Guild Wars 2: The Speculationing

[BabySinclair]

For those who haven't seen this, note this is an artist's speculations and not mine

Spoiler

Caithe in the book is a classic Assassin which would be the figure above the Necromancer. The second from the right (purple lady) would be the Mesmer making their return (also mentioned in the book.) That leaves the Gun wielding Charr. Since a gun only class has been confirmed (as in not bows but still melee weapons) my guess is Corsair or Privateer.

Weapon set is; Main: Sword, Axe, Pistol. Offhand: Torch, Warhorn, Dagger, Pistol. Two-Hand: Rifle

The only problem is that I can't think of a mechanic for them. Assassin would have an active stealth in PvE while out of combat to bypass mobs unless close, Mesmer would have illusion based mechanic. None of the other classes have overlapping mechanics so if we can figure out what it might be, then we might have a basis for it.

 

[2xDouble]

So... Time to shift directions again: (maybe i should be making new threads every time i do that?) After reading a thread [http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/classes-youd-like-see-not-t13166.html] on Guild Wars Guru, I got to thinking, what classes would or could be neat in GW2 that will almost certainly NOT be implemented. I, for one, would like to see a Blue Mage (from Final Fantasy Tactics) style character, one would deal with copy or stealing skills, etc (like the GW1 Mesmer's Thievery skills). Also from FFT: Monk (the empty-handed or staff/claw wielding martial artist), Dragoon (Dragon-powered knight, also additional uses for the jumping mechanics), Geomancer (with nature and "special weapon" abilities based on where the player is standing and such) and some kind of combination of Beowulf's Spellblade and Mustadio's Engineer classes (spell-powered physical attacks to inflict conditions and elemental damage).

The same thread also gave me an interesting idea for the Mesmer in GW2. We know that direct interruption (skills that cause "interrupt") are out of the game (even though there are still interruption mechanics in GW2 through Knockback, Knockdown, Launch, Stun, Fear, i'm forgetting one or two... anyway), but nothing that says skill use can't still be controlled. What would NOT be out of line in GW2 is area-based spells that disallow and/or punish skill use; Anti-Magic fields, as it were. Think of them like the Guardian's Shield of Deflection, but instead of reflecting attacks back from outside, it punishes skill use inside. Backfire, for example, would be visual in a dark, crackling energy field, and anyone standing inside would take damage when they used a spell, making casters want to move if they wish to continue attacking and not take damage.

Empathy could be more of a pink or soothing blue-colored field (haha, Soothing Images' purple butterflies!) that punished attack skills, forcing the melee fighters to move away and switch to ranged weapons (and ranged fighters to either move out of range or into melee range) or else take damage. This could also elevate Blackout to Elite status... a very dark energy field inside which no skills can be used. Obviously this would need some tweaking or high skill in use, otherwise it could make boss enemies ridiculously easy...

This concept isn't too OP, as all professions (and enemies) can simply move out of range and continue attacking, but it does present some very nice control options, while retaining the unique Mesmer flavor. This would also combo nicely with the Guardian, who excels in controlling enemy movement. (Ring Ward + Blackout = completely helpless enemies, hehe). What'cha all think of that?

PS: There is also nothing in the current mechanics that says the Mesmer wouldn't be a master of Stun over "interruption".

 

[2xDouble]

I guess I'm just going to treat this thread as my own personal Blog/notebook now, because few seem that interested in continuing it... oh well. At least it's on public record so I can say, "Ha! called it!" when I accidentally get something right.

Reading about the latest Norn updates, a post came up on the Guru threads that got me to thinking... what if the nature spirits (Bear, Wolf, Raven, Snow Leopard) have deeper fantasy mythology meanings? I'll copy/paste the quote in this thread [http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/designing-and-redesigning-events-t13627p14.html] that kicked it off:

I love these blogs, and I think it shows real balls for Anet to describe their design process.

