Teletric.3821

ANet has nothing to lose by doing this. I get that there are other skins that people can argue for being spears in concept, but out of all of them these are the only ones that literally have the word "spear" in them. We've also seen NPCs wielding them as spears in Living World Season 4. The models are already done, worst case scenario is that they just need to adjust the positioning. Could just have it so that people who unlock the Darkspear and Sunspear skins in their wardrobe also get a matching spear version instead of introducing a brand new acquisition method for the spear versions. EDIT: As of 9/10/24, they're previewable in the wardrobe! No acquisition method as of yet it seems.

I feel like I have a plausible theory as to what the titans are doing exactly in Janthir and it has to do with a key part of their identity that is seemingly missing from Guild Wars 2. Any Guild Wars 1 player would know: killing a titan is not the end of the fight. Instead, it would spawn several lesser titans upon its death. Then, killing those titans would have them spawn even more Titans. This was a fundamental part of their identity and made them stand out from other enemies in the game, and I do not think the developers would get rid of that part of them even if they're saying that the ones we are encountering in the story are more advanced. What is the theory? One of the key points of information we learn during the Titan Researcher achievement is that "The titans have grown so large that they've developed the ability to produce spawn" but we know this is not entirely accurate. They've always been able to produce spawn, but the difference in Guild Wars 1 was that the progenitor always died prior to or during the spawning process. Whether the spawning was a latch-ditch effort by the titan to preserve some part(s) of itself or just a natural byproduct as a result of its death/critical damage is unknown, but regardless the progenitor had to die for the spawning to occur. What I believe is meant to be implied in the quote is that the progenitors have grown so large that they're able to produce spawn without dying, specifically. In other words, the progenitors have gotten so big that they can sustainably split parts of themselves off into spawn without losing a significant portion of their body. Also, keep in mind that all of the spawn we have fought so far appears to be the smallest denomination of titan that are unable to split further, which likely makes it less taxing on the progenitors' bodies. A piece of supporting evidence from the Titan Researcher achievement is that Born from Thunder describes the behavior of the Titanspawn as if they are "the limbs of the big fellas", which adds further credibility to the idea that they are just parts of the progenitor. How do the progenitors get bigger if they're breaking off parts of themselves to create spawn? That is where the Bloodstones come in. In addition to holding magic, they also have been shown to hold souls. And you know what titans are made from? That's right, twisted and tortured souls, of course! They could be absorbing magic from the Bloodstone as a bonus, but I think the primary reason they're draining them is to absorb more souls. By absorbing those souls, they grow bigger. By growing bigger, they can spawn more lesser titans with lesser risk. And more lesser titans means they can cover more ground. So how do they recover after they fail to drain the bloodstone? Most likely by reabsorbing some of their "limbs", the lesser titans. We have never been able to see what a titan could do with its spawn since they were never able exist alongside them in the past, but it feels pretty plausible. Also would explain why the lesser titans do not gravitate towards the Bloodstones like the progenitors do (another detail we learn in the Titan Researcher achievement): they don't need 'em. It's the progenitor that needs to get big to be able to spawn more powerful lesser titans. In Closing: Hopefully the theory makes sense, please ask if it does not. Definitely would like the community's input on it!

You can play as a bear, there is a Kodan combat tonic as well as a Lowland Kodan combat tonic that you can get by finishing the story. A whole new playable race would require too much effort for the developers.

I did not realize that when we were getting Homesteads, it would also come with squatters. I have nothing personal against these NPCs, but I'm sure I and others would prefer if they would stay in our regular home instance as opposed to tagging along with us to Janthir. There is no dialogue or explanation offered as to why or how they found themselves there, and they don't offer any services related to homesteads. Mechanist Ninn serves no purpose in the homestead after we've finished the associated side story achievements/quests. And if you talk to him, he says his data pad is on the table when it's actually on the floor in our workshop. Go home, Ninn, you're drunk. Ridhais, at least, offers a service (changing Caladbolg's form) unlike Ninn so I can understand wanting to have her in the home instance. However I don't think it's one that people use on a frequent basis so the option to hide her would be nice. M.O.X. is cool, I don't have any problems with him personally but I do wish we could move him to other areas of the homestead and the option to hide him would be nice for the people who don't want him there—if any such people even exist.

