Underwater Content in GW 2's Future - (A new and necessary experience)

[Haadi.9764]

Let me just start by saying I hate UW combat, in the state that it is now. But I dare say that it has A LOT of potential and like OP, I really hope Anet would do something about it.

A lot of the things I'd like to suggest has already been mentioned by many others. Lets start by making the combat itself less clunkier by reworking the UW skills and mechanics, then we could move into improving the UW movement. A lot of things can be done here and seeing how Anet surprised me with how our PoF mounts work, and even with HoT movement/exploration, gliding with its updrafts, bouncing mushrooms etc. I have complete belief in their capability in developing and surprising us with UW movement improvement. Honestly, I was pretty disappointed that we weren't given an UW mount already but I'm guessing they're saving it for when they release UW content with the Deep Sea Dragon.

I'll say it again, UW has A LOT of potential. Beautiful maps, atmosphere and environment imo, just really bad combat and mechanics.

[Torq.4926]

The experience of underwater combat can vary greatly depending on which profession you're playing. Some builds/specializations work fine underwater, others (e.g. scourge, herald) don't work at all. It's never fun when you jump into the water and suddenly your profession mechanic becomes unavailable. I think a lot of the current dissatisfaction with underwater content would go away if ANet were to rework most traits and skills to retain their functionality underwater.

That being said, at this stage I doubt that underwater content will ever become a significant aspect of the game as originally envisioned. It's disliked enough that any attempts at a major overhaul would probably be controversial at best; many players would prefer that the development time be spent on other things. I think the best we could hope for would be some minor (yet consistent) underwater skill/trait tweaks rolled into the regular balance patches, which could allow ANet to gradually improve on gameplay and quality of life in existing water content without taking too many resources away from their other projects.

[Rukia.9860]

Under water combat is clunky as hell , the only way I've ever seen it work is in the side-scrolling style mario maps. Never forget... Orr underwater... KILL ME.

[Cyrin.1035]

Necroed for timely relevance!

[ScyeRynn.4218]

UW content revamp.

[Solanum.6983]

I love Underwater Content, I'd love if it were explored more.I'm surprised we haven't got an Underwater Mount yet.

[Teratus.2859]

@"Ardid.7203" said:I hate mounts on most MMOs, I find them repetitive, cluttering, uninteresting, and and I didn't wanted them in GW2. Yet they were able to make actually decent, beautiful mounts for PoF. I still would have chosen not to have them, but since they are here, I have to admit they are really well done. However, they ARE MANDATORY if you want to complete the expa, and top "QoL creep" for the rest of the game. Not using them is just self detrimental.

On the contrary, I DO like UW, and I think they should expand on it, because it is original, interesting, aesthetically potent and a clear distinguishing factor for the game. I want them to make an UW Improvement just like they did Mounts: mandatory for the next expa, and a extreme QoL boost in the rest of the game. For me, its just fair.

With you there, I was anti mount myself when they were first confirmed and worried about how much they would break the game, specially if they were allowed in core maps.Suffice to say Anet did mounts exceptionally well, better than any other game I can name for sure.Sure they did break a lot of the old content and to this day there are pretty much mount work arounds for msot things but it really doesn't matter anymore, they're awesome and I am very glad Anet did them the way they did.

I'm a big fan of Gw2's underwater combat too, I've said many times in the past that Gw2 does UW combat better than any game i've ever played.. and that's a big list.I've long supported upgrading and enhancing water combat in this game and still remain a supporter of it.

All it needs is more weapons, skills and a mount.. that's literally all I'd ask for and that alone would make UW combat 100 times better imo.

[aspirine.6852]

I dont mind the occasional UW combat, but please for the love of the game don't make it a major thing.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

Legendary Re-breathersAll utilities usable underwater

Until those two things exist, Id rather they just avoid adding underwater content completely. I enjoy taking my toons out to core maps for map completion / key farming, and it is inexcusable to me that almost 8 years later, many of my characters cannot use their preferred abilities underwater.

Further complicating this of course, is the limited selection of weaponry.Only 4 professions use the Harpoon GunOnly 5 professions use the TridentOnly 7 profession use the SpearEle and Engy only get to use 1 weapon. (Trident and Harpoon Gun respectively)

That can get pretty dull if you have to spend any length of time underwater.

[Mala.3861]

A small amount of UW content is tolerable (that amount being what is already in the game). But making UW a significant part of new content? No, no, a thousand times, no!

[YtseJam.9784]

@Shirlias.8104 said:

@"Dreamy Lu.3865" said:So, as long as optional, it would be very much OK for me. I would not "touch" it. But I would hate being forced to an UW content.

This.We do have some UW exploration once in a while, but it's something which overall sucks due to the fact you can move 360 degrees with no limits.

• ANET stopped to develop UW content as they do in the old Tyria
• Removed UW combat in both SPvP and WvW, becuase it was ugly, unbalanced and unwanted.

• ANET stopped to develop UW weapons ( Elonian Weapons, Awakened weapons, etc... )

Underwater exploration could be an extra, story related ( though we do remember the underwater personal story part ) or map related.Or even an extra, a way to reach a hidden poi or mastery.Or maybe a underwater tunnel which bring you in a underground city with no water at all ( maybe some puddles ).

And ofc, it must only be exploration related ( no mobs, no bosses, no events ).

They should find instead a way to reuse the UW skins on ground weapons.

They did abandon the PvP map a long time ago and rebuilt the WvW borderlands and removed most of the underwater, but they recently made the underwater fractal harder and more annoying than it was, and we are still with subpar underwater skills... For example as a Chrono (yeah insert meme jokes here), I have ZERO underwater skills for that specialization. Other HoT and PoF got them, but they never gave Chrono any. And since we got reduced to Alacrity/Quickness slaves (BARELY) we are useless in underwater as a support class.

[Caligrafers Blade.3871]

I had put a comment on another post regarding uw combat. I'll just copy some parts of it here since it seems relevant.

Anet has a lot to fix for uw combat. We need builds to switch when we dive. The same terrestrial traits just don't work the same considering half the utilities don't work either. Gear switches anyway, so why not builds? And if they give us new elites with the next expac, they had better be uw compatible.We also so need new uw weapons, like a whole new set itself. Maybe they should just allow us to be able to use some terrestrial ones that theoretically could work, say like focus, scepter, dagger, or heck even staff on scholars.And I would like uw mounts, say orca, seahorse, shark, turtle, eel and jelly fish? The list's just pretty cool.

[Opal.9324]

I wouldn't mind more underwater content, but only if going underwater doesn't mess up my build anymore or force me to wear a head piece that only has a super limited selection of skins.

[Tinker.6924]

Its fairly annoying that certain skills don't work underwater and there often isn't any discernible rhyme or reason for that since some skills that are identical in how they target and otherwise function do work underwater. I get that sometimes the skills need to work differently (e.g. an ability that targets a ground location must instead target a specific enemy) but Anet does need to be more consistent.

[lare.5129]

no one know. May be we will see uw raid wing .. or wvw uw map. will see.

[Dante.1763]

@Mala.3861 said:A small amount of UW content is tolerable (that amount being what is already in the game). But making UW a significant part of new content? No, no, a thousand times, no!

So much this.

Until they rebalance all UW content, make all skills usable UW because having your build become useless is fun right? They need to do alot to UW content before it becomes a major focus point. Theyll need new weapons too, as some builds are flat out impossible to do under water or hell they could make land and water weapons meaningless and allow them to be used wherever, in fact..that would help alot.