RiyazGuerra.9203

If recommended by mods I will move it there. Admittedly it is a long read but trying to cover a lot of aspects of gameplay. As you can see I had a lot of free time during the pandemic. 😆

Reserve for elite spec suggestions

Reserve for itemization

PLEASE READ: This post is a lengthy read. If you do not want to engage in a detailed discussion about premise and gameplay, please skip this post. Vision for Guild Wars 3 This August 2024, GW2 will be 12 years old and we can expect Guild Wars 3 within 3 to 6 years. During the pandemic and the ample downtime during our quasi-lockdowns, I decided to make a detailed suggestion on what Guild Wars 3 could look like. In the first post, I will detail game modes, protagonists, antagonists etc. In the second post I will give profession, elite specialization, skill and itemization ideas. A warning, story spoilers are necessary in this discussion so if you want to avoid spoilers, do not continue. A broad outline of the gameplay follows. There will be the same open world maps as found in GW2 (Open World Maps), but reduced implementation of prescheduled meta events, and more map driven meta climax events. The participation levels of the latter will take care of itself because it will be fueled by event completion by the map's inhabitants plus will be supported by a new 'Emergency Dispatch System' to be described later. There will be a personal story mode, one which can be mostly be completed with solo play. Both the Open World Maps and Personal Story instances will offer rewards only after initial completion. As in GW2, Open World Maps will have player number caps which, when exceeded, triggers the creation of a new instance of the same map for newly joining players. For each map there will be a new group completion mode that turns the existing maps into an instance that allows a maximum of 10 players, let's call this a 'Group Map'. The Group Map will have unique, valuable rewards and bosses that will encourage participation and these rewards will be repeatable. The Group Map will be a subtle means to encourage players to engage in group play, with the end goal of fostering greater player population participation in Raids. Group Maps will often allow access onto areas of the map not accessible in Open World Maps. Additionally, Group Maps can have multiple iterations, the first having a story theme related to the main storyline of the game upon release, and potentially additional iterations related to the main storylines of successive expansions. Entrance to the Group Maps will be at towns or outposts in between explorable maps, an organization similar to Guild Wars 1 (GW1). A way to offer an intuitive way to distinguish which Group Map belongs to which expansion may be create a recognizable NPC relevant to a particular expansion which will offer dialogue options that will initiate the appropriate Group Map at the town/outpost exit. Group Maps will offer opportunities for you to hire NPC henchmen to fill out your group, much like GW1. I would strongly encourage Anet to implement a 'Mercenary' system as found in GW1 and allow players to turn their alternate account characters into henchmen you can potentially hire in order to complete Group Maps. The ability to choose complementary professions, customize traits, gear and cosmetics of your Mercenary companions can provide a lot of content for many players who enjoy such endeavors. The location to pick Mercenaries could be what initially appears to be an empty, multistory building near the town/outpost exit. As you accumulate Mercenaries, they will populate this building and you can speak with them and recruit them into your party. If you decide to enter a Group Map with another player, then each of the players can choose Mercenaries to round out the party. Entrance to competitive game modes will be via game menus and NPCs in all major towns. Additionally, player Guild Halls will have purchasable assets that will also offer entry points to competitive game modes. The Emergency Dispatch System will be a new system designed to support the event-driven climax metas in Open World Maps. This system can be accessed via a location marked explicitly on maps and will appear as an area with a collection of Canthan-Asuran tech consoles, each with updated information on the progress of meta events, or climax meta event chains, which need participants to assist in their conclusion. These consoles are a faction area specific, and will list all the ongoing Open World Map metas in the relevant faction territory which need participants, not those which have adequate levels of participants. To view the progress of metas in another faction's Open World Maps, you must go to a town/outpost located in the territory of that specific faction. Once you select to participate in one, you can then step onto the teleporting pad and be taken directly to the relevant area. Group Map parties that are 'open invite' will also be advertised here. The Emergency Dispatch System will be a convenient way to monitor specific events, which like in GW2, can reward specific items or whose completion are necessary for achievements. The three primary regions, Tyria, Cantha and Elona, and their native cultures have flourished during a period of relative peace since GW2. Tyrian races have expanded their territory and built new cities. The Brand has nearly completely retreated and wild life and other creatures have moved into the cleansed lands. Charr are no longer engaged in a conflict between the Branded, as the latter have been vanquished. The war between the Centaurs and Humans is over, the Asura have established a grand civilization in the skies, the Svanir have been relegated to a minor cult exiled to the Far Shiverpeaks, and the Nightmare Court have lost legitimacy and influence, a small contingent have isolated themselves in the densest jungles of the Heart of Maguuma. Guild Wars 3 should have maps with distinct areas populated by the races of Tyria, as well as areas devoid of the former and remain untouched wilderness. Too many maps of Tyria were filled with humanoid activity and were missed opportunities to showcase untainted natural beauty of Tyrian landscapes. Population centers should be dense, yet have a limited presence across a map, OR be a whole map onto themselves. Additionally, future expansions can utilize these open spaces for events without maps feeling too cluttered. Regarding the two other landmasses, Cantha and Elona, societies there have also evolved. In Cantha, a mutually beneficial research colaboration between Cantha and Asura have allowed the Empire to wean itself off draconic energy that once powered their Jade Tech. Unchecked technological development has created a new threat, the Jade Collective, which poses a tremendous threat to a civilization overly reliant on technology. The Unchained Risen has been mostly vanquished from Canthan lands on the surface, but hordes of Unchained Risen lurk beneath cities in Canthan Sewers. Cantha has grand cities all over the continent, with an underwater city located in the Unending Ocean off the western coast of Cantha, and a city high in the canopy of the western edge of the Echovald Wilds. Elona is a region of rich, untapped story potential. Palawa Joko and Kralkatorrik are long gone and Elona has entered a golden age of development. All remnants of the vain and ghastly architecture imposed on Elona by Joko has been demolished. Outside of desolate areas within the Desolation, the macabre bone architecture characteristic of Joko's rule is nowhere to be found...all that is left are the beautiful architectures of the people of Elona, often standing alongside restored ancient structures that dotted the landscape during the reign of the Primeval Kings. The return of magnificent, vibrantly colored cities and grand plazas now are found across the three main provinces of Istan, Kourna and Vabbi. Think of a modern spin of GW1's Kodash Bazaar. The four great cities which are the crown jewels of Elona are Crystal Oasis, Palawadan, Gandara, and New Kodash Bazaar. Masterful engineering has produced a complex network of canals which bring water to all reaches of the continent. Kourna has successfully flooded a below sea-level desert region to create an artificial lake which spurred the growth of a fertile plain now home to widespread agricultural development and abundant pasture land for great herds of cattle. Istan is a great trading port city that is a shipping hub for all of Tyria as well as a city known for its abundant, world renown fisheries. Vabbi is the commercial hub of Elona as well as a center for expert craftsman of all trades. I. Primary Antagonists by Continent These are the central foes of a story campaign. I would recommend they be a permanent antagonist faction in the Guild Wars franchise and never be fully vanquished, but can lose leaders and or territory. A. Tyria (continent) After End of Dragons (EoD), Aurene and all other dragons exited the story. In their place a new race should be introduced, Dragonkin, a race of humanoids and lesser dragon beasts. While not as powerful as an Aurene or Jourmag, they are superior physically and magically to the other races of Tyria (world). The Dragonkin humanoids should be diverse in appearance and generally larger than humans with some varieties larger than Norn. The Dragonkin will serve as the central Tyrian (continent) antagonists in a fourth expansion or in a sequel. While found in a few isolated, heavily fortified outposts throughout isolated regions in the Tyrian continent, they have a large presence on the islands of the Ring of Fire. Dragonkin are highly resistant to all Elemental Damage. B. Cantha Wild residual dragon magic has developed a form of nascent, parasitic consciousness that has given rise to a new life form which heavily incorporates jade along with subjugated Tyrian hosts. Think of them as the 'Borg' (Star Trek nerds will understand) of Guild Wars. This new life form calls itself 'The Jade Collective' and they absorb all manner of life forms and technology to forge a highly aggressive and invasive threat to the entire planet. The Jade Collective's primary base of operations is located under the ruins of the Harvest Temple and the remnants of the Jade Sea. Members of the Jade Collective are heavily armored and highly resistant to physical damage. C. Elona The primary antagonists for the Elonian continent will be a newly reconstituted Margonites. An agent belonging to the Awakened Varesh manipulated the Order of Whispers and secured the means to restore the gateway to the Realm of Torment. I encourage Anet to go full Diablo / Hellraiser with the design of this newest iteration of Margonites and their tamed beasts, the GW1 models having an ethereal form should be relegated to the minority of unit models and they should heavily favor solid, conventional meshes. If done right they could easily be the most kitten foes in the franchise. Margonites originate from another dimension, access to these lands is achieved via hidden portals throughout Elona. The aesthetic of Margonite lands range to islands floating in the black of space with various interstellar objects in the background (ie black holes, various colored nebulae, stars, planets, asteroids etc) to floating tile surfaces akin to a chessboard (against backdrop of space or course). Margonites are highly resistant to all forms of magic. II. Secondary Antagonists by Continent These foes are encountered periodically throughout map exploration and play supporting roles in parts of the campaign. They differ from primary antagonists in that they are not as deadly or powerful. Secondary antagonists differ from tertiary antagonists (antagonists you encounter in maps that are not primary or seconday) in that the former possesses complex, organized societies, maintain large settlements and when encountered, are groups comprised of individuals with unique skillsets which complement those of their group mates. Primary antagonists possess the same attributes of a secondary antagonist, but on a grander scale. A. Tyria (continent) A1. Krait The Krait in GW2 was a simple implementation of the race and not as varied and deadly as the Eye of the North GW1 version. This newest iteration of the Krait should feature a more organized, evolved version of the Krait with units that are more specialized in a form of combat reminiscent to GW1. Krait forces include disaffected members of the hylek species, including the default heket, Nuhock and Itzel variants. Generally found all over Tyria (continent) wherever there is a body of water nearby, but their capital city is found at the Straits of Devastation. A2. Titan Horde Giants, Jotun, Ogres and Ettins have banded together to stave off hostile denizens of Tyria and work collectively to better their odds of survival. Their partnership has been greatly advantageous to the member races and has benefitted their technology and battle tactics. They are adept at taming all manner of Tyrian beasts, and such beasts swell their ranks. While found at camps all over Tyria (continent), a massive encampment is found at the Hrathi Hinterlands, and their expansive capital city is found at the Far Shiverpeaks, where the Titan Council (represented by members from each of the allied races) resides. A3. Shadow Legion The remnants of forces which once belonged to Menzies, the Shadow Legion now serve (insert name of a former Lieutenant of Menzies) and work to find their long lost leader and free him from wherever he has been imprisoned by Balthazar. This faction is filled with familar foes such as Shadow Monk, Shadow Elementalist, Shadow Warrior, Shadow Beast, Shadow Abyssal. In this newest iteration they are now joined by Shadow Necromancer, Shadow Mesmer, Shadow Paragon, Shadow Ritualist, Shadow Assassin, Shadow Dervish. Their ranks also include more bestial units that belong to the Nightmares class of creatures. Shadow Legion are usually found near ruins, sites of great battles, and tombs. There is a large contingent at Cursed Shore. After the Ascalonian ghosts have been set free from the Foefire curse via a ritual performed by the current Ascalonian ruler from King Doric's lineage (who wields King Adelbern's crown and either Magdaer or its sister sword Sohothin - from GW2 wiki), the Shadow Legion oftentimes took their place in