Guild Wars 2

Ohoni.6057:

It’s also worth considering that Legendary weapons aren’t THAT hard to earn, aside from the gold cost. People cite that it takes “aspects of all parts of the game,” and that’s true, but only tiny bits of them in many cases. What does a Legendary weapon take?

Most obviously it takes World Completion, which doesn’t even include WvW anymore, but even then it only required you to map transfer or get lucky on color rotation and you could earn that no problem. The actual effort of PvE map completion took the most time of anything, but was hardly highly challenging, especially in a group. My current guild still does “map expeditions” every now and then where they move in a herd and clear a map in about an hour or so.

Gift of Battle takes 500 badges, which was once fairly difficult for non-WvWers (but even pacifists could farm them from the JPs), but with achievement points even non-WvWers have a few thousand badges lying around. They also added a requirement of rank 14, but again that is fairly trivial to reach. I’ve spent a grant total of maybe a few hours of sporadic WvWing since they added ranks, and have that rank already. Absolutely no skill required either (although it helps).

Gift of [Dungeons] takes 500 dungeon tokens, which means running a total of eight daily dungeon paths. At most this would take you eight days, as little as three (or one if you insisted on grinding the dungeon all day for the minimal rewards). It could instead require a little over two runs through any dungeon PvP track. Most dungeons have at least one path that is easy to do, and worst case scenario you can get carried.

Then you need a ton of obsidian shards, which can be earned relatively trivially any number fo ways by this point, and you need around 350 spirit shards, which are again relatively trivial to earn (I believe I have 3000 of them at the moment).

And then there’s the gold. Oh the gold. Lots of gold. You need at least 100.5g in cash, for cash-only items, and then you need a couple thousand gold in precursors and materials. Whether you hand collect those materials (which are mostly no more challenging than SW farming), or whether you farm gold and buy them, it’s all currency exchange, and can be managed through just about any method or area of the game.

So that’s it, that’s all you need to do to get the “best weapon in the game.” Nothing particularly skill-based in any way, only a few things that are particularly time consuming, and most of it based on gold on hand.

I would have no problem with them adding a path to Legendary Armor that was equally difficult and time consuming (although ideally far less gold costs involved). I think a fair balance would be that each Legendary Weapon would be equivalent to 2-3 pieces of Legendary Armor, since you need more armor than weapons.

but your beef isnt that the content is hard, its that its content you dont like. There a ton of people who hate map completion with a passion. regardless how easy or difficult it is, legendaries have always been about doing lots of specific things. It has never been about doing whatever you want unless you were buying on the market, and to be honest the fact that legendaries were tied to the market has never been good in the way in which it effects the process.

Windsagio.1340:

You asked me for a source, then agreed with me?

There’s no question that they initially intended dungeons to be a core part of the gameplay, and then they abandoned supporting them after a certain point (nobody’s contesting this)

Above you said, it was unsupported: As a feature it was supported then abandoned, presumably for ROI reasons.

Anet thinks, or is willing to take a risk that this content will be different and will have a better ROI… but given the example of their past experience, it is by no means a sure thing.

Edit: The distinction I’m making there might be fine, but its important. We have to ask ourselves this question:

Why, given the initial development support for Dungeons, did Arenanet abandon them?

it definately wasnt for return on interest reasons.
They took most the team off to put them on living story which at that time was moslty temporary content. Which has very little ROI. They used pieces of this content in fractals, but they needed a lot longer to fix em for fractals, and a lot content never returned.

i think they basically were going with the flow, they didnt have an overall vision, they just wanted open world to be really compelling, and was trying to figure out how to do it. After all this time, i think they realized their LS method had low ROI and tried to come up with a new gameplan

I think many of their descions were focused on keeping a small world. They really wanted people to play this same maps/dungeons forever.

why else remove TA up? and focus on content that disapears?
they are always overly concerned with splitting the playerbase, when keeping the playerbase engaged is the most important thing.

Frederica.9237:

I was checking out some topics regarding raiding on Reddit when I came across something unbelievable.

Get a load of this post :

“Everyone, we gotta send Anet a message.

Make sure you post on the official forums and send Anet lots of emails. Tell them that no raid in Guild Wars 2 should ever be puggable.

Real players like us deserve our bragging rights and legendary armor.

Casuals should never be allowed to clear a raid. Say no to PUGs. Lets do this people!!"

WTF, seriously?? Check it out yourselves. This is the topic:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3iy258/guild_wars_2_raiding_has_to_be_hard_duh_why_and/

The raids had better be puggable . To hell with your “bragging rights”.

anyone can say whatever they want, it doesnt mean he represents a large group, or that he makes any sense. Id be more wary of people with good reasoning than obvious crazies

Sylent.3165:

Am I fan of raids? Actually yes. I did them a lot in Wow and did them in ff14.

The main reason I came back to gw2 full time now as my only game is because as an adult the game is beyond perfect for an hour at a time play which is the most I can do.

Seeing from any mmo in the past, and how this one is structured I see it taking well over an hour at a time for casual players to complete these raids. I fear it’s going to involve way to many people trying to be hardcore, talking down to players, kicking players who are trying to get this done.

This just isn’t what gw2 was made for I thought…..

gw2 was always supposed to provide challenging content, they just didnt want it to be content with mechanical walls, like joining big guilds, grinding gear, etc.

Windsagio.1340:

rotten.9753:

Windsagio.1340:

Honeslty though, I think it’s a gamble. I dunno what their raids cost to develop, but instance play as a game mode hasn’t been very popular in general in the context of GW2.

Maybe because it wasn’t supported?

It was, and then they cut back support because not enough people were doing dungeons.

Which begs the question, “How do we keep that from happening again?”

not really, they cut dungeon support because they had limited resources and wanted to try something new. they didnt get as much love for aetherpath as they liked, but at that point they had abandoned dungeons for some time. And to be honest aetherpath was not awesome.
Twilight arbor was already the least loved dungeon.
In fact thinking about it, i think the dev team is too obssessed with sylvari in general. Everything they have done has been fairy focused on sylvari.

main plotline, fairly sylvari heavy
season 1, all about the crazy sylvari lady
season 2, the legacy of crazy sylvari lady and the sylvari creator
season 3 war with the sylvari creator.

really hope we can get off the sylvari stuff and move on to some other game culture, sylvari really arent that interesting.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Too many threads merged together here. Everything with the word raid on it is not the same discussion… really annoying that these things got merged.

