[What ist the purpose of staff?]

My PvE Reaper mains Staff, the thought of things getting better from what some of you folks mention sounds great

[Eye On Necromancer For August 2019!]

Appreciate the effort put into that Swagger :)This got me thinking how cool it would be if there were small, isolated area, test servers where the devs could make specific changes like that so we could test them out and see how it actually feels in-game, I'd be willing to give it a go and actually toss out some feedback on your ideas.

[Post your Necro's]

I really enjoy this class, glad the devs included it into the game.

[Post your Mesmer pics here]

Kudos to the devs for making an awesome game! Great photos all around!

[Horse Mounts Discussion!]

@Jak.8627 said:Honestly, I think I'd rather have a centaur playable race. Skip horses all together! How cool would that be?! I mean, the only game out there right now thinking about a centaur as a playable race is Crowfall and that's a whole other bag of worms that we need not discuss here. Yes. I'm sticking with my decision. Skip the horse mount. Give us a horse-like playable race! See what I did there?!

Not sure exactly how much work would go into implementing playable Centaurs or a horse skin/new mount, but we at least have the lore and doodads to populate the world with their existance to some degree. I feel like people can go back and forth on whether or not any of this should be added. The goal of this thread however was just the discussion of horses as mounts. I never could find any concept art of a branded horse, I'll have to leave it up to my imagination :X

[Horse Mounts Discussion!]

@"Kossage.9072" said:Horses have existed in the world of Tyria in the past; it's unknown if they came with gods, Forgotten and humans from the Mists or were native to the world. In fact, in the treasure trove of Canthan lore called An Empire Divided, which is still one of the most comprehensive lore documents ever created for either GW game, it has historically been documented that a horse caused the death of the first Canthan Emperor Kaineng Tah (albeit there was some foul play going on behind the scenes if we look at the details of the chronicled accident more closely):

His death came from an unlikely event: while on an extended hunting expedition, his favorite horse improbably threw Kaineng Tah. It is doubtful that the faithful, well-trained beast would have done this out of belligerence, though Canthan history does classify the death as completely accidental. It seems more likely that one or more of the emperor's fellow huntsmen spooked the horse. Fragmentary records of an unexplained wound on the horse's rump and three more such wounds on Kaineng Tah himself would appear to support this interpretation.

Cantha referenced horses as recently as Factions Cantha in 1072 AE, when

Zumo the Beggar

claimed to have been riding a horse. So at the very least knowledge of these beasts survived throughout the centuries. :)

Horses have also become known in Elona, Orr, Ascalon and Kryta, and Palawa Joko deridingly called centaurs such as Zhed Shadowhoof plough horses. Knowledge of them has even spread to other races such as the pet master ogres who equate taming rock dogs with bad-tempered horses:

Nojara:

Proper taming can take months, even years, but we don't have time for that. We have to break them like you'd break a bad-tempered horse, and quickly. Overpower them.

As recently as 1325 AE, we've seen equine hoofprints around the stables of the Hunting Lodge in Queensdale, and even got to hear this lovely exchange as part of the

ambient dialogue in the Shire of Beetletun

which shows that children are well aware of what at least ponies look like, so much so that they ask for one as a present:

Victoria:

Centaurs ruined my party. I hate them so much.

Spencer:

But didn't you ask for a pony?

Victoria:

Ponies are cute. Centaurs are ugly and mean.

Given Caithe, Logan and Rytlock's revelation via the asura gate in Edge of Destiny (Caithe's lovely singing in that scene notwithstanding), and horses not being seen anywhere in Tyria or Elona as of this writing, it's unclear if horses still exist in Central Tyria and Elona (let alone Cantha) or not. However, given how there's also a distinct lack of e.g. corrupted skritt models in the Elder Dragons' armies (when we know that skritt and other races without corrupted models can definitely be corrupted by Elder Dragons; there's even concept art of a

Branded bear

, and for some unfortunate reason we haven't gotten a Branded bear in game yet), this may simply be a lack of assets being used rather than horses no longer existing in present day Central Tyria etc. lorewise. As recently as around Living World Season 2, ANet artist Ruan Jia even made

concept art of a human cavalry charge

set somewhere in Tyria, so the idea has been in the devs' minds too to some extent since launch, it seems.

