Jade-Tech mastery speculations and discussion

[SunRoamer.5103]

With the most recent night-time image of Kaineng (edited version of a previous daytime concept art) revealed in the background of the pre-launch/launch livestream schedule announcement, we have gotten a close-up of what is presumably the final EoD mastery, i.e. a flying Jade-Tech drone of sorts. The end of the year post from a while ago also teased Kaineng with another night-time view, which similarly hinted at this mastery in the form of the flying drone next to the walking figure. Astute observers will have noticed that the Shing Jae live stream also featured a yet-unknown map icon, which we can now assume has to do with the Jade-Tech mastery due to their similarity in design (as was graciously pointed out on a Reddit thread).

Furthermore, the end of the year-post included this short passage:

Quote

While we’re looking forward to the future, have you considered what jade tech can do for you? 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!

I also believe that it was mentioned that this final mastery would be more of a generally useful mastery not restricted to Cantha only.

While we will find out about the details in a little more than two weeks (and who knows, maybe we will see teasers before that even, depending on what is planned for the release date reveal on the first of February), I am curious to hear what everybody else thinks this mastery will do in the meantime.

Personally, I don't believe that it will be a hero/henchman of sorts (similar to what we had in GW1), i.e. relevant in combat. In my opinion this approach easily cheapens the appeal of dedicated pet classes such as the ranger, mechanist specialisation and minion-focussed necromancers, plus probably causes even more power creep (of which we already have more than enough in the form of elite specialisations and mounts). The only way I could see it work is by restricting where exactly it can be used or if it offered access to something very specific (e.g. a new boon unique to the drone).

As it stands, I would prefer if it offered utility of sorts - basic access to a vendor, the bank or trading post for example (although this also would have to be restricted so it won't infringe too heavily on permanent contracts and BLC utility drops). Or maybe crafting assistance of sorts? A fun idea I have seen floating around, which pairs greatly with EoD's (seeming) focus on more social gameplay elements is that it may be used for a screenshot mode of sorts, as a free floating camera we can move around within a certain range of our characters to take more unique screenshots.

Mobility options have been largely explored, I think, and I don't see the drone-design suggesting something similar to a grappling hook (aka more universal Oakheart mastery) or wall-climbing.

I also really hope this drone will be customisable - it seems like a great opportunity for monetisation similar to mounts, gliders and outfits, and since it will be available to everyone customisability is even more important than in the case of the controversial jade-mech. Fun ideas could include a more asuran design, something similar to an Eye of Zhaitan, or a helpful (attention-starved) fairy of sorts (and yes, I would clearly prefer to earn some of these as cosmetic rewards within the game itself, but that's a separate discussion).

What are your thoughts, expectations and hopes in regards to this little fella?

 

As an aside to the most recent concept art: there's no need to read into the glowing text featured in several places. These are merely the result of the kitbashing approach to concept art, which have gifted us with the construction crane in the Hoelbrak loading screen or the random sunglasses-and-shirt-man in the Lion's Arch loading screen. In this particular case, it seems that photos of East Asian street signs were used, as we can find Japanese katakana ("netto", meaning net, most likely an abbreviation for internet, possibly from a sign for an internet café) and hiragana ("yakitori", aka chicken skewers, on the lanterns to the far right of the picture) as well as Chinese characters (the last two characters seem to be "内所", but it's difficult to tell, plus I'm not sure whether these are kanji/hanja or simplified/traditional Chinese characters since I'm only somewhat familiar with the former). It does feel slightly disappointing (if not orientalist) that somebody might have thought "it's Cantha, let's just slap some random East Asian street signs in there", especially considering that they could have quite simply replaced these with Canthan characters. Especially since this concept art was reworked specifically to show off the night-time ambiance.