Ascolonian ruins. A4. Destroyers GW2 opted for a simpler implementation of Destroyers compared to GW1. This newest iteration will return to the more diverse units found in GW1 with the return of the Destroyer of Bones, Destroyer of Compassion, Destroyer of Deeds, Destroyer of Flesh, Destroyer of Hope, Destroyer of Hordes, Destroyer of Lives, Destroyer of Sinew, Destroyer of Souls and additional new variants. The challenge will stem from the unique combination of units and overall unit numbers. Since the death of the Primordus, Destroyer Queens have taken command of Destroyer Armies. Destroyer Queens and their colonies are called 'nests' and can be found often near active volcanoes and in caves. B. Cantha B1. Oni Legion Oni are a form of demon and they differ from Margonites in that they are less intelligent, generally less humanoid in morphology, and do not use complex forms of magic. Oni often favor bladed appendages or martial weapons, phyical projectiles, acid, and a few elite units are able to breathe fire, crudely wield elemental damage. What they lack in magical mastery they more than make up for in their fighting skiil, use of stealth, and diverse cohesive units. Elite units of Oni wear armor and are equipped with magical weapons, often culled from powerful foes they have fell. They can be encountered all over Cantha and have a particular attachment to ruined temples. Their principal domain is a dark twisted dimension located right on top of existing Cantha, and they effortlessly travel between the two realities. Their capital is a dark reflection of Raisu Palace. If Guild Wars 2 does not do something prohibitive to Shiro Tagachi, his twisted Oni incarnation can be this faction's ruler. B2. The Cult of Balthazar Former members of the Zaishen as well as previous zealous disciples of the fallen god tirelessly work to revive the Balthazar and rule Tyria unopposed. Members of this faction have culled artifacts from Balthazar's incursion into Elona and have studied and successfully reproduced and incorporated the artifacts into their units. This is seen visually in the form of their weapons, armor, gliding devices and mobile artillery. They can be found at various locations of interest all over Cantha, but their main base of operations is located E of Kaineng City. B3. Mythical Horde The Mythical Horde is a collection of denizens of the Echovald Wilds. They are led by Wardens (mostly Rangers, Paragons and Guardians), goatlike humanoids called Gaki (mostly Ritualists, Necromancers, and Monks), a new foxlike humanoid race called Kitsune (Asian mythology - mostly Mesmers, Assassins, and Elementalists), and a new monstrous ox-like brutish humanoid race called Aoyin (Asian mythology - only Warriors, can be found wielding melee weapons, or grapplers without melee weapons, or tanks with shields). The aforementioned races are often accompanied by tamed wildlife found in the forest, such as Kirin, Dragonmoss, Wallows, Mantis, etc. The Mythical Horde have been so successful in reclaiming the Echovald Wilds, nearly all human settlements have been abandoned in the region. There is a human contingent, descended from the Speakers movement, which secretly operate within Canthan society; they engage in subversive acts in order to aid the Mythical Horde, in a belief that moden Cantha has corroded the natural coexistance of society and nature and destroyed cultural tradition. The Mythical Horde have settlements all over the Echovald Wilds: on the ground level, high in the tree canopy, and in underground caverns. B4. Oceanic Union The Oceanic Union is an alliance between Nagas, Kappa, a new crocodile humanoid, brutish race called the Buwaya (Philippine mythology), and a new diverse crustacean humanoid race called Nkala (Zambian mythology). Both the Buwaya and the Nkala come from a vast underground ocean beneath the Tyrian surface. While the capital of the Oceanic Union lays in a massive underground cavern beneath the Unending Ocean, they possess many ocean floor settlements near the shores of Cantha. C. Elona With the departures of Balthazar, Joko and the Brand, old tensions between Istan, Kourna and Vabbi flare up as well as native species once hunted by Joko makes a comeback. C1. Mordant Crescent Awakened seperatists which refuse to integrate with Elonian society and engage in rituals which will transform average Awakened into Joko-type liches. They seek to conquer all Tyria through the creation of a rigid caste system serving several powerful warlords which will rule over vast regions of Tyria. As a result of their practice of unholy magic they have developed a physical appearance distinct from typical Awakened and are usually much taller. Unlike Elonian Awakened, the Mordant Crescent has maintained the practice of conjuring and taming large beasts units akin to the Awakened Abomination of GW2. These beast units can be drawn from ancient Egyptian, Persian, Mesopotamian (Scorpionking based off a Mesopotamian mythical creature - Agrabuamelu) and Sumerian mythology. The Mordant Crescent capital can be found in southern Desolation, built on the site Joko's Bone Palace once stood. C2. The Djinn Collective Djinn alliance that are hostile to outsiders. Members of the race include the existing, spirit-like forms as well as bipedal, quadrapedal, and multipedal variants. They are also accompanied by various elementals and sprites. There are 4 categories of djinn, Fire, Earth, Air and Water. Each of the respective kingdoms are grand cities found in the relevant environment. The fire kingdom is found underground, beneath the Desolation, surrounded by pools of magma. The earth kingdom is found at the bottom of a deep, dry canyon range in Kourna. The air kingdom is a city floating in the sky high above Vabbi. The water kingdom is found on the ocean floor north of Istan. C3. Centaur Kingdom No longer hunted by Joko and defeated by the humans on the Tyrian continent, the centaur race retreated to Elona and established a sprawling kingdom in the arid desert. The harsh desert provided the centaurs sanctuary and over time allowed them to further develop their society and exponentially increase their numbers. While they have encampments all over Elona their capital city is located at Jahai Bluffs. C4. The Insectoids What they lack in technology the Insectoid race more than makes up for it with their highly organized, disciplined, and specialized units who seem to communicate with eachother seemlessly as though their minds are linked. Their sizes vary, with some brutes the size of Nuhoch and others as small as imps, appearance more beastlike than humanoid. The race is really a collective of dozens of subspecies all who have evolved from various species of insects found all over Tyria (world). Each 'hive' is led by an enormous queen defended by dozens of the hive's best warriors. While small hives are found all over Elona, the largest hive is found far SE Elona, within the mountains E of Kourna. III. The Organization of PvP, Introducing Faction Versus Faction, and Abandoning WvW Because GW2 implementation of WvW often leads to many of the following undesirable outcomes A. boring static gameplay playing defense at captured real estate or repetitive capturing of the same locations over and over. B. the two stronger servers actively avoiding combat with eachother and lazily preying on the weak server in the name of maximizing points. C. players actively migrating to stronger servers and reducing the number of competitive servers. D. unscrupulous players creating spy accounts on a frequent competitor's server and relaying enemy player movements to their primary server E. mismatch of prime game participation schedules of server members that is a natural outcome of a persistent map (at least for the week) and a limited supply of commanders. F. players devising ways to maximizing reward gain by doing the least possible to the detriment of the rest of the server. I won't even get into the dumb mechanics of Waypoint availability and griefers tapping gates. For these reasons and many others, I would recommend abandoning WvW and focus on more transitory type of pvp implementation where there are goals that must be achieved and then the match is over. I would also minimize 'point capture and holding' gameplay and create maps that require your group to be progressively moving, completing objectives, and points of convergence with opposing players to encourage skirmishes. One last note, spawn camping should be extremely discouraged and gameplay mechanics should be implemented so as to fatally punish those attempting to do so, such as: a. at a range far greater than any skills can reach a spawning player, a warning will be explicitly broadcast to the approaching enemy player and a death timer initiates and their health will drain. b. if the enemy player continues to approach the spawn point or does not back away in time, they will die. c. because obviously some people will reflexively learn the range at which the aforementioned mechanic will trigger and stay just out of reach and camp respawned players rushing to join their team, a secondary mechanic will be introduced. A respawned player will be accompanied by a host of powerful npcs that follow them 60% of the way to their team. These npcs will be armed with several dogs which can sniff out and reveal any stealthed players, and can one shot any enemy player. The size of this escort contingent is calcated by the number of enemy players that are near the respawned player so any group of enemies will be easily overwhelmed by the escort. Extreme? Yes, it needs to be, so stop spawn camping and do something else. In one type of pvp, the matchmaking system would pool 10 random players. These maps would feature a non-faction, neutral AI opponent which will be the default obstacle to securing objectives. This AI opponent can inform the aesthetics of the map. In a second type of pvp, the matchmaking system will pool random members or allow entry of guild groups, with a max participant cap of 20 per side (2 sides per match). In a third type of pvp the matchmaking system would pool 40 total players per side (random or guild groups) that belong to the same faction (more on that later). We can call these Faction versus Faction (FvF) matches. Whatever the number of factions allowed to compete against eachother in a given match, the match map will be specifically designed to host that number of factions...with factions starting in separate locations of course. One of the factions participating will determine the match map. In other words, if you are the North Tyria faction (Charr, Norn and Kodan) the match map could either be a locale consistent with any one of those races. IV. The Factions, Playable Races and Guilds Factions are a way to divide the Tyrian world map into alliances of races. This division serves a PvE campaign purpose in the sense that since the Tyrian gods have left Tyria, and the dragons are no more (my assumption after EoD), then different regions will begin to compete with eachother for dominance. Regional alliances are a natural outcome. This division serves a PvP purpose as already been described. The following are the races I feel should be playable, organized by their faction. A. North Tyrian Alliance: Norn, Kodan and Charr B. South Tyrian Alliance: Human, Asura and Sylvari C. Elonian Alliance: Elonian Human, Awakened (undead), Cani (new race) D. Canthan Alliance: Canthan Human, Tengu, Phanin (new race of snake humanoids) The races should be familiar with you with the exception of the Cani and the Phanin. Cani are a new jackal / dog species. I figured this makes sense since we already have Awakened Canid which are mummy jackals, so theoretically there should be non-undead versions walking around. We could call them Canids but I think Cani (pronounced Cane-eye) sounds better. Phanin (snake people in Indian mythology) are snake humanoids in Cantha, mostly living underground, and are a close relative to Canthan Nagas. Unlike Nagas, Phanin are bipedal but retain a tail. Humans are in the Elonian and Canthan factions as well as the South Tyrian because I assumed the expansions will be region-based as it was the previous two games AND since most people roll humans anyway we might as well include them in the faction in order to better guarantee there will be adequate participants come FvF matchmaking in PvP. To further encourage players to roll Elonian or Canthan humans I would recommend these humans have a useful cantrip or exclusive skills that differ them from Tyrian (continent) humans (my recommendations later). My only concern would be North Tyrian Alliance populations, Anet needs to focus on enhancing these races's appeal. If I am not mistaken, an Anet developer once said Charr is the least populated race (confusing to me since I mostly play Charr), some advice to enhance their appeal would be to change their settlement architectural aesthetic to be one where technology is more seamlessly integrated into nature, lore wise it can be said this was due to the influence of the Omalkhan. Next is allow more freedom with the body sizes so smaller Charr options are available. Next, I know some of you are not going to like this but allow players the flexibility to create a more 'cuddly' Charr; this means no horn options, asymmetric fur patterns on face options (yes you can have a calico house cat Charr warrior), less fierce face options, more varied fur-stripe options and maybe even longhair fur options. Factions should be in a constant state of tension in the story modes, obviously the North and South Tyrian alliances should be so to a lesser degree because of their long history of cooperation...the story could include instances where the Order of Secrets, through acts of subterfuge, keeps the Tyrian continent divided in order to control the continent's power. Within each faction there will be internecine tensions that can be central to the early personal story and throughout. But I feel strongly this tension should be greatly reduced further in the story so as to highlight the tension between factions. a. Within the North and South Tyrian alliances, the tensions will be among the participant races with each other. b. Within the Elonian Alliance the tensions will be more regional with Istan, Kourna, Vabbi and the Cani homeland (East of Crystal Desert) vying for domination. c. Within the Canthan Alliance the tensions will be regional and between Kaineng City, Luxon, Kurzick, and Tengu territories. With the establishment of factions we can now incorporate guilds into the story. Each faction will have many guilds, but three dominant guild archtypes will comprise the 3 most powerful guilds within each faction (the primary guilds). Anet can give them any appropriate name but these are the three archtypes: 1. The ruthless, shamelessly nationalist guild. This faction guild is consumed with an agenda to elevate their faction above all other factions. Laws and social norms be damned. They seek power and resources and do not want to share with the other factions. They are highly transactional and cooperate only when it serves their interests, which once met, end cooperation. 