As for people complaining about wanting more info: you got detailed info on the starting quests of the Norn area, and general information about the different Norn totems "themes":

Bear: Defense (stanima?)
Wolf: aggressive
Raven: riddles, intelligence
Snow Leopard: detects stealth?

Anyway, good job Anet, I can't wait to play a Norn.

And I really can't wait for Sylvari week (any hint of which race is next??)

And I had to scream "NO! Bear is strength and resilience, like the mountain itself..."

Then it clicked... Bear IS the mountain. I got me to thinking... I'll break it down for you.

Bear: Strength and resilience, as mighty and unmoving as a mountain.
Wolf: Tenacity and ferocity, swift and consuming as a wild fire.
Raven: Wisdom and cunning, ever present yet intangible like the wind.
Snow Leopard: Balance and grace, fluidity of mind and body flowing together like a river.

If anyone has any thoughts, by all means, speak up.

 

[2xDouble]

Thinking about the famed (and quite bluntly, dumb-named) "Gunner" profession, I had a crazy idea, using the reveal some time ago that "one of the professions will work heavily with environmental weapons".

I figure, why not combine them? Name the class after a famous family of Dwarves, the "Blackpowder" (OK, so I actually want "Demolitionist", but the other is a neat name).

Weapons: Guns (either hand, of course) and Rifles, naturally, but also the Shortbow (exploding arrows, rocket arrows, nest of bees barrages... awesome). NOT the Longbow, because it's unnecessary with the rifles and shortbow rockets (and several classes already use the longbow but only one uses shotbow). A demolitionist would also be skilled in Hammers and main-hand only Mace (Blackpowder Smash!), Daggers in either hand (because packing explosives sometimes requires skill with a small blade), Torch (duh), and either Focus or Warhorn (I don't like a demoman using a Shield, but I suppose it's justifiable).

Spoiler: Weapons chart for clarity

Main Hand:
Gun
Dagger
Mace

Off hand:
Gun
Dagger
Torch
Focus/Warhorn
(Shield)

Two-Hand:
Rifle
Shortbow
Hammer

I also like the Blackpowder because its special mechanic could be all about environmental weapons. Bombs, powder kegs, mines, auto-guns (or gun traps), grenades (frag and sticky), sticky rockets (like a spike grenade, once thrown it sticks to the enemy and push them away in the stuck direction), improvised hand-cannons (like old-school Star Trek's Gorn cannon) any of which could be picked up and deployed by an ally... there are endless possibilities. One of the Torch skills should be "Touch Off" (unless that is some weird sexual innuendo to someone), and it would automatically detonate all of your created items for big AoE damage.

Feel free to comment.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

How do we know they aren't doing that anyway? One of the Charr racial skills is a mine so I could see this is what the class will actually be.

 

[2xDouble]

Another "Dumb Joke Name" post. This time: Fun with Asura names.

Meet the White Snow Krewe:
Grunp, Sleipi, Baishfl, Doeppi, Dokk, Hahpi, and Sneizz.

heh.

 

[BabySinclair]

*edit* Arenanet has been pulling information from forums regarding the leaked class information and has been asking people to wait a week, guess I'll talk about the thief-ish class when it shows up officially.

 

[Harry Buddha Palm]

It is the Thief. It's pretty much the assassin. They shadowstep and can stealth for a limited amount of time. Stealth makes them look like the Predator. They can also steal something from their opponent which gives the thief a 'weapon'. In the video, the thief stole a handful of feathers from a moa and threw it in it's face to blind it. Their weapon skills don't have cooldowns, but thieves have an initiative bar that goes down when skills are used and when it's empty, skills can't be used until it recharges. The thief in the videos duel-wielded pistols and daggers. Pistol range wasn't all that great. Their damage per hit wasn't all that high, but they attack fast so it might add up. Thieves also deal more damage when behind their opponent with a backstab ability. The thief in the videos was really squishy and got 'downed' several times. They look like a really hard class to play. I was pretty disappointed by it, from what little I saw. Their damage output didn't look all that spectacular considering how fragile they are and how much crap they have to do to not only increase thier damage, but just to survive. Still, it's beta and the videos were short and there's still a lot of unknown factors so it's way too early to right them off completely. Plus, the person playing the thief didn't seem to be doing a good job.

