Guild Wars 2 Studio Update: Spring 2023

[Matt H.6142]

All sounds promising, but I hope we don't linger in Cantha too long.  The locals can handle some demons, right?  The commander and Gorrik seems uniquely at a disadvantage in this fight. 

Why would asura, charr, and norn have any interest in staying?  I'm sure Sylvari love the scenes of Cantha, and their curiosity would pull them through.  I'd like to know what's happened with Bangar and the legions.  Unchained Ice Legion/Svanir?

Garenhoff when?

I'd dare not invite them back, but what are the Inquest researching with no dragons left?

What are the awakened doing in Cantha?

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Matt H.6142

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

"With our next expansion, our goal is to further augment the combat options for each profession by adding new tools to their arsenal and by lifting constraints that will unlock an unprecedented number of playstyle customization options—while keeping the feel of Guild Wars 2 combat true to its origins. Theorycrafters are going to be very busy."

I read this as all weapons being available on all classes, finally. It makes sense with moving all spec effects to just innately be a part of weapons.

"Allied Player Visual-Effect Filtering"

I really want an option to hide obnoxious visual effects from all kinds of players as well. Certain tonic combinations, infusions, etc can absolutely glare or flood the screen. Even going as far as just turning every ignored player's armor to the neutral preloading set.

[soulknight.9620]

Not impressed tbh. The "new combat abilities" could easily be a new SAC or a newish "jade bot core" thing. Which technically is new and is a combat ability. 

As far as all of the other fluff stuff, what did you guys expected? That anet would just come out and say "hey, things are not going good, we will be selling less content for more money, and the quality of content will be at qyala level"? Ofc they will try to reassure you. Thats how companies work. 

New strikes and fractals could be nice or they could be an OLC/100frac level of content that the majority tries to avoid. 

And ofc lets not forget about unfinished EOD content that still needs some work. Many elite specs are struggling atm. Jade bot with 1 core (surelly there were supposed to be more, kitten its a separate slot of equipment). Turtle that is useless outside some niche barricade bombing. 

And ofc a "new story arc". If the writing is on the level of eod and gyala im not buying into it. Can we please stop it with all of the modern life problems in a fantasy setting and actually return to the roots of personal story like writing. 

[Blazing Rathalos.1904]

 

Quote

 

Q: The February Studio Update said that future expansions would include “combat features” and didn’t mention elite specializations at all. What does that mean?

In the current design and implementation of elite specializations, we feel that with every new expansion there’s been increasingly limited “design space” left to add new and differentiated roles for each profession. In other words, most of the playstyles that we’d like to see supported for each profession already exist or should exist within their existing elite specialization options.

With our next expansion, our goal is to further augment the combat options for each profession by adding new tools to their arsenal and by lifting constraints that will unlock an unprecedented number of playstyle customization options—while keeping the feel of Guild Wars 2 combat true to its origins. Theorycrafters are going to be very busy.

 

Couple of points here: I don't really see how design space was limited. You seem to refer to different "roles" since you speak of them all being available (or should be) across the existing elite specs. But "roles" are not playstyles. Let's look at Engineer: Holosmith, Mechanist and Scrapper all have pure DPS builds. Does that make these elite specs somehow less good? Of course not, having more different ways of achieving the same thing adds variety, which makes the game fun.

Elite specs were simply a way of adding more fun options to achieve mostly the same things, while constraining the number of build combinations to make balance manageable. I'm very curious to see what they will be adding for "new tools" in the future. Because if it is anything along the lines of weapons/utility skills/traits (just in a less constrained format), they will face the same problem as GW1: an exponentially increasing number of combinations with each expansion, making balance an absolute nightmare.

Very curious to see what solution they came up with, and here's hoping they came up with something fun, novel and sustainably manageable for the design team!

