Brown Fang Thump.9482

Hmm. Interesting take on build templates. In terms of making a BLTC product to suit this, how about an object allows you to preview one of your other character's hero panel while playing as another character. This would make it easy to copy traits from toon B onto toon A because you could copy what you see. I don't think this is an elegant solution; but, it is functional and perhaps more readily doable than a full set of tools for saving/loading builds. It's like a bandage with superhero stickers on it rather than a spell that instantly heals any damage. ;)

My low expectations have been met, not greatly exceeded. Maps are generally fun and pretty. Despite fan-service callbacks, I'm disappointed in how many things in the game serve simply to divorce GW2 further from GW1. Loss of GW1 flora/fauna in favor of HoT/LW models is unfortunate and a bit lazy. Traversal novelty aside, the continuing promotion of GW2 as a platformer is still ridiculous as neither the mechanics of the game, the controls, nor the collision models used to force platforming here are comparable to AAA quality platforming. Granted, most PVE platforming is handled better here than pre-PoF. There are some very magical map locations that reveal hidden fun more than any previous maps in the game. Lack of zerg pandering is a welcome change from HoT because the "give me loot because I showed up meta" play-style isn't challenging or interesting.

Xunai Tethering Stone This would be an account bound item that allows a player to place a single marker on the PVE world map to which any character on the account could teleport to and from temporarily. The marker should have a unique look (limited selection of icons and colors, like the commander tag) and be "ping-able" in chat. Xunlai Tethering Stone markers would be limited to the position of the character using them and might work best when players place them in Shared Inventory Slots. The Idea here is that ToonA could place a marker on Map1, move to a new position on Map2, teleport back to the marker's position and return to Map2 at will. It's more of an exploration aid than anything else. This would help players who like specific sites or often find themselves referring guild members to locations. It would also help YouTube and Twitch videographers. It would also help crafters who prefer specific crafting tables between their material gathering sessions. It would not help botters collect materials because node behaviour is already designed to avoid node exploitation. The ability to ping the marker in chat would really help with telling other players where to go without verbose text or vague directions from common waypoints. To maintain the integrity of various aspects of the game, stones could be excluded from jumping puzzles and world boss/champion sites. An additional, related item might be a Xunlai Security Monitor which allows players to see the location of their Xunlai Tethering Stone marker as if they were standing in that position. This would actually fill the screen with a view of the area that can be panned/zoomed but not traveled. It would also provide an option for turning the player avatar on or off. HUD toggling would work normally, as would damage indicators at the borders of the screen. Granted, this might not be feasible due to how map loading and memory allocation work.

Ambient Creature Converter Item that tallies the amount of each type of ambient creature killed or collected and rewards a common material for reaching a threshold. Perhaps it doesn't reward materials; but, it evolves an Indiscriminate Slayer head piece akin to the llama evolution cycle.

Largos Dueling Contract This would be a consumable item that would randomly pick another player who is using the item and, after a "ready up timer", teleport both of you to a PVE map location to fight. The match would have no time limit. Wins, losses, forfeitures and the like would be tracked and displayed in the PVP interface, along with a leaderboard. Staging these bouts in PVE maps would eliminate the need to create dueling arenas. The randomization would prevent bullying. Players who value their 1v1 skills highly would finally have a way of proving backing up their talk with a traditional ranking system. A pre-duel countdown timer would give duelists a chance to have their friends teleport to them to witness the bout. Duelists would be invulnerable to other players and NPCs while the bout was active.

Dunewalker's Burden Back Piece This would give the player the effect of swirling dust around their character, with sand dripping from their wrists and trailing from their feet. Aesthetically, it should marry well with the Scourge effects, with some sparkly particle effects. There would be no actual item on the character's back. The gliding effect of this piece would replace the character with a roiling cloud of sand.

"Tamagotchi"-style offspring would make a silly mini-game for casual players. [with the help of a ton of coding, of course ;)] I like the idea of having children of our characters following us about; but, I'd take it further and make purchasing a newborn similar to purchasing a character slot. This "apprentice slot" would allow the player to choose a parent or pair of parents from their own characters who would assign the race and general appearance of the offspring. Then any character on the account could be used to "train" the apprentice, which would begin as an infant and age over time. Training an apprentice would be as simple as choosing a pet in the ranger pet window: open the apprentice window, choose your current apprentice, close the window, play as usual. The personal story of the apprentice, it's profession, it's build and it's preferred gear would all be based on what characters it spent the most time with and what experiences it successfully completed without serious harm. Along the way, each apprentice would telegraph the kind of things it is interested in pursuing so that the player can better guide development. Fully matured apprentices would become regular characters, with maturity being reached in 6-12 months. For simplicity's sake, all apprentices might appear in the world as passive NPCs that characters can speak with or gift things to, thus avoiding them becoming GW1-style heroes. Players might also have a training area in their home instances or elsewhere in cities. Having special interactions between apprentices from separate players or NPCs might also be nice. The goal here would be that player choices would shape the apprentice into a full-fledged character in a way that the current story mode does not. This might also be a way for altaholics to get their fix while avoiding the personal story altogether. (The personal story can get dry after the 5th play through. ;)) Perhaps having a Journal Tome of some sort that describes the development of each apprentice would be helpful.

I'd love a "map maker's kit" that would allow the purchasing player to create a set of route markers and area descriptions that could be distributed via the BLTC to other players in the form of "scrolls" or "campaigns". They could be used as modding tools by role players or as play-through guides for guild leaders and commanders. The trade-ability of the distributed results of these kits could be offered for any amount, from 0 copper to 1000 gold, based on the goals of the author and the perceived value in the community. It might also give some rather talented players some trivial notoriety. I know some third party attempts have been made at in-game waypointing and description systems; but, I think an official version might be nice.