Might as well close the thread at this point, this mish mosh of comments is not constructive.

i thought they said they were working on creating new forum tech so that feedback/comments could be more organized and useful. Eh well i guess that would be a rather drastic thing to design well, would be pretty awesome/useful though

Im not saying there is no reason to get upset here, but i think people need to read carefully.

RAIDS GIVE ITEMS USED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PRECURSORS
they dont give legendary armor.

Conquering raid content will earn you the pieces to build legendary precursor armors,

this means raids are but one step in the path to earning legendary armor, not too different than runing dungeons was one step in the path to building egendary weapons.

following the design of the initial legendaries, and info on the new precursor quests, its highly likely you will have to do MANY specific things to get the armor.

so the argument its valuing one content over another is probably inaccurate. Its most likely you will have to do many contents.

Now, one could argue over whether you should have to do multiple different specific content in order to get legendaries, Or whether raids should be one of the specific content requirements.

my suggestion is they add a bonus fractal mode, or option on completion of a fractal;

• keep going?
  • throws you into a random higher level fractal difficulty scale, from +1 to +10 levels of the one you beat. (highest teir throws you to any other fractal in that teir)
  • disconnect leaves you in a new fractal lobby
  • no items or repairs available in new lobby
  • no use of revive orbs, canisters, bank tabs
  • party wipe=ejection
  • fractals in this mode sometimes have bonus events that on completion give things like repair anvils/bank access
  • random chance on completion to get daily reward type shaky chest.
  • standard reward boosted by 150%

point is to give people who enjoyed the randomized more endurance/variety based 5 man content a way to play it, ans some benefit with some added difficulty in terms of surviving longer

Rising Dusk.2408:

Length is artificial difficulty; it doesn’t add anything meaningful besides time investment. If you enjoyed the challenge of specific fractals before HoT, you’ll like them even more at higher levels after HoT. Don’t be so quick to write it off before you’ve even seen all of what we’ll get.

length isnt artificial difficulty. Its actually real difficulty.
But i will admit its not a type of difficulty i enjoy on its own.

However, unpredictable encounters is actually real difficulty, which i do prefer, and thats main thing thats getting lost.

fractals was not designed to be separated, a lot of the content was designed to be balanced by the variation in objectives/fractal. Swamp can be short, because cliffside is long, etc. fractals in parts is a much poorer design.

note that you will be able to probably get like rank 90 or so just by doing 1 fractal over and over again. Before fractals was about your general skill level across every fractal available, now its a bout your ability to do 1-3 places well. there will be A LOT of players who have never done cliffside at all. a lot of level 90+ players who have done underground facility less than 4 times.

yes fractals will be more accessible, no, fractals will never represent the type of challenge they once did.

there is a huge difference between some one who does multiple reps out of every excercise available in a gym randomly, and works out for 2 hours 5 days a week, and some one who only uses the bench and does curls. and works out 15 minutes a day 3 times a week.

phys.7689:

looks like Most major info is out now.
Is hot a good price to value?

lets run down the information objectively;

• 1) 4 new PVE maps
  • some have 3 levels, some dont
• 2) 8 new specializations
  • specialisations represent a new traitline/skills/utilities/weapon they offer a new playstyle for each class
• 3) one new class, the revenant, and 1 specialization for it
• 4) new items
  • 2 new armor sets
  • 5 new weapon sets
  • 3 new legendary weapons
  • 60 new skins/minis etc
• 5)New progression: Masteries
  • gain experience to unlock Area specific abilities and buffs/debuffs
• 6) Guild halls
  • large gathering places for your guild to gather
  • can set up battles
  • can invite others
  • add decorations, 175 decorations will exist
• 7) living story continues
  • the next season in the ongoing story of GW2.
• 8)Raids
  • 3 raid wings released over the course of first month or so
  • 1st raid wing has 3 bosses

my editorial opinion?
the content is a bit light for a full 50 dollar purchase.
looks to have a value of around 25-40 dollars to me.

If you consider it as a subscription price until next expansion, it may be a good deal, but we dont really have any strong suggestions of what that entails within the scope of heart of thorns.
could be a ton of content people want or it could be mostly the living story.

is ir worth it for me?
im unsure, i may get it, but it doesnt feel like the right price.

Im not excited about the price in comparison to content, but i may purchase it warily, A sort of, ok, ill give it a shot, but if i dont like what i see, I’m done.
I may just chill, and keep my game core, playing it whenever the mood strikes me.

looks like Most major info is out now.
Is hot a good price to value?

lets run down the information objectively;

• 1) 4 new PVE maps
  • some have 3 levels, some dont
• 2) 8 new specializations
  • specialisations represent a new traitline/skills/utilities/weapon they offer a new playstyle for each class
• 3) one new class, the revenant, and 1 specialization for it
• 4) new items
  • 2 new armor sets
  • 5 new weapon sets
  • 3 new legendary weapons
  • 60 new skins/minis etc
• 5)New progression: Masteries
  • gain experience to unlock Area specific abilities and buffs/debuffs
• 6) Guild halls
  • large gathering places for your guild to gather
  • can set up battles
  • can invite others
  • add decorations, 175 decorations will exist
• 7) living story continues
  • the next season in the ongoing story of GW2.
• 8)Raids
  • 3 raid wings released over the course of first month or so
  • 1st raid wing has 3 bosses

Keep in mind the raids are not dropping legendary items. They are dropping items used to make precursors. Its highly likely the other parts will also be targeted at many different forms of play.

Basically legendary armors will probably need a bunch of different content types. So its kinda useless to complain. They dont want you to do one part of the game and get the legendary.

Knighthonor.4061:

Some how I told you so, just doesnt quite say it.

but Raids are coming. I told you all that the new Elite Specializations were built and balanced around the new Raid group content and not the Vanilla content.

all their insider testers were using a different build of the beta Elite Specializations and using it in the new Raid content, which is why some of the feedback they were gettinf was radically different from what public beta feedback was.

The public beta elite specialization were pre-nerfed so they dont appear OP for the vanilla content which they wasnt built for.

Raids are all about coordination.

Dragon Hunters for example are meant to be good for AoE defending against pack mobs and blocking damage for group and providing nice burst heals for the front line. Those things are useless roles in vanilla pve content.

tempest is built around group healing. A Raid leader will set up a few Tempest around the tank group to provide large burst heals from heal shout, while using elite shout to reset heal shout cooldown. Coordinated this could be some major constant healing unlike anything we have seen before in vanilla pve.