At the beginning, though, it's the Ward who introduces them to us as Valravyns—not the Kodan.

It's pretty confusing to me: their textures and model are exactly the same, but the story is acting as if Valravyns are a creature we've never seen before. Is it an oversight and they're actually supposed to use a different texture, or is there a piece of lore somewhere that explains or establishes a relation?

Considering that Janthir Wilds will be taking place in a region inspired by Ireland, it would be a great opportunity to add Celtic-inspired hairstyles and facial hair for all races, perhaps even new tattoos for Norn featuring Celtic designs and patterns. It has been 3 years since we have gotten any new options in the character creator, please ANet 🙏

We don't really know too much about the alt parking system other than that they will appear in your homestead if you log off there, but I just wanted to throw this idea out there as it would allow for better QoL and create more room for creativity. Rather than having your character parked in the same spot in your homestead as when you log out (how I assume it is going to work), I think it would be great if you could choose where they appeared when you were there on other characters through a character-specific marker decoration. This would mean that you could have your alt appear in a specific spot without having to log out there every time. Two examples of how this could be used are having your alts look like they're attending certain posts, or having them be in their own designated living space when they're not in use without having to move to that spot every time you logged off on them.

I can see them either adding in a novelty display stand the same way there are going to be display stands for weapon skins you've unlocked, or just giving you a crafting recipe retroactively for the novelty chairs you've unlocked. That being said, imagine being able to place down the Illusion of Sitting to create sitting spots on objects that aren't designed to work as chairs (like crates and barrels) or building your own throne out of other decorations to sit on!

I wouldn't be surprised if we got new homesteads as selling points of future expansions, similar to how every pre-SotO expac had a new Guild Hall to claim.

Aesthetics Perspective The aesthetic component was what I was mostly looking forward to myself as an engineer main. Every time engineer has received a new weapon proficiency, it has felt like that weapon always had some kind of techy flair or twist that made it unique and gave it a distinct identity: a rocket-powered hammer, a laser sword, a mech-tech mace, and a shortbow that fires elixir-dispensing arrows. However, it feels like the spear lacks that kind of flair/identity, being used as a regular spear for the most part. Aesthetically, the lightning rod is a fun idea but it feels disconnected from the spear – like it could work as a gadget utility skill instead (might even feel better as it would save you the step of unequipping your bundle to use the skill). However, I think there is a simple solution to this: have the spear itself be the lightning rod which gets charged and thrown rather than being a separate entity that floats next to the engineer. (Plus, I would totally love to have the lightning rod as its own spear skin, the art team really cooked!)

One thing that has me scratching my head about Engineer spear is why the spear itself isn't the lightning rod that gets charged. Right now, it sounds like the lightning rod is its own thing and doesn't necessarily have to rely on the spear (like I can see it work as a utility skill that works with any weapon the engineer chooses to use), whereas having the spear itself be the thing that the engineer is charging would make the weapon front-and-center for the mechanic. (also would really love the lightning rod as its own spear skin!)

There are a few staff skins in game that appear to be designed as spears, and I think many players already do use them as such in their fashion. Two of the more obvious examples are the Sunspear and Darkspear skins, which are not only defined as spears in their name, but even wielded by Paragon NPCs in Istan as such. Would these skins just remain staff-only skins or will we get spear versions of them? EDIT: This was a separate post that was merged with OP's, sorry if it appears I'm just restating what OP said.

I hope that Janthirian fish get new icons with new lore attached to then. Fishing in SotO was disappointing to me because they had the same icon/appearance as existing fish in the game 😞

That might be the case, but also it's very much an optional thing since there are much easier and less expensive things you could be doing for AA. I think clearing a raid wing would be great in the "special" category as sort of a seasonal goal to get people raiding. And if people don't wanna do it, they can still do other stuff and get all the rewards they want from the Vault.

I definitely think the shortbow would work much better as a kit in its current state, with the toolbelt skill allowing you to detonate all the mines at once. Imagine detonating all the mines at one time and then swapping to use Hammer 3 to perform leap finishers from all the different field types at once as a Scrapper...

