Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Edge-]

Also elementalist Elite Spec announced

These elementalists are a steady presence in melee combat

Sure...on the floor...horizontal...like melee ele's already are : 3

I dig it though, any time they can break free of fantasy stereotypes like this I'm on board.

[Cattleya]

Do any of the elite specs announced in a new expansion share weapons? If not, then I guess the theory that Ranger is getting a hammer is out of the window. Which I'm happy with because I don't really like hammers as a weapon.

They do, Harbinger and Bladesworn for example are both pistol. The leak for the remaining elite spec weapons also came from an in-game box of equipment for each class which has been accurate for all the reveals thus far, pretty much confirming it

On the elementalist front I'm eager to actually play it during the beta. For my first legendary I'm making either The Shining Blade (because for all its flaws and weaknesses, weaver is still by far my favorite spec in this game) or Sharur (if Catalyst really wows me)

[Poppincaps]

They do, Harbinger and Bladesworn for example are both pistol. The leak for the remaining elite spec weapons also came from an in-game box of equipment for each class which has been accurate for all the reveals thus far, pretty much confirming it

On the elementalist front I'm eager to actually play it during the beta. For my first legendary I'm making either The Shining Blade (because for all its flaws and weaknesses, weaver is still by far my favorite spec in this game) or Sharur (if Catalyst really wows me)

Well as long as it has pets unlike Soulbeast, I'm sure I'll like it.

[Edge-]

I was neutral towards the game getting fishing and boats now I'm interested. They've clearly put a lot thought into the systems. Now I'm excited for the finished products.

Going back to this...I'm still struggling to find out why anyone should really care about fishing. Skiffs are kinda nice to a point, but they're functionally just another mount, and since we're getting co-op mounts that's not really unique. Fishing itself seems...fairly starightforward. I've been trying to find the "hook" (heh) for it or what's really unique about it compared to other MMO's - like GW2's mounts existing to serve various purposes beyond "go faster" - and I'm struggling.

I'm hoping they've got more exciting reveals planned, because while the classes are kinda cool so far I'm kinda losing interest. To me, it feels like they're relying a lot on "Cantha!" to drive excitement which seems to work for GW1 players, but for folks like myself who will be experiencing Cantha for the first time this is seeming a lot more like a fairly standard expansion with new story and content and classes and...that's kinda it : /

[Svifnymr]

From what I'm reading this seems to be the general consensus. But we've got the next beta event kicking off next week (Sept. 21-25) and I imagine they'll do another pre-beta specialization stream, so we'll find out for sure soon enough.

Yeah, I'll probably play them for a few minutes in the beta to see if I need to earn some more hero points ahead of time, but I already preordered so don't really need any convincing or whatnot.

[PACOX]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/d...-guild-wars-2/

DX11 write up.

- - - Updated - - -

Going back to this...I'm still struggling to find out why anyone should really care about fishing. Skiffs are kinda nice to a point, but they're functionally just another mount, and since we're getting co-op mounts that's not really unique. Fishing itself seems...fairly starightforward. I've been trying to find the "hook" (heh) for it or what's really unique about it compared to other MMO's - like GW2's mounts existing to serve various purposes beyond "go faster" - and I'm struggling.

I'm hoping they've got more exciting reveals planned, because while the classes are kinda cool so far I'm kinda losing interest. To me, it feels like they're relying a lot on "Cantha!" to drive excitement which seems to work for GW1 players, but for folks like myself who will be experiencing Cantha for the first time this is seeming a lot more like a fairly standard expansion with new story and content and classes and...that's kinda it : /

They way I see it, the skiff is the main mastery. Like gliders to HoT and mounts to POF. Fishing is just complementary and the 'emphasis' on it is just marketing filler. One of the the previewed skiff masteries alludes to water travel being somewhat important, it's related to hitting mobs in the water. I'm picturing a map with a big river or islands with enough stuff in/on the water that has to be dealt with. Something that would make the skiff preferable to the skimmer above above water.

Fishing will replace or add an element to gathering.

I'm hoping they've got more exciting reveals planned, because while the classes are kinda cool so far I'm kinda losing interest. To me, it feels like they're relying a lot on "Cantha!" to drive excitement which seems to work for GW1 players, but for folks like myself who will be experiencing Cantha for the first time this is seeming a lot more like a fairly standard expansion with new story and content and classes and...that's kinda it : /

I mean the plot ultimately goes back to season 1 (Mai Trin seems to be involved) and will wrap up the entire dragon saga. A decade of the game. The emphasis on Cantha is the same emphasis they placed on Elona for POF. People who only played GW2 get a new place, people who placed GW1 get to see how those places changed in the 250 years between the games.

[Edge-]

They way I see it, the skiff is the main mastery. Like gliders to HoT and mounts to POF. Fishing is just complementary and the 'emphasis' on it is just marketing filler. One of the the previewed skiff masteries alludes to water travel being somewhat important, it's related to hitting mobs in the water. I'm picturing a map with a big river or islands with enough stuff in/on the water that has to be dealt with. Something that would make the skiff preferable to the skimmer above above water.