 

PS With the dozens of fun ideas that have been floating around for Elementalist elite specs over the years, I'm now even more upset that they went with the bland, uninspired mess that is Catalyst. It was tolerable when I though we would get more in the future. If it was going to be the last one, they should have used up more of the giant gulf of "design space" available in Elementalist.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Blazing Rathalos.1904

[Urud.4925]

I'm also quite happy about the news, especially for the new graphic filter 😄

The only thing that makes me a bit sad, are the continuous skill balance patches. I stopped playing most of my characters, waiting for the end of the balance updates; I started a couple of weeks ago to do a pass of all my alts, changing specs and stats of my ascended gear and now I get that it's better to stop and wait until the end of June 😕 Maybe I should finally spend my PvP League tickets and ascended shards of glory to buy 3 sets of legendary armors. It seems there are no other uses for them in any case.

[Abnaxos.4305]

22 minutes ago, Urud.4925 said:

I stopped playing most of my characters, waiting for the end of the balance updates

I wouldn't expect the balance patches to stop, ever. In every MMO alive, the balance is being tweaked constantly. It's the MMOs heartbeat, no more balance patches is maintenance mode.

[Linken.6345]

8 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

They said previously:  smaller expansions more frequently at a slightly reduced price and adding additional content for those expansions through quarterly updates

There was speculation/confusion on exactly how often expansion would be offered.  Quarterly means every 3 months; not sometimes (or always) 4 months between (that would be just 3 updates per year). 

Yea and 1 year bettwen expansions instead of 2-4 years is more frequently is it not?

And those only 4 updates a year if we count in the expansion is more then we had after EoD is it not?

If you count in returning festivals we will have stuff to do every couple of months some old some new.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, Urud.4925 said:

I'm also quite happy about the news, especially for the new graphic filter 😄

The only thing that makes me a bit sad, are the continuous skill balance patches. I stopped playing most of my characters, waiting for the end of the balance updates; I started a couple of weeks ago to do a pass of all my alts, changing specs and stats of my ascended gear and now I get that it's better to stop and wait until the end of June 😕 Maybe I should finally spend my PvP League tickets and ascended shards of glory to buy 3 sets of legendary armors. It seems there are no other uses for them in any case.

There will be no end to balance updates mate just play what you want to play and change it when next update hits.

[Randulf.7614]

In additional to my earlier comments, whilst I’m a bit concerned about no more elites and a reward system change which isn’t being run by the community first, I would have liked to see fractal and boss rush weeks mentioned.

Have these been abandoned? I loved them. I really want to see them regularly return as intended. Can we get info on what has happened to those?

[Linken.6345]

@Rubi Bayer.8493

About the

new ways to spend your unused Skirmish Claim Tickets and Emblems of the Avenger.

 

I hope you guys did not forget that there is Emblem of the Conqueror aswell.

[HotDelirium.7984]

I hope mirage gets its own shatters like every other elite spec!

[SparklingMalibu.6328]

I've recently returned to the game (about 2 months ago) after a whole DECADE and I am having a blast! I've unlocked my skyscale, made a legendary and I remember being in the GW2 beta tests too! 🙂 So many Birthday cakes to unravel!

 

I've played so much of this game this time that I don't think I ever gave this game that much of a chance before. It wasn't random. There is a reason why I stayed this time.

You should know that new Elite specs would be my primary reason to come back to the game every new expac. You'd have me for a week or two before I'd fade away ( back to other games). This time I didn't because I really enjoy most of the EOD elite specs. I found them so fun that I stayed and unlocked all the content, side stories, masteries and LS had to offer. I even enjoyed PvP! Found the game deeper than before. Found new personal goals and fashion to achieve. It's good to hear that you're improving core tyria but I hope there is enough 'excitement' for new and returning players to come give this game a chance when the new expansion lands. So if there are no more Elite specs then you better have some cool combat features to entice someone out there in the hopes that they can find the playstyles they like in this game too!

Edited May 2, 2023 by SparklingMalibu.6328

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

2 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

Yea and 1 year bettwen expansions instead of 2-4 years is more frequently is it not?

And those only 4 updates a year if we count in the expansion is more then we had after EoD is it not?

If you count in returning festivals we will have stuff to do every couple of months some old some new.

Some speculated it might be more than 1 year; now we know that the expansions (are said) to be yearly.  That's a good thing.  Not sure why you think otherwise.

If there are 4 months between updates after an expansion's release, that's only 3 releases (including the expansion) per year.  Not such a good thing.

But, of course, even 1 update/release per year is more than none; you are correct there. 