Edited January 26, 2022 by SunRoamer.5103
forum paragraph break formatting

[mercury ranique.2170]

3 minutes ago, SunRoamer.5103 said:

 

Personally, I don't believe that it will be a hero/henchman of sorts (similar to what we had in GW1), i.e. relevant in combat. In my opinion this approach easily cheapens the appeal of dedicated pet classes such as the ranger, mechanist specialisation and minion-focussed necromancers, plus probably causes even more power creep (of which we already have more than enough in the form of elite specialisations and mounts).

I fail to see why a hero/henchman would cheapen the appeal of dedicated pet classes. In GW1 it never did interfere
The main reason why I do not think a hero/henchman system like GW1 would work is cause both games are very different.
The hero's/henchman in GW1 have always been a mechanic to be able to fill a spot in your party when it isn't full. So replace another player. In GW2, this has never been an issue as most of it is open world and if not those maps are designed for group content or solo content.  
In GW2 there is not need for such a mechanic. However, and there lies the issue with all mechanics. The only way to go is up.
Vertical progression is a bad word in this community, but we also see how the lack of it fails as well. All we have is horizontal progression, but this translates mostly as fashion wars. With the masteries and elite specialisations we allready left this aside and went a bit into the vertical progression direction.

What I believe is that we can not do with out any vertical progression and so it will always contribute to the power-creep issue. However, when done in modesty, it serves the purpose of progression.

[Tails.9372]

4 hours ago, SunRoamer.5103 said:

In my opinion this approach easily cheapens the appeal of dedicated pet classes such as the ranger, mechanist specialisation and minion-focussed necromancers

Not really, in fact it's quite the opposite. Giving your support mech an offensive battle drone to support would actually be a good thing for these kind of builds. But I agree that I don't see it being a battle drone given how overly restrictive similar things have been in the past.

4 hours ago, mercury ranique.2170 said:

Vertical progression is a bad word in this community, but we also see how the lack of it fails as well.

There is no failing due to the lack of vertical progression, what you're talking about is an issue that is derived from the fact that in some key areas there is no progression at all. Take gear for example, gameplay wise what's the difference between a gen 1, a gen 2 and a gen 3 legendary weapon? Exactly, there is none. Blaming horizontal progression for leading into fashion wars is just misdiagnosing the problem.

[Gibson.4036]

Drone Mastery levels:

1. Your drone now emits a glowy effects suppression field. All cosmetic auras and particle effects are invisible to you.

2. Your drone now emits a troll cancelation effect. Portals and aviator boxes within 1m of chests or interactable npcs are canceled.

3. Upgrade your troll cancelation effect. It now fines the owner of the portal or the aviator box 25 silver when it cancels the effect.

4. You may now send your drone to any downed player within the radius of the mini map. The drone will tell that player, "Don't waypoint, I'm coming to rez you."

5. You may now send your drone to any downed player within radius of the mini map. The drone will tell that player, "Please waypoint, you're disrupting the event waiting for a rez."

 

[Ashantara.8731]

3 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Drone Mastery levels:

1. Your drone now emits a glowy effects suppression field. All cosmetic auras and particle effects are invisible to you.

2. Your drone now emits a troll cancelation effect. Portals and aviator boxes within 1m of chests or interactable npcs are canceled.

3. Upgrade your troll cancelation effect. It now fines the owner of the portal or the aviator box 25 silver when it cancels the effect.

4. You may now send your drone to any downed player within the radius of the mini map. The drone will tell that player, "Don't waypoint, I'm coming to rez you."

5. You may now send your drone to any downed player within radius of the mini map. The drone will tell that player, "Please waypoint, you're disrupting the event waiting for a rez."

Brilliant! 😂

I'd totally level that Mastery as quickly as possible. 🙃

[Serephen.3420]

I know a lot of people think the drone is related, but it could just as easily be one of the holo news broadcasters that I believe were mentioned in the jade sea tour.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Could be; though since it's so prominently displayed in the latest News Blog article re: End of Dragons, it does seem likely.