2. The most popular mainstream guild. This guild enjoys the widest support from powerful individuals and groups within a faction. They are more political and are more willing to compete with other guilds under the rubric of law and established treaties. The goals of this guild are often contradictory because they are products of initiatives propelled by the powerful interests which reside within the faction, who often have competing goals with other interest groups. This guild routinely seeks cooperation with other guilds, but cannot be trusted with ensuring equitable gains among all partner guilds...often misleading others in the pursuit of self interest. 3. The 'big picture' idealist guild. This guild is consumed about the well-being of all of Tyria's (world) inhabitants and the defeat of global threats. In order to meet the urgency of threats, this guild is willing to break laws and norms if necessary. This guild is unconcerned with petty factional rivalries or wealth and power. As a result of this perspective, they are often the least popular guild within each faction but the one turned to in moments of crisis. At some point in the game's expansions, this guild's counterparts from each faction will unite and form a global response guild to global threats...akin to an updated version of The Pact. This unity guild can also serve a gameplay function as the vanguards of contracts which players can secure in order to access the most difficult PvE content of the game - Raids. Each of the primary guilds within each faction have a distinct character than can drive how a story unfolds when they are the protagonists driving the narrative. Each of three primary guilds within each faction have their own weaknesses which antagonists can exploit. Assumptions about any one of the primary guilds and their divergence from expectation can be common plot points. The three primary guilds from each faction should drive the larger stories of the game, while smaller, dynamic faction guilds drive events and stories which are not the central storyline. Lastly, it should be no surprise that the three primary guilds within each faction are constantly in conflict with eachother...each trying to promote a distinct vision for the faction they share. V. Two Games in One - Presenting the 'Squire Races' While you can create characters using GW2 conventions and customizations, with traits etc, there are a secondary tier of characters you can create populated by the emerging races of Tyria. Examples of such races are Quaggan, Skritt, Choya, Asuran Golems etc. These races do not have traits, no elite specializations to choose from; they only have their skills and gear. They often excel at some ability beyond a standard character (ie Human, Sylvari, Norn, Charr etc) possesses, yet are generally weaker defensively or offensively. In other words, squire races can become the 'tactical dark horse' of any confrontation, throwing many-a-wrench into carefully planned engagements. They offer players simpler game mechanics yet heavily driven by found gear, much like a Diablo, this will appeal to players who seek simpler gameplay and are intrigued by playing the loot system to gain powerful gear with consequential impact on gameplay. How will squire races be implemented into the game? In PvE, there will be nodes throughout a map that requires the participation of a particular squire race. These nodes will often feature a few npcs of the relevant race gathered at a location, along with appropriate environmental clutter. Interacting with the node will activate a menu that will allow you to choose the squire avatar (you can have several per race) you wish to use for the minigame. Because of the diversity of the squire races, and their native habitats, these can potentially provide many opportunities for developers to add minigames to their maps. With respect to the implementation of squire races into Faction vs Faction (FvF), this is more of an open question. Some ideas would be to have three categories of FvF, 1. FvF games that have no squire races allowed, you queue up and no one can use squire races. You are selected for a match, a character window pops up (with a 10 second timer to make your choice) which allows you to choose any character from your account to use to enter the match; of course the character you are currently on is pre-highlighted. 2. FvF games where the possibility for you to use your squires is present. Once your game is ready, half of the participants are randomly chosen to use their main characters, half their squire characters. If you don't want to use a squire character, do not choose this game mode. This game mode has the potential to be the most chaotic (usually equals fun in competition) of all the game modes. 3. FvF games where only squire characters are allowed. This is the only FvF game mode where the maps are different squire race locales. Of course the fourth option in the FvF menu will be 'instant action' where you are taken to a running match that needs players to balance teams. VI. Squire Races The squire races are the 'lesser races' of Tyria that often function as auxiliary units alongside the 'greater races' during conflict in defense of a region. I recommend these races be given a greater role in GW3's PvP and PvE. For example, instead of constantly making region specific skills needed to complete objectives in that same region (ie mushroom jumping), you can have an area where a bunch of squires from a particular race are hanging around and interaction with one of them causes you to transform into the squire race and complete a task, event etc. Regarding player versus player (PvP) and faction versus faction (FvF), because squire races have wildly different skill sets, gear customization, I strongly discourage 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2, PvP matches should probably be 10 vs 10. With FvF, the large number of participants can better mitigate an individual squire race's deficits. Squire itemization could be a key feature with respect to competing in pvp etc. With some rewards being pieces of equipment and the most valued rewards being alternate skills that can be swapped out of the squire's skill bar (1, 2, 3,....0). It is assumed that the skill bar mechanics found in GW2 will be replicated, meaning skills 1-5 are for equipped weapons, skill 6 is a heal skill, skill 7-9 are player choice, and skill 0 is the elite skill. Here are a brief description of the races and their distinguishing features. This is incomplete, but some idea about the envisioned gameplay will be fleshed out. A. Tyria (continent) 1. Quaggan Of all the squire races, Quaggans are the strongest, most durable and social with the primary races; this last point enabled them to learn a lot since GW2. A quaggan training under a Charr taskmaster can produce a decent fighting unit. Their hand morphology allows for dexterous manipulation and their overall strength allows the most option of martial weapons to wield. Quaggans can swap between 3 weapon sets (F2, F3, F4), a conventional loadout would be one set a heavy crossbow, a one-handed melee weapon plus shield, and a two-handed melee weapon. If you acquired a very good light crossbow, conceivably you could go axe plus light crossbow, one-handed melee weapon plus shield, and two-handed melee weapon. As in GW2, the first three skills is typically the main hand weapon, and the last two skills is the offhand. Two handed weapons determine all 5 of the skills 1-5 (this is true for all squire races with the exception of the harekin). Quaggans benefit from an effect (cannot be removed by boonstrip) called Combat Veteran. This effect grants quaggans -15% chance to be critted, -15% condition duration, and +20% health healed from all sources. Quaggan also have a ‘Quaggan Frenzy’ mode (remember the quaggan transformations you saw in GW2?) that by default activates when they are at less than or equal to 25% of their total health. In this mode their weapon attack speed and power is increased, +20% attack speed and +25% power for Two-handed weapons, and +25% attack speed and +20% power for one handed weapons (dual-wielding Quaggan Frenzy builds here we come). Duration should be 20-30 seconds, with a not so prohibitive cooldown. Key Race Features a. Due to hand strength and dexterity, quaggans can wield the most weapons of all squire races. They can wield greatswords, greataxes, axes, swords, shields, maces, hammers, spears, daggers, light crossbows (one-handed), and heavy crossbow (two-handed).. These weapons are a smaller version a human would use, weighted for a quaggans. Elemental versions of these weapons can be earned via match wins. In addition, the loot table would drop versions of the existing weapons that can have a completely different skill in place of the standard skills 1-5 for that weapon. b. Quaggan elite skill is a banner, Banner of Fellowship, which pulses aegis and reduces revive times by 50% for all allies. In addition, it prevents the next fatal damage on only squire races, heals them by 1/3 their total hp (buffed included) and grants protection to those squires who were saved. In addition, any detonated choya within effective radius of the Banner of Fellowship receives an effect, Choya Fertilizer, which speeds the choya's respawn cooldown by 100% (the effect is removed upon respawn). A Quaggan elite skill is one which has very little cooldown, and can be nearly always active as long as the quaggan remembers to drop it. c. Quaggan have average run speed, average evade speed, average jump height and the best swim speed and underwater maneuverability. Their full endurance bar allows for 2 dodges. d. Quaggan have the second highest hitpoints after Tortoisoids, the second highest armor level (if equipped with best armor) after Tortoisoids, the most number of skills available for them (though they have to be earned via match wins). e. Quaggans do not wield magic spells, and their magic use is limited to whatever enchantments is on their armor or weapons. f. Itemization: Quaggans have the following equipment slots: Armor (whole body), necklace, earrings (2), rings (2), cape, belt, and their weapons. Rare necklaces can be acquired via match wins that can significantly impact Quaggan Frenzy, ie Chain of the Short Tempered which activates Quaggan Frenzy when Quaggan health is less than or equal to 75% (the default is 25%), or Chain of the Belligerent which activates Quaggan Frenzy when you crit for three consecutive hits. Choose a quaggan squire for a more conventional battle option with good durability and a useful elite that can be a difference-maker for the team. 2. Skritt Skritt are the 'engineers' of the squire races. They can dispatch multiple turrets around the battlefield, lay traps while also providing some healing and steath detection (both of aforementioned via traps). Skrit are also the only race, greater or lesser, that can repair siege deployed by players. Key Race Features a. Due to their poor strength they cannot wield many weapon types and are restricted to rifle, pistols and daggers. b. Skritt elite skill, Portable Cannon, is a cannon they can control for a short period of time. While the skritt is controlling the cannon, the cannon soaks all the damage. c. Skritt have average run speed, average evade speed, average jump height, average swim speed and underwater maneuverabity. They have a teleportation turret that acts like a mesmer teleportation spell. Their full endurance bar allows for 2 dodges. d. Despite skritt having the 7th highest hitpoints and armor of all squire races, they have more options for healing than all races except the fairy. e. Skritt do not wield magic, but possess a wide array of tools available in the form of many turret and trap options. f. Itemization: Armor (body), necklace, earrings (2), rings (2), backpack, belt, and their weapons. Skritt traps and turrets planted protecting your backline or guarding corridors that are potential ambush routes is practically a necessity on any team. Skritt can also deploy turrets that generate large sophisticated holograms mimicking an enemy zerg. These hologram turrets are specialized and particular 'scenarios' are tied to a particular turret...all of which must be earned via PvP and FvF. For example, the 'ram turret' has several prerecorded holograms depicting an enemy party using several rams on a door. This hologram includes enemy players attacking the door as well as mulling about. There are several variations of the hologram that are available prior to deployment. These variations include different enemy team size, different number of rams deployed, and different level of race participation the enemy hologram. In FvF, the turret automatically checks for opposing team makeup and generates the appropriate enemy zerg hologram. Another example of a hologram turret is the catapult turret, the skirmish turret (depicts a few of your allies getting attacked by the enemy team), the 'idle foe' turret (depicts enemy team loitering, hologram players are moving, buffing) etc. Couple that with some basic team heals and buffs, and the skritt are a very useful asset...just be careful, they are not the most durable. 