Do you identify class by armor?

[Doomfrost.5728]

Quick question, generally just curious how people identify classes other players run. Does armor type play a role on how you identify a class or are there other visual cues that take greater precedence? I ask because with outfits existing and gem store armor pieces nowadays all adopting similar visual styles I would think that identifying class by armor is ever increasing by difficulty. 

 

This leads to a second question. If Wardrobe had a drop down tab that gave you the option of selecting weight type (Light, Medium, Heavy) which would then open up the corresponding wardrobe of that weight class would such an option be desirable?

 

[Sir Alric.5078]

I identify which class other players are playing by the skills they are using or by clicking on them and looking at the character class icon. I never use looks to determine a character class in a game where everyone can wear outfits that have nothing to do with their armor weight type. 

[costepj.5120]

Is this a PvP related question? Because in PvE I really don't care what class other players are running.

Exception being when I'm looking for a mesmer to help me cheese a daily JP, but the pink portal tends to be a big giveaway (much ❤️ to PINK guild!)

[Danikat.8537]

I used to do it entirely by the profession icons, but now we've gone from 8 to 27 (and will soon have 36) I can't remember them all so I go by a combination of things. If it's in-combat the skill animations are usually the big give-away, out of combat it's harder, but I can generally get there from a combination of the icon and their weapons and armour. Outfits do make it harder but I'm often pretty good at recognising outfits (and armour skins), although some catch me out sometimes.

 

38 minutes ago, costepj.5120 said:

Is this a PvP related question? Because in PvE I really don't care what class other players are running.

Exception being when I'm looking for a mesmer to help me cheese a daily JP, but the pink portal tends to be a big giveaway (much ❤️ to PINK guild!)

In PvE I care sometimes, either because they do something which surprises me and I want to work out what it was and knowing the profession is a good start towards figuring out what skill they used, or just because I think their character looks cool and I want to see what they've done with it. I really like when the skins they're using tie into the profession in some way.

[Lyssia.4637]

1 minute ago, Danikat.8537 said:

I used to do it entirely by the profession icons, but now we've gone from 8 to 27 (and will soon have 36) I can't remember them all so I go by a combination of things.

Me too.  The icon helps, but since I play all the classes and don't "main" any one in particular (outside of WvW), I'm fairly familiar with how the skills look, and it's usually the look of the skills they are using that tips me off.  Though obviously that doesn't work in a huge zerg where I can't tell whose doing what, or when I just pass them standing there or something.  I can't go by armor unless the character has a very distinctive "look" (and usually name) that's a tip off, and that's almost always necromancers.  😁

[kharmin.7683]

If this is another veiled attempt to request Anet to open all armor weights across all professions, they've already said why they won't do so.

[Antycypator.9874]

Many players uses generic race/profession combos, dyes and ofc weapons — most weapons outside DPS meta (PvE) doesn't exist, e.g. mace guardian, MH sword thief, Scepter mesmer...

I see a black humanoid character, then it's probably thief.

I see a white charr with greatsword — 98% guardian.

I see a charr but it's painted red/black/fire skins — warrior or revenant.

I see anyone green/black — necro. Pet = ranger.

 

It's really hard to find a non-generic character in this game.

 

[Svarty.8019]

3 hours ago, Doomfrost.5728 said:

Quick question, generally just curious how people identify classes other players run. Does armor type play a role on how you identify a class or are there other visual cues that take greater precedence? I ask because with outfits existing and gem store armor pieces nowadays all adopting similar visual styles I would think that identifying class by armor is ever increasing by difficulty. 

 

This leads to a second question. If Wardrobe had a drop down tab that gave you the option of selecting weight type (Light, Medium, Heavy) which would then open up the corresponding wardrobe of that weight class would such an option be desirable?

 

Kristen talked about silhouettes way back in the day, but by now they've probably given up on the original design:

 

 

[ASP.8093]

1 hour ago, Antycypator.9874 said:

Many players uses generic race/profession combos, dyes and ofc weapons — most weapons outside DPS meta (PvE) doesn't exist, e.g. mace guardian, MH sword thief, Scepter mesmer...

I see a black humanoid character, then it's probably thief.

I see a white charr with greatsword — 98% guardian.