[Healix.5819]

13 hours ago, SunRoamer.5103 said:

A fun idea I have seen floating around, which pairs greatly with EoD's (seeming) focus on more social gameplay elements is that it may be used for a screenshot mode of sorts, as a free floating camera we can move around within a certain range of our characters to take more unique screenshots.

Probably, but its actual purpose would be a remote control drone - something you could take control of to fly around within a limited radius and interact with stuff, such as remote gathering.

ArenaNet usually likes taking a unique spin on these things, so I'd expect something that hasn't been done before to be its core function. Usually something like this would automate mundane tasks, such as looting, gathering, selling junk, mail (trading pickup), communications, etc, some of which isn't applicable here. Combat-wise, they usually either do minor damage, act as support or help revive you when down (unrealistically, it could serve as a counter for people staying dead).

[Serephen.3420]

2 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Could be; though since it's so prominently displayed in the latest News Blog article re: End of Dragons, it does seem likely.

Yeah, that's a good point. I guess we won't know for sure till the live stream. But it's probably involved in some form or another. 

[The Boz.2038]

11 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Drone Mastery levels:

1. Your drone now emits a glowy effects suppression field. All cosmetic auras and particle effects are invisible to you.

2. Your drone now emits a troll cancelation effect. Portals and aviator boxes within 1m of chests or interactable npcs are canceled.

3. Upgrade your troll cancelation effect. It now fines the owner of the portal or the aviator box 25 silver when it cancels the effect.

4. You may now send your drone to any downed player within the radius of the mini map. The drone will tell that player, "Don't waypoint, I'm coming to rez you."

5. You may now send your drone to any downed player within radius of the mini map. The drone will tell that player, "Please waypoint, you're disrupting the event waiting for a rez."

 

MVP drone right there.

[rylien.3824]

This is where you tell yourself that with all that, you don't even have the right to housing... erf.

I admit to being curious about what the drone can bring, because for once it could finally be a useful and intelligent mastery ! 🙃

 

I already hope that the "night" effect is well done,  ... if it's not a very dark night... to contrast with the neon lights... (jade tech)
 

Edited January 27, 2022 by rylien.3824

[Omega.6801]

We'll see when they stream it. Until then I expect the last mastery to be 1) access to a vendor, 2) useless ouside of EoD and/or 3) some boring easymode button like the Icebrood masteries. Prove me wrong ANet. Wow me. Do it.

[AgentMoore.9453]

A mobile garbage disposal that eats junk items, renown heart objects, collection fluff, and other assorted clutter in exchange for trivial amounts of karma and/or other rewards. Also, it has voice lines about recycling and asks 'are you going to finish that?' whenever you salvage something.

[Bakeneko.5826]

On 1/26/2022 at 5:02 PM, SunRoamer.5103 said:

With the most recent night-time image of Kaineng (edited version of a previous daytime concept art) revealed in the background of the pre-launch/launch livestream schedule announcement, we have gotten a close-up of what is presumably the final EoD mastery, i.e. a flying Jade-Tech drone of sorts. The end of the year post from a while ago also teased Kaineng with another night-time view, which similarly hinted at this mastery in the form of the flying drone next to the walking figure. Astute observers will have noticed that the Shing Jae live stream also featured a yet-unknown map icon, which we can now assume has to do with the Jade-Tech mastery due to their similarity in design (as was graciously pointed out on a Reddit thread).

Furthermore, the end of the year-post included this short passage:

I also believe that it was mentioned that this final mastery would be more of a generally useful mastery not restricted to Cantha only.

While we will find out about the details in a little more than two weeks (and who knows, maybe we will see teasers before that even, depending on what is planned for the release date reveal on the first of February), I am curious to hear what everybody else thinks this mastery will do in the meantime.