3. Golem Golems are the easiest, most familiar squire to use. Their 1-5 skills? Pretty much the same as the GW2 siege golem except skill 2 Whirling Inferno initiates instantly, skill 3 Shield Bubble can be launched to bind to an ally of your choosing, skill 4 launches and travels much faster, and skill 5 is a new skill Jumping Stomp, where the golem jumps to a targetted area, stuns foes in his landing zone and applies slow to foes, quickness, protection and stability to self. Skill 6 is a new skill, Repair Protocol, where the golem powers down and heals over time. Skills 7, 8, and 8 are swappable and new skills can be acquired by winning matches. Key Race Features a. Golems do not wield martial weapons like other squire races, but their itemization includes armor plating, a shoulder turret (you can have 2, one on each shoulder) and a backpack. There are default skills that are swappable to slots 7, 8 and 9 that use the shoulder turret(s) and backpack. Shoulder turret skill is determined by equipment, and backpack as well. Some shoulder turrets you can acquire are flamethrower, freeze ray, grenade launcher, homing rockets, ultrasonic gun ( stun and reveal stealth) etc. Some backpack skills include jetpacks which allow brief flight, and speed boost packs that enables a temporary speed boost + pushback to any foes in range of the initial boost. b. Elite skill is Minigun, where the golem can equip a toolkit akin to an engineer's mortar gun, and fires a rapid stream of bullets that interrupts if you crit. You start out with a hefty 500 bullets to spray the enemy with, and the ammo recharges over time. Different miniguns can be earned vis match wins. c. Without considering backpacks, golems have average run speed, average evade speed, average jump height, average swim speed and underwater maneuverabity. Backpacks provide novel movement options. Their full endurance bar allows for 2 dodges. d. Golems have the third highest hitpoints and armor levels of all squire races. e. Golems do not wield magic but possess a wide array of tools available in the form of many shoulder turret and backpack options. f. Itemization: Armor plating (body), head socket, hand sockets (2), chest socket and backpack. Golems are a useful asset in the field, with many offensive options, shield bubbles that can be bound to weaker allies and an oppressive minigun elite that recharges quickly. B. Cantha 1. Fairies - add later 2. Harekin Harekin is a new race and are little bunny humanoids found in the Echovald Forest. They look more bunny than humanoid, do not stand fully upright, torso is angled like charr and quaggan so as to more easily get on all-fours when running. They do not wield the same martial weapons other races use and instead use double-edged kama, blowguns, boomerangs, slingshots and herbalist horns (a horn used to disperse herbal dust). There is also an extremely rare weapon that can be acquired through match wins...the kusarigama (kama with chain attached)! Harekin weapons are different from other races in that you cannot mix and match weapons as you can with a quaggan. In other words, all weapon options are two-handed with the exception of kama, which automatically equips a duplicate of the weapon in each hand. While harekin can switch between 3 weapon sets (F1, F2, F3), F1 can be either kama, boomerang, slingshot or kusarigama. F2 can only be a blowgun. F3 can only be an herbalist horn. Another oddity to harekin weapons is that there are a total of 4 variable weapon skills (skills 1, 2, 3, 4) for each weapon; the fifth skill (skill 5) is always 'Prey Paranoia'. Prey Paranoia is a tracking, scouting skill where the rabbit goes into a search mode, ears pointing in all directions and nose twitches. While under Prey Paranoia the harekin can see nearby stealthed foes. Note this harekin alone can see the foes, if the harekin hits the stealthed foes, they are destealthed. The harekin does not need to actually come near stealthed foes, evidence of foes that have passed the area up to 60 seconds ago leave footprints made visible during this mode. The harekin can tell if enemies were stealthed by the color of the footprints. These footprints disappear when Prey Paranoia ends. Another tracking feature of this mode is that even if no foes passed by the harekin's location thus leaving no footprint evidence to reveal, there is a second way they can be located audibly; if the enemy team is fighting NPCs down one end of a long hallway of the harekin, the harekin will hear muffled battle sounds while facing the relevant direction! An important note is the harekin can still move for the duration of this skill. A secondary feature of this skill is that during its 30 seconds of active duration an optional transition skill appears at the skill 5 slot, Bunny Vision. Hitting Bunny Vision interrupts the search mode and the game enters a binoculars view mode that can see far into the distance. Bunny Vision lasts for the remaining duration of Prey Paranoia. How this likely plays out gameplay-wise is as follows: harekin decides to use skill 5 Prey Paranoia, enters search mode, as soon as footsteps heading a certain direction are seen or muffled battle sounds are heard, the player hits skill 5 again to go into Bunny Vision mode and tries to look ahead to see if the enemy team is some distance away. Some general notes on the functionality of the harekin's unique set of weapons. Kama/Kama Skill 1: Alternating slashes. 4 hit skill chain. If crits, causes Bleeding. Skill 2: Crosscut. Hits all nearby enemies. Skill 3: Spinning Somersault Strike. Evade attack that slashes all those in the harekin's path. Skill 4: Kama Countertrike. Parry an attack and immediately counterattack. Skill 5: Prey Paranoia Kusarigama Skill 1: Figure 8 Kama Slash, a 4 hit skill chain. If crits, causes Bleeding. Skill 2: Kusarigama Swing, a 3 hit chain, hold chain end and spin kama end around in a circular motion for two revolutions, third hit extends kama end directly at foe. Excellent reach. Skill 3: Pulling Strike, Throw chain to wrap around foe's waist and quickly leap and pull yourself towards foe to deliver a deadly strike with kama end. Close the distance quickly. Skill 4: Chain Disarm, launch chain to wrap around foe's weapon, interrupting their attack and counterstriking with kama end. Interrupted for weapon skill has increased cooldown. Skill 5: Prey Paranoia Boomerang (midrange projectile weapon) Skill 1: Boomerang Hurl. Toss boomerang and hit up to 4 additional adjacent foes with bludgeoning damage. If foes are in the middle of casting or an action, inflict an additional 25% damage. Skill 2: Forceful Boomerang Hurl. Toss boomerang with increased force (will travel faster and do more damage than skill 1: Boomerang Hurl) and hit up to 2 additional adjacent foes with bludgeoning damage. Increases chance to crit by 25%. Interrupts actions. Skill 3: Brute Crusher. Toss boomerang at foe's head, inflicting Weakened and Slow and bludgeoning damage, hit up to 2 additional foes. Skill 4: Mage Crusher. Toss boomerang at foe's head, inflicting Weak Mind and causing all spells to double their casting time. Inflicts bludgeoning damage and hits up to 2 additional adjacent foes. Skill 5: Prey Paranoia Slingshot: This weapon’s range is greater than boomerang but less than blowgun. It fires an arcing projectile so conceivably it can get behind cover. The first skill fire a projectile, a rock by default, but can be altered via itemization rewards. The second and third skills fire whatever Herbal Packet (more on this later) is currently equipped, whether it is a beneficial or harmful Herbal Packet. A beneficial packet thrown at foes produces no effect. A harmful packet thrown at allies produces no effect. This ability to engage in the long-range dissemination of Herbal Packets (herbalist horn can only disseminate at close range, albeit to a greater number of targets compared to the slingshot) is best for harekin players looking to fully embrace their role as herbalists no matter the battlefield situation. Skill 1: Slingshot Tri-shot. Fires 3 projectiles rapidly and hits foes with bludgeoning damage. If projectiles do not hit foes directly, it ricochets against a maximum of 2 surfaces before it disappears. Note, some slingshots acquired via match wins transforms this projectile into one that can shatter and produce AoE bleeding damage. Skill 2: Beneficial Herbal Packet Launch. Fire your equipped beneficial Herbal Packet to the target area. Affects a maximum of 5 targets (note: some slingshots via reward system can boost the number of targets affected). Note, beneficial Herbal Packets only affect allies. Skill 3: Harmful Herbal Packet Launch. Fire your equipped harmful Herbal Packet to the target area. Affects a maximum of 5 targets (note: some slingshots via reward system can boost the number of targets affected). Note, harmful Herbal Packets only affect foes. Skill 4: Bop and Scurry. (Designed for when a foe gets too close to the harekin equipped with a weapon poorly suited for close range melee combat) Melee attack, smash your slingshot on foe's head, hop and kick them in the gut with both feet, and leap off to a safe distance while knocking them back. Applies Swiftness. Note, in the last part of this skill where you are leaping off the kicked foe, the harekin can fire their slingshot as they are in the air moving away from the opponent. Skill 5: Prey Paranoia Blowgun: This weapon has the greatest range of all the harekin’s weapons. The darts it uses is preselected from the loaded darts from the dart pouch of the harekin’s herbalist belt (this is described more fully in the elite skill section). Skill 1: Blowgun Tri-shot. Fire three rapid fire shots of darts. In addition to the dart’s effects, causes bleeding. Skill 2: Blowgun Missile. Take a deep breath and fire a single dart that goes 25% farther (in comparison to Blowgun Tri-shot), travels 25% faster, hits for 50% harder and has 25% increased chance to crit. In addition to the dart’s effects, causes Profuse Bleeding (a more damaging version of bleeding). Skill 3: Dart to the Knee. Fires a dart to the knee of a foe, in addition to inflicting the dart’s effects, also inflicts cripple and purges all stacks of stability. If foe is already crippled, inflicts immobilize. Note, if the preselected dart inflicts cripple, this will satisfy the skill check and the target will get immobilized. Skill 4: Blowgun Club. Melee attack, smash your blowgun on an opponent’s head, knocking them down. Skill 5: Prey Paranoia Herbalist Horn: This weapon looks like a warhorn with a large horn section. Different skills produce different tones. When the herbalist horn is loaded with a harmful Herbal Packet, it has a red aura. When the herbalist horn is loaded with a beneficial Herbal Packet, is has a blue aura. As an additional aid, I would recommend that even the skills on the skillbar are noticeably tinted either red or blue depending on the active herbal packet. Skill 1: Blow Herbalist Horn Overhead. Blow your herbalist horn directly above your current location in order to spread the Herbal Packet cloud in a radius around you. Skill 2: Blow Herbalist Horn Forward. Blow your herbalist horn in a forward direction. A cloud resulting from the Herbal Packet from slowly moves in the direction you are facing, affecting foes or allies in its path. Cloud travels a short distance before dispersing. Skill 3: Herbal Packet Swap. Switch to the alternate preselected Herbal Packet. If a beneficial Herbal Packet is currently equipped, it switches out to the harmful Herbal Packet, and vice versa. Equipped Herbal Packet is reflected by the Herbalist Horn aura; blue is beneficial, red is harmful. Note, this skill has very little cooldown (2 seconds) and the harekin can easily swap Herbal Packets several times in a battle. Skill 4: Blowback. Blow your herbalist horn, no Herbal Packet is disseminated but an enemy harekin’s Herbal Packet cloud is dispersed. This skill can also disperse any gas clouds produced by other skills. Skill 5: Prey Paranoia Key Race Features As explained, Harekin use a different set of weapons from other races. Some weapons acquired via match wins can completely change one of the skills (1-4). For example, while you normally acquire Kama/Kama, there is a chance to get Kama/Tonfa or Kusarigama. Kama/Kama and Kusarigama has been already explained in the above sections…but Kama/Tonfa changes skill 4 of Kama/Kama into Skill 4: Tonfa Block. Blocks attacks for a period of time. A drawback of Kama/Tonfa is that the damage for Skills 1-3 is slightly reduced in comparison to Kama/Kama, but Kama/Tonfa does provide a very useful blocking skill for the more defensive minded Harekin. Blowguns acquired via match wins can add conditions or debuffs in addition to whatever dart is preselected in the herbalist belt. Herbalist horns acquired via match wins can also add enchantments or conditions in addition to the preselected beneficial or harmful Herbal Packets. Elite skill is Herbalist Belt. This is not really a conventional elite skill with a long cooldown but a key race feature that has little to no cooldown. When pressed, a window pops up depicting three rows of slots found in the harekin’s herbalist belt (this is the harekin’s belt, but looks more like a bunny fanny pack). At the far left of each row is the preselected item that will be equipped in the relevant weapon, let’s call it the ‘preselection pouch’. To the right of the preselection pouch are a number of slots that are filled with different items that can be selected to be in the preselection pouch. Top row of slots is the Beneficial Herb Packets, second row is Harmful Herb Packets, and third row is Darts (all darts produce harmful effects). As mentioned, Herb Packets are loaded into herbalist horns and slingshots while darts are loaded into blowguns. During battle, a harekin can switch out their loaded Herb Packets and darts by pressing the elite skill and quickly selecting a new packets to go into the preselection pouch. Herbalist belts acquired via match wins can have varying numbers of slots. As a rule, there are an equal number of slots for each row in the herbalist belt…so a Herbalist Belt+5 has five slots for each of the rows for Beneficial Herb Packets, Harmful Herb Packets and Darts…for a total of 15 slots. Harekin have slightly above average run speed, slightly above average evade speed, the best jump height of all squire races, average swim speed and underwater maneuverability. Their full endurance bar allows for 2 dodges. d. Harekin have the 6th highest hitpoints and 5th highest armor levels of all squire races. e. Harekin do not wield magic but through their knowledge of herbal concoctions and plant life are able to replicate many of the effects of magic. f. Itemization: Armor (body), necklace, bracelets (2), herbalist pouch and their weapons. Harekin are a unique squire race that can provide buffs to allies, debuffs to foes and can serve as the primary scouts for your team. There is a large collection of Herb Packets to acquire via match wins, and their equipment options give them significant gameplay flexibility. 