 

[rsvp42]

GW2 will compete but slowly be put out of the running by SWTOR.

Massively.com [http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01/03/massivelys-2010-players-choice-awards-results/#continued] and MMORPG.com [http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/4856/page/1] would disagree with you.

There would be no shame in losing to SW:TOR (if it comes to that), that game looks like it could be a lot of fun as well.
You might also like RIFT: Planes of Telara, definitely worth looking into.

I've always heard that one of those (maybe mmorpg.com) has some kind of odd bias against TOR in all their articles. What little feedback we've heard from TOR game testers has been good though. Keep an eye on PAX East as well. Granted, I'm biased because I've been following TOR, but I actually intend to try out GW2 as well. Never played the first one, but this new one sounds like it has some pretty cool features. No subscription is good too, means it won't conflict with a TOR subscription.

Rift fell flat for me, personally. I'm grateful for the free beta code from the Escapist, but the game was utterly uninteresting in its quest design and felt limited in terms of character creation and replayability. I'll admit I have random urges to play it, but only because there's so many ads everywhere and I want a new MMO, not because there was anything specific about Rift that draws me to it.

 

[2xDouble]

I've always heard that one of those (maybe mmorpg.com) has some kind of odd bias against TOR in all their articles. What little feedback we've heard from TOR game testers has been good though. Keep an eye on PAX East as well. Granted, I'm biased because I've been following TOR, but I actually intend to try out GW2 as well. Never played the first one, but this new one sounds like it has some pretty cool features. No subscription is good too, means it won't conflict with a TOR subscription.

Rift fell flat for me, personally. I'm grateful for the free beta code from the Escapist, but the game was utterly uninteresting in its quest design and felt limited in terms of character creation and replayability. I'll admit I have random urges to play it, but only because there's so many ads everywhere and I want a new MMO, not because there was anything specific about Rift that draws me to it.

There is nothing wrong at all with playing both GW2 and TOR. But, based solely on what I've seen (which admittedly isn't much), you may be as disappointed with TOR as you were with Rift. The Old Republic hasn't yet shown me anything unique other than having Star Wars sprites and moves... "World of Star Wars-craft", a lesser person may jibe. In spite of that, both games look to be spectacular and a great amount of fun to play. I'd love for both of them to succeed as a fan of Wars both Star and Guild (heh).

Looks like they are the surprise that they were planning at PAX.

Maybe, but I don't think so. It seemed to me a foregone conclusion that there would be an even number of classes available in the PAX demo. There was at Gamescom last year, even though they hadn't revealed the fourth yet. The Necromancer was rather hastily revealed afterward. That says to me a class reveal, to them, isn't "huge news". While the Thief certainly is a welcome surprise, I expected they would reveal it before PAX (or perhaps sometime in the middle, haphazardly as they did with the Necro). I'm still hoping to see the other two races in action (the ones we haven't seen yet), or at least some new screens or renders on the redesigned Sylvari. Oh well, at least it's better than "Rogue".

 

[Harry Buddha Palm]

Arena Net offically announced the Thief and some other sites are putting up articles. There's a good one at Massively and a really good one at IGN with more videos. In some of the videos, you can see air elementalist skills being used.

IGN link: http://ie.pc.ign.com/articles/115/1153403p1.html

 

[rsvp42]

There is nothing wrong at all with playing both GW2 and TOR. But, based solely on what I've seen (which admittedly isn't much), you may be as disappointed with TOR as you were with Rift. The Old Republic hasn't yet shown me anything unique other than having Star Wars sprites and moves... "World of Star Wars-craft", a lesser person may jibe. In spite of that, both games look to be spectacular and a great amount of fun to play. I'd love for both of them to succeed as a fan of Wars both Star and Guild (heh).