Personally, I don't believe that it will be a hero/henchman of sorts (similar to what we had in GW1), i.e. relevant in combat. In my opinion this approach easily cheapens the appeal of dedicated pet classes such as the ranger, mechanist specialisation and minion-focussed necromancers, plus probably causes even more power creep (of which we already have more than enough in the form of elite specialisations and mounts). The only way I could see it work is by restricting where exactly it can be used or if it offered access to something very specific (e.g. a new boon unique to the drone).

As it stands, I would prefer if it offered utility of sorts - basic access to a vendor, the bank or trading post for example (although this also would have to be restricted so it won't infringe too heavily on permanent contracts and BLC utility drops). Or maybe crafting assistance of sorts? A fun idea I have seen floating around, which pairs greatly with EoD's (seeming) focus on more social gameplay elements is that it may be used for a screenshot mode of sorts, as a free floating camera we can move around within a certain range of our characters to take more unique screenshots.

Mobility options have been largely explored, I think, and I don't see the drone-design suggesting something similar to a grappling hook (aka more universal Oakheart mastery) or wall-climbing.

I also really hope this drone will be customisable - it seems like a great opportunity for monetisation similar to mounts, gliders and outfits, and since it will be available to everyone customisability is even more important than in the case of the controversial jade-mech. Fun ideas could include a more asuran design, something similar to an Eye of Zhaitan, or a helpful (attention-starved) fairy of sorts (and yes, I would clearly prefer to earn some of these as cosmetic rewards within the game itself, but that's a separate discussion).

What are your thoughts, expectations and hopes in regards to this little fella?

 

As an aside to the most recent concept art: there's no need to read into the glowing text featured in several places. These are merely the result of the kitbashing approach to concept art, which have gifted us with the construction crane in the Hoelbrak loading screen or the random sunglasses-and-shirt-man in the Lion's Arch loading screen. In this particular case, it seems that photos of East Asian street signs were used, as we can find Japanese katakana ("netto", meaning net, most likely an abbreviation for internet, possibly from a sign for an internet café) and hiragana ("yakitori", aka chicken skewers, on the lanterns to the far right of the picture) as well as Chinese characters (the last two characters seem to be "内所", but it's difficult to tell, plus I'm not sure whether these are kanji/hanja or simplified/traditional Chinese characters since I'm only somewhat familiar with the former). It does feel slightly disappointing (if not orientalist) that somebody might have thought "it's Cantha, let's just slap some random East Asian street signs in there", especially considering that they could have quite simply replaced these with Canthan characters. Especially since this concept art was reworked specifically to show off the night-time ambiance.

from screen shot, it looks like Half-life head crad. I guess we will need to wake up and smell the ashes

[mythical.6315]

I see it as nothing different from most of the other mastery lines where its main purpose is to gate content through horizontal progression. Just look at the Raven Attunement mastery line to see what I’m talking about. 

[Gibson.4036]

15 minutes ago, mythical.6315 said:

I see it as nothing different from most of the other mastery lines where its main purpose is to gate content through horizontal progression. Just look at the Raven Attunement mastery line to see what I’m talking about. 

I much prefer "you can't progress through the story without this mastery" to "you can't open this big shiny chest without this mastery."

Guess I'm used to artificial gates in all kinds of games that keep you from moving on to the next part. But dangling shiny loot in front of my nose and telling me I can't have it just feels mean.

[Blue D Phoenix.7260]

I'm hoping it as a therapy drone, for farmers, especially bauble farmers. Or a fun companion not for battle/much use except for useless good/bad conversations. Like jester from skyrim, 

Good - "Yes, you killed it!", "Don't worry someone will revive you",  "Hide your shiny, there a skritt nearby!" 

Bad - "Oh look another easy kill", "You died? Again?", "I don't think you're good at jumping puzzles", "You're broke lol" 

[mythical.6315]

1 hour ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I much prefer "you can't progress through the story without this mastery" to "you can't open this big shiny chest without this mastery."

Guess I'm used to artificial gates in all kinds of games that keep you from moving on to the next part. But dangling shiny loot in front of my nose and telling me I can't have it just feels mean.

