Blazing Rathalos.1904

A lot of people have already pointed out some of the flaws that make this unlikely, so I'd just like to add some additions/changes that I would prefer (and some of which might make this a bit more feasible) Espec weapon: Since we're trying to make an espec with weaponswap, let's focus on that idea: An elementalist who focuses a bit more on the mastery of weapons (so warrior-light). Because of that, I would like to pick a martial weapon that people expect requires a great amount of skill to use. A shield is a defensive tool, does not feel highly skilled to me. Firearms are historically known as being comparatively easy to train for, so let's throw those out. Mace and axe seem a bit brutish, greatsword could work, but we have enough melee/close range especs, so I agree with longbow! Short bow is fine as well, but we might as well go all the way. On-swap traits: One option is to literally just change these to trigger on weapon-swap instead (or possibly in addition). Attunement swapping: Being locked completely into one element is quite restrictive but that could be an intentional choice you accept (would require a rework of the elemental specializations though, or some other compensation. Potentially any passive traits now work in all attunements). I also see two alternate solutions: Give a long duration (20s?) global cooldown on attunement swapping. This really makes swapping only useful for changing your focus/role, not hitting more skills off-cooldown. Make weapon-skill cooldowns carry-over between attunements, to achieve the same as above. (So if you use Meteor Shower, then swap to Water, Healing Rain is on cooldown). Profession Mechanic: Some of the things you mention sound like another player-centered AoE. Please no, we have enough of those we're forced into on elementalist. Especially if the weapon this gets is ranged.

The update announcement mentions a strike mission for Old Lion's Court and a public instance for The Battle for Lion's Arch. They don't mention Escape from Lion's Arch though, another public event that took place before these in the story. Is it just implemented as a story instance or left out completely?

Blegh, I hate the removal of tradeoffs, makes things less unique, and makes Core more boring.

The're removing some elite spec trade-offs without replacing them with anything and I cannot fully describe how much I hate it. It leaves even less reason to play some core professions, even though other professions do have a play mechanic unique to their core version. It also makes choosing an elite spec itself less interesting. I loved it when they started rectifying that imbalance, so I now hate it when they turn back from that for extremely nebulous, undefined "does not feel good". They're removing some of the unique limitations of the Berserker, and I don't even see a reason mentioned! If some trade-offs are poorly designed, replace them with something better, don't gut the whole design, please.

Sorry? Still here, just not seen anything I had something meaningful to reply to. Besides, my initial question was answered when the beta began.

The point is you lose something from the core profession, which is the dev's stated goal for each elite spec. This really isn't even a balance question, so your comments on whether the trade is worth it or not are irrelevant to this discussion.

The entire point is for there to be a trade-off compared to the core profession, so that elite specs aren't just the base profession plus some extra, but something is replaced. So indeed dragon hunter and firebrand still count, as do holosmith and scrapper (no elite toolbelt skill). I'm just following the dev's stated intent here, it's about whether mechanics are replaced, not about whether they are better or not.

Most elite specs lose something from the Core profession (even if what replaces it is better). For example, Weaver has individual attunement cooldowns replaced by a global cooldown, the new Bladesworn loses weapon swap and normal burst skills, etc. I haven't noticed anything like that in the Catalyst showcase, has anyone else?

I believe during the EoD first look livestream, the voice actors announced which character(s) they would be voicing, did anyone make a list of those yet?

I think the main interesting aspect of the Skiff is its ability to function as a multi-person mount, like the siege turtle. I have to agree that the animations on it didn't seem to convincing yet. Also, while they said we can walk around on the Skiffs, I noticed that when sailing, all players were "seated". So, they probably don't have collision unless the Skiff is "parked". That's unfortunate, but I guess the alternative was not technically feasible. That doesn't mean they can't possibly give us combat skills while seated in some scenarios. I think Skiff combat like that would be something that elevates it to a significant feature. As for fishing: I'll be honest and say that I'm personally not interested at all. I do think there's a potential for them to make it fun, but that depends largely on the exact implementation, both in gameplay mechanics and rewards. With this feature specifically, I fell they should have gone into much more detail, since it seems unappetizing without knowing the details.

I agree with this, I don't think any time travel or related mechanics are involved here. Rather, I think all this "stuck in the past" and "giving people a future" talk should be connected to the other main thing that same character is speaking of: the dragonjade technology she is (apparently) responsible for creating (she mentions the jade SHE gave purpose). These phrases are a common real-life short-hand for technological progress improving lives. From what I can gather, something is threatening the "century of progress" she has achieved with this technology, and she is refusing to give up on it. Wild speculation: The way this dragonjade is being utilized is actually destabilizing the planet (perhaps the magic should just be left stored in the jade), player characters are sent over to stop it, but end up opposed by this character not out of malice, but because she refuses to give up on the future this technology can offer her people. Still waiting for that blog post they said was coming out "later today".

Indeed. It's weird, because I feel like you could pick a random player to choose some trailers and screenshots, and you would end up with a better Steam Page. Absolutely, I'm guessing you're talking about ? I could foresee only two problems with that:Would Heart of Thorns have it's own Steam Page as DLC? If so, it should be put on there.This announcement trailer has different map designs from what actually ended up in the final release.

Right now the Steam Page is very bare-bones with some decent and some less than decent screenshots. I haven't seen it myself, but apparently in some regions some weird trailer not even remotely representative of GW2 is used. If you're going to publish on Steam, put some effort into it. To make it easy, just throw the anniversary trailer on there: There you go, Steam page instantly improved. It's one of the more evocative trailers you ever made, please use it. To the rest of the community: What specific trailers or screenshots should be on the steam page? Let's keep it to officially published Arenanet material, just to show how easy it is to give a better image using assets they already have.

Do we still have that hope? Joking aside, a bundle would be good, but only if they remove all suggestion of buying PoF meaning you get the full game.

As I said on the subreddit: This seems quite obvious to me, and I honestly doubt Arenanet earn enough from LS sales to make up for the loss in player retention they have right now. New players wont have enough gold to cover all that by that time. Luckily they can purchase gems with money. Many games have DLCs that are not included in the expansions. Some of them, such as ESO, offer subscriptions for access to this content but Anet has not indicated any intention to go that direction. Do those games also have story DLCs that are vital to understanding what's going on in the major expansions, while those major expansions pretend they contain the entire story? Remember, the experience of a f2p player is like this: Finish core game (or during the leveling)--> I enjoyed that, let's buy the expansion --> LS1 isn't available anymore? Guess I'll do the story after that. --> I need to pay again to continue my story? (LS2) Didn't I just buy the expansion? --> If they still continue, repeat again after HoT (LS3) People who just buy the expansions now get served a horrific mess of a story, right?

How do people keep saying this? Is it late? Yes, definitely. Very late? Yes. But there's no reason to believe they stopped working on it entirely. It was mentioned before that part of the backend has similar problems to the new sPvP tournament system, and that is clearly nearing completion now.

For WvW, the most important thing will obviously be the balance changes, Warclaw changes being the only entry under the WvW heading doesn't change that. World restructuring is probably still being worked on, I really doubt making some changes to the warclaw will slow that work down in any significant way, not sure where people get that idea.