3. Tortoisoid Tortoisoids are a new race, they appear more tortoise than humanoid, are hunched over so as to more easily get on all fours when running, and call the coasts of Cantha their home. Tortoisoids have long lifespans and it is more common for the more senior members participate in combat. While their offensive tools are relatively limited, they are the ultimate tanks, second to none, and are designed to taunt foes, absorb massive amounts of physical and elemental damage, and protect allies. Additionally, they are a shamanic race and use magic to provide protection spells mitigating physical and elemental damage, as well as mitigating and disrupting all forms of magic that do not fit the aforementiomed damage types. Tortoisoid loudout weapons cannot be mixed and matched, and mainhand and offhand sets are fixed to pair with specific weapons. Tortoisoid loadouts include Escrima (F1), Protection Shaman (F2) and Spirit Shaman (F3). The weapons options for Escrima are double baston, sword + dagger, and staff. The weapon options for Protection Shaman are shaman's rattle cane + gemstone totem or drum mallet cane + drum. The weapon options for Spirit Shaman are crook rod + windcatcher totem or seed rattle cane + effigy. Due to the weight of their shells tortoisoids are most comfortable using canes as both a weapon and to assist them while moving. Tortoisoids have a 'necklace' equipment slot called its 'Charm Slot'. The charms a tortoisoid can equip can significantly alter a baseline gameplay mechanic, allowing for some surprising builds. Unique race characteristics include an elite (skill 0), Shell Mode, which initially immobilizes the tortoisoid and enters a mode which makes them invulnerable to all forms of damage: physical, elemental or magical. Shell Mode lasts up to 30 seconds (or more providing you have the right Charm equipped). The visual animation for Shell Mode is the tortoisoid retracts its head, arms and legs into its shell. You can still see its eyes darting left and right in the darkness of the head opening. The tortoisoid gains a breakbar, which if broken, the tortoisoid loses invulnerability and begins to take damage. While in Shell Mode, the tortoisoid is uninterruptable. When in Shell Mode, all of the tortoisoid's skills on the skillbar change as follows: Shell Mode Skills Skill 1: Turtle Toss. The tortoisoid's hand emerges from its shell and frantically waves its hand to signal allies to toss it. The tortoisoid becomes a bundle which can be picked up, carried, and tossed by an ally. This hand signal is not visible to enemy players in PvP or FvF. The purpose of this signal is for a teammate to toss the tortoisoid in the middle of a crowd of enemies so the tortoisoid can taunt. Another reason could be the tortoisoid is signalling his teammates to give it cover or toss it to safety because Shell Mode is about to expire (it lasts 30 seconds or more with itemzation but it is not indefinite). Skill 2: Shell Taunt. Taunt foes in an area around you. Enemies's target is shifted to the tortoisoid for 10 seconds. Skill 3: Kinetic Carapace. A channelling skill where the tortoisoid absorbs all incoming damage and at the end emits an AoE shockwave that damages all nearby foes. The damage emitted is proportional to the damage absorbed. The visual cue for entering this channel is the appearance of an mischievous smile in the darkness of the shell's head opening (remember the eyes are also visible) and the eyes and toothy grin are vertically motioning so as to give the impression the tortoisoid is laughing. Just before the tortoisoid releases the shockwave, only teammates hear the following vocal cue, 'Heeeeeerrrreeee iiiittttt ccccooooooommmmessss!' The tortoisoid then bounces and releases the shockwave. The purpose of this teammate-only vocal cue it to signal to teammates to coordinate their dps to maximize the opportunity created by the shockwave. Note: if an allied choya is standing in the effective range of Kinetic Carapace's shockwave, the choya receives a 3 second effect called 'Atomic Choya', where any choya detonation occurring during the effect is 15% more damaging. Kinetic Carapace shares a skill cooldown with Shielding Carapace. Skill 4: Shielding Carapace. A channelling skill where the tortoisoid absorbs all incoming damage and at the end casts barrier to all nearby allies proportional to the damage absorbed. The visual cue for entering this channel are squinting eyes in the shell's head opening as well as a hand peeking out of one of the shell's arm holes, giving a 'thumbs up' gesture. Just before the tortoisoid dispenses the barrier, only teammates hear the following vocal cue, 'You're welcome!'. Shielding Carapace shares a skill cooldown with Kinetic Carapace. Skill 5: Rapid Extinguish. This skill takes all conditions away from nearby allies and applies it to the tortoisoid. It then rapidly extinguishes all conditions within 1-3 seconds, depending on the number of stacks. The visual cue is the tortoisoid bounces up, spins, and ejects smoke from all shell openings. Skill 6: Fortify. This skill generously heals the tortoisoid and regenerates a portion of its breakbar. Skill 7: Shock Absorber. Redirects all phyical damage from nearby allies to the tortoisoid for a brief period of time. Visual cue, shell bouncing up and down and shaking. Arm comes out of one of the shell arm holes, holding a small shield. Teammate-only vocal cue, 'Taking one for the team!'. Shock Absorber shares a skill cooldown with Eye of the Storm. Skill 8: Eye of the Storm. Redirects all elemental damage from nearby allies to the tortoisoid for a brief period of time. Shell bouncing up and down and shaking. Arm comes out of one of the shell arm holes, holding a small umbrella. Teammate-only vocal cue, 'Eye of the storm!'. Eye of the Storm shares a skill cooldown with Shock Absorber. Skill 9: Turtle Stomp. The tortoisoid in shell mode jumps a few feet off the ground and when it lands, it causes a tremor and all nearby foes are knocked down. Turtle Stomp shares a skill cooldown with Terrifying Turtle. Skill 0: Terrifying Turtle. Casts fear to all nearby enemies. The visual cue is the tortoisoid head pops out of the shell's head opening and makes a scary face. The vocal cue is 'Boo!'. Terrifying Turtle shares a skill cooldown withTurtle Stomp. The '~' key, used to swap between weapon loadout, when pressed during Shell mode prematurely ends Shell mode, with any remaining time credited towards cooldown. Shell mode gameplay and the mode's skill cooldowns will result in the following gameplay sequence: Tortoisoid enters Shell Mode. Shell Mode duration and skill cooldowns will force the player to choose between using Kinetic Carapace OR Shielding Carapace,...there will not be enough time in Shell Mode to use both (remember these two skill share a cooldown). The player is forced to choose between using Shock Absorber or Eye of the Storm...there will not be enough time in Shell Mode to use both (remember these two skills share a cooldown). The player is forced to choose between using Turtle Stomp or Terrifying Turtle, there will not be enough time in Shell Mode to use both (remember those two skills share a cooldown). The player will have enough time to use Turtle Toss or Fortify twice within the timespan of a single Shell Mode. The player will have enough time to use Shell Taunt or Rapid Extinguish only once within the timespan of a single Shell Mode. The player can use Exit Shell Mode at any point, with any remaining time unspent credited towards reducing the cooldown. Some general notes on the functionality on the Tortoisoid's unique set of weapons. Double Baston Skill 1: Baston Combo. 4 hit chain. Last hit is a critical hit and applies Mght. Skill 2: Precision Parry. Parry an attack. Short cooldown. Skill 3: Pressure Point Strike. 2 hits, mainhand baston interrupts a skill and offhand baston strikes foe. Skill 4: Baston Hurl. Projectile attacks. Toss your bastons, one after the other, at a target foe. If any of the attacks crit, the target foe is dazed. Skill 5: Baston Twirl. AoE melee attack. Extend your two bastons outward and spin, hitting all nearby foes. Sword and Dagger Skill 1: Sword Combo. 3 hit chain. Pierce with sword 3 times. 20% chance to inflict 'Exposed Wound' condition. Exposed Wound causes the victim to receive +50% crit damage if critted by the same person who applied condition. Exposed Wound duration is 2 seconds. Skill 2: add later C. Elona 1. Iguanids Iguanids are a new race and is among the few races that can tolerate the Sulfurous Wastes region of Elona which they call home. Physically the race is diverse in appearance and members can look like iguanas, chameleons, gila monsters, geckos, frilled lizards etc. Posture is similar to charr and quaggan, and upper body leans forward. They look more lizard than humanoid. Iguanids are a stealth-focused squire race that can offer limited scouting services to your team or be an assassin. Their stealth is based on the ability of the race to camouflage itself by changing the color and patterns of their skin to blend in with their surroundings. Since there are certain mechanics that differ from GW2 stealth, it is better to call what iguanids do ‘camouflage’ and not stealth. They have excellent overall dexterity, they can climb surfaces (even vertical walls), possess a far reaching tongue attack that poisons, and several attack skills that exploit opponent position. Igaunids have limited weapon choices. They have three loadouts, and can switch between them using F1, F2 and F3. ‘Melee’, the first loadout (F1) can be either dagger, sais, or bagh nakh (a fist weapon with claws). ‘Thrown’ the second loadout (F2) is either kunai, throwing stars or bugs (the weapon category is called ‘Creepy Crawlies’ and is unique to iguanids), and ‘Bestial’ the third loadout (F3) consists of no weapons but relies on attacks using the igaunid’s jaws, horns, tongue, tail etc. Like harekin, iguanids cannot mix and match their one-handed weapons, ie if dagger is selected then both the main and offhand is equipped with daggers. An important race feature is iguanids can switch between loadouts very quickly, faster than any other race. Igaunids have a final unique race characteristic, Reptilian Movement, represented by a bar above the endurance bar in the GUI. If you are familiar with DnD action points, it is a similar concept but one rooted on the actions following an iguanid at rest, which replenishes the Reptilian Movement Bar. The Reptilian Movement Bar allows for a combination of skill usage (expend bar faster than movement) and/or movement (expends bar slower than skill usage), each of which incur an expenditure of the Reptilian Movement Bar. Actions or movement undertaken using Reptilian Movement Bar are 50% faster than normal. To give you an idea how this plays out gameplay wise, an iguanid is camouflaged, comes approximately 5 steps away from an unmoving, unsuspecting foe. The iguanid stays completely still in order to replenish Reptilian Movement Bar. When the bar is full, he is able to close the distance and perform a single attack on the foe all of which were 50% faster due to expending the full Reptilian Movement Bar. In a slightly different scenario, if the unmoving unsuspecting foe all of a sudden was joined by a large contingent of allies, then the iguanid would expend the Reptilian Movement Bar by running away very fast (50% faster than normal) all while still in camouflage mode. The concept for this mechanic is rooted in the ability of snakes and other reptiles to perform quick strikes at rest. Some of the race’s unique mechanics are tied to the weapon skills, so here they are in some detail: Daggers (best damage option in the Melee category of loadouts, daggers are held reverse grip) Skill 1: Blade Dance, 5 hit chain, Attack 1: Slash horizontally with main hand. Inflicts Bleeding. Attack 2: Stab with main hand. Inflicts Bleeding. If crits, inflicts Profuse Bleeding instead. Attack 3: Slash horizontally with off hand. Inflicts Bleeding. Inflicts Vulnerability. Attack 4: Stab with off hand. Inflicts Bleeding. If crits, inflicts Profuse Bleeding instead. Grants Might. Attack 5: Spin with daggers outstretched, slashing all nearby foes. Inflicts Bleeding. Skill 2: Sever Vital Nerve. Stab strategically with dagger, if foe is using a skill, disrupts the skill and increase cooldown of skill by 100%. Inflicts Bleeding. Skill 3: Lunging Flurry. Jump toward foe, land on their chest and deliver four rapid, brutal stabs with dagger. Chance to crit is +20%. Inflicts Bleeding. Leaps far, good for closing the distance. Skill 4: Twist the Blade. Take your dagger, stab with full force and twist blade for maximum damage. If this attack lands on an enemy out of combat, +10% damage, if this attack is performed from camouflage, +15% damage. Inflicts Profuse Bleeding (a more damaging version of Bleeding). Skill 5: Dagger Backstabber, jump on your opponent’s back and repeatedly stab their back with your dagger. Iguanid will repeatedly stab until foe performs an evade and knocks the igaunid off. While attached to the foe’s back, the iguanid cannot take damage from the target foe (cannot reach) but the foe’s allies can damage the iguanid. (Destined to be one of the most annoying attacks in the game) Sai: Defensive melee weapon Skill 1: Sai Combo. 