ConstantlyBrooding.2901

Cool in theory, a letdown in execution so far. I've got to join the general concensus that while it sounds fun on paper, Willbender needs massive rework before it's remotely ready for launch (and possibly playtesters that actually "main" guardian). The chief problems with Willbender in its current state: - The offhand sword feels almost completely pointless and is only worthwhile or fun with cool double-sword attacks on all the weapon skills. I expected a fighting experience akin to Ahsoka Tano or another two-blade fighter of fiction; instead our guards awkwardly slash about with 3/5 perfectly standard moves. and seemingly forget they are holding a pair of swords. The only two weapon skills to actually dual wield the swords are 4 and 5, and rather than a satisfying, complex multihit attack, both are extremely janky and require range so point-blank as to be practically touching foes; i.e., useless against any bunker build in PvP/WvW; and outright suicide against Scourge and Elementalist player's massive AoE. And despite the 4 key skill stating in the tooltip that it does 4x hits, it's bugged and strikes exactly twice. Why give players a weapon proficiency if we can't do anything awesome with it? The same way that Dragonhunter's longbow proficiency feels almost insulting when literally everyone has faster firing, faster weapon skill cooldown, and faster moving arrows, to the point only True Shot is particularly helpful; it seems pointless to give us a second sword if we don't actually get any cool dual attacks. This is doubly dissapointing in light of the fact Spellbreakers and Soulbeasts did get dual attacks in Path of Fire, and for whatever reason Firebrand didn't get to use double-axes. Symbol of Blades is still great for shadowsteppping to a foe to chase them in a fight, and Zealot's Defense has its use; but both of those single-hand sword skills, alongside the auto-attack combo, need to be changed into a truly gnarly dual-wielding equivalent. Why not a teleport that slams both blades into the ground to form the damaging symbol on the Symbol-of-Blades-equivalent skill? Why not alter the stationary forward projectile destruction of Zealot's defense into a sword-twirling steerable state, a la Dagger Storm and Whirling Axe? That would be fun, and we'd actually be using both equipped swords. It's zero fun to watch the right hand of our characters flail about as our left hand does nothing. - The red trails on skills and the searingly saturated yellow to indicate Lethal Tempo are an eye strain, not to mention potentially dangerous to photosensitive players; and they have got to be changed to something non-contrasting like teal or light blue. This is basic color theory. Blue is and has been the core color of guard skills, with indigo, blue-white, and cyan as the analagous, similar colors that don't horribly clash with it. Red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors in color theory, and as equal primaries the visual centers of brain have trouble not getting overwhelmed when registering two, or all three. Red next to yellow intensifies both. Blue next to red intensifies both. Blue next to yellow intensifies both. Combine red and yellow on already bright blue skills? You're asking for a migraine at best. The particle/light effects in of themselves aren't bad, but they can't stay red and yellow. Make them a light turquoise if you want them to look "distinct" as elite specialization VFX; that would at least fit the Jade theme of a huge chunk of Cantha and not melt my retinas. - Physical skills are interesting on paper and fun visually, but need massive tweaking to not just be Daredevil revisited (and as useless as most of Daredevil Thieves stomping my face in with their core-profession utility skills find their own Physical skills). Guardians' whole thing in terms of condition damage is that we can really only inflict Vulnerability and Burning; and I would expect martial-arts moves that at least weaponized those conditions, that had any degree of suvivability. Not only does our punch flurry reuse the Daredevil animation barring the added particles, it functionally works no differently than Daredevil's Fist Flurry other than having a shadowstep to actually close the gap. Why not FURIOUS FIRES? It would be delightful to inflict a Burning-applying and physically damaging barrage of blows on someone like a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure character. Heel Crack ought to actually crack open our foes and apply Vulnerability alongside knocking them prone. And more than anything, as a rework even Daredevil itself arguably needs if you want the Thief players to even use that elite spec's skills, Physical skills that are melee-only should all involve a shadowstep or leap toward a foe, though for obvious balance reasons only one should break stun. Almost every other profession can maintain a constant upkeep of Swiftness or Superspeed, or simply teleport out of the range of even Dragonhunter arrows and Spear of Justice. If we're to actually WIN any fights, let alone be able to keep up in PvP, we need to be able to chase people down with our Physical skills and ensure that a martial arts throwdown even actually occurs to start with. As a final note, the heal on the healing Physical skill is pathetically small and does not make the ability to ignore a lethal blow worth it. What's the point if a Deadeye can just Three-round Burst us out of the ability to ignore that lethal damage, then immediately kills us anyway with their next barrage of shots? Have you forgotten about Be Quick or Be Killed and how deadly that trait makes them? - Righteous Sprint and its inherent movement bonus, even with Swiftness granted on virtue use, isn't enough to keep up with the glut of self-launches, knockbacks, teleports, and self-buffing with Superspeed/Quickness virtually every other profession is capable of using for a quick getaway. (Engineers can use four of these at once if they have a rifle.) We don't have a "swift advantage" in combat, now we just have a slight chance of actually chasing someone down on sub-equal footing; whereas core, Firebrand, and Dragonhunter Guardian has no chance in hell. If the idea is to make us actually feel faster and more relentless, than the movement speed bonus should be higher than a meager 33% like we already had from Swiftness, especially since it isn't even clear from the tooltip if the effects of Swiftness and the trait stack. At the very least, we ought to gain Superspeed on a player kill, or even more bare minimum, we should simply have an inherent reduction to all movement-impairing effects, just as Relentless Pursuit, Don't Stop, and similar traits for other professions work. Players are pragmatic and I know from experience people will spam Cripple, Chill, and Immobilize on anyone already lagging behind trying to chase them. I don't blame them, it's the strategic thing to do. It's not going to feel very "fast" if the auto-caltrops on a Trickery-traits Thief dodge leave me limping along at snail pace behind them. - Willbender Flames should inflict Burning, period. They are literally Flames. There's no point to letting us leave a trail/ring/spray of them with our modified virtues if we have to slot a trait to even have those flames light people on fire. This is beyond asinine, and a flat-out boring in light of how awesome the fire traps of Harrower Veltan and were. Flame should Burn, and a grand total of two seconds of fire left behind is dumb. The fact using another virtue destroys the prior Willbender Flames effect, instead of stacking them to let us create the same arena of searing pain that both those NPC Willbenders did, is an even bigger disappointment. We've been shut down and melted in six seconds time and time again by other player's enormous AoE fields, it's time to let Guardian players have some payback that isn't as janky and low-radius as spirit weapons with Eternal Armory trait slotted. - As stated by everyone else, there's pretty much next to no synergy with core Guardian traits, let alone with the traits in the same elite specialization. The linked effects we do have are minuscule, and reliant on constantly facerolling over our keys. The bonuses we get are tiny, the reduced duration of Lethal Tempo on the only trait that makes it stronger feels absolutely awful, and there's nothing particularly cool that doesn't come with a massive drawback on the Grandmaster traits. - The modified virtues should still have a passive effect. I don't know why they ever didn't in the first place, even Firebrands' Tomes still give them a bonus unless on cooldown from using the active effect. The only "crashing" in Crashing Courage right now is the crashing and burning we do in any attempted fights. When the designated Paladin class has a third elite specialization fundamentally crippled compared to something else both its core self and the other elite specializations for the same profession can do, it's bad gameplay design.