I see a charr but it's painted red/black/fire skins — warrior or revenant.

I see anyone green/black — necro. Pet = ranger.

 

It's really hard to find a non-generic character in this game.

 

You say "generic" but what's really going on is people are matching their character visuals to their class animations.

E.g. if you're playing Soulbeast, you've got that green vine stuff in Beast Mode — your character will look worlds better if that doesn't clash horribly with your outfits. So what pushes you towards green or some complementary color with the same overall brightness/saturation levels.

I agree that thieves should diversity their looks more, though.

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

Characters' looks can help of course, when it's not an outfit and when it's medium or heavy armor (the ones I'm most familiar with). 

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

I'm old-fashioned and usually try to figure out the class of the player that stands in front of me by looking at their armor and weapons they carry. Skills and class-icons are for the final check, but I always try to guess it. Especially with the gemstore pieces and infusions, this became quite challenging over the years. But it is still entertaining for me. 

7 hours ago, Doomfrost.5728 said:

This leads to a second question. If Wardrobe had a drop down tab that gave you the option of selecting weight type (Light, Medium, Heavy) which would then open up the corresponding wardrobe of that weight class would such an option be desirable?

The bank-wardrobe has such a system already. Not with a drop-down menue, but you can select the armor-type and then browse only for skins of that type. With the mobile wardrobe, there is no real use for this, as you can only use the skins of your armor-type anyway.

The only thing I would like to have: If I preview a cultural-armor skin and do not have the proper race on my character, I can select "preview template", which loads a template-character of the correct race with that skin.

[Xanadrine.4352]

Cant really use armor as an identifier so many people use outfits to cover

[Strider Pj.2193]

6 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

If this is another veiled attempt to request Anet to open all armor weights across all professions, they've already said why they won't do so.

Wow..  Why don’t you just say ‘get off my lawn’

 

That was about a big of leap to know-where I’ve seen you do in a long time….

 

At least Wait until there is a reason to post that kerfoffel.  
 

[LucosTheDutch.4819]

6 hours ago, Antycypator.9874 said:

Many players uses generic race/profession combos, dyes and ofc weapons — most weapons outside DPS meta (PvE) doesn't exist, e.g. mace guardian, MH sword thief, Scepter mesmer...

I see a black humanoid character, then it's probably thief.

I see a white charr with greatsword — 98% guardian.

I see a charr but it's painted red/black/fire skins — warrior or revenant.

I see anyone green/black — necro. Pet = ranger.

 

It's really hard to find a non-generic character in this game.

 

Mace is meta on support firebrand.

Also I wish what you said is true, because at least then GW2 would be nice to look at. Instead, most player characters--regardless of class- are walking bags of Skittles ("taste the rainbow!") with a bazillion special effects from stacking infusions and legendaries.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

The only place where I care to do so is in WvW, and I always go either by what they do (skill animations, etc.) or the profession icon, never by what's worn.

[ASP.8093]

1 hour ago, IndigoSundown.5419 said:

The only place where I care to do so is in WvW, and I always go either by what they do (skill animations, etc.) or the profession icon, never by what's worn.

In WvW, I often up having to mouse over and check their food icons to figure out whether I'm engaging a condi tank or a bursty power build. Misidentifying who's who when you're up against several enemies is absolutely disastrous.

Edited October 13, 2021 by ASP.8093

[Danikat.8537]

So I've just been trying this out in Rata Sum, Crystal Oasis and Lion's Arch: looking at a character, trying to work out if they're wearing light, medium or heavy armour or an outfit and then clicking on them to see (based on the profession icon) if I'm right.

Firstly I recognise more of the profession icons than I thought I did, so that's good. Some I only got down to 'that's some sort of necromancer' but then I am pretty tired tonight.

Secondly my rough estimation is that it's about 50/50 outfits and armour skins and the colours have nothing to do with the profession but even when using outfits a lot of people stick close to the armour weight, for example all the plate or chain mail outfits I saw were on heavy armour professions and things like the daydreamer's finery or mage knight outfit were on light armoured professions.

