phoenixXx.9105

True, it's a just a name change for already released raids, but it also means new ideas and opportunities for the future. Strike missions were well received, why not expand on them and build a next gen raiding?

As the title says, I'm proposing a system, that would allow the players to seamlessly transition from the story missions into instanced endgame(s). The biggest change would be to rebrand the "Raids" into something like "Strike Assaults", with the idea that Arenanet can, going forward, develop new type of raiding. Allow me to explain every part of the system and how it would work: 1. Story/Response Missions 1-5 man content, repeatable and easy(ish) to do, with rewards and extra achievements to hunt after. There should be a "explorable" 5-man version of story missions available to players. Harder in difficulty, CMs available, extra rewards, you get the idea. Similar to response missions but without the annoying parts. 2. Strike Missions I don't care if they reuse the story bosses or develop new ones - strike missions are the perfect bitesize 10-man content. they should vary in difficulty and serve as the introductory content into strike assaults. 3. Strike Assaults Here is the biggest change. I'm borrowing this idea from elite areas in GW1. Reuse the maps (or create new ones, idk) to develop "instanced 10-man elite areas" with several bosses, events, trash mobs and a final boss. Defeating the final boss would finish the assault, but the players would have options on what to do: defeat various bosses to increase the rewards, complete events to spawn additional bosses or specific NPCs/crafters, activate CMs, do the vanquisher runs, farm specific mats, etc... How are strike assaults different from raids? For starters, the name carries some stigma in the community. Renaming them also allows arenanet to experiment and develop them differently or even faster. The areas could be non-linear, they could reuse some of the bosses/maps for different content, they could make a few easier and shorter introductory assaults, etc ... But the main thing is to show the players strike assaults are the next logical step after they're done with the story and strike missions. What do you think about this idea? From my point of view, the devs dont know what they want to do with the endgame content in the game. Strike missions were a good step in the right direction, but I think they have to double down and commit to it, changing/rebranding previous iterations of the endgame. Strike assaults would be the perfect solution to change the traditional raiding into something more gw1/gw2 inspired. Extra: Fractals Let me just say that I don't play fractals. I hate the daily system, I hate the reccomended system and I hate the 100 level system. Just let us select the fractal that we want to play and let us select the difficulty (4 levels, 0 - 50 - 100 - 150AR required), with CMs available at level 4. That's it. No need to juggle around and change the levels everytime a new fractal is added, just drop it in and that's it.

Since ranger is barely touched here I'll add my own opinion about it, mainly focused on sPvP: SB: We need Unstoppable Union unblockable attack back to have a decent shot at breaking through the defenses of the current meta. It was a trait that rewarded smart playstyle and contributed little if the player didn't know how to use it. SB: Increased cooldown of stances in sPvP have made them useless, except elite. The cooldown could be 30-35s OR Leader of the pack major grandmaster trait could reduce the cooldown. SB: Dagger rework would be nice, but I don't think the condition theme is the right choice. Perhaps we can get an evade and a stun to make it somewhat viable. Druid: It's completely out of meta and needs some buffs. I won't pretend to know about the druid as I never liked to play it in PvP due to being too much focused on the pets to deal damage.Overall, I think wee need more synergy between specializations and potential reworks/buffs to the signets or commands.

I'm guessing the titles will stay for later seasons or are there any plans for minor changes along the way?