Revenant is built around this new pve content as well. Major heal spams, as well as a coordinated face tank of projectiles for the raid group. Also Raid leaders can set up Revs to provide massive damage reduction to the tank group.

all the Elite Specialization are built around this new Raid content, and are nerfed for the current public beta intentionally.

you make a pretty big leap from raids, to elite specs being created for raids. You do realize old ele is just as good at healing?

non of these specs are doing something another class couldnt do before(in context of a raid).
You do know other elementalists can probably put out similar healing to tempest right?
this is mostly playstyle changes, its not bringing new functionality to the available roles overall.

Galen Grey.4709:

Thing is I think people are not looking at this from Anet shoes. What they’re asking from us pales in comparison to what we asked of them. Did you stop and think what giving away that free character slot means to Arenanet ? I bet they lost 100s of 1000s if not millions because of that!

think about it for a second.
How many people needed a character slot and though okey I have to pay $10 extra for sure. For $15 more I can get all the nifty stuff in the deluxe version. okey lets go for it. But now that they get the character slot for free? nahh I dont need the character slot and $25 for the rest of the stuff its too much… $25 lost there.

Obviously there are the people who intended to buy the $10 character slot but now they no longer have to etc..

It adds up quickly. To loose $1M it only takes 40k people who decided since now they get a free character slot they no longer need to go with the deluxe version.

That has repercussions even for us. Anet have one of the largest if not the largest MMO development team in the industry. They have to justify that with a strong performance. If They are loosing millions to make us happy is it really that big of a deal they’re asking us to buy up to 1 day early? Doing that we give them some ammunication.

Hey NCSoft bosses, yeah well we didnt a bit worst then what had projected (due to loosing revenue from slots / deluxe version) but hey look at the numbers.. Pre-Purchasing exceeded expectation So while we didnt hit the numbers we at least confirmed we have a loyal following who are likely to buy our next expansion etc..

Is that really an unfair thing to ask in return for millions?

being in business means coming up with workable products, the reason they offered char slots, was because the money they looked like they were going to lose, was not equalling the money in the initial situation.
heres the real deal.
If they make a very good product, they will make enough money to be a front runner in the company. GW2 sold like 3 million copies in the first month. Some good products struggle due to poor marketing, bad luck, or just people being unaware. GW2 is not one of those. They have hit 3 million users, if not closer 4-5 million by now. If the product is good they will make more than enough money.

If you look at anets earnings, sales, business model, and products, you realize charachter slots with a 50 dollar purchase are extremely profitable.

keep in mind they had a highly successful release, and that cost 60 dollars and had 5 charachter slots. It also was a bigger product, had 5 years of development to recoup, and tons of new tech. This is an expansion, a fairly small one, using pre existing engine, resources, and development (one of the main advantages of expansions) 50 dollars giving players one slot (which has no development cost, inventory cost, distribution cost, man power cost) is not some sort of holding the company for ransom.

Galen Grey.4709:

phys.7689:

and for this expansion, you dont even have that option if your char is full.

Many people wont buy a day early, beacuse many people may not even be aware of the game. Many others dont believe in giving people money for something before it is given to them.
Regardless in terms of the actual value of the game, and what players should be given in the base box, prepurchase bonus solves nothing.

If people are not aware of the game (assuming you didnt mean expansion) then they havent bought it yet and when they do they’re going to have 5 slots fee. if you meant Expansion, then they’re not active users which likely means they barely played the game which means they probably still have free slots or low level characters they can delete alterantively since they clearly would barely have played GW2 they also free to open a new account with HoT and get 5 new slots provided HoT fixes what they had issues with in the first place.

phys.7689:

lets fast forward to the day after release. Someone wants to buy the game. He says, its crappy that i have to delete my charachter or pay 10 bucks before i can even try out revenant. Do you tell him his complaints and worry is groundless, because he should go back in time and buy it 2 days ago?

No, there is no use to cry on spilled milk. In that case I would suggest s/he start saving gold and buy a slot when they have enough. Then again s/he knew they needed a character slot, why wait the 2 days? What changed in those 2 days ?

phys.7689:

They shut a lot of people up, by offering charachter slot as a prepurchase bonus (the people were complaining about the base game not the prepurchase bonus) but that doesnt actually solve the problem.

Of course it does, the actual issue is lacking a character slot not that the release game doesnt have a character slot included. The issue is solved once you get the character slot, what difference does it make if its given to you on pre-purchase or post-release in that regard?

phys.7689:

Its like if someone is selling a car with no seat, people complain, and he says everyone who buys this car before it comes out on the 5th gets a free seat.

he has not solved the problem at all.

This is totally different. Car dealership is selling a new model of a car. If you have an old model they’re also offering to upgrade your old model to the specs of the new model, for a price. The new model comes with some new USB accessory only you’re already using the 5 usb ports on your car stereo. So the car dealership offers to upgrade your stereo to 6 usb ports if you buy the car before it comes out. Its not a big deal because people who already own the model will bar some exceptions all buy at release. Only new customers and those few exception are going to buy the new car in the far future. New customers are unaffected since they’ll get 5 free usb ports anyway.

phys.7689:

People who prepurchase may no longer care/make a big deal about it, but the problem they had with the product still exists. The product they are offering has not improved, merely their prepurchase bonus. Everyone who buys after the 5th still has a problem.

They dont care because they got what they wanted and they dont care if they have to prepurchase or not because if you know you’re going to buy it anyway it is not a big deal at all.

phys.7689:

Basically they are giving veterans a much worse product unless they buy ahead of time. AND keep in mind their return system (from what we ve seen in the past) basically means you have to delete your account.

No, they’re not giving veterans a much worst product unless they buy ahead of time. They’re giving everyone the same product, the character slot is a bonus. Not everyone needs one and not having one doesnt make the game any worst in any case.

phys.7689:

If someone buys the game the day after it comes out, realizes they have to delete one of their charachters and wants their money back, they likely have to delete their whole account. This is a purchase you really should make with all the information, and even reviews, because its lilkely that you will not be able to refund just the expansion, and yet they are strongly encouraging players to leap before they look.

Prepurchase bonuses should be extra uneeded things, not things basic to experiencing the content of the game.

How is that different from buying gw2 and find out you love all the professions and thus need 3 more character slots. Should everyone who has more then 5 alts request a refund because their original purchase didnt come with everything they ended up needing? How about the make over kit? Or dyes? Or outfits? where exactly do you draw the line?

1) i meant people who lapsed in playing and are not prepurchasing for whatever reason, be it lack of knowledge or lack of desire.

