Straight to the Point: A Primer on Spears in Janthir Wilds

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

You've got spear questions, we've got spear answers! Combat Designer Taylor Brooks has answers to the top questions about the new weapon that will be available to all professions when Janthir Wilds launches. Read on!

 

[Ashantara.8731]

I am torn between "Wow, this sounds pretty cool!" and "Oof, the game has gotten way too complex mechanically."

Edit to explain: I meant too many complex systems in place in one game. And they keep adding to it, like relics, new weapons, and what not. Where will it end? Sometimes, cleaning up a system is better than making it more and more complex.

Edited June 5 by Ashantara.8731

[frazazel.7501]

I excited to try out 9 different new spear kits. :-)

[Farohna.6247]

Ok I'm a little more intrigued by these.  I'm interested in seeing them on different professions.  

[Luthan.5236]

Refering to stuff from GW1 it seem? (I mean there were spears on land - but I did not play it enough. Maybe some skills the Paragon used that were tied to having a spear equipped returning with similar names - but different mechanics to fit into GW2.)

I just hope it won't be a power creep in a way that everyone just has to use spears (and all other weapons weak compared to it) - especially with engineer and elementalist not having an in-combat weapon swap. (While others still can use at least two sets.)

The new auto attack mechanic and that "new spin on an existing skill type" (wondering which classes spear skill's this is about) might be interesting. Ele basically will have 4 new skill sets - one for each attunement I guess? (Unless that lin with the existing skill types is referring to attunement things and for spear giving them only 1 set regardless of the attunement.)

It definitely sounds better than the new weapons introduced with SotO though. Just hoping it won't more support skills for Ele/Mesmer (my two most played chars - both got rather supporty weapons in SotO with the short bow and rifle). I want a rocket like ranged spear for engineer and a melee thing for musculous mesmer close combat fighters 😄.

Edited June 5 by Luthan.5236

[Randulf.7614]

Good call on 4 armoury slots

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

"a melee spear skill that rewards careful positioning"

Found the warrior line.

[Berune.7408]

If Ele is getting the ranged/cast powerful spells version, please make all the ranges 1200 consistently, and don't add things that will require us to move in closer regardless.

[frazazel.7501]

15 minutes ago, Berune.7408 said:

If Ele is getting the ranged/cast powerful spells version, please make all the ranges 1200 consistently, and don't add things that will require us to move in closer regardless.

What if the range is different depending on which attunement you're in?

[Manpag.6421]

Since spears were banned in Elona under Joko's reign —  hence why Spellbreakers broke the heads off their spears to use as daggers — will the Mordant Crescent react to us using spears against them/will there be some kind of achievement for doing so? It's a real missed opportunity, if not!

[Gaiawolf.8261]

1 hour ago, Berune.7408 said:

If Ele is getting the ranged/cast powerful spells version, please make all the ranges 1200 consistently, and don't add things that will require us to move in closer regardless.

My guess is Ele will get one of these, because the class is not nearly complicated enough yet.

Quote

• A set of spear skills with multiple ways to reset the cooldown of its key skill.

• A set of spear skills that require precise aiming at range.

😄

[Nero.7369]

Quote

A new type of autoattack mechanic.

A skill that flips depending on the range to your target?

Quote

• A melee spear skill that rewards careful positioning.
• A set of spear skills that require precise aiming at range.

This sounds like really bad annoying gameplay, let's hope it more fun that what it reads like. For Me hugging your mech as mechanist comes to mind. Or flipping to aim mode like on skyscale fireball comes to mind... Hopefully that is not the case.

 

For everything else I'm curious 🙂

[Eekasqueak.7850]

4 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

"a melee spear skill that rewards careful positioning"

Found the warrior line.

Nah sounds more like Thief

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

1 hour ago, Eekasqueak.7850 said:

Nah sounds more like Thief

Probably the stealth skill, but I was being bitter over Dragon Trigger.

The other options could be spear on warrior revamping 100B or Arc Divider though. 

[Fueki.4753]

Maybe the bullet points do not correlate to one profession each, but a profession can have multiple of them, while other professions cough Warrior cough gets none of them.

The "precise aiming at range" part sounds to me like it'll be 1200 range ground-targetted AoEs.

[Linken.6345]

25 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

Snip

The "precise aiming at range" part sounds to me like it'll be 1200 range ground-targetted AoEs.

Engi shortbow all over again

[Fueki.4753]

1 hour ago, Linken.6345 said:

Engi shortbow all over again

Necromancer's Staff and Engineer's Grenade and Mortar Kits work the same way, too.

[Gehenna.3625]

Some thoughts about the hints:

A spear skill reminiscent of an old fan favorite.

Not sure what this will be cause there used to be a fair few favorites. Will be interesting to see whether this would be an attack skill or a defensive skill. I remember playing Paragon purely as support because it was really good at that with damage reduction and energy restoration and such. 

A new type of autoattack mechanic.