Fishing will replace or add an element to gathering.

I could get skiffs being akin to mounts/gliding but like...we've already got water transport with skimmers and I don't see anything different enough that boats really do. If they become combat platforms though...I really hope not. Like, really, really hope not. That sounds kinda awful. Sure underwater combat still largely isn't great, but either fix it or don't design combat around water. I'm just not really seeing what it adds akin to what mounts added or gliding added.

For gathering, I don't mind it being another thing to gather but it seems fairly weird to spend so much time on what appears to be a fairly standard/run of the mill feature that (almost) every other MMO has.

DX11 post was nice, a bit too technical for my dumb self but I'm looking forward to the beat. The game desperately needs performance improvements somehow, any way they can get it, and some additional graphical goodies won't hurt.

[Edge-]

My guess is that fishing will likely be just like any other gathering where you see a ripple in the water and click it to get your 3 Trout.

I mean they've shown it off. It's fine. It's nothing bad or anything, but also nothing particularly different than what any other MMO with fishing has done. At least based off of what I've seen so far from the livestream etc. The only thing that's different about it in the context of GW2 is that the rod itself won't be limited use like other harvesting tools are.

It's weird to me though, because there are definitely some interesting things going on with the expansion with classes and we're seeing a bit of a "return" for ANet under their returning leadership. We've been getting some deep dives into topics like the brief server downtime and now DX11 which are a refreshing change of pace from their usual fairly quiet selves. We've got these livestreams they're doing reveals on which are pretty standard stuff for expansion ramp up/marketing, but also feel like ANet is finally being more open again. I'm just glad we know who's in charge of ANet and who's leading GW2 again because we haven't really known that for years.

[PACOX]

Loved all 3 specs showcased today. Very technical ones and the amount of work they put into the warrior is insane. You can tell that spec was someone's baby they refused to compromise on.

[Edge-]

Sad that the previous 3 elite specs aren't a part of this beta as well, but may tinker around with warrior. Made one and the ability animations look nice at least.

DX11 beta is fuckin tight though. Seeing plenty of mixed reports and crashes which is expected, it's the first rolllout, but my quick testing is impressive. Basically doubled my FPS in Mistlock from 40-80ish, though have to keep characters shown on "lowest" as raising that still drops the framerate quite a bit. Shadow Behemoth on "lowest" was great as well, was keeping 70+ fps, usually close to my 100fps monitor cap (currently).

Need to play more, but the game is SO much more enjoyable without super inconsistent framerates and lots of micro stuttering, and I wasn't expecting to see gains this big with the first phase of the rollout.

[Svifnymr]

Made one of each, it's been a while since I played one of my revenants, so didn't spend much time on that one. The elementalist was okay I guess, but I didn't bother heading anywhere to smash things proper.

Warrior was neat enough, so headed out to Orr to give it more of a go, it's got the old "Adrenaline fades quickly" issue, but it's interesting enough and had some nice play-feel to it.

It'd probably be helpful if they like, actually gave instructions on the new spec's when you pick one. I'm not going to read through to try to optimize the talents and stuff, so just tell me ahead of time which buttons to mash!

[Lex Icon]

Bladesworn or whatever the warrior spec was called was pretty fun & i normally don't like warrior.
sword & pistol felt like a good combo. the gunblade was cool but not sure how to use that special burst skill. in any real scenario there's no way to pull it off at full power unless you're carried by others.

[Norinila]

hey folks it's been a while and i just wanted to say hi
and to mod edge good to see your still here as well /salute

[Svifnymr]

In case you missed it, Amazon Gaming has another bonus pack code thing. This time it's 5 dye packs, much more potential than a bag.
https://gaming.amazon.com/loot/guildwars2

[Chadow]

Is this thief or?
https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/statu...16496100925449

[PACOX]

Is this thief or?
https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/statu...16496100925449

Pretty sure thays thief. Thd previews usually have the class colors. Abd that looks looks like a scepter in the hand, matchng leaks (whixh have all been true)

[PACOX]

Anets Winter streaming schedule



Shows a third line of masteries if I'm reading that correctly?

Expansion will have 4 maps, which is expected
.

[Edge-]

Seige Turtles and whatever Revitalization Masteries are seem interesting. Not much interest in the rest for now. Jus hoping the masteries are better than the IBS ones, really disliked those.

[Chadow]

Ladies and gentleman...i present you the worst showcase video of a new class on planet earth.
Even worse than my youtube videos.
All i learned is that "it protects allies with a shadow barrier"
/end video

my face (-_-')

[Edge-]

Ladies and gentleman...i present you the worst showcase video of a new class on planet earth.
Even worse than my youtube videos.
All i learned is that "it protects allies with a shadow barrier"
/end video

my face (-_-')

About as informative as all the other reveal videos. Lore talk about the class, show off a few abilities, done. They'll get into the nitty gritty on the livestream as they have with the first/second wave of reveals.