True. That was definitely annoying and I hope they don’t repeat that in the future. 

[Gibson.4036]

12 minutes ago, Blue D Phoenix.7260 said:

I'm hoping it as a therapy drone, for farmers, especially bauble farmers. Or a fun companion not for battle/much use except for useless good/bad conversations. Like jester from skyrim, 

Good - "Yes, you killed it!", "Don't worry someone will revive you",  "Hide your shiny, there a skritt nearby!" 

Bad - "Oh look another easy kill", "You died? Again?", "I don't think you're good at jumping puzzles", "You're broke lol" 

This could be fun if there was a commitment to cycle new conversations in very regularly.

I realy don't want to hear about rotating cogs and sporophytes ever again. Nor the time that kid threw a rock at a security golem.

I don't even own the gathering golems that make bad puns, but I'm tired of them as well.

[DaFishBob.6518]

On 1/26/2022 at 5:04 PM, Gibson.4036 said:

Drone Mastery levels:

1. Your drone now emits a glowy effects suppression field. All cosmetic auras and particle effects are invisible to you.

2. Your drone now emits a troll cancelation effect. Portals and aviator boxes within 1m of chests or interactable npcs are canceled.

3. Upgrade your troll cancelation effect. It now fines the owner of the portal or the aviator box 25 silver when it cancels the effect.

4. You may now send your drone to any downed player within the radius of the mini map. The drone will tell that player, "Don't waypoint, I'm coming to rez you."

5. You may now send your drone to any downed player within radius of the mini map. The drone will tell that player, "Please waypoint, you're disrupting the event waiting for a rez."

 

This would actually get me to buy EoD if real.

[Bakeneko.5826]

16 hours ago, mythical.6315 said:

I see it as nothing different from most of the other mastery lines where its main purpose is to gate content through horizontal progression. Just look at the Raven Attunement mastery line to see what I’m talking about. 

How is it different from vertical progression? Instead of level number, your other number gets bigger and lets you do stuff. Your argument is pure "its bad because i cant get it for free at launch"

[SunRoamer.5103]

With today's trailer we got to see the little drones in action!

Big takeaways:

• It seems like they're not constantly hovering by our side but instead only appear when using certain skills/during certain interactions. They're definitely not a constant AI-companion, which is understandable to no add even more clutter to the game, but might be disappointing to some. Despite this I hope they will be customizable in the future, similar to mail carriers, finishers etc.
• They can create a little updraft while gliding - which right now mostly seems useful for the people who don't own a Skyscale/Griffon and possibly in other niche scenarios (important question: will mount-disabled areas also have the jade tech mastery disabled?). This does make sense in the context of newcomers/returnees with EoD who don't have access to advanced/infinite gliding and/or aerial mounts, similar to basic gliding, raport and springer being unlocked for free.
• They can revive downed players. I guess resurrection orbs aren't a popular BL item, or there are severe restrictions to this (I know, resurrection orbs are still good since they actually revive defeated, not downed, players).
• Possibly necessary for the new "dynamic ways to travel" that we can see in the New Kaineng City-shots. Player characters are carried on platforms along a laser-zipline with the Jade-Tech drone hovering next to the platform.

Edited February 1, 2022 by SunRoamer.5103
Formatting

[Omega.6801]

Well, it's better than a vendor or something hard bound to Cantha maps. Still very underwhelming at this point, will have to see it. Plaese wow me, Jade-Bot!

[Ashantara.8731]

On 1/27/2022 at 2:51 PM, rylien.3824 said:

 

Lovely! 🥰 But not in Guild Wars 2. 🤬

[AgentMoore.9453]

1 minute ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Lovely! 🥰 But not in Guild Wars 2. 🤬

You gonna be okay, Ash?

I'm thinking maybe we can start a low-tech support group out in Gendarran Fields - we can meet at the Applenook tavern that starts on fire a few times every hour; seems fitting.