2) It doesnt really matter what happened in two days, maybe they didnt know till their brother reminded them, maybe they wanted a review, maybe they are opposed to prepurchases, maybe they were on vacation. Its not really relevant why. The only thing that matters is they are going to be buying the same product that many many veterans felt was not good enough or annoying or seemed shady that caused them to start en masse refusing to buy, or general customer dissatisfaction.

3) it does not solve the problem people have with the product overall, it solves the problem for those people who prepurchase. Anyone who doesnt is buying the same product that caused mass dissatisfaction

4) we arent talking about new customers. We are talking about veterans. AKA people who bought and played the game previously. They are being told that to access one of the main features, they will have make an additional purchase from the same company. Many people dont like that idea.

5) its not a big deal to those people, but it would be if they didnt prepurchase. Thats the point. Its simply not a palletable product unless you prepurchase. Thats a problem for everyone who doesnt/didnt prepurchase. Let me make it clearer. If my product is only viable to people when its on sale, that means i have the wrong price point. If Hot is only worth it for veterans if they prepurchase, it means their regular purchase price/features are not good.
6) yes, a bonus means you are getting a worse product. Which normally is fine, if the product is already satisfactory on its own. The problem is that it wasnt satisfactory on its own.

If when i release a product, i have a lot disinterest and anger, a short term bonus, is a short term solution. Even if the bonus makes all bonus people happy, after the bonus is gone, the same problem returns.
some one says pepsi is going to cost 10 dollars for a 2 liter bottle, customers are angry, few people are buying pepsi. Because of this, they say for the next moneth pepsi is going to cost 2 dollars for 2 liters! Everyones happy and cheers.
what happens when the month is up? nobodies buying pepsi

7)My point not about the overall nature of returns, my point is because of the type of return system they have, prepurchasing is actually a really bad idea before you have all the information. They are fusing the products. A person who is satisfied with the base game, but dissatisfied with the expansion, probably wont be able to go back. Now people would normally say, you are an idiot, if you werent sure, why did you prepurchase? But in this case anet is basically giving people reasons to set up this lose lose scenario.

because they had to cut something since they merged down 65 traits to 45. thats basically the long and short of it.

Tabootrinket.2631:

Phineas Drayke.6381:

Call yourself lucky. In french we got some strange equivalent of “smasher”…….

lol OMG “le fracasseur” xD.
I’m so glad I’m not playing in the European server lol. No seriously there’s nothing to complain about the name “daredevil”. Not after seeing the french version at least lol (and no one seems to complain about the name there)

the brawl- er essentially. basically what it is, though i think its a made up french word

Zsigmond.8073:

Taoist Monk? Lol

sadly the worst thing about this spec, is they probably feel they have a strong martial artist class now..

so no, never will there be a taoist monk now…

ok, to stop staff from completely replacing sword, which has higher sustain, add a special effect appplied to enemy on infiltrator strike and the first hit of pistol whip/flanking strike, say effect lasts 3-4 secs.
that gives you increased DPS on affected target. say… at least 10% (since staff gets 10% for empty endurance)

so basically single targets you set up, will take additional dmg, allowing sword to still be decent cleave, but additional damage to specific mobs, and thus a little better for dueling, focusing on an enemy.

keeping sword unique and possibly earning it a place in other rotations as well

I do worry that, by defining this spec by endurance/dodging they are going to gut em pretty bad if they nerf their dodges/endurance.

Tregarde.6031:

It’s no different than the Beta Weekends three years ago. ANet felt only certain parts were ready for playing, so we only got those parts.

The company has limited resources, and so they prioritize and concentrate on a limited number of things at any one time. They’re doing their best to get Heart of Thorns done. Personally, I appreciate their ‘when it’s done’ policy over rushing out broken, buggy, and unbalanced things to meet some arbitrary deadline.

no, the beta weekends years ago were basically close to fully formed, and had access to all professions. They locked out stuff beyond a few starter maps, not because of what was ready, but of what they were willing to reveal.

glehmann.9586:

You realize that they will continue taking feedback and making changes after HoT releases, right? It’s not like HoT will release and we are then stuck with whatever state Druids and Forges are in at that moment.

the chance for big changes decreases the closer you are to release.

also most of these companies will have less resources and scope for reg proffession updates.
Many times in previous balance patches they have said certain changes are out of scope.
basically once the game is out, you will mostly see numbers changes, and they will take a long time to do anything more drastic.

Tregarde.6031:

With a name like ‘daredevil’ I was expecting something more along the lines of a swashbuckler theme, which I thought would have been pretty cool.

Instead, we got something that’s more like a ninja. While I do think the new skills & abilities will be pretty cool, I think ‘assassin’ or something that evokes martial arts would have been a more appropriate name.

its a gambit proffession.
acrobatics
staff
projectiles (for gambit, its card, but here its daggers)
small amount of hand to hand fighting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambit_%28comics%29

oh yeah he was a member of theives guild.

Ayrilana.1396:

phys.7689:

Ayrilana.1396:

phys.7689:

Ayrilana.1396:

Cartune.6143:

Take a look at it. Mesmer, Necromancer, Guardian, Elementalist and Revenant (and now …..Thief) can use Staff….then why not give it to everybody now, Warriors probably also need it…So many classes can use it and only…ONLY, Warrior and Engineer can use the Rifle, it would have been WAY more interesting to give the Rifle to the Thief and have some variations between the weapons used in the game.

Thieves really needed a way to do AoE damage.

thief had short bow, and sword for aoe dmg.
in fact staff utility is pretty similar to sword/pistol.

I like the staff weapon, but its basically similar in use to sword pistol. whichever one end up being better at that playstyle will destroy the other. I think they are going to have to boost sword sustainable damage, and increase staff in combat mobility, or maybe give it like slightly more range

Sword had a max of like 3 targets and underwhelming compared to what other classes could do.

staff is also 3 targets

I thought I had seen 5 in those datamined images but I guess not. The new spec offers a different playstyle. Giving them a rifle just felt like a waste.

the spec playstyle is a more thought out version of the sword/x acro style.
which is ok, i like the flavor, traits, and utils,
but the staff itself is going to be in direct competition with sword/x for that type of playstyle, either sword or staff needs more diffrentiation, or they will cannabilize each other.
Its not like other classes where it might still be useful due to cooldowns.

Ayrilana.1396:

phys.7689:

Ayrilana.1396:

Cartune.6143:

Take a look at it. Mesmer, Necromancer, Guardian, Elementalist and Revenant (and now …..Thief) can use Staff….then why not give it to everybody now, Warriors probably also need it…So many classes can use it and only…ONLY, Warrior and Engineer can use the Rifle, it would have been WAY more interesting to give the Rifle to the Thief and have some variations between the weapons used in the game.