Fortunately, I've followed TOR really closely since November and I've taken in all the information released before then. My interest in the game goes beyond the IP. The story and quest design BioWare is implementing is leagues ahead of anything I've seen in current MMOs and the scope and setting of the game are right up my alley (I've always preferred sci-fi and space motifs). So I certainly won't begrudge anyone their unfavorable opinions for TOR, so long as it's not based on misinformation. There are still people who think it's entirely instanced, which couldn't be further from the truth.

But anyway, this thread is about GW2, which looks very good in it's own right. I wonder about the Fire Emblem-esque conversations though... some of the posing and animation, especially in the first conversation in this video is awkward and cringey. Facial animation is stiff too. However, it's still better presentation than any other MMO (ahem, besides TOR). And actual gameplay can always elevate an MMO beyond any minor shortcomings. I speculationate that this game will have a very healthy following and will be really competitive, especially because of its different pricing model. Looks way better than WoW, Rift, or any other medieval-ish fantasy MMO I've seen.

 

[2xDouble]

Time for another dumb post:

I know it's already called "Steal", but who here thinks the Thief's special skill should instead be called "Yoink!"?

 

[BabySinclair]

Glad that they aren't waiting to confirm what everyone knows in a week's time. None of the players in the videos I've seen yet seem to understand attack-then-move imperative of the profession. They don't have a ton of armor or health, best to keep moving. Outside of that I like the hit and run tactics as they really force you to move around. Probably going to be a pain in PvP with them dodging attacks all the time, not counting the stealth.

 

[2xDouble]

Saw the Thief videos again, remembered that they are a medium armor class profession and this picture:

...and thought to myself, "No longer will the world have to choose between Pirate and Ninja! Behold! The Ninja Pirate (or Pirate Ninja)!"

 

[2xDouble]

So, today I'm going to do a little musing on something I'm sure ANet doesn't want (or at least isn't working on) for GW2, Profession-specific challenges.

I think having a profession-specific challenge would be a good idea, implemented as a sort of tutorial for new players to get a feel for the playstyle (or develop their own), and veterans to try and be exposed to different tactics. (very much like the practice/challenge modes in fighting games). This is an opportunity to influence players' mastery by setting fully attainable goals, and giving some reward (perhaps an achievement) for accomplishing it in a certain way.

Mechanically, it wouldn't be too difficult. An instanced dungeon or "arena" with the proper restrictions would easily handle any space problem, and making it effectively the same instance allows the area to be reused easily. Of course, the challenges would be completely optional, and the rewards should be small (an invisible to other players achievement, or a trait that is easily obtainable by other means). Presumably the instances would be single-player, but I like the idea of managing parties of 5 of the same class (though, of course, having a full group would be unnecessary).

Play wise, the "training" challenges should focus on what the class does best, but they should also inspire players to try utilizing the profession's skills in new ways. For example:

Warriors' challenges should reflect brutality by taking down foes quickly, ingenuity by utilizing weapon swapping and cross-weapon combos, effective use of Adrenaline and Burst skills, etc. It should challenge players to use effective range tactics, i.e. changing ranges and weapons accordingly. As well as challenge the player to use the Warrior in non-obvious ways, using the various support and control options.

While this may or may not sound like a good idea to veteran players (and players like me who like to figure it out themselves), new players will have a safe place to train and a little extra direction in developing their play style. And veterans will be exposed to styles and tactics they might not have otherwise considered.

Supposedly all this is integrated into gameplay already anyway, but I think an instance like this will help players master their profession more quickly, and make it easier to develop difficult challenges.

 

[BabySinclair]

No more speculating, the Mesmer's back baby with a whole lot of fun

ArenaNet's confirmation