I picked the hairstyle shown below when I gave my Guardian a makeover; mainly since I liked the dignified, Celtic-warrior-queen sort of look that it gave her. The hairstyle looks delightful as long as the player is at rest. And, while I'm all for having hair and cloth physics; it's a bit disconcerting when the physics occur without any collision detection, making those leaves clip into her head and eat her tree-brain. Having a practical yet ladylike braid on her? Cool.Having this happen with literally every step or jump she takes? Not so cool. I'd be very pleased and unfathomably grateful if somebody could fix this clipping. But for now, the full-head helmet is staying on with my main armor suit, it seems. As for why my Minstrel-stat armor looks like that, what she does recreationally is none of your business. To paraphrase The Tick , in all his innocently dimwitted heroism: "Arthur... ...I think my bangs are touching my brain..."

Thread over, making myself a new thread for an issue of shininess that is actually bothering me much more. I tested these through rough analogue on my dude self and changed my mind. I tested this in the dumbest yet most logical way I could think of. I placed two metal mixing bowls on my chest and smacked those; and not unexpectedly I was rewarded for that foolishness by incredible pain in the sternum and rib region. I did the same but with one bowl and it didn't hurt, so based on this haphazard test I'm gonna rule Ascalonian Protector, Council Guard and all the ones that don't have individual cups for boobs but a single curve over the chest to be usable breastplates. "Why, though, you idiot?", you are asking, and you're completely right to make that judgement. The answer is simple: because I felt bad for getting mad at all of you and wanted to test it... well, not conclusively, but in some way. ITT: pack your bags, I slammed my hand into a pair of small metal mixing bowls and it hurt, smacked one bowl it did not. These are more or less viable designs and I retract my opinion.