When it comes to the future of horses in Tyria, I could see a few alternatives beyond ANet just choosing not to show them or even tease them in any way:

1) Horse mount skin for raptor or warclaw. They'd have to tweak some of the animations on at least the former a bit (like they did for e.g. the gecko skin for springer) but otherwise I could see either one of these mounts having such a unique custom skin which they can monetize on the gemstore. This would also allow the devs to eventually include a custom kirin skin from Cantha depending on a few factors: namely, would they be ok adding a wise, speaking being as a mere mount (as kirin were more like protectors of areas and we could speak with them at length) and if the shrine guardian is also a being capable of speech (I'm still hoping for more lore on it and several other mounts).

2) We actually meet and get to interact with horses in a future living world map if we ever explore the mysterious grassy plain which Caithe, Logan and Rytlock saw via the asura gate. There's already the lasso mechanic in game as seen with some of the hydra events (as recently as the ancient hydra chase in Thunderhead Peaks) so we could easily have a dynamic event or even a heart where we find stray horses, lasso them and return them to the pen, or we even get to temporarily ride a horse in such circumstances. The living world map could also be used by devs to tease the reason why we haven't seen horses in game before that moment and perhaps hint at more lore surrounding these equines. :)

I hadn't paid attention to the ground around the hunting lodge in Queensdale, sure enough there were hoofprints around the stables. Pretty neat little detail : )Love the artwork in this game, gotta give kudos to the artists for the art style! Makes me wonder what a branded horse would look like. Currently googling for any kind of concept art, official or unofficial just to sate my curiosity :X

[Horse Mounts Discussion!]

@Danikat.8537 said:

@Aediph.2873 said:

@Tiviana.2650 said:I want a Dolyak mount. It could be like a bulldozer and just bodytoss anything that gets in its way lol. But im happy with the upcoming cat mount.Although it's not a horse, the thought of bulldozing through a WvW zerg on a Dolyak, flinging people out of the way makes me laugh!

Why not both? I love the idea of a dolyak mount too. It could be slower than the other mounts, but harder to knock you off, and just ram through enemies.

Makes me think of Ganondorf's giant horse offspring in Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That thing is HUGE, but it's powerful and can knock stuff out of the way :P

[Horse Mounts Discussion!]

@"DietPepsi.4371" said:I'd be happy with a sand-horse skin for the jackal personally. Riding a giant doggo is weird to me.

Edit: but not as weird as riding a giant floating stingray.

Found this elemental horse picture in my google search.

Looks a bit grotesque, but I love the idea of a sand elemental horse : )Gonna update this post with something closer to what I'm thinking of for that horse typeEdit: Found this nicely modeled unicorn mount in one of the final fantasy games:

and below, several different elemental horses (Earth is the closest I could get so far to a Sand Elemental Horse in my mind)

Tempted to make this thing into a wallpaper : X

@Tiviana.2650 said:I want a Dolyak mount. It could be like a bulldozer and just bodytoss anything that gets in its way lol. But im happy with the upcoming cat mount.Although it's not a horse, the thought of bulldozing through a WvW zerg on a Dolyak, flinging people out of the way makes me laugh!

[Horse Mounts Discussion!]

@"Cerioth.7062" said:Honestly I'd love a thestral-like skin rather than a plain horse.

Agreed, something fantastical for a horse would add to the theme that's constantly being provided by the devs. That quote that I provided in my original post got stuck in my head more than the standard one in the Link + Epona image. Now I've got a thestral-like horse type stuck in my head lol

This is the Thestral type of horse I'm looking at, to make sure were talking about the same thing.

@Aplethoraof.2643 said:

@Aediph.2873 said:

@"Drecien.4508" said:No. Dead horse. Horses do not exist in tyria.

Quoting the Guild Wars 2 wiki: "The existence of horses in Tyria is a contested question amongst players; no living horses have ever been seen, but references to them are plentiful, including: Zodiac Axe Skin, Horse Figure, Iron Horse Mines, and Rocking Horse Ornament. The original Guild Wars also featured a Necrid Horseman and Celestial Horse."

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Horse

Doesn't seem like a completely terrible idea, I'm sure plenty of people would buy or work to acquire a horse skin if they put one up for sale in the gem store or made it some kind of in-game obtainable quest/currency thing.

TBF, horses could have existed from wherever humans came from (as they are not native to Tyria and were brought here by their Gods). The ornaments and such would have simply been a takeaway from wherever they came from originally.

Reading all the new posts that showed up now that I just got back home, backwards!That's a great point you're making, hadn't factored in migrations!