4 hit chain. Attack 1: Stab with main hand sai. Inflict Bleeding. Attack 2: Stab with offhand sai. Inflict Bleeding. Attack 3: Stab with both sais simultaneously. Inflict Profuse Bleeding. Attack 4: Outward slash with both sais simultaneously. Chance to crit +25%. If attack hits, Reptillian Movement Bar instantly is filled +25%. Skill 2: Parry Strike. Parry an enemy attack, gain and deliver a flurry of three quick blows. If a melee attack was successfully parried, enemy is Slowed and each of the three attacks chance to crit is +25%. Skill 3: Vicious Lunge. Jump toward foe and plunge both sais into their chest. Inlicts Weakness and Profuse Bleeding. Bite enemy target, inflict Poisoned condition on foe. Good for closing the distance. Skill 4: Brutal Parry. Parry an enemy's melee attack and deliver a highly damaging counterattack. If enemy has Weakness then damage is increased by 20% and target is knocked down. Parried enemy skill has increased cooldown. Skill 5: Sai Backstabber. Melee attack. Just like Dagger Backstabber but using sais instead. Thrown Stars: Ideal projectile for damaging many foes simultaneously. Has the potential to hit targets around corners. Skill 1: Star Toss. Thrown weapon. Toss 3 throwing stars to a targeted enemy. Throwing stars have the ability to curve their trajectory and can potentially hit targets behind corners. Hits target and 2 additional adjacent targets. Causes piercing and slashing damage. If crits, inflicts Bleeding. Skill 2: Horizontal Star Spread: Thrown weapon. Throw a 5 star spread parallel to ground hitting a maximum of 5 foes in front of you. Causes piercing and slashing damage. If crits, inflicts Bleeding. Skill 3: Somersault Spread. Thrown weapon. Perform a spinning somersault in the air and throw 5 stars vertically toward your target. Hits a maximum of 5 foes. Causes piercing and slashing damage. If crits, inflicts Bleeding. Skill 4: Star Storm: Stance (5-8 seconds). Grants Quickness, refreshes the skills Star Toss, Horizontal Star Spread, and Somersault Spread, reduces their activation time, increases their travel speed, and reduces their cooldown by 75%. Skill 5: Strategic Retreat: Thrown weapon. Toss a smoke bomb behind you, rapidly toss 3 stars at a target foe as you jump backward toward the smoke cloud. When you pass the smoke cloud you enter camouflage mode. Kunai: Projectile with high single target damage and can be used in close range combat. Skill 1: Kunai Toss. Thrown weapon. Toss a kunai at a target foe. If skill is held down, the kunai travels up to 25% faster and does up to 25% more damage. Does piercing damage. If attack crits, inflicts Bleeding with a 20% chance to instead inflict Profuse Bleeding. Skill 2: Kunai Headshot. Thrown weapon. Toss a kunai directly at the target foe's head. Does piercing damage. Inflicts Confusion. If attack crits, inflicts Bleeding with a 20% chance to instead inflict Profuse Bleeding. Skill 3: Kunai Trigger Bomb. Thrown weapon. Toss a bomb-equipped kunai to the target area. Once thrown, the skill changes to a trigger to detonate the bomb, damaging up to 5 targets in its radius. Explosion does fire damage, and if it crits, inflicts Burning. Skill 4: Explosive Escape. Melee attack. Jump on the chest of target foe and stab them with two kunai equipped with bombs which detonate right away. Somersault over their heads to safety. If target foe is weakened, the explosion will cause knockdown. Initial kunai attack is piercing damage that causes bleeding and has a 20% chance to cause Profuse Bleeding instead. Bomb explosion is fire damage, if crits has a chance to cause burning. The somersault is an evade. Skill 5: Kunai Backstabber. Melee attack. Just like Dagger Backstabber but with kunai instead. Bugs Skill 1: Hammerhead Dragonflies: Thrown weapon. Toss a single, highspeed hammerhead dragonfly at your target foe. Flies in a straight line and does bludgeoning damage. If target foe is weakened or slowed, crits and does +20 crit damage. Chance for dragonfly to hit target foe's eyes causing a condition called Eye Trauma, which impairs target foe's close range vision. Close range targets will periodically disappear for stretches of time. Skill 2: Giant Mosquitos: Thrown weapon. Toss a handful of giant mosquitoes at target foe. Causes piercing damage and Bleeding. After initial collision, the giant mosquitoes become an autonomous entities and sucks the blood of target foe. The bloodsucking causes Drain Health on target foe. If iguanid thows more giant mosquitoes on target foe, and there still are giant mosquitoes orbiting the target foe, the health drain effect is cumulative. Target foe can kill off giant mosquitoes with a melee attack (the giant mosquito must be targeted), use some form of AoE attack, dodge roll, or go into stealth or camouflage. Skill 3: Tarantulas: Thrown weapon. Toss a tarantula at target foe. Initially causes piercing damage, and inflicts poison. Tarantula becomes an autonomous entity and sticks to target foe and crawls all over them, spinning a web that inflicts a condition called Spiderweb Bind, which acts like Slow but increases in its slowing speed the longer the tarantula spins its web. Periodically, a bound, crawling tarantula will bite target foe refreshing the poison. Can be killed with targeted melee or spell attacks, aura detonation, certain AoE melee or spells, dodge roll, or by stealth or camouflage. Skill 4: Fireflies: Thrown weapon. Toss a handful of fireflies at your target foe. Fireflies glow brightly, stick to target, rapidly orbits them and cannot be shaken off or attacked with melee (unless the melee attack is a true AoE attack. Fireflies can also be killed by certain magic spells such as detonated auras or AoE elemental spells. Ideal to track foes who may stealth as the fireflies will still orbit them when stealthed or camouflaged. Skill 5: Giant Hornets: Thrown weapon. Toss a handful of giant hornets at target foe. Initially the giant hornets do some piercing and slashing damage. After initial collision, giant hornets become autonomous entities, orbit and periodically sting target foe. If stung, target foe is interrupted, suffers piercing damage, and gains a condition called Severe Allergic Reaction. Each time target foe is stung, the percentage to Severe Allergic Reaction increases until it reaches 100% which will cause target foe to be inflicted with Slow, Weakened, and a condition called Hornet Fever, where max health is lowered by 15%, healing effectiveness on you is 20% weaker, your Concentration is 20% lower and your Endurance recovers 20% slower. Once target foe is inflicted with Hornet's fever, Severe Allergic reaction goes back to 0% and could be increased if stung again by Giant Hornets. Getting rid of orbiting Giant Hornets requires targeting them, and any of the following: several melee attacks or spells, powerful melee attack or spell, a dodge roll, or going into stealth or camouflage. Bestial: This attack skill loadout uses the iguanid own body as a weapon. These are the only attack skills that can be used when the iguanid is vertically climbing. Skill 1: Reptilian Bite. Melee attack. Viciously bite target foe causing piercing and slashing damage. Inflicts Iguanid's Blight condition where afflicted target suffers 15% additional damage from piercing and poison attacks. Endurance recovers 25% slower. Skill 2: Venomous Tongue. Long range melee attack. Bludgeon target foe with your long, elastic tongue. Inflicts Poison. If crits, inflicts Confusion. Skill 3: Caustic Bile. Ranged projectile attack. You spit out a volume of acid that hits targeted foe and leaves a pool of acid in an area directly surrounding their feet. Inflicts Acid Burn condition that does damage over time, and does increasing damage per tick upon continued exposure. Skill 4: Primal Frenzy: Stance. For a brief period, gain Might, Fury, Alacrity, Vigor, Regeneration and Swiftness. Skill 5: Tail Sweep. Melee attack. Use you tail to quickly sweep foes in the area in front of you, foes are knocked down. Affects a maximum of 3 foes. Note, this skill changes when iguanid is scaling a surface. a. While Igaunids appear to have limited weapon options, they can acquire jars of bugs which provide a variety of different skills for the Bugs thrown weapon loadout. Igauanid's Beastial loadout also presents a set of skills to complement the thrown weapon and melee loadout, providing a wealth of combat options to pair with their ability to camouflage and scale surfaces other races are not capable. As a result of the aforementioned, Iguanids lack item upgrades that dramatically alter its gameplay as found with quaggan, harekin or choya. Iguanids are able to quickly switch between loadouts with minimal cooldowns. b. Elite skill is Camouflage. Camouflage is the Iguanid's stealthing skill. It functions different from stealth in that the Iguanid moves at a 25% slower speed from its uncamouflaged running speed. While an Iguanid cannot be targeted while in camouflage, if they are hit by an attack or AoE spell they are forced out of camouflage. Any attacks on a camouflaged Iguanid has a 50% chance to be a glancing blow. If an Iguanid uses any skill they exit camouflage. While in camouflage an Iguanid recovers Reptilian Movement Bar 50% faster. Entering camouflage when Reptilian Movement Bar is full increases duration of camouflage by 50%. c. Iguanids have average run speed, slightly above average evade speed, average jump height, slightly above average swim speed and underwater maneuverability. Their full endurance bar allows for 3 dodges. d. Iguanids have the 5th highest hitpoints and 4th highest armor of all the squire races. e. Iguanids do no wield magic aside from the enchantments on their weapons and armor. f. Itemization: Armor (body), necklace, rings (2), belt, bug jars and weapons. Iguanids offer a lot of offensive and defensive options. They can be scouts, assassins or solid dps unit in a squad. Their multitude of options and ability to quickly switch between loadouts allows for very reactive, twitchy gameplay or strategic ambushes. 2. Choya Choya are the 'wtf' units of the squire races. Enemy teams will often find choya responsible for the most painful battlefield surprises that ruin their carefully organized plans. While limited in their options, choya have the potential to put out the most AOE burst damage. Unlike sprites, choya cannot dish out their damage as consistently or often, but a well placed Choya Bomb can down multiple weakened foes. The skills are as follows Skill 1: Refuse Toss. The choya tosses a projectile that does bludgeoning damage. Hold down key for higher damage. Skill 2: Spike Shot. The choya leans over and fires spikes from its back hitting all foes in its radius. This reaches foes above as well. Skill 3: Toxic Pollen. The choya emits (animation: cloud of gas emitted via pores around choya's body) a cloud of pollen that causes enemies to be blinded and applies the effect 'Irritated Eyes', which causes the afflicted player to periodically lose sight of a random number of enemies (they temporarily vanish). This disengages targeting and if you make contact with a vanished foe using melee, it will be a glancing blow. Skill 4: Choya Roll. You roll on the ground and while this is not an evade, you gain protection and vigor and the overall movement speed is faster that your running speed. Note, when using Choya Roll on a descending slope your speed increases (think rollerbeetle). Once pressed, you are in rolling mode and maintain the buffs of the skill until you activate another skill. Skill 5: Choya Determination. You beat your chest and enter a frenzy where you gain a defiance bar (this implies that unless the bar is broken, no CC can stop you), gain swiftness, and your next few hits crit and damage is increased 25%. Skill 0 (Elite): Choya Bomb: You detonate yourself causing high damage in a large area around the point of detonation. Skill F2: Choya Patch: Place a Choya Patch at the target location. If you use Choya Bomb, you will respawn at the Choya Patch after a brief period. Key race features a. Choya do not wield martial weapons and have the least equipment slots of all squire races, BUT, the enhancements on their equipment slots are the weirdest and can significantly impact their gameplay. For examples, the Baseball Cap (hat slot) causes Refuse Toss (skill 1) to turn into a baseball and travels at twice the speed, range increases by 25% and when you hold down the key for higher damage, the channeling speed is twice as fast. The Cap of the Fool (a court jester hat, hat slot) adds a random second attack to Toxic Pollen (skill 3), either a burp which causes a cone of fire to emit out of the choya's mouth,...or a fart which releases a travelling poison cloud behind the choya. Firefighter's Coat (chest) causes Choya Bomb to cause fire damage and burning. The Totem of Bad Luck (necklace slot) causes Choya Bomb (skill 0, elite) to detonate twice! The Totem of Necromancy (necklace slot) causes the Choya to turn into a zombie (picture a shambling Choya with a third of his head missing) after using Choya Bomb. In zombie mode the Choya's movement speed is decreased by 50% but gains a large defiance bar, skill 1 changes from Refuse Toss to Zombie Bite (every time he bites an opponent he regains health) and all his skills recharge twice as fast. Zombie mode ends when the Choya Patch becomes available (for respawn) or he gets killed. b. Elite skill is Choya Bomb (see description above). After detonating Choya Bomb, you must wait 60 seconds before you can respawn at the Choya Patch. This can be decreased by certain necklaces, such as The Totem of Masochism, which reduces the respawn time to 30 seconds. c. Choya have average run speed, average evade speed, average jump height, average swim speed and underwater maneuverabity. Skill 4 Choya Roll speed is dictated by the angle of terrain, with downward slopes increasing speed. Their full endurance bar allows for 2 dodges. d. Choya have the 4th highest pool of hitpoints and 6th highest armor level of all squire races. e. Choya do not wield magic, they are too busy trying to get in the middle of enemy teams so they can go boom. f. Itemization: Hat (head), chestpiece (body), necklace. A rare chestpiece acquired via match wins is called the Tuxedo, and it has an extra slot (flower in your lapel) that can add an additional slot for customization. Collect flowers that give stat boosts or adds a unique gameplay mechanic. Choose the Choya when you are looking to go leeroy jenkins on the enemy team. While it's itemization is low, It's a fun, simple squire race. 3. Sprites - add later VII. General Squire Race Comparisons Squire hitpoint rankings (highest to lowest) 1. Tortoisoid 2. Quaggan 3. Golem 4. Choya 5. Igaunid 6. Harekin 7. Skritt 8. Fairy 9. Sprite Squire armor level rankings (highest to lowest), this includes max gear potential 1. Tortoisoid 2. Quaggan 3. Golem 4. Iguanid 5. Hairkin 6. Choya 7. Skritt 8. Fairy 9. Sprite