They have the tech for swapping weapon skills as you can swap the Hammer skills on Ranger outside of Untamed, so what if they applied the tech to Engi shortbow to let you choose different essences? Basically, the idea is that you could swap out the essences the blog post mentions in slots 2-5 to different ones, like you can with utility skills. What this would do is change the types of Chain Reactions you'd have access to. In the example in the blog post, they talked about how the Essence of Animated Sand creates a big AoE of sand that gives allies barrier, and its Chain Reaction effect causes other arrows to grant barrier on the initial detonation. But imagine the ability to swap out the essence in that slot to one that has an inverse effect: creating an AoE of acid that decreases enemies' incoming barrier, and its Chain Reaction effect causing other arrows to inflict damaging conditions (depending on what type of arrow it is) on enemies on the initial detonation. Essentially, you could customize whether you wanted more support oriented Chain Reactions, more damage oriented ones, or maybe a combination of the two. The way I see this in my head flavor-wise is the engineer deciding what kind of arrows they want to keep in their quiver/Universal Multitool Pack.

I've always hoped for a Rambo-inspired elite spec for Engineer with traps and explosive-tipped arrows, and this kind of does it for me. The emphasis on support does worry me a little but I'm not going to "nock" it until I try it.

As many others have said, there's practically no reason to use sword outside of Holosmith because it relies heavily on the heat mechanic to be optimal. At the same time, though, it's the only weapon that interacts with the heat mechanic and rewards you for engaging with the intended high-risk-high-reward playstyle of Holosmith (for example, variable quickness duration depending on heat level for Sword 3). Other weapon skills should also get amplified or additional effects depending on the heat threshold for the sake of consistency. I mean, you guys gave Weaver 30 new weapon skills specifically for the Dual Attack mechanic to account for every Attunement + weapon combination — it wasn't just for sword. And every weapon base Warrior could use got a Primal Burst skill for the Berserker elite spec when it was released — it wasn't just torch.

But then we can only have one kit at a time...

You make a great point and it actually raises my excitement for the next story. If demons are born and/or sustain themselves off of the negative emotions of Tyrians like Deimos did with Saul, it would make sense why the demon in The Deep would latch onto the Pact Commander specifically as opposed to their other allies. Perhaps the demon has already had its eye on the Pact Commander for quite some time, and it was playing the long game to eventually lure them to itself after the threat of the Elder Dragons had been dealt with, knowing the pain and suffering they would have endured. There are so many interesting routes they can take with this concept.

Depends on the race event. In the Pavilion Pursuit, you get 3, 2, or 1 additional Festival Coin(s) depending on whether you placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd respectively. Some race events (like the standard PoF ones) give you an achievement for placing in the top 3. Again, they aren't huge rewards but still some rewards nonetheless. I guess it may be different for you, but for me the fun and excitement in a race comes from trying to get first place; that's what makes it a race in the first place. Otherwise it'd just be a time trial... I mean, if what you are saying were the case, wouldn't everybody just do the time trial version instead? Hell, they aren't even on a timer like the races are -- you can do them any time.

Charr Siege Devourer Skin for the Siege Turtle. Need I say more?

I hope this doesn't discourage ANet to stop the recent trend of giving warhorns unique blowing sounds; I just think that this should be a treatment that is also given to pistols and rifles. A lot of the guns in the game really do not sound like how they look, especially in the case of skins like the Jade Tech Pistol and Rifle. In promotional material like the launch trailer as well as with the NPCs in game that use them, the Jade Tech weapons are shown to have unique sounds when fired. When you actually get your hands on them, though, it's disappointing to learn that they have the same sounds that pretty much every rifle has had since 2012. Some guns, on the other hand, just look like they'd sound different like the Inquest 2.0 rifle and pistol and it's just... underwhelming. I'm not saying they should go back and retroactively change the sounds of existing guns to make them fit better (though that would be going "above and beyond"), but rather just focus on newer weapons to avoid the mismatch going forward. Plus, it would boost the immersion and roleplaying factor as well.

In all honesty, the consumables are pretty cheap to craft so I don't think it matters very much. Plus, less items in the drop table means the other items have a higher chance to drop now (like the candy canes you need to make those consumables). It's more cumbersome to get them, sure, but it's not too bad IMO.