Y'all know full well that in the "LET ME MAKE A TANK" part of that, I didn't type kitten. I like how Anet censors swearing. If you might excuse me, I'm going back to Warframe, and before you accuse me of being a hypocrite by pointing at the lady Warframes, you should know that: SPOILER: Warframes aren't armor. They're either artificially grown surrogate bodies that are psychically controlled; or in truly horrific cases, someone forcibly mutated into a chitinous combatant who's still mentally enslaved by their "pilot".

Boobies are indeed good! I've got no issue with 'em! I mean, I made my Norn Revenant shown above basically built like Big Barda from DC comics. What does bother me is the fact every armor set feels the need to make an individual shape for the boobs; and that the artists (and you guys) are assuming that they won't still be pretty and "feminine" armors if they design a few sets without it in the future. Still pretty.Still girly (also HOLY MOLY that rabbit is an Absolute Unit).Still elegant. Well, the suit is. Can't speak for the swords and tentacle buddy.Still sassy. Just look at that posture.Still stylish.That lady at left helped her brother conquer Westeros. It's still obvious she's a princess.Hopefully you get my point by now. I'm not critiquing Cultural Armors, because those are probably meant to be ceremonial; other than the Asura and Charr sets, and the various Chainmail and Scale sets would also show the form because they're basically a sheet of metal segments draped over the wearer. In that case, your underlying figure would show up. Warband, Legion, Dreadnought, Galvanic, Electroplated, Electromagnetic, Forgeman, Studded Plate, and Corsair Heavy Jerkin don't have the boobmetal; but that's still not even a complete row of the Wardrobe, and six of those are cultural sets that nobody but Charr and Asura can use. Currently, only a handful of armor sets don't slam HEHEH TIDDY into your face like a baseball bat. I like my Sylvari Guardian lady. I don't object to her being female and having boobs. But since sylvari are so thinly built and there isn't really anything to show off, I would very much like to make her look like a knight, instead of 48 varieties of very weird stripper. She's got no bust to stare at. I fully agree that ArenaNet should keep all the heavy torso skins that are revealing, because I understand plenty of people; especially lady players who are attracted to other ladies, have no beef with it. But can we at least get a version of the heavy torso skins to go along with them where the torso skin is just slightly more rounded outward from the male model? TL; DR : I'm NOT saying, "Get riddy of thy tiddy!" I am asking for the option to choose between the original "girl torso" models and a version of the skin where the only accommodation for the bust is a slightly greater projection outward of the whole torso armor. This way, sexy armor people are happy, and "LET ME MAKE A TANK, DAMN YOU" armor people are happy. I just want a choice between the two. I JUST WANT A CHOICE. Keep the boob if you want it (and most of you do); make Blood-Queen of the Pale Tree if you don't. Give us that option. Talk to the artists.