Little concerned, did not see any info about light field and added blast or leap finishers.

For the sake of build diversity, if we're going to put this on a minor, let's put it on several trail lines, I'd vote Discipline, Arms, and Strength. On whether to normalizing the game so resources don't decay, I am fully on board with that...I just have a strong feeling the devs feel the decay is a profession defining opportinity cost to balance Adrenaline consuming skills. That latter assumption is why I added the suggesstions I added. In theory, several options would be implemented so as to give individual warrior a choice on how to cope with Rage decay so one single option doesn't become the meta.

I'm not sure about removing Adrenaline decay fully when out of combat, but here are some tools that can be added to mitigate decay. 1. Change Signet of Rage from Signet Passive: Grants adrenaline while in combat. Signet Active: Gain fury, might, and swiftness. To Signet Passive: Adrenaline does not decay when out of combat. Signet Active: Gain fury, might, and swiftness.. . . 2. Add a new weapon sigil reminiscent of the GW1 Furious weapon upgrade mod Sigil of Adrenaline: Attacks grant double Adrenaline. . . 3. Add a new effect, 'Angered' to healing, utility, elite skills which grant Adrenaline when activated. Angered effect: your Adrenaline does not decay for 10 seconds. . . 4. Add the functionality to Relic of the Warrior. From Relic of the Warrior: Weapon swap recharge time is reduced. To Relic of the Warrior: Adrenaline does not decay. Weapon swap recharge time is reduced.

