Hide Weapons?

[Chachachii.8693]

I'm playing an elementalist and I was wondering if someday we could have the option to hide the scepter/focus/daggers? These things look absolutely ridiculous. I would like to use my hands to cast spells, not these weapons. 

[Randulf.7614]

Your magic is channelled via your weapons and is reliant on them - same with skills and spells for all classes,. They aren’t going to change the animations to something different

[Ashantara.8731]

16 minutes ago, Chachachii.8693 said:

These things look absolutely ridiculous.

  Don't you just LOVE the shovel animation when your Catalyst uses their hammer's auto-attack? 😂
 

Edited March 15 by Ashantara.8731

[Parasite.5389]

if only we could change the skins of our weapons...

Edited March 15 by Parasite.5389

[Danikat.8537]

It's unlikely they'll let you hide your weapons while using them, but if you check the wardrobe you can probably find a skin which acts as a work-around. I know for a fact there's several foci which don't look like weapons and some which are purely an effect around your character's hand.

For daggers the best choice is probably the Storm Dagger, which looks like a small lightning storm. I haven't tried but if you pair it with the Storm Gloves it will probably look like your character is conjuring it from their hands. But there's other choices too:

Tear of Grenth & Jormag's Needle look like icicles.
Holographic Spark is transparent and wouldn't be very noticeable.
The Soulbeast's Dagger is tiny and the Improvised Dagger is a broken bottle.
Then there's ones which look like daggers made of magic like the Zenith Kris, Chaos Dagger, Dark Matter Dagger, or Dreamthistle Dagger.

One of my elementalists uses the Corrupted Shard and Destroyer Dagger which look like they're made from ice and lava respectively. They line up with the Weaver's Antipodes (which she wears in spite of being a tempest) and I think the end result is pretty cool.

[Gibson.4036]

Foci

Flux Matrix and The Anomaly look like effects, rather than objects. Heroid Dragonsblood Focus is like some crazy bracelet. By far the coolest legendary weapon in the game, The Binding Of Ipos, will turn hour hand into a magical claw while the book floats near you.

Scepter

Scepter is a little harder. There are some that look insubstantial, like something you conjured rather than an object you hold. Abyssal Scepter, Dark Matter Scepter, Hardlight Scepter, and Holographic Storm all have insubstantial qualities.

[Fueki.4753]

I recommend the Privateer Scepter. It's simple and elegant.

Edited March 15 by Fueki.4753

[Krexen.9057]

So like an invisible weapon skin?

 

I understand what you mean by casting from the hands. That would actually be pretty cool.

[prototypedragon.1406]

Invis weapon skins hmm that would make using Hammers on warriors interesting and it would remove the visual wind up on skills for certain classes it would be even funnier then doing a Earthshaker from stealth on a warrior 😂

[DeanBB.4268]

After all these years, my favorite focus is still the Steam Gizmo, and that trail of "bubbles" it leaves behind even when stowed. There's just something mesmerizing about it to me.

[Dr Meta.3158]

Not seeing the weapon would make pvp even more horrendous.

[Doggie.3184]

58 minutes ago, Krexen.9057 said:

So like an invisible weapon skin?

 

I understand what you mean by casting from the hands. That would actually be pretty cool.

Hehe, I use that (weapon stealthing skin) in PSO2 cuz casting spells from my hand looks cooler. Doubt Anet would ever add that though when they're very PvP focused. 

Make an Aurene weapon and pretend it's your spell 😛 That's what I did~ which allows me to be a DPS water mage.

[Danikat.8537]

5 hours ago, Dr Meta.3158 said:

Not seeing the weapon would make pvp even more horrendous.

That's why I think it's unlikely Anet would ever let us hide them. Even in PvE it can be useful to know what weapons other people are using, but it's even more important in PvP.

[Doctor Hide.6345]

33 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

That's why I think it's unlikely Anet would ever let us hide them. Even in PvE it can be useful to know what weapons other people are using, but it's even more important in PvP.