A further and LONG update since I've yet to receive any developer or artist response on this topic. I'd like at least some feedback, or a reply hopefully promising they'll be adding a more practical, unisex heavy armor set in the future. Since I am a petty nuisance in desire of some equal-opportunity visual tankiness to what's supposed to be "heavy" armor, I've put together a side by side comparison of all the torsos to show the arbitrary difference between sexes. Aetherblade Heavy Chest:Male: A shiny, fairly cool clockwork breastplate.Female: A skintight catsuit with a gorget and stomach plate slapped on to try and excuse it as "armor" when it not only has boob shapes, but weird little castle rampart shapes cupping them. Armageddon Breastplate:Male: A metal AF and awesome Nazgul-esque "Black Knight" type of breastplate.Female: Individual boob shapes, and a general appearance of having been painted onto the base player model rather than actual modeled as a separate object like the male torso armor skin was. Ascalonian Protector Breastplate:Male: A genuinely cool-looking Lorica segmentata-style segmented cuirass; one that looks very awesome, in a fashion at complete odds with the dorkiness of the rest of this dungeon armor set and its goofy bucket helmet. I only have two complaints. First, the lack of lower neck/shoulder coverage where the shoulder straps are; those should at least have a plate over them like the actual Roman legionnaires. Second, the fact that every other dungeon heavy set is shiny and pretty (barring Honor of the Wave's heavy "X of Koda" set, which makes sense, it's hardened leather) while this set and Flame Legion Heavy, despite clearly being metal, remain un-updated and still look like plastic. This torso would go great with some of the Funerary pieces.Female: An example of how this nicely complements the Funerary Tassets and why I would very much like for both: A.) the Ascalonian set to be updated with metallic textures, and B.) the ungodly color blobbing that happens with the dye slots on the Funerary pieces to be fixed. But, unfortunately, what would be one of the genuinely cool and fully practical female heavy torsos is ruined by the arbitrary addition of boob-bulge and the fact that it's more or less been painted on the body model. Breasts are not really an organ that requires "extra space" with properly made armor, and real-world actresses and stuntwomen show that. Look at the stunning Virginia Hankins, for example: Notice how there is zero difference from any other fantasy stunt actor in her whole torso armor harness. Moving onward. Banded Breastplate:Male: A usable if haphazard collection of splints, scale mail, and metal plates, not dissimilar to the plate and chain armor of some Indian royals.Female: A gap at both the abodmen and the chest where there's no metal at all; and worse still, yet more needless boob cups. Bladed Breastplate:Male: Okay, I'll be honest, this set is utterly impractical regardless of sex; and unlike the Shredder from TMNT, all the sharp bits of this armor set are in exactly the right places to slice up oneself and no one else. But at least the male model isn't skintight and actually looks like a breastplate.Female: Skintight catsuit with a few metal textures slapped on; and yet again individually molded boob shapes. Because, you know, that totally won't end painfully, just having boob cups inches from a bunch of serrated spines. Bounty Hunter's Breastplate:Male: A weird but cool meat/chitinous breastplate that vaguely calls to mind Starcraft's Zerg and has small enough of spikes that they don't bother me.Female: No exposed skin, but still skintight. I did not ask for, or desire in any fashion, Venus Flytrap breasts. Carapace Breastplate:Male: An oddly ankh-bearing and butterfly-esque breastplate, but a breastplate nonetheless; the only design issue is that the bevor (that neck thingy in front) is so pointed and oversized it would direct a blow INTO the throat.Female: Skintight and boob shapes, again. Nothing more to be said. Council Guard Breastplate:Male: A partially segmented breastplate that has been oddly patterned with a ram motif despite the bird motif in the rest of the suit. Also possesses some of the only upper arm coverage in the model of a torso skin.Female: It takes a bustier race than Sylvari to show it, but yet more needless boob-forming. Metal does not work this way in suit of plate armor; especially if it's doing its job. Dark Templar Breastplate:Male: Haphazard and with no clear clues as to what the heck is holding it together; plus the hip-chains just provide a handy grip for an opponent; but still, the artists actually made it a breastplate, even if one of low feasibility.Female: Skintight and boob shapes. Draconic Breastplate:Male: An odd mixture of scale mail, plate, and fluted lammelar plates, but still hypothetically usable.Female: Skintight and boobs. Stop. Doing. This. In. Every. Design. Especially. You. Kekai. Kotaki. Flame Legion Breastplate:Male: Another cool evil knight looking breastplate, I'll even excuse the tiny spikes; I just wish we could dye the flame color on this and the glow on the Forgeman set.Female: Skintight and with pitted fire-boobs. Oh joy. That induces trypophobia, not arousal. This is viscerally upsetting to look at. Funerary Breastplate:Male: Odd and covered in weird protruding doodads; only the tassets of the set have a nice clean silhouette, regardless of sex; but still, a breastplate. Shame the armor dye slots on the whole set blob together in an ungodly fashion and completely ruin our ability to customize, be the character male or female.Female: Skintight with clam-shell boobs. How utterly novel and fresh to look at. Glorious Breastplate (All Rarities):Male: Perfectly fine, with some rerebrace lames on the upper arms and a heroic lion motif. A cool breastplate.Female: A cool design ruined by being lazily painted on to the playermodel in near skintight fashion, same as Ascalonian Protector. While nicely shiny, I'm not using it. Grasping