Instead of the boon duration buff on Skill 5 I would rather extend the block time and add a light field. Then, I would add a blast, leap and whirl finishers to Staff skills so we can cleanse on the light field.

I wish to contribute to the Charr racial mount skin pack Skyscale: Charr helicopter Griffon: Charr jetpack (has wings too) Siege Turtle: Charr war machine Raptor: Charr motorcycle Beetle: Charr unicycle Springer: Charr two-legged mech (think a Charr sitting on ED-209 of Robocop fame) Warclaw: Charr ATV Skimmer: Charr minisubmarine

That ish oughta be a reflect.

I hear you but it is kind of nice to be mostly free to wield any weapon set (Staff might change this) and be able to toss out heals via utility skills. It's a tradeoff.

I'd rather keep the healing others mostly centered on Vigorous Shouts(VS) and Soldier's Comfort(SC), boost those if necessary, especially Soldier's Comfort. If they decided to change MMR to also heal others, they are going to either nerf our Might generation or the amount healed in VS or SC and force anyone trying to be a Warrior healer to take MMR.

Yes please, there needs to be one or more shouts for the Staff boon sharing skills. That would be nice synergy with Vigorous Shouts.

It's hard to really form an opinion based on the info revealed but I IMPLORE Anet to make the Staff burst involve a healing component. Having a heal on the Burst will enable the Spellbreaker, currently the weakest PvE elite spec, to be the best support spec. How? Because of the simple mechanic made possible by Minor Grandmaster Trait, Attacker's Insight, where Full Counter refreshes all burst skills on hit. The burst skill heal should be an AoE heal of all nearby allies. Limit the range of the AoE to fit in with their desire to make support Warrior a frontline healer.

I just transform my Charr warrior into a housecat to do the more annoying jumping puzzles.

Good suggestion. Thinking outside of the box, I like that.

Fools! Do you not recognize the Natural Healing 'stealth buff' this is??!!!111 😆

Spellbreaker changes are all PvP??? The minor changes almost seem like a token gesture to pacify the community more than a serious attempt to address the spec's shortcomings. Where is the additional boon rip? Meditation updates? Very skeptical about the lead's vision.

Just want to throw out a simpler change to Full Counter (FC). How about it functions the same as current BUT if it does not trigger (does not counter an actual attack) the adrenaline bar is NOT spent and the skill recharge is reduced to 2 seconds (keep successful FC recharge to the current 8 seconds). If you think 2 sec recharge (for untriggered FC) is too OP I think 4 sec is more than reasonable.

I rather keep base AI acquisition in the current Minor (boon removal and CC) and we can expand ways to acquire it via your suggestions. In its current state it is very straightforward, I hesitate to mess with that. There is a lot of room to play with AI acquisition, max stacks, and duration, more opportunities to acquire can only help.

I assume you meant 'expand' and not 'move' here, right? Did you intend to remove the gain of Attacker's Insight via the Minor Grandmaster Trait into a gain unique to each Major Grandmaster? Assuming you meant 'expand' your list of changes look solid. Granted, I rather Spellbreaker be buffed so as to fill the role of boon-hate, anti-mage, but that would require Anet to add functionality to Spellbreaker and modify large numbers of PvE foes. Your suggestion would fit in nicely with the current boon meta while complementing the existing SpB boonrip capability.

That's Anet's fault. They should've created PvE bosses and tough trash mobs with boons that could be stripped. I've advocated creating boons that only can be used by bosses that can only be stripped and not corrupted or stolen. The only way I can see SpB boonstripping to outpace these other classes is to add boonstripping to other dagger skills with a VERY low internal cooldown. I won't mind not being able to corrupt or steal boon IF SpB can remove the most number of boons per min, it shouldn't even be close considering we have to get in the face of our target in order to boonstrip.

In its current iteration, yes I agree Spellbreaker is pretty lackluster. Given the new WvW boonball meta the need for a more effective boonripper is apparent, otherwise I'd be right there with you about turning SpB into a healer.

Heal warrior will be fully realized in our next elite spec. Spellbreaker should have its boonrip capacity and dps buffed. Don't turn SpB into a halfa**ed support spec.

Beyond just an uninspired bump in power dps boost for dagger, I think making Spellbreaker (SpB) actually rip raid boss boons would be one of the few available paths to making SpB raid-viable. These raid boss boons could be any of the existing ingame boons, OR Anet could create unique raid boss boons that can only be ripped, not stolen or corrupted. An example of a unique raid boss boon could be a boon that decreases skill cooldown, thus ripping said boon would make the utilization of deadly skills less frequent. Of course the raid boss will periodically regenerate its unique boons but any ripped boons would be a considerable benefit to the squad.