United Legions Waypoints, mount stealth, and other non-niche masteries

[blp.3489]

There have been a lot of posts about EoD lacking glider or mount level features and a few people have challenged posters to come up with something equivalent that could be added, with the implication that there isn't anything left that would have similar impact.  I think the United Legion Waypoints are a good example of a mastery track that isn't limited to the map it was introduced on.  The ability to stealth mounts is a second example.  Skiffs and fishing are two more.  These certainly aren't as revolutionary as gliding and mounts but I think there is a lot of room for similar general use masteries.  I'm not sure if the final EoD mastery has been revealed yet but some sort of Jade Tech mastery that can be used anywhere certainly has potential.

Non-profession-specific utility skills are another possibility.  A current hot topic is the dominance of a few classes in instanced PvE, firebrand, scourge, and renegade I think.  Of those three I've only played Firebrand and I can certainly see how the three tomes allow it to bring a lot of different things to a party.  There are also some classes that are looked down on in WvW for not bringing anything to a zerg.  If we had mastery based utility skills we would have more opportunities for more classes to be more flexible and generally useful.

Alternately, we could have multiple "artifacts" players could acquire that had associated mastery tracks and that you could equip one at a time in a way similar to selecting a mount.  This could further allow for role flexibility.  If you think of an elementalist's fiery greatsword you have one model of how an artifact could work.  There is certainly no shortage of quests for such artifacts in the fantasy literature.

I'm sure some people would oppose anything which lessened the distinctions between professions but I think there is an argument that there is merit in allowing people to play their preferred fantasy profession while still having role flexibility.  You could also have profession-specific artifacts if you wanted to build on profession differences.

I just want to put it out there that there are still a lot of possibilities beyond gliding and mounts that could potentially have similarly general utility.

 

Edit: my PvP experience is limited to WvW but I think it would benefit combat variety if you didn't know what artifacts/skills an opponent would have just based on their class.  Some classes have a "hard counter" class that they are vulnerable to and it would be great to have something up your sleeve when they come to gank you, or when you get into one of those get killed, waypoint, try again cycles if you had an array of different artifacts/skills to try something different on the next round.  Have more options and having opponents be less predictable would only benefit the combat experience.

Edited January 23, 2022 by blp.3489

[Fueki.4753]

Due to the nature of Revenant, I don't think non-profession utility abilities would be a good idea.

Unless it's another down state ability, Revenants would just be excluded from that feature again.

[blp.3489]

You have got me curious.  I'm not very familiar with Revenant, why couldn't they use an extra utility skill?

[Xanhawk.3806]

Their Healing, Elite, and Utility skills are dependent on what Legend they channel IIRC.

[Fueki.4753]

35 minutes ago, blp.3489 said:

You have got me curious.  I'm not very familiar with Revenant, why couldn't they use an extra utility skill?

Your entire utility bar is pre-determined by the legends you use.

Whenever you are in one legend, you'll always use the same heal ability, the same three regular utility abilities and the same one elite utility ability. Outside of changing the order of the regular utility abilities (which even is bugged and sometimes reverts to the default order), there literally is no customization.

This also means that Revenants have no access to racial utility abilities or Mistfire Wolf, which is the feature that is closest to your suggested mastery abilities.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Fueki.4753

[Tails.9372]

On 1/23/2022 at 4:49 PM, blp.3489 said:

I'm not sure if the final EoD mastery has been revealed

It kind of has been. It looks like a mag from Phantasy Star Online and I seriously hope that we're going to get some skins and other customization options for it as otherwise we all get a taste of how Engineers feel about their mechs not being customizable.

As for what it does that one is hard to tell, many things are already out of the question due to various already existing game mechanics (e.g. we don't need a resource finder because we already have the minimap for that). So maybe it's some kind of jukebox that lets you set the ingame BGMs for "idling / regular battles / boss themes" or some kind of voice chat function.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Tails.9372

[Linken.6345]

1 minute ago, Tails.9372 said:

It kind of has been. It looks like a mag from Phantasy Star Online and I seriously hope that were going to get some skins and other customization options for it as otherwise we all get a taste of how Engineers feel about their mechs not being customizable.

As for what it does that one is hard to tell, many things are already out of the question due to various already existing game mechanics (e.g. we don't need a resource finder because we already have the minimap for that). So maybe it's some kind of jukebox that lets you set the ingame BGMs for idling / regular battles / boss themes or some kind of voice char function.

Are you talking about the jade tech mastery line?

[Tails.9372]

8 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Are you talking about the jade tech mastery line?

Yes, they added a picture that showed the drone thing when talking about it last year.

[Linken.6345]

24 minutes ago, Tails.9372 said:

Yes, they added a picture that showed the drone thing when talking about it last year.

Oh must have missed that, I bet it is a portable stove so we can cook the fish we catch on the spot.

[Fueki.4753]

If we really get a jade tech drone as a mastery, I hope it's heavily restricted to where it can be used.

It's already terrible that too much of Cantha is infested with the toxic green junk.

The rest of the game doesn't need to be polluted by it as well.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Fueki.4753

[Linken.6345]

42 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

If we really get a jade tech drone as a mastery, I hope it's heavily restricted to where it can be used.

It's already terrible that too much of Cantha is infested with the toxic green junk.

The rest of the game doesn't need to be polluted by it as well.

Really hope the opposite since I dont want more masteries bound to specific maps like the Arborstone one or the essence manipulation ones from ibs.

[Tails.9372]

11 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

Really hope the opposite since I dont want more masteries bound to specific maps like the Arborstone one or the essence manipulation ones from ibs.

Yeah, it should be widely available and as I said customization options (like dye channels / other skins / an option to turn it invisible) could easily solve the "toxic green pollution" issue.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Tails.9372

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

5 hours ago, Tails.9372 said:

Yes, they added a picture that showed the drone thing when talking about it last year.

Got a link?  I don't remember seeing that. 

[Tails.9372]

26 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Got a link?  I don't remember seeing that. 

It's from their "See You in 2022!" post, right at the bottom:

"Soon we’ll be ready to tell you all about the final Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons Mastery line—and all its practical uses for your busy adventuring lifestyle. Stay tuned!"

here is the related picture with the drone thing right in the middle of it

Edited January 25, 2022 by Tails.9372

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I guess that could be associated with the character.  Or, it could just be a drone in the city, just like in Rata Novus.  🤷‍♂️

But, this picture is more suggestive: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons-launch-month-livestream-schedule/

Edited January 25, 2022 by Inculpatus cedo.9234
typo

[The Boz.2038]

12 hours ago, Fueki.4753 said:

If we really get a jade tech drone as a mastery, I hope it's heavily restricted to where it can be used.

It's already terrible that too much of Cantha is infested with the toxic green junk.

The rest of the game doesn't need to be polluted by it as well.

OK, possible idea:
One mastery track to unlock new drone features.
One mastery track to unlock map access. Let's say a drone needs some "automation features" before it can be used on a particular map.
And then you do that last bit for the entire game, allowing you to soak up excess mastery points for the minor tiny gain of a drone that grants boons or something idunno. It'd trivialize content some more, sure, but let's not pretend that the icebrood table didn't do that already.