Dead Breastplate:Male: THIS is my aesthetic. This is beautiful and perfect, I don't even care that the spike-teeth would be impractical; this is my love of monsters, armor, and magically corrupted stuff encapsulated into one beautiful three-way baby. This is the torso armor skin the ladies should have too, and that my insane albino Sylvari Dragonhunter deserves. A mouth growing out of the stomach, proper chainmail in the armor gaps as an underlayer, ribcage bits, two frickin' zombie hands just gouging at the chest, this is a valid breastplate exactly because it's so over the top. This is what you put on your DPS soldier-class character. This screams "evil, or at least anti-hero" and I LIKE IT.Female: A metal crop-top with molded boobs that are being groped by zombie hands, no abdomen or lower back coverage, no chainmail, and random bits of tattered cloth. Stay classy, ArenaNet. Sorry to vent, but COME ON. I want the Nazgul torso. What part of making my little tree lady look like Witch-King of Angmar is supposed to be less sexy?! Guild Ornate Armor:Male: A quilted aketon, chainmail covered with a tabard showing the guild emblem on it, decorative ribbons, and a few bits of plate metal, such as the gorget. Acceptable and fine.Female: Yet more needless boob-forming on something that would never show them in the first place. Hard hats don't come in a ladies' version. Hellfire Cuirass:Male: An acceptable and demonic suit that turns you into a gross but cool lava man.Female: Lava boobs and all the coolness immediately ruined. Heritage Breastplate:Male: Ignoring the fact I'll never have these skins since I don't have a GW1 account, this is fine and dandy. Other than the wierd spiked armband on one side that does nothing, it's a breastplate.Female: Boobs. I am so very weary of metal boobs. Illustrious Breastplate:Male: Though there's way too much going on in the designs of all three sets of Ascended armor, this is nevertheless a proper breastplate.Female: Skintight metal with over-decorated boobs. Inquest BreastplateMale: Though oddly polygonal and geometric like a lot of Asuran stuff, more or less valid; other than that slight inward curve at the chest. Also another refreshing case of actual armor on the upper arms even without a shoulder skin.Female: Boobs, DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE ASURA WHO MADE THIS SUIT DON'T EVEN HAVE ANY. Why? Just Why?! Lunatic Templar Breastplate:Male: Acceptable, I just wish we could dye the glow color. The inability to make the fire anything but orange is the same as Flame Legion and Forgeman, and it makes it feel underwhelming for a holiday reward.Female: Fire boobs. Say something I'm giving up on yooooooouuuuuu ~ Mistward Plate:Male: Gaps for the arms, but still a proper breastplate that covers the whole torso other than the arm holes and armpits.Female: The same creepy groping finger-thingies as Grasping Dead on the boobs, and a massive cutaway so there's basically no side to the armor. Dumb. Nightmare Court Breastplate:Male: A cool and prickly plant-suit that makes you feel like an evil Treant.Female: So close to correct, and not skin-tight, but still has a needless boob-shelf. Phalanx Breastplate:Male: A piecemeal but perfectly reasonable armor that makes sense for a mercenary or knight-errant.Female: A backless and cleavage-baring dress. Literally not even armor in any fashion. Primeval Breastplate:Male: A breastplate treading a thin line toward unusability with its inward curve near the sternum, but a breastplate.Female: Primeval boobs. Great, just great. Absolutely what I wanted from as gnarly of an adjective as "Primeval". Grrr. Priory's Historical Breastplate:Male: An oddly patterned and ridged but passable breastplate that fits the scholar organization and their general "books and blocks" motif.Female: Oh, how shocking, more needless boobs; and on top of that a ring of exposed skin that begins at the stomach and completely bares the lower back! Radiant Cuirass:Male: Quite tacky because achievement armor can't be dyed to make that glow less blinding; but still, it's a breastplate.Female: Skintight metal and sacred boobs. I totally asked for that; and on one of the only pieces with any neck protection to boot. Rampart Breastplate:Male: Other than its weird popped collar in the metal like a college frat boy, perfectly passable.Female: Skintight catsuit that has diamond boobs. Splint Breastplate:Male: A mixture of lammelar plates and Japanese kikko-style hexagon plates.Female: Molded boob-metal. Vigil's Honor Breastplate:Male: Slightly "muscled" like some Roman emperors' breastplates, but clearly having thick enough of metal that it isn't just meant to be ceremonial; and not as skin-tightly curving inward in the metal in sternum-breaking fashion like those suits were. Acceptable.Female: A cleavage window, hardly any metal plates at all (other than the weird blade thingies on each breast), no back, and no sides. At this stage, it might as well be a dress. Warbeast Breastplate:An incredibly messed up and Body Horror-riffic breastplate, but a breastplate nonetheless. I'm not even bothered by the exposed armpits and upper arm because the comically massive antler-thingies that are the alleged pauldrons in this armor set completely cover that region anyway.Female: Skintight metal with a cleavage window and boob shapes for no discernible reason. There is nothing erotic about having been forcibly and agonizingly turned into a molten robot by the fallen god Balthazar. And if you do find that erotic, you've got some issues to work through. Whisper's Secret Breastplate:Male: Okay, I'm gonna be honest and say that this bizarre melange of knife-y bits, leather, and metal is a patchwork and impractical torso armor regardless of sex, but at least with the male skin your character is covered up.Female: Straight up dominatrix fetish-wear, with convenient built-in knives for the client's ease. If you were gonna do this, you might as well have made the male torso model show off the abs and pecs.

