Expansion Confirmed [1-24-15], Heart of Thorns

[zito]

I was thinking more of a Spirit Warrior, a Heavy Armor Ritualist sort of character, like an Ancestral Guard for the Canthan Emperor. Besides weapon skills, have an Ancestor mechanic which switches to a different bar on a timer and changes the skills based on which you have equipped, possibly even slotted in your other bar positions. Probably limit weapon selection to Staff, Greatsword and maybe 1H Sword. Other skills would include summoning up spirits(perhaps limited to Ancestor mode)and possibly certain bundle/Ashes abilities.

Give.Me.Anything.Ritualists.

God damn it Anet

[Maarius]

Give.Me.Anything.Ritualists.

God damn it Anet

the ritualist profession was melt into the guardian profession. Guardians are a mix between monks and ritualists. It was stated some time during development. Spirit weapons are a small echo of ritualist spirits. Engineer turrets also capture that niche already.

I'd rather see new weapon combinations which enable new archetypes:

* Greatsword for Necro --> Dark Knight
* Staff for Ranger --> Druid
* Staff for Thief --> Martial Artist
* Dual Swords for Ele --> Battlemage
* Spears for Guardians --> Paragon

[Fencers]

A lot of desperate elements of the GW1 classes were smushed together to form the GW2 professions. However, I feel like the flavor and more importantly the mechanisms that governed the play style variance among the GW1 classes was muted in the sequel.

Transposing Shouts and ranged attacks to a Guardian with a couple of spirit weapons doesn't play, feel or work mechanically to the way a Ritualist behaved. The method of play is totally different.

I can easily see how unsatisfying the GW2 classes can be to some GW1 veterans. In particular with the aggressive shallowness of GW2's classes by contrast.

Personally, I think the weapon system blows in actual practice for GW2. Though I love the idea- it's just implemented too strictly and generically. I feel like the class skills should have been weapon independent or more modular.

[lawow74]

A lot of desperate elements of the GW1 classes were smushed together to form the GW2 professions.

I think you mean disparate, Fencers.

Regardless, yes, that's what happened. The Ritualist mechanics are seen heavily in the Engineer(static attack/AoE effect summons and bundle skills), just as the Guardian is more a Monk/Paragon mashup than a Ritualist.

The lack of customization of skills is a detractor for the game as well.

[Valeron]

I remember that the original customization system was supposed to be that you could tweak and change up your weapon skills with added components. Not sure what happened to it (well what happened was that we ended up with the trait system instead).

[Maarius]

to me the problem isn't the design of the skills in GW2 but rather their effectiveness. Personally I prefer visible clones who run up to an enemy to shatter in order to interrupt them (a very unique mechanic if you ask me) compared to the whack a mole interrupting we had in GW1 which was more a playing against timed castbars than playing against opponents while using terrain and skillful movement, positioning in mind.

The thing is: in GW2 you might interrupt an enemy, but a second later he casts the same spell again. Some skills just seem to be not effective at all, while the skill itself is quite well designed.


So what I would love to see in the future is more enemies with weaknesses against specific attacks. A good example are the new Mordrem-Stabby-Cats. They have quite strong skills like the dash but are vulnerable against cripple. Once they are crippled they stumble at an attempt to dash and get knocked down for a few seconds. Very nice enemy design imho.

Why not have more enemies like that? Water enemies that freeze when chilled and break when near a combo-finisher: blast when in ice-form. Fire enemies who get extremely weak when in water fields,...

[Silver Forte]

I don't know what it is exactly, I just can't focus on one character. I find myself getting bored to death of one, thinking another would be cooler, repeat. The skills just seem cool but they don't have much impact or are too reliant on other skills. It definitely feels like the professions are missing soul but I can't put my finger on it. I got my guardian to 80 then messed around with world bosses for a bit, now I'm back on my elementalist. After 30 minutes of that, I end up getting bored and stopping. The idea of playing this game is great but none of the classes draw me in. Maybe a new profession would help, but I haven't seen much info on expansions. I can't say Guild Wars 2 appears like a game you'd see many expansions for, more like content updates.

[nevermore]

I don't know what it is exactly, I just can't focus on one character. I find myself getting bored to death of one, thinking another would be cooler, repeat. The skills just seem cool but they don't have much impact or are too reliant on other skills. It definitely feels like the professions are missing soul but I can't put my finger on it. I got my guardian to 80 then messed around with world bosses for a bit, now I'm back on my elementalist. After 30 minutes of that, I end up getting bored and stopping. The idea of playing this game is great but none of the classes draw me in. Maybe a new profession would help, but I haven't seen much info on expansions. I can't say Guild Wars 2 appears like a game you'd see many expansions for, more like content updates.

I had the same problem for a long time, levelled almost every profession and I got incredibly bored of each one. It just felt like to me that every profession is roughly 1/3 of what it actually should be (in terms of spells/abilities/traits, variety, customisation etc) so none of them made me go like whoa, more like mehhhh *yawn*.
But then I started playing an Elementalist and things got much better. It's still far from what I'd like an MMO class to be, but it's getting there.

[Fencers]

I think you mean disparate, Fencers.

Auto correct. It happens a lot.

The lack of customization of skills is a detractor for the game as well.

