Crafting Backpacks, New Leveling Items, and More!

[Karizee]

Crafting Backpacks, New Leveling Items, and More!

by Josh Diaz on August 27, 2014



Hi there! I’m Josh Diaz, a game designer here at ArenaNet, and today I’m going to tell you about some of the changes we’re introducing in the September 2014 Feature Pack to make exploring Tyria more rewarding.





New Leveling Items

To start things off, we’ve added in some gear meant specifically to help you level your characters. These weapons and armor will provide crafters and explorers with access to some of the skins found across Tyria’s diverse regions. For example, if you’re lucky enough to come across the Cannon Law, you’ll be able to choose between two stat combinations and receive a level 36 rare rifle with the Krytan Rifle skin and stats that are a little more potent than most rifles of its level.

These items are intended for the up-and-coming heroes of Tyria. As such, they extend up to an exotic level of rarity, but they are all exclusively under level 80. You may find that early explorations of Tyria are easier the second, third, or twenty-third time around with some of this gear.





The recipes for these items are meant for advanced crafters, but we’ve also added versions of the weapons to monster hauls across Tyria that come with a few stat combos intended for characters who are still leveling. If you find one you like that doesn’t work for the character you’re on, you can always store it away for another character on your account. Happy hunting!



Crafter’s Backpacks

These new weapons and armor help crafters get ahead of the game, but we also want crafting to have a strong visual reward so players can show off what they’ve accomplished so far. That led us to the creation of the new Crafter’s Backpacks. They’re only accessible by practicing a crafting discipline, and each discipline gets a unique look that progresses as you advance and builds on top of what you’ve already made! These backpacks don’t take much to build, but they’ll guide players up from novice to adept crafting in each discipline, bring in new looks to your Wardrobe, and come with a bit more combat flexibility than many players might have seen.





Profession Loot

Finally, since we believe that, especially for newer players, good rewards mean things you can play with (and not just things that may happen to valuable on the Trading Post), we’ve made it so that you’re more likely to get loot that you can use. It’s still possible for a warrior to get a new staff to sell or for mesmers to find a rare rifle, but it’ll be a bit less common than it was before. We’d rather that leveling players found things that felt like an immediate and useful upgrade or gave them a look at a new weapon and a chance to expand their skill set, and this seems like a good way of doing that.

These changes should help new players and veterans alike get more out of their leveling experience in Guild Wars 2.


https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/c...tems-and-more/

[Maarius]

mmmmmkay....

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For example, if you’re lucky enough to come across the Cannon Law, you’ll be able to choose between two stat combinations and receive a level 36 rare rifle with the Krytan Rifle skin and stats that are a little more potent than most rifles of its level.

this one I find interesting... what is "cannon law"? A location? So you get good rewards for finding certain locations?

If yes, then WHY only for the leveling phase, and not for lv.80 characters??

[Svifnymr]

New leveling items are old skins, right?

Backpacks might be fun, depending on looks.

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this one I find interesting... what is "cannon law"? A location? So you get good rewards for finding certain locations?

If yes, then WHY only for the leveling phase, and not for lv.80 characters??

Cannon Law is the name of the gun in the picture. (Vagabonds Cannon Law)

[Maarius]

oh lol, thought I read something about rewarding exploration. Only drops then? Meh.

[lawow74]

More underwhelming news. For a second I dared hope we might be able to make exotic back items without going through as much trouble as it takes to create a set of Ascended armor. But no such luck.

[Karizee]

Backpacks might be fun, depending on looks.

Here's an album with the progression of looks for each crafting discipline. I guess those that are into crafting might appreciate a visual progression and "trophy" to wear, I was kind of hoping it would be a portable crafting station.

http://imgur.com/a/e4D2e


Today's reveal is definitely more for a new player than a veteran player. The Profession Loot one is something I see many new players question, "why did I get this drop if I can't use it?". Wondering how it will play out for level 80s if light armor wearers get more of the expensive cloth drops. Anyway, I'm expecting a Free Trial announcement soon.

[Maarius]

These backpacks don’t take much to build, but they’ll guide players up from novice to adept crafting in each discipline, bring in new looks to your Wardrobe, and come with a bit more combat flexibility than many players might have seen.

So crafting level 0 - 399... why not 500?

Combat flexibility sounds like stat-swap, but if there are no lv.80 exotics then I can't use it anyway. Exotics start with lv.400, no?

[Stax]

Here's an album with the progression of looks for each crafting discipline. I guess those that are into crafting might appreciate a visual progression and "trophy" to wear, I was kind of hoping it would be a portable crafting station.

<snip>


Today's reveal is definitely more for a new player than a veteran player. The Profession Loot one is something I see many new players question, "why did I get this drop if I can't use it?". Wondering how it will play out for level 80s if light armor wearers get more of the expensive cloth drops. Anyway, I'm expecting a Free Trial announcement soon.

These would be GREAT for my character... If he wasn't an engineer forced to wear the dreadful 'hobosack'.

[Svifnymr]

oh lol, thought I read something about rewarding exploration. Only drops then? Meh.

They also mention crafters, so it's kind of confusing to me. It mentions getting skins, but first thought I had was that it means some of those karma-vendor skins.

An underwhelming announcement that didn't really explain things well...

Also not sure if they're supposed to be tradable, then they'll just be another commodity to market and probably not worth the cost to create.

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So crafting level 0 - 399... why not 500?

Combat flexibility sounds like stat-swap, but if there are no lv.80 exotics then I can't use it anyway. Exotics start with lv.400, no?

I don't think they're swappable, just pickable.

There are exotics before 80 as rewards and stuff, none craftable that I know of.

[Deleted]

Today's reveal is definitely more for a new player than a veteran player. The Profession Loot one is something I see many new players question, "why did I get this drop if I can't use it?". Wondering how it will play out for level 80s if light armor wearers get more of the expensive cloth drops. Anyway, I'm expecting a Free Trial announcement soon.

I wonder how this goes for greatswords as well, since you need those for certain precursors..... Makes my mesmer more attractive for GS and light armor drops.

I hope you can still get the backpacks if you already have the crafting stuff. Because I can't find that answer anywhere.

[Fencers]

These are not so much backpacks as portable shelving. Goodness. Are they serious with this stuff? What was once "Trench Coat Wars 2" has melded into "Backpack Wars 2" rightly.

Also I think implementing Smart Loot 2.0 could be ruinous to certain classes income generation. But we will have to see.

As I said in the last thread the design of GW2 seems like it is all over the freakin' place. Anet's decades long struggle to integrate and iterate on secondary systems has not improved since Prophecies.

[worprz]

These are not so much backpacks as portable shelving. Goodness. Are they serious with this stuff? What was once "Trench Coat Wars 2" has melded into "Backpack Wars 2" rightly.

Also I think implementing Smart Loot 2.0 could be ruinous to certain classes income generation. But we will have to see.

As I said in the last thread the design of GW2 seems like it is all over the freakin' place. Anet's decades long struggle to integrate and iterate on secondary systems has not improved since Prophecies.

Lol I like when they add backpacks, the problem for me is there isn't one I like a lot lol.