Thieves really needed a way to do AoE damage.

thief had short bow, and sword for aoe dmg.
in fact staff utility is pretty similar to sword/pistol.

I like the staff weapon, but its basically similar in use to sword pistol. whichever one end up being better at that playstyle will destroy the other. I think they are going to have to boost sword sustainable damage, and increase staff in combat mobility, or maybe give it like slightly more range

Sword had a max of like 3 targets and underwhelming compared to what other classes could do.

staff is also 3 targets

well they couldnt call it gambit.

it probably should have been acrobat, but they already have a line named that.

MiniEquine.6014:

Cartune.6143:

Take a look at it. Mesmer, Necromancer, Guardian, Elementalist and Revenant (and now …..Thief) can use Staff….then why not give it to everybody now, Warriors probably also need it…So many classes can use it and only…ONLY, Warrior and Engineer can use the Rifle, it would have been WAY more interesting to give the Rifle to the Thief and have some variations between the weapons used in the game.

There are few if any arguing that the Rifle should not have more utilization amongst the classes. However, they didn’t end up going with Rifles this time around. What that doesn’t mean is that the staff (or as you condescendingly state a “stick”. I mean, seriously? Martial weapon archetypes include the staff in almost every source, so this is not farfetched at all.) isn’t useful or a good weapon choice. Of your listed professions, only one of them uses the staff as a melee weapon and even then it is focused around a more supporting play-style. Melee staves are not a bad thing. Also, you didn’t mention that Druids will also be getting the staff. If it makes you feel better, the second round of Elite Specs will likely have no staves added in.

That’s the other point; the second Elite Specs. There will be more of these later on. It is almost undoubtedly the case that Thieves may get rifles next time. Either that or maces, so they would just be trolling us at that point, but we’ll see.

its possible druid got scrapped, or it no longer uses staff. but yeah if the nexts spec ever happen (i think this may be more work than they are willing to commit to in the future) that the probably wont be passing out any more staves.

Ayrilana.1396:

Cartune.6143:

Take a look at it. Mesmer, Necromancer, Guardian, Elementalist and Revenant (and now …..Thief) can use Staff….then why not give it to everybody now, Warriors probably also need it…So many classes can use it and only…ONLY, Warrior and Engineer can use the Rifle, it would have been WAY more interesting to give the Rifle to the Thief and have some variations between the weapons used in the game.

Thieves really needed a way to do AoE damage.

thief had short bow, and sword for aoe dmg.
in fact staff utility is pretty similar to sword/pistol.

I like the staff weapon, but its basically similar in use to sword pistol. whichever one end up being better at that playstyle will destroy the other. I think they are going to have to boost sword sustainable damage, and increase staff in combat mobility, or maybe give it like slightly more range

PopeUrban.2578:

Tarkan.5609:

PopeUrban.2578:

Kocoff.7582:

Auesis.7301:

The mysterious 12th trait has been found – and I was right. It’s a 3rd type of dodge skill with power damage. Potential DPS increase for PvE use and just monstrous in general for anything else. This hits about as hard as a frontstab!

man 1,147 damage for target 5 every 3/4 of a second…. WTF

A true incentive to evade aggressively. But I don’t think it’s better than an Impaling Lotus, let’s hope, with the way the traits are organized, we don’t get to choose between those those two.
Impaling Lotus: http://imgur.com/a/Ee6t8#8

are we ready for this or na?

my gut tells me the dodge traits are all 3 GM options and will be balanced accordingly. One power offensive, one pure defensive, and one condi offense/defense mixed. That lets them make the effects for each much more powerful and unique, and balance them in a bubble because they can’t interact with one another.

I think they are gonna be in the same tier, but not necessarily GM’s.
Why? When Anet first announced Elite Specs, they talked about a GM that would remove a condition on dodge. I immediately thought about how Thief could use that and it happened.
It may have moved down (as it doesn’t seem like a good GM, useful yes due to condition cleanse lack but not good enough for a GM) but it may have stayed a GM.

Honestly, now that trait lines are all maxed all the time it doesn’t really matter what rank traits are in as much as it matters what else is on the same tier. They could do away with the entire nomenclature of ‘adept, master, grandmaster" or swap all the GM traits in every line for the adept traits and it wouldn’t change anything at all.

Them being all adepts or all GMs is functionally the same exact thing. You can only choose one.

the main dif is when the players get the abilitiy, i suppose.

Staff still seems too close to sword/X build, i think they are going to be in competition.
They should have probably made staff have ramp up damage/utility, via a chain skill swap system. like depending if its your first/second third skill being used, more dmg/utility.
this way, sword/x is more about bursty multi enemy play, and staff is more about ramp up multi enemy play.

my old solution would just make staff overall better at the same type of gameplay.

Galen Grey.4709:

phys.7689:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I guess ArenaNet wasn’t ‘nice’ to begin with, as the core game came with 8 Professions and only 5 Character slots; something I remember from Guild Wars, as well.

Still, everyone has their own idea of what they are entitled to.

Good luck.

but you could chose any of those proffesions. If you have full char slots now, you cant choose revenant.

basically you didnt buy any of the boxes without the ability to access any job that was added in that game.

Unless you want to access more then 4 professions in Prophecies you mean? If you wanted to try them all what then? No other option then deleting one or forking $20. Here at least you have other less drastic options like if you’re going to buy anyway why not buy a day early?

and for this expansion, you dont even have that option if your char is full.

Many people wont buy a day early, beacuse many people may not even be aware of the game. Many others dont believe in giving people money for something before it is given to them.
Regardless in terms of the actual value of the game, and what players should be given in the base box, prepurchase bonus solves nothing.

lets fast forward to the day after release. Someone wants to buy the game. He says, its crappy that i have to delete my charachter or pay 10 bucks before i can even try out revenant. Do you tell him his complaints and worry is groundless, because he should go back in time and buy it 2 days ago?

They shut a lot of people up, by offering charachter slot as a prepurchase bonus (the people were complaining about the base game not the prepurchase bonus) but that doesnt actually solve the problem.

Its like if someone is selling a car with no seat, people complain, and he says everyone who buys this car before it comes out on the 5th gets a free seat.

he has not solved the problem at all. People who prepurchase may no longer care/make a big deal about it, but the problem they had with the product still exists. The product they are offering has not improved, merely their prepurchase bonus. Everyone who buys after the 5th still has a problem.