@kharmin.7683 said:

@hugo.4705 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:

IMO, you can do this with the current iteration of mounts. The skimmer travels much slower than the other mounts across land and if that is still too fast, then a horse mount wouldn't really be any QoL change from being unmounted in the first place.

Skimmer is a fail, gaining 3 cm of altitude is useless, ok it floats so then? What should have been its ability is diving underwater, and boost yourself underwater, but instead they added "swim infuz" -_-Well, I think to be fair, the skimmer was introduced with PoF maps in mind, in which there really isn't much underwater content. It was designed to be used for crossing terrain that would otherwise be harmful (quicksand, sulfur, branded area) in those maps. There wasn't really any need to make it work underwater. In this sense, I don't think it right to call it a failure.

Yeah I use it to take the time, but it's a kind of feeling of liberty, riding with your horse it's not the same as riding a manta ray. It would be for players wanting to move rapidly, without having to swap to bunny/raptor to jump over a 2 meters edges or a precipice.No, it's not the same I grant you that. Still, if the argument for the need for a mount for simply exploring maps at a leisurely pace, then it would suffice to use the skimmer without Anet needing to spend resources to create something else.

Most of the arguments for a horse mount, on both sides, have been made before so I'm not going to continue with this superfluous thread.

This is mostly me just wanting to talk about the idea of horse mounts in the game, I love some of the ideas such as a Thestral (winged horse creature)I was running around Tyria and thinking, "I wish I had a horse to ride.". I did a search for a horse mount discussion, saw the old thread and wanted to talk in that one, but didn't want to necro it x_x

[Horse Mounts Discussion!]

@Hannelore.8153 said:Horses not existing is a meme, its a running gag. They're doing it on purpose by this point, like most franchises do.

lol, I see, I don't conversate nearly enough with folks. It does make sense though considering there has been little outside of horse decorations and lore in Guild Wars 2.

[Horse Mounts Discussion!]

@"Drecien.4508" said:No. Dead horse. Horses do not exist in tyria.

Quoting the Guild Wars 2 wiki: "The existence of horses in Tyria is a contested question amongst players; no living horses have ever been seen, but references to them are plentiful, including: Zodiac Axe Skin, Horse Figure, Iron Horse Mines, and Rocking Horse Ornament. The original Guild Wars also featured a Necrid Horseman and Celestial Horse."

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Horse

Doesn't seem like a completely terrible idea, I'm sure plenty of people would buy or work to acquire a horse skin if they put one up for sale in the gem store or made it some kind of in-game obtainable quest/currency thing.

[Horse Mounts Discussion!]

Yup, a horse skin is mostly what I was thinking of myself. Wondering if I should edit my post so folks don't harp on me about adding a completely new mount to the game.

The raptor's speed and low jump height make for a great template imho, then there's the Jackal for quadruped modeling and magic application as well for the mystical type of horse (Nightmares is the first thing that comes to mind.)

[Horse Mounts Discussion!]

The first google search result for "Guild Wars 2 horse mount" was from 2018 and I think that's the newest one on the forumshttps://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/37824/why-cant-we-have-horse-mountsSooooo instead of necroing that old one, I'm making this new discussion thread about them.

Riding on a horse through the open world is something I've wanted to do since mounts were added. I'd love it if we got a new skin for one of the mounts.

@"Jessica Price.1649 " said:because no one wants to let me live out my dream of galloping over the desert dunes on a horse made of fire

Horse power!!!!

[Unable to purchase gems [Merged]]

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:Might actually be an issue with Mastercard, Visa etc... I know many cashpoints and pay machines went down all of a sudden where I live due to processing system issues.. when it happens it's not just one card that gets errors it a plethora cos they all transact into the same mastercard/visa payment system.. paypal will be linked to your banks/credit cards via the same system.. visa, visa debit, access, etc.. at least that my very limited understanding of it.If it is an issue with the transacting/processing, then there is very little ANET or even Digy River can do about it as it will be outside of their sphere of influence :0

Just stumbled upon this thread a few minutes ago, I've been having a purchasing problem since last night. That actually makes sense if ANET is having trouble finding a solution. To further add weight to what you're saying, I was able to buy twice last night, before going ahead with a 3rd one and having the transaction fall through repeatedly with no error that I can see. (nothing else besides the first two successful transactions are pending)

I went ahead and created a CS ticket earlier today.Edit: The transaction went through successfully, not sure what exactly was causing it, but I'm betting it's as you said Bloodstealer.Ticket updated and closed