Apparently, swear words are turned into harmless ones. B@d@$$ in the above comment became kitten. I like your style Arenanet. Your moderation style, not your armor style.

This was a magnificent post and I wish I could give it Thumbs Up and Helpful. Especially this part: What do you think of the armour the Zaishen Zealots wear? It has at least some of the features you're asking for, but it also has neck spikes and... antlers? Not sure. Also, of course, it's not available to players... Honestly, more than anything I want to be able to acquire forged armor skins. NOT the Warbeast set but a modification of the actual appearance the different units have since they clearly have male and female voices without any difference in shape. If Balthazar's army of forcibly roboticized fire people can be unisex, we should have the option too. Or at the very least, could we get the Herald of Balthazar's armor as a skin set? Horrified as I am by Devona's fate; I can't deny she looks badass for something in total agony. Her head is the one design of "horns" on a helmet that's actually tasteful and looks good instead of.... whatever's going on with Dhuum.

An even briefer explanation of what I want in "girl" torso armor skins: Give me Fuel. Give me Fire. GIVE. ME. THAT. WHICH. I. DESIRE. Pretty, pretty please? I love you, artists and modelers. Mostly.

Here we go. A fifty image gallery of torso options.https://imgur.com/gallery/65vLAlx

94 images to go. It's laborious but by god I am going to show them how 95% of the torso options are HEYLUKPLAIERBUUBSHEHEHE.

I am compiling a (massive, fair warning) imgur gallery of this. I need to show the prevalence of the joint-less clown shoulders and booby torsos. Will be updating the thread with it later.

Item: Funerary TassetsSex: BothRace: AllClass: Warrior, Guardian, or Revenant Description: There are numerous issues of dye color overlap between the cloth, metallic, and gem details/regions that make them lump together when they should be separately customizable.

Amen! Girl characters should be able to be tanks, guy characters should be allowed to dress like Voldo from Soul Calibur if they feel like it. True equality.