Basically they are giving veterans a much worse product unless they buy ahead of time. AND keep in mind their return system (from what we ve seen in the past) basically means you have to delete your account.
If someone buys the game the day after it comes out, realizes they have to delete one of their charachters and wants their money back, they likely have to delete their whole account. This is a purchase you really should make with all the information, and even reviews, because its lilkely that you will not be able to refund just the expansion, and yet they are strongly encouraging players to leap before they look.

Prepurchase bonuses should be extra uneeded things, not things basic to experiencing the content of the game.

Galen Grey.4709:

phys.7689:

Galen, FFXIV heavensward doesnt require a new charachter to play new proffesions, you can switch professions at any time outside of combat.
so they wouldnt need to give a charchter slot so that you can experience the new jobs.

True yet that doesnt stop them from charging players 2 euro a month if they want more then 1 character

you can do everything in game with one charachter though,

Ohoni.6057:

yes but you couldnt use pvp skins outside of PVP back then. You getting infinite light was a reward in pvp you could only use in pvp

Sure, but as soon as they made the wardrobe changes, you could, with no additional effort.

That’s good game design though.
A clear objective, Get to this zone, A clear means to complete the task (clearing the trial) with a clear reward (access to the zone) and a clear distinction to other players (If this player is present in the zone they have completed x trial).

It’s good game design If you want to enforce exclusion and elitism, but it’s terrible game design if you want to encourage an inclusive and fun atmosphere where everyone enjoys themselves.

The concept of a skill gate at entry is common,(assuming a solo trial, if group it follows the same principle but is less secure.) it ensures(in reality just gives a higher chance that, but it’s the principle that counts) a minimum level of skill going forward, so that the next stage of that content can be designed with those minimum set of abilities going forward.

Which is again good if you want to keep players away from your content, but not if you want to include them in the content. Honestly, before that other game implemented that gating mechanism, I had several of my characters playing in the now-gated content on a daily basis. Since they implemented the gate, even though several of my characters would be able to pass it, I haven’t even bothered, too much hassle. They blocked off an entire chunk of the game for no good purpose.

2. The reward conveys the specific accomplishment to other players in the environment “prestige/achievement factor” i.e D3 Pvp will not be confused with or comparable to D3 jump or D3 raid.)

The entire concept behind this is an abomination.

that was a case of grandfathering its not intentional, theres no way to get prestige items like infinite light in pvp anymore as far as i know.

He only has that skin because anets old system and their new system couldnt mesh. Its not actually the way they intended the game to be, and its not the way it is now.

btw, getting things in multiple ways is not really inclusive, its not exclusive, its just getting things in multiple ways.

getting things in multiple ways can be exclusive as well. For example, my ability to get legendaries with gold had me in champ trains and playing the TP instead of doing the things my friends were doing, because i was targeting gold.

basically best gold was in champ trains, and TP monitoring/item redistribution, so any other content was a waste of time. Wasnt very inclusive.

basically to your understanding the game exists to give out rewards, whereas to us the rewards exist to enhance gameplay.

I will say its possible to enhance it without exclusives, but very few of anets previous attempts have come anywhere close to that, to the point which i dont think its feasible for anet.

Also even with multiple paths there will still be some things that are not rewarded. What if you dont want to do challenging content AND you dont want to kill 2 bit enemies 1000000 times?

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I guess ArenaNet wasn’t ‘nice’ to begin with, as the core game came with 8 Professions and only 5 Character slots; something I remember from Guild Wars, as well.

Still, everyone has their own idea of what they are entitled to.

Good luck.

but you could chose any of those proffesions. If you have full char slots now, you cant choose revenant.

basically you didnt buy any of the boxes without the ability to access any job that was added in that game.

Galen, FFXIV heavensward doesnt require a new charachter to play new proffesions, you can switch professions at any time outside of combat.
so they wouldnt need to give a charchter slot so that you can experience the new jobs.

sword pistol seems better at group warfare

more dps on AA
stun and aoe with an evade on 3,
2 to get in and out
4 has short cooldown daze
5 is aoe blindness

staff is slightly more mobile, because it has a leap. yes its slightly different, but they basically have similar goals, one or the other will be dominant.

to do what your talking about better, staff should probably hit more than 3 targets, and have really good mobility while moving, perhaps, actual speed increases while casting, or perhaps bigger attack range.

Coulter.2315:

Rainmaker.7594:

I think there needs to be more exclusive skins. It sucks that they made dungeon armor available via PvP reward tracks (yet, PvP still gets exclusive stuff though). I think any new dungeon/fractal armors need to be exclusive to that content. It shows you actually did something to earn the armor. It is entirely cosmetic, just like gem store items, so it makes no difference stat wise for the player base.

In fact, I think there needs to be more rewards like Aetherpath’s Clockheart mini, which requires a bit more effort to get. It would be great if there was an exclusive set of armor like this, but where you’d get on piece per dungeon for completing the achievement set. Furthermore, I also think challenge mode would be great – maybe get a backpiece for completing all the challenge modes.

Actually Dungeon Armour was available in PvP at launch – they were tied to ranks or tournaments. They had more significant meaning for PvP characters then – CM armour meaning r60 (which was a lot higher than the current r80).

Also my Infinite Light was got through PvP too, so even very expensive and exclusive PvE gear was achievable through PvP at launch.

yes but you couldnt use pvp skins outside of PVP back then. You getting infinite light was a reward in pvp you could only use in pvp

Dahkeus.8243:

The is actually the first time I’ve really been truly hyped for HoT. This specialization looks amazing so far.

Also, I think the AA is better Han what people are giving it credit for since it has higher DPS than sword while also bringing a whirl and 4 vuln.
Dust strike is the only skill that may be underwhelming, but everything else is solid.

The lack of stealth is also a bit curious, but it doesn’t look like it’s really needed.

I can’t see replacing sb with this in conquest, but this may be very strong for stronghold.

As to the elite, I could see approaching an enemy resizing one of them downed allies, then using the first two parts of the chain to interrupt and knock then away, then stomping the downed enemy with part 3. That would be epic!

i thought in game it showed lower dps than sword in the tool tip

PopeUrban.2578:

treizebee.2091:

Why would anyone take Staff with Daredevil instead of S/D?

S/D autoattack is better, faster, same cleave.
S/D gap closer is 2-way + immobilize and condi clear. Staff’s is a worse heartseeker.
S/D evade keeps you on target, boon rip instead of soft-cc clear.
Both their #4 skills are the same you could say.
And for both their nuke skills. Would you rather take a high damage leap or a high damage stealth gaining skill. On a thief, the choice is pretty clear.

