-Fester explodes with 10 stacks and expires
-After fester is gone Bleeds are applied as usual

Fester doesn’t interfere with the condition stacks already on the enemy. It just coverts new conditions stacks to Fester

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

Right, but what would be the point of that? That would just be another condition to hit a cap on. Even if it “explodes” after three seconds, will it stack intensity? Or will it only be a single instance of it? If it’s the latter, it will just get overwritten the next time something within that 3 seconds procs the “Fester” condition, and it will never explode.

If it’s the former, well then, you’re just going to have the same problem with that capping as well.

For clarity:
1. Fester explodes every 3 seconds no matter how many stacks have been converted
2. You can increase the damage of the explosion by adding stacks of bleed, confusion, and torment
3. When Fester explodes the stacks are reset at zero
4. The duration or Fester can be increased by reapplying
—
Fester is essentially a condition that eats 25 condition stacks every three secs and turns them almost immediately into damage. Yes it will cap but when it does you shouldn’t still be at 25 bleed stacks. In theory I see Fester maxing out then bleeding maxing out but as soon as you hit 25 bleed stacks Fester has exploded and starting to convert bleed stacks again giving time for the bleed stacks to get used up.

To simplify Fester slows down the application of bleed, torment, and confusion to give them time to be used and not overwritten.

Yalora Istairiea.6287:

Here’s a previously posted solution on this subject, which goes into quite a bit of detail:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestion-Elegant-Fix-to-Condition-Stacks

Thanks. He does a great job laying out the issue but I’m not suggesting a passive “second tier” condition. I’m suggesting a new condition that players actively cast that can be used in pvp and pve.

So bleed, torment, and confusion only stack to 25. This is a problem when you have a bunch of players attacking the same target as any additional conditions overwrite the old conditions. My solution is another condition. I call it Fester.

Fester – For the next three seconds all new applications of bleed, torment, and confusion are converted to stacks of Fester. When the 3 seconds are up Fester explodes doing increasing damage for more stacks. Stacks duration.

In a boss fight (if players can keep it up) Fester can explode 25 stacks of conditions every three seconds. The beauty is that once fester maxes at 25 stacks of bleed, confusion, and torment become regular stacks. Also this condition scales so it can still be useful in smaller scale fights as a condition spike.

So condition stacking is mostly solved because we still need a way to handle the excess of poison, burning, and to a lesser degree vulnerability. Any ideas?

Also venomous knife hits like a truck.

The problem is not that offensive stats are overvalued it’s that defensive stats are undervalued and for good reason. As you get better at the game you simply need less of it. The mistake that Anet made was not tying defensive stats to the active defensive system that they built ie dodging and movement.

To fix this issue vitality and defense stats could 1. increase the endurance pool 2. Increase endurance regeneration 3. increase combat movement speed or some combination of the three. Then make boons like vigor and swiftness less common.

Neve.7134:

Levelling mesmer is a challenge. I love my mesmer and I would put again all my efforts/time on it I tried thief but seems it doesn’t fit me

Please tell me why you like playing them so much. I just don’t understand…

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Being able to stealth mid fight is enough. IMO, thieves do not need additional stealth…

What I’m suggesting is not really stealth because everyone in melee range can still see you. Anyway the way Cloak would be implemented would be mostly though traits with cloak being an after effect of stealth. Or perhaps when you are forced out of stealth cloak activates. That and possibly one utility.

Also how does this play against warriors specifically? I didn’t expect that objection.

oEnvy.3064:

Who needs true sight when you can just play a ranger and hit sic em/rapid fire?

From a thief’s perspective, I would rather be visible to a few opponent and still be able to us my stealth skills then be visible to everyone and not use them. Even if True Sight is an aoe boon it would be better than forcing a revealed.

I have a level 80 thief but I’ve deleted so many mesmers. I just can stand leveling them but there must but there must be a payoff in the end.

I would rather they added a see invisible instead of forcing revealed.

JonPeters.5630:

3) What kind of features are there that don’t even exist yet that would really only make sense with a more fixed association with a single guild?

Competition. Allow players to set up global chat channels that are not associated with guilds in any way. That way I don’t have to leave gchat with my favorite guild to talk about my love for jumping puzzles and find other people to run them with me.

Cloak: Become invisible to enemies more than 900 feet away.

I would love to see a new boon in the game called Cloak that is essentially stealth light. It doesn’t stop you from attacking and doesn’t open your stealth attacks but rather it’s a defensive maneuver that relies on positioning. For example if you are in melee and your target has range support you can Cloak for a few seconds to relieve some of the range pressure until other cool downs become available. I suppose you can use it the same way in range skirting the edge of the battle.

True sight: You can see invisible enemies and recognize magical clones.

This needs to be in the game because there should be another way to counter invisibility other than forcing a reveled (also we need something in the game to kitten off mesmers). So anyway it’s an effective counter to invisible players/npc can be attacked or avoided but it doesn’t screw up the rotations.

Magnum PIe … obviously