[Randulf.7614]

45 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Some speculated it might be more than 1 year; now we know that the expansions (are said) to be yearly.  That's a good thing.  Not sure why you think otherwise.

If there are 4 months between updates after an expansion's release, that's only 3 releases (including the expansion) per year.  Not such a good thing.

But, of course, even 1 update/release per year is more than none; you are correct there. 

Think this is a case of reading more into it than is needed. 3-4 months gives some wiggle room in terms of working round festivals and other stuff that drop between those updates. Being a little loose with timings allows breathing room. 
 

Also remember, it doesn’t mean exactly one year to the date between expansions. That gives a small room for wiggling in another update if needed.

As long as those smaller expansions and associated updates pack enough in (ie not the mess Gyala Delves was), then I’m cautiously optimistic considering the other things they are adding around those releases as well.

Lets also remember, Anet change their mind so often, they may only keep this for one cycle and change things again if it’s not working. This is just their current plan. 

[Mabi black.1824]

Thanks for sharing. good luck and good work to you all✌️

[Frostfang.5109]

Can we please get all 3 underwater wespons avaliable for all clasdes - to create more diversity and options  underwater! 

[Frostfang.5109]

Can character creation please get some genuine love. I've written about this before... 

[Kulvar.1239]

23 hours ago, Dr Meta.3158 said:

The focus on no more new elite specs and instead refining the existing classes is good.

Maybe they'll add new weapons to existing elites to support the alternative builds.

Herald could get shield + scepter as an example. Scepter would provide quickness and support.

Chronomancer could get a healing hammer.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Kulvar.1239

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

5 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

@Rubi Bayer.8493

About the

new ways to spend your unused Skirmish Claim Tickets and Emblems of the Avenger.

I hope you guys did not forget that there is Emblem of the Conqueror aswell.

We did not forget! 😉 

[Eddbopkins.2630]

I hope the new combat features are gana be some like allowing classes to use all available weapons to that class on any specialization. Like core ele would be able to use warhorn. That would open up more spec theory crafting for sure.

[SparklingMalibu.6328]

30 minutes ago, Eddbopkins.2630 said:

I hope the new combat features are gana be some like allowing classes to use all available weapons to that class on any specialization. Like core ele would be able to use warhorn. That would open up more spec theory crafting for sure.

I'd love a pistol torch necro haha 

[BATMAN.6794]

I don't like how vague the answer was to New Elite Specs. Look I get it, it's hard to come up with new ideas, but there was no straight forward yes or no answer as to if in the future we'd ever get any new Elite Specs, and that's a problem. At the least you could have said, " We're open to adding new Elite Specs in the future, but not every expansion will have them, instead we're going to stick with combat features going forward. " or said " without a doubt, absolutely no more Elite Specs going forward. "

[Vayne.8563]

On 5/2/2023 at 8:15 AM, Vlad Morbius.1759 said:

Well this sounds way too familiar to the state of the game prior to HoT. We went years without an expansion with the promise of regular content of expansion like content which almost buried the game. Color me very skeptical!

Except they have been giving us the updates to core game stuff lately, and they listed those changes. Some were a long time in coming like the zone queue, whether everyone liked them or not.  People have been asking for that for years. It's more fair over all.

Anyone that's watching has seen the changes we're already getting. It's true we didn't get a lot of "new content" but we sure got a lot of other stuff and much of it was good for me. If all you care about is new content and nothing else, I suppose this isn't the best news for you. But for me, I've already been seeing this at work. Season 1 return was great for me. So were other changes. 

I think this is over all good news and Anet has never said anything like this.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

On 5/1/2023 at 3:15 PM, Vlad Morbius.1759 said:

Well this sounds way too familiar to the state of the game prior to HoT. We went years without an expansion with the promise of regular content of expansion like content which almost buried the game. Color me very skeptical!

I only remember these kind of statements regarding the Icebrood Saga.  Can you offer citations for these statements prior to Heart of Thorns? 

[Aedil.1296]

I'm intrigued by the fact we won't get new elite specs but this new system they will add will make more combinations possible and please build rafters... What this system could this be? 

Omg is it secondary profession like gw1? 😲😲😲