Imagine, for a moment, a world in which there was a viable thief build for wvw blobs.

Staff looks to be designed around a hit and run aoe style. The init abilities are the burst, and the auto is intentionally awful because you’re supposed to be using 5 and 2 along with traited dodge and the 8s block/stunbreak to zerg-dive with it and live to tell the tale and maybe even kill someone.

Sword will still be a much better dueling weapon, but staff doesn’t seem built for small fights or staying on any one particular target as much as hitting all the targets a couple times and then using those fancy new utilities and dodge traits to get to your back line where you can regen initiative.

That’s actually one thing I like about what we’ve seen of this spec. The stuff in it doesn’t see to be a “use all these things to make the build we designed for you” as much as “here are some things to make new builds with and shore up some holes in old builds.”

Now if they could have done that without nerfing acro to the ground it would have been better but hey… I’m not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth here.

uhhh, but sword dagger still does that, the fancy utilities and traits work with sword dagger, and they are better at it.
i guess the biggest difference is dash over teleport.

unless theres some differences you cant see in the descriptions, it basically is a flavor choice for a similar playstyle to sword/dagger
make staff 5 targets and its duel vs group, but 3 targets its close enough that it will always be one or the other type thing

Xillllix.3485:

kitten sorry guys, I know you all wanted warhorn…

Looks really good to say the truth. This pretty much confirms that one of the new legendary will be a staff.

it will probably be this
http://i.imgur.com/O6ROVC1.png

which is honestly horrible for martial staff users. Martial staff should really have been a new weapon type.

Astralporing.1957:

SkiTz.4590:

He is already convinced that 95% of the population will not even go near the new challenging content and thus, wants rewards to be tied into easier paths.

Ok, let’s reverse this. Considering this is supposed to be a challenging content, how many people (by percentage) do you expect to finish it at least once? How many people do you expect to run it regularly? How high those percentages should be for you to say that the content is not challenging enough?

any normal person should be able to beat it if they put the time/effort/thinking into beating it. Liadri is not impossible for any normal player. Neither is fractals. Just like when this game first came out people could barely handle story mode monsters, and no one could beat a dungeon in 1 hour, people learn, adapt, get better, and get better at teaching others. Now people can do a dynamic event like tequatl consistently, speed run dungeons, and play jumping puzzle mini games for fun (sab)

anything they make will be beatable eventually, through practice, or knowledge. Look at domain of anguish in gw1.

not being able get a drop from challenging content, is not that different then not being able to get a drop from the easier repetitious content. It both comes down to not wanting to do what it takes to get said item. No one is incapable of either.

Natto.5819:

I agree with Ohoni.6057. We paid for this game so we should get what we want out of it. It would be unfair to lock skins for only elite players to get. All players should get it because we bought this game. Leave him alone. He’s one of few people who understand how MMOs should work.

stop thinking of yourself as a non elite player. You can beat everything they will make. Peoples beef hedges on the idea that they cant do this new content. As long as it doesnt require a whole slew of players (which isnt about challenge btw) you will be able to beat it.

Ragion.2831:

Tarkan.5609:

Silv.9207:

I’m th eone that think that all that stuffs will make Thief “OP” in 1vs1?
Seriously, the enemy will not be able to land a single skill before I kill him XD
Interrupt, daze, stun, blind, it seems to be pretty cool and be able to fight in 1vs1 without stealth. Also depend on the class you fight, but against a class with low stability that specializzation will be able to make a massacre!

Really nice.
I want to try it!!!!!

And we still need to see the Fx mechanic. A 2handed weapon will change a lot the core mechanic and we still don’t know what the new one will be.

I want to know!!!

you mean what is gonna replace steal?
sorry to disappoint you but it seems like the thief dev is extremely lazy… why rework our class mechanic for an elite spec if you can just slap on an extra 50 endurance?

You guys do realize all the interrupts daze and stun are necessary because of all the stability right? Every other class will be able to hit almost 10 stacks if not more, all the stuns wont work if they have that much stab up when fighting you now will they, unless you time the steal and even then they can get more.

Secondly what exactly is the point of completely changing a class mechanic to the point where no one will be able to work it into their play properly for weeks, You build on what people are already used to not revamp for the sake of revamping.

Steal is probably the least most versatile class mechanic in the game. Steal and gain boons and a new ability, you cannot do much with that except change stolen abilities, what boons you get or what bonuses you get when you land a steal eg flat endurance

you can alter the mechanic entirely, or just add to it. like every other spec did.

stof.9341:

Pretty sure our “class mecanic” is actually the fact we can replace dodge with something else. It’s not done in the minor trait though because we need to chose which new dodge we take.

the options for dodge dont seem like playstyle changers compared to anything else though.
not really that different from old dodge modifying traits on other classes, except im assuming they have animations.

also this class probably should have been called acrobat, it does feel like they too the acrobat style of play and improved it.

i like some of the stuff, but this doesnt really feel like a different thing, just a thief with some new skills and weapons.

Auesis.7301:

Testing the tooltips in-game (they definitely scale with your stats), the Staff autoattack is crazy weak. Not even half as strong as Sword autos and the final 4-hit skill doesn’t even total past a single Lotus Strike or Wild Strike. I expect that will be buffed after a BWE, at least to a Sword standard, or maybe the cast times can be increased plus a smaller damage boost. Speed can be somewhere between Dagger and Sword while damage (auto-only in both cases) can be somewhere between as well.

Everything else is INCREDIBLE though.

yeah not sure why the staff is weak, wont people just use sword/pistol? it is also 3 targets does more dmg, and has about the same defense with evade, and black powder

its not a cool down class, theres no reason to swap to staff for more defense cause your other set is on cooldown.

hmmm im of two minds, because they basically made thief a half -ssed monk, we will never get a monk, (and the way spec work, even if they made h2h it couldnt use the elite or utilities)
on the other hand a half -ssed monk/martialist is better than no martialist

So let me get this straight Ohoni

you are ok with stats being denied to people but not cosmetics?

very odd. They basically sold this game as you will never have to go crazy for stats, but you might have to do something crazy for cosmetics.

Also id like to point out, no one is denying people cosmetics
you are free to do the content and get the drop. You are just not willing to do what the game asks.

Why do you think that people should be able to get anything visual in the game, by doing whatever they want? there is already a ton of stuff that doesnt fit that bill
Karma armor
story mode exclusive skins
all the living story stuff
dunegon armor
ambrite
legendaries
collections
volcanus

Why is it that hard mode is off the table for exclusives, but there are tons of other ones that you can only get doing certain content.

