Gaiawolf.8261

Sounds fun to me. I used to design RPG rulesets. It would be neat to jump back into it as a hobby.

LOL "Did you see the sun this afternoon? It was kinda blue." "What are you talking about? It wasn't blue, it was blue." " Nah, you're both smoking something. That sun was BLUE!" Sorry I couldn't help myself. 😅

I haven't gone as far as to think up mechanics for each yet. I tend to start with concepts for building class fantasies and building them up. Themes tend to come before mechanics in the RPG genre anyway. But I'll share a few before bed: Illusionist: Replace shatter skills with Phantasmal Horror skills. Instead of shattering clones, they warp into an illusionary monster that persists for a time. These illusions are not dispelled when targets die and will seek new targets until they expire. The more clones consumed by the skill, the longer the illusion persists. F1: Summon an illusionary beast that attacks relentlessly, pelting foes with strike damage. F2: Summon an illusionary horror that spreads torment and confusion in a radius around it as it hounds the target. F3: Summon a giant serpent that coils around an area, dazing and immobilizing foes. F4: Summon a phantasmal guardian that protects you, blocking attacks and reflecting missiles. Incarnate: Staying attuned to a single element grants charges and boons over time. Fire: Might. Water: Regeneration. Air: Quickness. Earth: Protection. Certain trait selections can share these boons with allies. When you have accumulated enough charges in an element, you may choose to transform into an elemental based on your attunement. Some utility skills or traits grant charges to transform faster, while others can extend the duration of your elemental form, so you have to choose which you want. When your transformation ends, you must switch attunements before gaining charges again (or maybe weapon skills go on CD until you swap attunement or something like that). Exorcist: You chant your virtues to punish enemies or support allies. Virtues become toggle skills that grant persistent bonuses to your weapon skills depending on which is active. Justice: Adds area damage/burning to weapon skills. Resolve: Adds area healing to weapon skills (staff auto seriously could use this). Courage: Adds area protection and resolution to weapon skills. Obviously these will have ICDs and low durations. You may only chant one virtue at a time. Elite: Words of Power: Share the effects of your active virtue with allies for a short time. Obviously these are rough and need more thought, but I like the ideas.

I know I've posted these before, but here are some missing themes I'd like that could be fulfilled by especs: Warrior: Spellblade, rune knight, battlemaster, warlord Guardian: Exorcist, inquisitor, oathbreaker, priest/monk Thief: Trickster magician, soulknife, swashbuckler (maybe daredevil covers this last one) Engineer: Alchemist, power armorer, artillerist Ranger: proper shapeshifter, monster hunter/slayer/trapper Necromancer: witch doctor, pact warlock, proper minion master Mesmer: proper summoner, mind mage, item enchanter, illusionary monsters/horrors Elementalist: Specialist, elemental transformation Revenant: Let's bring back some OG GW incarnates: dervish, ritualist And I'll say it again, a proper spearman, lancer, polearm master, etc.

Oh for sure it takes a balance and some will slip through the cracks on both sides, but there's only so much time I can invest. That's another reason I like my dealbreakers and dealmakers clearly defined and properly used. 😉 They are more accurate that way and better at catching the markers.

I don't have a data limit either, but I do have a time limit. I simply don't want to waste my time reading reviews and accounts for every game out there that looks cool or interesting. I won't buy a game based on buzzwords and terms, but will certainly use them to weed out the ones I'm not interested in. I'll give a closer look only to those that pass the buzzword filters, which is specifically why preserving precise, accurate definitions is important to me. We do the same with resumes for hiring around here. I can't imagine how much of my life I'd have wasted if I looked at every applicant or game that wants my time. I could be playing by now! 😄

Yeah, I like clear, specific terms over broad ones. They help me decipher meanings more easily and let me know what I'm getting into. If someone says a game is "pay to win" vs "pay for convenience" vs "buy to play" vs "pay to play," I know what pay structure I'm getting into. If we allow people to dilute "pay to win" down to any other type of payment, and then they have explain what they mean on the JSH scale, then it's no longer helpful. We lose the point of the term in the first place. Why even have a term then if it's useless without having to explain the use case every time? Just give me the explanation and skip the vague, superfluous terminology. Edit: Nothing against JSH. I love his content and respect him a lot as a YT creator. He's just off the mark on this one, IMO.

No one said that there isn't powercreep tied to expansions. Just look at especs in general. We only said that "pay-to-win" refers to microtransactions, because it does. If you want to coin "pay for power" to cover expansions, or even all payments that introduce power, go for it. Maybe that's not taken yet. Just don't try to steal an established term with an extant definition. We are no longer arguing the concept here (long past that, and I agree with you there), only the sanctity of preserving terms for their intended meaning.

Sure, microtransactions have altered gaming and how they are monetized. I never had an issue with that. I only had an issue with some players treating payments for expansions the same as micros and using the same terms for them. (And I'm glad you caught the sarcasm instead of taking it seriously. 😉 )

Good to know. Thanks, I wasn't around then.

I stand by that people tend to find tying alacrity to Flowing Resolve less fun both due to its forced movement and need to hit targets to function. No, those two problems are not related. They just exist together, and both have been called problematic. Sorry for giving too much information and for jumping on the quickscrapper bandwagon. I may have misread a prior post about scrapper skills.

You asked what was problematic about the skill for a certain build. I listed the problems people tend to face with it. No more. Comments are allowed to have tangential information. Stop being so argumentative. I'm not trying to win a debate with you. Only discuss people's opinions.

I never said they were the same. I said people have stated that they find playing alacbender not as fun as it could be due to boon sharing being tied to a movement skill. I happen to agree.

Small-scale combat isn't really supported in WVW. sPVP balance tends to apply there instead. WVW is balanced around large scale combat.

Just one movement skill, actually. It is required to share alacrity and cannot provide sufficient boon uptime during downtime or when needing to stay in a melee boonball.