Condensed Version of the Original Post, A.K.A Gib Me Badass Heavy Set Anet PlsOkay, a briefer rundown of this whole thing than the first post, as a quicker(ish) bullet list: All heavy armor in GW2 is arbitrarily "girly-fied" to look sexy; making "gendered" armor is the equivalent of making a ladies' hard hat. You don't distinguish between sexes with protective gear. THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT PROTECTIVE GEAR. For the love of god, can we please just add a toggle option to graphics; one to keep the skanky torso and leggings on heavy armor if a player wants them; and for everyone else, make armor unisex? You don't see "lady" hard hats among construction crews, the only difference is the sizing. There are plenty of ways that armor can be "feminine" without making glorified metal lingerie. For example, botanical or feline patterns on the metal; an attenuated and slender silhouette made largely of elliptical shapes; flowing cloth decorations; or even just making it cleaner, shinier, and less beat up than the "male" set. The Dancer of the Boreal Valley and Throne Watcher from the Dark Souls series are a great example of this. There are absolutely no close helmets (with a visor, breathing slits, etc.) like a proper knight should have, and given that core Guardian is basically Paladin: the Class this is extra infuriating. No more weird hats or cosplay headbands. PLEASE. Give us something that actually looks cool; like the armets from the high middle ages; that's the type of helmet seen above in the original lecture/rant. I want a gauntlet skin with a proper elbow-guard besides Triumphant Hero; and unlike Triumphant Hero I want this one to A.) have finger protection and B.) actually be easily accessible and not locked behind tedious currency and a reward track. The same for the whole armor set; if Arenanet actually listens to this. I want a greaves skin with an actual knee-guard; so far only Vigil's Honor, Priory Explorer (barely), Illustrious, Koda's (which have the weird little carpet hanging off the calf), and a handful of others meet the requirement. Others that would count, like Bounty Hunter's or Bladed, are tainted by having an ungodly, hideously huge protrusion like an axe blade or a super long spike. I politely and profoundly request that the metal of such a hypothetical armor set is actually shiny and reflective. Most dungeon armor, as well as the PvP and WvW reward track sets are glossy enough; but other allegedly metal sets like Citadel of Flame and Ascalonian Protector look like flat, opaque plastic. And now the extra important stuff, in the event Anet's talented heavy armor artists want to make my year by designing and modeling such a set (pretty please, you guys are genuinely amazing, you'e just perpetuating the needless artistic meme of boob-metal): Give it flutes. No, not the musical instrument; the little ridges all over the armor suit from Germany that I displayed above are what armorers mean by flutes. Smiths were inspired to make flutes in metal by observing similar ridges in the shells of scallops and other bivalves. They lighten a structure and also make it tougher by dispersing the force of an impact. Regarding the aforementioned suit of German armor, keep in mind that this is mounted on a museum manikin. Most suits of chain-mail that went with armor did not survive the middle ages in half as good of shape as the plate components they went beneath; they were much harder to maintain, replace, and clean. Same as Heavy Plate or Citadel of Flame that are already in-game, chain-mail would fill in the gaps of this hypothetical new heavy set; not cloth, nor whatever weird morph-suit is the underlayer of the Triumphant and Triumphant Hero sets. ?Please. ?Keep. ?The. ?Shoulders. ?Non-gigantic. ?And. ?Made. ?Of. ?MULTIPLE. ?Segments ?. Pauldrons are designed to guard the shoulder, BUT they are also designed to let the shoulder move in the first place. The same way that a spider can't bend the middle of its body but a wasp can; an armor set with the same sort of cringe-worthy quarter-sphere-shaped, jointless slabs as Angry Space Catholics 69,000 or World of Deltoidcraft accomplishes nothing but preventing the wearer from raising their arm above a 90 degree angle. Please keep the pauldrons only big enough to cover the body part underneath, and include the very vital segmentation. Barbaric Shoulders are a good in-game example (as long as you rip off the spikes and weird armpit-tassel). I am with the community, ABSOLUTELY NONE of the dreaded crotch-curtain and butt-cape. So many heavy leggings have these two flimsy fabric strips, and it doesn't look good on any of them. Plate armor was often open toward the nethers, with only chain-mail covering the groin and buttocks for ease of horse-riding; just do the same as the real-world suits; or alternatively Google what a fauld and codpiece are. While shiny, keep the set fully dye-able. I don't want the situation going on with Glorious and Triumphant armor; where pieces are "dye-able, but there are glowing lines that are always a blecky color that throws your scheme off if you don't use white and gold/really muted colors" and "dye-able, but there's always that faint tinge of silver to whatever you picked", respectively. Think of the overall shape of the breastplate as being something like an oblong flower vase turned upside-down. It curves out at the chest and ribs, curves subtly inward in an arc toward the waist and abdomen, then flares slightly back out at the waistline. Sabatons are the armor of the foot in a suit of plate armor, as well as the origin of a metal band's name. A sabaton is basically just a boiled leather boot, covered by riveted-together plates that bend in segments, just like the pauldron, to let the foot flex with the boot underneath. A small detail, but one that counts. Should you see fit to grant my Guardian jinglin' janglin' kicks, make her kicks segmented. FINALLY: This isn't meant as a rant, I just want a genuine knight suit for my Sylvari lady that fits; and doesn't have shoulders, gauntlets, and boots a foot too thick/wide for her narrow little body. You guys are all still great artists, and I love you. Well, I platonically love you. Well, I would if I knew you personally. But I like you guys and your art styles; I cannot say the loading screens are boring in GW2, the concept paintings/sketches are always intriguing to look at.

I'd like to add on to my post by pointing out that mainly, this is all motivated by a desperate, begging desire to have something with proportional shoulders. I don't like Warhammer and WoW, I shouldn't be stuck with the same clown-shoe pauldrons and boob-metal as them.