I would not say it is a large detractor for me. Though it is disappointing compared to how thoughtful and intellectual GW1 was to the action-combat/Arcade-y GW2.

I have almost no interest in action games of any kind. I only play them out of investigation. I would not choose necessarily to play Dark Souls or Revengence for the fudge-of-it-all despite being well made games. But I would play like Democracy for hours untold for pure enjoyment.

That's basically the same contrast I have with Guild Wars 1 and 2. The former tickled the planning/strategy parts of my brain that loves systems, rules and processes. The latter is like, not at all.

[Deleted]

At this point I don't care anymore, can't believe these are the same developers that made the first game which to this day is still one of my favorites I would buy an expansion to GW1 in a heartbeat.

I just want Beyond: Elona ;_;

[Maarius]

At this point I don't care anymore, can't believe these are the same developers that made the first game which to this day is still one of my favorites I would buy an expansion to GW1 in a heartbeat.

since it's release GW2 was clearly a more action oriented game. Did you expect it would change during development? What did you expect that kept you here up to now?

[worprz]

At this point I don't care anymore, can't believe these are the same developers that made the first game which to this day is still one of my favorites I would buy an expansion to GW1 in a heartbeat.

I can't believe they are the same developers either, but I like GW2 much more I hated the first game, but then again I had already been playing wow for a while when I decided to play GW1.

Recently I tried to play GW1 again and I liked it much more than the first time around. I don't know if it had something to do with me enjoying GW2 or me being older.

[Fencers]

since it's release GW2 was clearly a more action oriented game.

Ya'know way back when, when the first Warrior gameplay preview was released, I did not think GW2 would be an Arcade game. At best I though it would be somewhat locational based similar to Age of Conan. As more was revealed, I came to understand it was action orientated more so than AOC.

However, it was during the closed beta that I first understood the totality of the GW2's mass marketability.

Though I felt it is in the secondary systems and content methodology that GW2 broke most from Guild Wars 1. It is a far stricter, linear and vapid game. In the current market it often brings to my mind Diablo 3; quick, pick-up & play, easily understandable gameplay.

[Totesmcgoats]

More people are coming to the realization that I came to long ago....GW1 was leagues better than GW2. Still can't believe that the same developer who made GW1 also made GW2. They pretty much destroyed everything that was good about the series.

[Deleted]

Since it's release GW2 was clearly a more action oriented game. Did you expect it would change during development?

But... GW2 is STILL changing.

It was totally different game during "info" phase.
Then it was different during early video previes phase.
It was different during demo.
It got a bit different during betas.
It got a bit different at launch.
LS1 differed MUCH from launch phase (it felt like a new game).
LS2 feels and IS different than LS1.
??? It will probably change even more in the speculated expansion.

As you can see, GW2 is constantly changing. If you compare "info phase" with what we got at launch and what we have now... it's like 3 different games.

To be honest... it's the thing I don't like about GW2. It's not consistent and player feels it. Game developers experiment with the game too much. They try one thing, then jump to another, then re-design the previous one, add something more then scrap it after 3 months etc. I can't get attached to anything. They change their focus from one thing to another in a blink of an eye. Sometimes it feels like it happens too late and slow, sometimes it feels rushed and not completely thought.

What's more, I'd rather want ArenaNet to focus on the core gameplay (I mean character / abilities) instead of adding new stuff.

[worprz]

It didn't keep me, I played at launch for a while and for a while during Living World season 2.

I WAS aware that the game would be different but just not how much, it's basically a 180 degree on their vision from the first game.

The first game was tactical, gear didn't matter much and the storytelling was excellent (pretty much on par with a single player RPG) add to that it had a lot of re-playability all things I miss in GW2.

Obviously people like different kinds of things so I'm fine with people liking GW2, personally I just can't find any reason to play it at this point, if I want to play a gear oriented game I might as well just play WoW.

I do like the profession customization in GW1, the combat in GW2 feels flat. The thing though is that GW2 is constantly changing and I think in the future they may revamp combat. I'm not sure if you have played GW2 recently, but leveling feels like a whole new game. It is really different in terms of how you gain abilities and traits.

The changes are probably not enough to get you playing though. However my point is that Arenanet is not afraid to change things and I think they will constantly change things to make the game better.

I would disagree with the storytelling, I think it is just as bad as GW2. You had to go out of your way to find the cool bits of story (a lot like how it is in GW2 now). If you just followed the main story line it wasn't very interesting at all. I would say there are no mmos that have a story on par with other games, not even close.

I don't really have the right to talk about the story much though since I didn't play the whole game, I only got to level 12-15ish. I also tried both expansions a little. I do think nightfall was leagues better than prophecies in terms of storytelling.

[Valeron]

yeah, GW1 storytelling wasn't all that great, people have a bit of nostalgia with it I think. However, what I really liked was the mission style content that the first game offered (well at least until heroes overpowered everything)

[Totesmcgoats]

I would say there are no mmos that have a story on par with other games, not even close.

SWTOR would like to have a word with you.

[Valeron]

SWTOR would like to have a word with you.

some stories there are better than others and the game definitely gets in the way of the stories in SWTOR

even SWTOR cannot compete with single player games in regards to story

[Fkiolaris]

Personal taste is personal, but for me TSW easily has some of the best stories and writing I have seen in a game in the 30+ years that I have been playing electronic games.