ReiCH.6273:

phys.7689:

which sounds more like fear of persecution than an actual desire for items.

Which doesnt invalidate your concerns, but i wouldnt nec say it justifies not having any means of distinguishing what a player has accomplished. Anyhow, you dont have to worry, i doubt anet would do it, as a formal system.

edit
ok, to avoid persecution, but still have diffrentiation,
special effect that randomly triggers on kill.
and, in the item description, it is signed by whomever created/got the drop.

So Hidden blade Of Death that got made TPable, is signed .Maddoctor
and the orginal might randomly cause a special visual effect when he kills an enemy.

unique, not something easily observable, but a nice bonus and reason to hunt unique items, that the players can see and enjoy.

Let me reverse the question for you.

Let’s say that the item you get is very bland and ugly. But the tp version is awesome and has cool effects on it. Imagine you getting twilight without the afterimages attached to it. No footsteps, no cool curves when you swing. So the people who buy it on the TP get the cool effects, and you get the bland and ugly one, yet trully unique and a sign of your achievement. Every time you swing that baby everyone knows it’s the real deal. While the other guy with the glows is just a copy cat. Would that be acceptable to you?

Would you think that the game gave you a stigmatized version? Even when such stigma would have a positive connotation and would clearly indicate to everyone how good you are?

in my first iteration, it was arbirary.
Is a different color better than not a different color?
Why is an item with a star better than one without it?
I chose small arbirary differences.
basically the value of these things is determined by the prestige that comes with them. They are virtually identical except for a small difference that primarily is generally defined as being better only due to prestige.

And yeah i think people would still want the non effect version. Footsteps isnt intrinsically better than no footsteps. Its subjective. A whole lot of the obsidian armor didnt look that good in GW1 and people wanted it for years and years.

But its interesting, your basically saying someone who earned something through overcoming whatever tasks the game set forth, shouldnt be able to have an item with a little star on the chest? or get to choose a digit to place on the sleeve?
I guess you dont feel they should be able to visually diffrentiate themselves in anyway at all?

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSLV7rOMKKYa1-GUrwKd1iOPyC6mEikQU6RnbpvtLnOgo-l3Iv8

is one of those swords drab and disgusting compared to the others?

http://cdn2-www.superherohype.com/assets/uploads/2015/04/war-machine-header-3.jpg

if they changed the number to a 003 or 000 would it be intrinsically better?

my second suggestion took made the difference completely undetectable, with a small chance when you actually land a finishing blow to get a special effect. Essentially no costume difference at all, and rarely any difference, but thats too much?

ReiCH.6273:

phys.7689:

Ok heres what i got.
certain items are account bound, BUT
you can earn (through various content, with high rarity or grind or time lock but would require some type of targeted play) a sellers liscence.

Sellers liscense makes a knockoff of the account bound item. There will be a visibile diffrence, it may be color, the orginal may say number 1 on it, and the knockoff number 2, A star on the weapon pommel, something not too crazy, but its there.

This allows people to sell items, and decide an items value, but it puts a limit on how many will be the market, and automatically makes getting the item directly the best way to get, as well as maintaining a small uniqueness factor.

This would of course generally be useful only for items that require a lot of effort, or skill, that are account bound.

that said, this would require them creating a bunch of new systems, item variations, and i doubt they d want to do that.

And that serves what purpose, other than to separate the player base in an extremely artificial and ugly way? Who would buy the lesser version with the “you bought it on the TP” stigma mark on it. You don’t want to find a solution that’s acceptable by both groups. You’re just searching for extra ways to humiliate the “unskilled” players. Not only you want the cool skin on you to boast on LA, you want everyone else who doesn’t have the skill to have a stigmatized version so everyone would know how much of a bad player they are?

It’s comments like this that have me believe that if you guys could, you’d have non hardcore players (whatever that means) dressed in rags and publicly ridiculed in the game word in regular intervals.

Good thing we’re the “friendliest community” huh?

Cosmetic treadmill sounds like paradise compared to your vision.

so you are concerned with the perception of an item and not the item itself? My suggestion was more along the likes of more stars on a general uniform, or gold platinum and silver medals.
after all, appearance wise there isnt much difference to an item with a star on it or not, in fact, the TP version may be more liked just for aestheitics, its also more work to create than the account bound one.

but it sounds like you want not only the same items, but no one being able to tell the difference between a how a player obtained an item.

which sounds more like fear of persecution than an actual desire for items.

Which doesnt invalidate your concerns, but i wouldnt nec say it justifies not having any means of distinguishing what a player has accomplished. Anyhow, you dont have to worry, i doubt anet would do it, as a formal system.

edit
ok, to avoid persecution, but still have diffrentiation,
special effect that randomly triggers on kill.
and, in the item description, it is signed by whomever created/got the drop.

So Hidden blade Of Death that got made TPable, is signed .Maddoctor
and the orginal might randomly cause a special visual effect when he kills an enemy.

unique, not something easily observable, but a nice bonus and reason to hunt unique items, that the players can see and enjoy.

Torolan.5816:

phys.7689:

Im just pointing out its a treadmill, btw this has never really been about stats, just about cosmetic rewards. Its highly unlikely they will put unique stats, or power behind extremely exclusive content. The only thing i can think of is dungeon runes. But you can actually get those without doing any dungeons with the mystic forge, so ehh

I don´t think that is set into stone to be honest. If I was sure that something like lumi armor won´t happen again on a really hardcore level, I´d gladly salute the hardcore gamers for their endurance and determination and walk away whistling.^^

what? im confused luminiscent armor is a cosmetic item as far as i know? I thought you said you dont care about cosmetics

sniper probably would have sucked. They arent going to give you a god mode shot from range.

people complaining about blobs and WvW. Lets say it again, they arent going to let you burst someone from far range with no risk, so basically youd have a lower damage weapon, thats single target, when you are fighting a blob, pretty useless. Shortbow is probably the best type of weapon you can have for dealing with blobs, simple multi target, good utility, blast finishers and weakness fields.

The only way a sniper would have been good, is if it was more about tactics and preparation, and controlling the field of battle, and the weapon would probably have been a small part of that.

yeah staff is another melle option, but im guessing they are gonna go for a multihit brawler style, giving the theif the ability to survive in the middle of combat. Probably altering stealth in someway so while its called stealth it has a different property.

basically its probably going to add a tanky, multi target style to theif that doesnt turn invisible when it uses “stealth”

but thats just a guess.