A polite request to the talented modelers and concept artists at Arenanet for genuine knight armor.(Advance apologies to the community and devs for long armor nerd post) Don't get me wrong, Anet's whole team of artists and modelers are wonderful and talented people. The vast majority of players are perfectly content with all the torso heavy armor options currently available; and the texture work on everything, regardless of armor class, is gorgeous. But since guardians fill a classic paladin-type role (barring, of course, specializations); it's always bummed me that I can't make a female PC look like a badass knight; at least not entirely. I can get full torso coverage, but even on otherwise cool sets like Mistward, everything is as formfitting as a leotard and has needless breast cups in the metal. Having some cheesecake sexy armor is fine, just look at the muscle cuirasses of some Roman Emperors; but having the only female torso armor that is designed to be just armor (for example, the Forgeman breastplate) also make your character look fat is frustrating. Making a player character one hundred percent badass and zero percent princess is not something I should have to make an Asura or Charr lady just to be able to do. The alluring, impractical sets for female PCs are fine, not to mention a big part of the fun for many lads and ladies among players, and I'm not complaining about their presence; but them being the only options when male characters sometimes get way cooler skins, like the Nazgul-ish ribcage-style armor on the male Grasping Dead Breastplate's model, is kind of dumb. That's not to say real armor wasn't fitted to the body, it was; but not that ridiculously tight. After all, armor is at its core safety equipment, and it doesn't really make sense to make a "lady" hardhat anymore than it does to only have breastplate options that are.... ...well, taking the term quite literally. Convex shapes, and inward curves of only about 45 degree arcs, are what you want when shaping metal for armor; the glancing surfaces work in the same way as how the slope of a roof makes rain run down it. It's perfectly possible to make armor that is shaped to the form, elegant, and light without it being literally skin tight. One of many armors commissioned in the late middle ages by the Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol is a great example of this; a suit belonging to the German "Gothic" style. Have a look: Still flattering to the figure, regardless of sex; and it looks badass without being as clunky and borderline rotund as the Leystone, Studded Plate, or Forgeman breastplates. This is what I'm talking about, and this is what I'm looking for in my frustrating quest to make my tree lady a fantasy hero instead of eye candy. That said, I have seven extra provisos for the design, should such a set ever be added to the game. A. That something like this be an actual armor set, and not an outfit, with the skins individual divided between six pieces, as it should be; since some people might want to mix-and-match bits even if they don't want the full set; and frankly fashion is endgame in any MMO. Someone's angry human peasant dude deserves to make their ranger in that character slot look like a farmer with incongruous gauntlets; just as much as my sylvari guardian deserves something less... ...stripper-like on her torso. B. Pretty as the majority of its components are, Gothic plate has two genuinely ridiculous and silly elements: the pointy sabatons (foot armor) that make the wearer look like the Grinch gone out for a walk, and the bucket-with-an-overbite sallet; which though an effective and widely mass-produced helmet, looked and still looks dorky as all hell. These components can be substituted with something less preposterous. C. For the change in Close Helmet design, I suggest something more like 15th century armet, the visored helmet design that sprung up later in medieval times; and every west European nation promptly plagiarized each other ruthlessly in the manufacture and design of this neat new cranium case. Specifically, an armet more like this specimen from Augsburg, Germany; many other armets had exaggerated skull going to the back or a medial ridge so big it became a sort of preposterous metal Mohawk. This specimen, though, is an armet that looks cool. Observe: This would give a genuinely knightly look; and in-game there's a sore lack of any Heavy helmet that isn't a barbute (Cheek enclosing, Boba Fett-style, like the Council Guard Helmet from Caudecus' Mansion). D. For the sabatons, just use a simpler affair; like the feet of this modern reproduction armor, worn by Dr. Peter Capwell: ![] (https://i.imgur.com/WsDL0Im.jpg"")Looks much less ridiculous than the Grinch-kicks of an actual Gothic armature; just take the spurs off, since this is a "field armor" a character will wear fighting on foot; and we don't want to be mean and kick spurs into our raptors because they are good boys who deserve only love, damn it. Those idle animations are adorable. E. I would like to state that this one in particular is really, truly, especially, extra important; keep the pauldrons the exact proportions you see in the first photo. All those little segments are what let the armor's wearer actually move their shoulder and upper arm to begin with; and if you make them five foot wide clown shoulders; let alone the featureless, one-piece half-domes Space Marines in Warhammer 40,000 suffer from; then the knight is now dead because they can't move their arm above a 90 degree angle to chop downward, or pull that small dude attacking them with a dagger off of their back. Nice job, blacksmith. NO MELON SHOULDERS. F. To make sure that the pieces taken from less dorky-looking real world armor styles still look consistent with the Gothic-inspired pieces; remember to add fluting on the helmet and sabatons. Flutes are those little ridges all over the Archduke's armor in the first photo; they are used to lighten and strengthen metal, and medieval blacksmiths are believed to have gotten the idea from observing the natural fluting in the shells of scallops. Last but not leastIf you do feel inclined to make a set like this, make it an actual armor set with individual pieces , as aforementioned; so a player who wants, for example, to make a Warrior character based off Sandor Clegane from A Song of Ice and Fire can use transmutation charges to only use the skins of specific parts.Make the set both a random drop in the vein of everything from Tempered Scale to Draconic, effected by Magic Find like any other loot; but also craftable for those players with Armorsmithing that find or purchase the recipes. This should be obtainable even by causal players who mainly PvE, and not locked behind some competitive reward track. Some people have jobs, I am not yet one of those people; but I still want to be fair to those players.Have a wondeful day/night, and thanks for your consideration. A man can hope. (Pretty please, though). Have the Zweihander of Grutte Pier the Friesian pirate; as a way of telling you guys that your greatsword designs are only slightly more extreme then some of the real artifacts; and thanks to you as staff/other players for actually reading all this crap. I kinda hyper-fixate on the subject. ![] (https://i.imgur.com/LNVtS19.jpg"")"In genuine awe at the size of this lad. Absolute unit."