I wonder if this refers to the GW1 version of the Paragon's adrenaline. You'd have to use basic attack skills a number of times for another skill to become available. It could be that you have to use the auto-attack (meaning skill 1) a number of times first before number 2 skill becomes available, for example, and that the number 2 skill is also an auto-attack then whenever it becomes available

A set of spear skills featuring a new spin on an existing skill type.

Existing Paragon skill types in GW1 were spear attacks, shouts, chants and echos. I assume they mean an existing skill type in GW2 though, but they could be referring to shouts and add the echo mechanic from GW1 to it. That would essentially mean that you'd have weapon skills with a duration that would renew themselves whenever a shout with duration runs out, for example (refrain echos). 

A set of spear skills with multiple ways to reset the cooldown of its key skill.

I wonder what is meant with a key skill. Perhaps, because it's going to be only weapon skills and Paragon used a lot of utility skills, skill 5 is going to be like a utility skill and have a very long CD but can be lowered by using other skills or skill combos. It reminds me a bit of Tenacious Defense for Guardian where the CD of Virtue skill 3 is lowered everytime aegis blocks an attack.

A melee spear skill that rewards careful positioning.

This could be a lot of things. Could be a melee attack like a directional swipe, perhaps a different version of cleave. Or perhaps it could be a charge attack or a jump and land effect.

A set of spear skills that features a reimagining of a mechanic seen in the original Guild Wars.

Well I mentiond echos before but if this is something different perhaps chants are meant with this. I can imagine attacks that have similar effects to chants like "on a hit, allies gain x amount of endurance" or something like that.

A spear skill that inflicts a debilitating effect with a new unique effect.

I wonder if this will be a rework of the GW1 condition "deep wound". This condition reduced the effectiveness of healing done on the target but it also lowered the maximum health, so you'd have less health for a duration. Deep wound already exists in GW2 but is only available to a bounty boss. And it's an effect and not a condition.

A set of spear skills that require precise aiming at range.

This also makes me think that the positioning one mentioned above is for melee range. Perhaps they are referring to skills that do not fall under tab targeting. It does make me wonder though what they mean with a "set". Is that a specific profession set or is it a skill type that is spread out over different professions. The danger with this is that this is not everyone's cup of tea and as such you may get into situations where a player won't play certain professions or they will just ignore such skills on their skill bar. 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Please be deep wound and please give it to warrior...

[Berune.7408]

16 hours ago, frazazel.7501 said:

What if the range is different depending on which attunement you're in?

That would be missing the point of what I'm after - a true ranged spellcaster/mage type of profession/spec.

[DeanBB.4268]

I wonder if current traits that affect spears will be modified. Ranger's affects greatsword and spear, Thief's affects sword and spear, etc. Made sense when it was land vs underwater, but now it is 2 land skills.

[Altriba.8092]

A collection that lets us gain some of the PvE spear skins missing from their respective PvE weapon collections, such as the Auric weapons for example, or later on a Black Lion bundle with the missing Black Lion weapon spear skins would be very sought after things in gw2! (the bundles could be released post expansion release with the weapons coming in bundles of 5 spear skins for.....say 600gems each bundle, they could be themed after the expansion/living story periods in which respective weapon collections were released?)

I firmly believe a very large portion of the player population, will, on some conscious or subconscious level be....affected negatively by playing without being able to get their character to look just right due to the dearth of spear skins we currently have available.

It might be prudent to anticipate and preempt this issue for the expansion so as to maximize its reception.

Edited June 6 by Altriba.8092

[bluberblasen.9684]

i see the stealth in rangers spear,

thank you i hate it

dont bring this kitten into competitive

we dont need any more kind of stealth.

thank you

 

[Trejgon.9367]

so from today's blog we have:

A new type of autoattack mechanic. - on ranger spear auto,

A set of spear skills featuring a new spin on an existing skill type. - ranger again - ambush skills being 2-5, instead of 1

A set of spear skills with multiple ways to reset the cooldown of its key skill. - on necro?

A melee spear skill that rewards careful positioning. - on guardian apparently.

[Forgotten Legend.9281]

6 hours ago, Altriba.8092 said:

A collection that lets us gain some of the PvE spear skins missing from their respective PvE weapon collections, such as the Auric weapons for example, or later on a Black Lion bundle with the missing Black Lion weapon spear skins would be very sought after things in gw2! (the bundles could be released post expansion release with the weapons coming in bundles of 5 spear skins for.....say 600gems each bundle, they could be themed after the expansion/living story periods in which respective weapon collections were released?)

I firmly believe a very large portion of the player population, will, on some conscious or subconscious level be....affected negatively by playing without being able to get their character to look just right due to the dearth of spear skins we currently have available.

It might be prudent to anticipate and preempt this issue for the expansion so as to maximize its reception.

My main necro uses mostly lorekeeper weapon skins (it's an RP theme) except for Binding of Ipos. It would be amazing to complete the set with the underwater weapons