     Honestly, that is why I get frustrated at the PvP side of things a lot here. It ruins too many good things that could happen like invisible weapons, remove the effects of combat stuff like Virtuoso daggers and Harbinger green stuff, and there is probably more stuff I forgot. PvP relies on looking at opponents stuff too much that in the end it gimps fashion and actual player choice in matters.

[Dr Meta.3158]

28 minutes ago, Doctor Hide.6345 said:

     Honestly, that is why I get frustrated at the PvP side of things a lot here. It ruins too many good things that could happen like invisible weapons, remove the effects of combat stuff like Virtuoso daggers and Harbinger green stuff, and there is probably more stuff I forgot. PvP relies on looking at opponents stuff too much that in the end it gimps fashion and actual player choice in matters.

Probably most games don't allow you to do that though I can't think of one personally that does.

[Doctor Hide.6345]

30 minutes ago, Dr Meta.3158 said:

Probably most games don't allow you to do that though I can't think of one personally that does.

Well, there are games that do to an extent. It just doesn't have PvP in it with the game being purely PvE where you don't need the tells. For example, the invisible shield in FF14 is one case where you can hide the weapon. But that game also has more defined classes and looks, so it can get away with it I suppose unlike here where you can make any build. There are games though that use just hands for the mages like WoW though, so there is no real way to tell your next move there.

[Mistwraithe.3106]

The obvious solution would seem to be making certain confusing skins (eg minimalist or near invisible skins) ONLY apply to the wielder in PVP. Yes that would mean they can't show off their cool (?!) skin to other people but it means that their allies and enemies in PVP would see the normal weapon and know what they are actually using.

[Donari.5237]

I also prefer small elegant weapons, so I've found a lot of minimalist ones.  A lot of the wands make good scepters, there are some foci that are tiny crystals or wrist wrapping energy (though the Elegant Fan is pretty awesome too), and while stiletto daggers are rare there are a few that don't look like boffer weapons.  Combine using those with toggling them off when stowed, and they don't interfere with the look nearly as much.

[Krexen.9057]

11 hours ago, Dr Meta.3158 said:

Not seeing the weapon would make pvp even more horrendous.

I'm not experienced enough in pvp to pick a fight based on what weapon they're carrying.

  

4 hours ago, Mistwraithe.3106 said:

ONLY apply to the wielder

Or just this in general.

Edited March 16 by Krexen.9057
Extending response.

[Dr Meta.3158]

4 hours ago, Krexen.9057 said:

I'm not experienced enough in pvp to pick a fight based on what weapon they're carrying.

I can tell. You're not experience enough to know why you need to see the weapons in pvp.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

If it is only about sPvP and the ability to spot the weapon of the enemy, that can be solved easily with a small QOL feature. Just add weapon-icons of the weaponset in use, next to the character. When you target them.

https://i.ibb.co/18xMxdK/Weapons.jpg

If this really is that important, I would add this asap. That way new players would also have an easier start, because they do not need to learn the look of all weapons to guess the enemy's build.

For the weapons with unspecific skins, I would pick iconic ones and also highlight them with colors to make it obvious if you are dealing with e. g. a Ranger with Longbow or Shortbow.

Edited March 16 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870

[Erich.1783]

Binding of Ipos, then you can cast with a giant hand, if you use a focus.  If you want something more minimalist Jailbroke or Jailbreak, something like that, just a small amount of chain.  For scepter I tend to use a wand, forget the name, but from the pirate vendor in LA.

[Chachachii.8693]

Thank you all for the suggestions, I'll check them out 😄 Sadly, I guess I just have to pick the most minimal one, or one that looks like it's made of an element. 

Imo I hate it when they use foci/wands in fantasy. In the Harry Potter franchise it seems so lame compared to a spellcaster who can use their hands. In D&D I never go for the focus, and I just go for the component pouch

[Westenev.5289]

An invisible weapon skinline would be cool (it would complete my Saber cosplay), but I could see how it could be problematic in a pvp setting.

 

For Foci, I generally use claw weapons like peacemakers foci, chains, or a bracelet like dragonsblood focus. Unfortunately, daggers and scepters are very noticable, so pick your favourite.