I think it's also worth bearing in mind that it's Halloween and a lot of people will dress their character up for the festival so how they look right now might not be representative of what they'd normally choose. (My ranger certainly doesn't wear cat ears, the bear shaman coat and accursed boots normally, but it's the best I could do for a cat costume: https://i.imgur.com/RVsoxUd.jpg )

Finally no, I wasn't able to get down to the profession just by looking at their armour. I could get the armour weight, which of course narrows it down to 3 choices, but I'd have to look at other clues to work out which of the 3 they are.

[Sylvyn.4750]

9 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

If this is another veiled attempt to request Anet to open all armor weights across all professions, they've already said why they won't do so.

Maybe it's the other way around...an obvious attempt to get Anet to make armor more distinctive between weight classes, and have outfits come in three variants that unlock by weight class instead of one generic variant for all...no one likes things to be confusing, even getting the confused emote is kitten...😏

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I do.  I'm not sure if its my settings or my computer, but I'm frequently within attack range of enemies in WvW before their nameplates or the option to click on them shows up.  Because of this, I use armor class as a short-hand to guess what they're going to have.  

[genjonah.1253]

I am completely against all classes having all skin access. While outfits for exist (and are a good thing for the health of the game), they are the minority and while there are also exceptions, the armor in this game does tend to do a good job of ‘looking’ heavy/medium/light

 

that being said- again, I’m not even asking for Ritualist to be a new profession or specialization, but PLEASE give my necro some blindfold options (don’t get me started on seer mask cuz that also muzzles them on males at least)

[Klowdy.3126]

On 10/13/2021 at 6:30 AM, Doomfrost.5728 said:

Quick question, generally just curious how people identify classes other players run. Does armor type play a role on how you identify a class or are there other visual cues that take greater precedence? I ask because with outfits existing and gem store armor pieces nowadays all adopting similar visual styles I would think that identifying class by armor is ever increasing by difficulty. 

 

This leads to a second question. If Wardrobe had a drop down tab that gave you the option of selecting weight type (Light, Medium, Heavy) which would then open up the corresponding wardrobe of that weight class would such an option be desirable?

 

There are just so many things that carry over into all weight classes, it's impossible at time to use appearance to identify classes. Anything from the gem store is useable any any of your characters, outside of the full armor sets, which are very few. Even if you could tell the difference in the armor weight, that still leaves you with 3 possibilities, since the only restriction at that point would be cultural armor. Honestly, it's difficult to see anything past the abilities anyway, lol.

[Jski.6180]

Outfits ended that years ago the fact that armor classes very is a bad point of balancing on anet end.

[Obfuscate.6430]

On 10/13/2021 at 9:34 AM, Antycypator.9874 said:

Many players uses generic race/profession combos, dyes and ofc weapons — most weapons outside DPS meta (PvE) doesn't exist, e.g. mace guardian, MH sword thief, Scepter mesmer...

I see a black humanoid character, then it's probably thief.

I see a white charr with greatsword — 98% guardian.

I see a charr but it's painted red/black/fire skins — warrior or revenant.

I see anyone green/black — necro. Pet = ranger.

 

It's really hard to find a non-generic character in this game.

 

LOL!  I sort of use that mentality to mess with people people I initially thought the same way so now I mix up the colors so people mistake my characters for something else.
True story though, I often can not see what a person looks like because of culling and I have to guess based on the icon but even then it rarely matters in the content I play. 

[Gotejjeken.1267]

I feel all the classes are pretty distinct, only Revenant is generic to me.

 

Necro - Have minions, disco ball for scourges, scythe for reapers

Ranger - LB #2

Mesmer - Clones, purple anything and everything

Engineer - Grenades / Hammer / Gyros

Warrior - Rush, rush...rush....

Ele - Literal elemental themed spells and auras

Guardian - I'm blue ah ba dee ah ba die

Revenant - Hard for me to tell unless they only are in melee or wearing a blindfold--usually go by icon for this one

 

[BlueJin.4127]

When I play as a fire elementalist, I tell my opponents I identify as a power reaper and I ask them to treat me as one. And if they see a stack of burning on them, I tell them it's actually a boon and they shouldn't cleanse it.

Apparently, it doesn't work because I haven't won a single match. 😠

My next idea is to stand next to a cactus with my Choya tonic then "headbutt" unsuspecting opponents from behind. 😈

I expect my first victory soon. 💪

Edited October 15, 2021 by BlueJin.4127