Changes to UNDERWATER combat [merged]

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

The game has never required breathers to breathe under water; it's an artifact from an old design concept prior to launch.

Since the Wardrobe, I've been advocating that ANet eliminate breathers as gear and turn them into skins (so you only need six runes, not seven). Since there are so few breather skins in the game anyhow, I support the OP's extension of the idea to allow any helmet skin for breathers, not just those from so-called aquatic headgear.

[Ardid.7203]

While this will be wildly unpopular, I would prefer breathers becoming necessary, whit a drowning system added to the game, and Anet adding lots of new breather skins. Of course, these are just personal taste and even more, mere dreams...

[Ayakaru.6583]

@Ardid.7203 said:While this will be wildly unpopular, I would prefer breathers becoming necessary, whit a drowning system added to the game, and Anet adding lots of new breather skins. Of course, these are just personal taste and even more, mere dreams...

I would agree if anet would make a completely fleshed out system.However, in it's current form, breathers are redundant and inconsequential. We already have a 'helmet' skin, among the breathers.

So unless anet would make a complete, and not half-arsed fleshing of your idea, I think it will be quite unpopular, yes

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@"Ayakaru.6583" said:So unless anet would make a complete, and not half-kitten fleshing of your idea, I think it will be quite unpopular, yes

I agree: breathers are as necessary to a good game as requiring rangers to store arrows to use in their bows — it might be more "realistic" but it isn't likely to be more fun for most people.

[Cyrin.1035]

@ZNICK.8537 said:There will probably be a storyline that takes us to a new area underwater... but what would be REALLY great is if they're also implementing naval/ship battle, a'la Archeage!Z

This would be amazing! I chose all the naval battle/UW choices for the personal story and want to experience that ship battle sequence again but on a much larger and more epic scale. Glad you mentioned Archeage btw. Such a fun game.

[Blude.6812]

@Nyel.1843 said:

@Cyrin.1035 said:Two more days! Can't wait to see the changes!

Can somebody tell me when we can expect the notes for this update? Do we usually get them in advance or just right after the patch has been deployed?

nope always after the release so that the TP traders can't manipulate the TP and rip off the players. It's one of the few things ANet gets right.

[wickedkae.4980]

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:What a waste of resources. But knowing Anet, they're most certainly doing it for monetization purposes... expect useless underwater mounts with overpriced skins.

LOL wtf. There is literally an entire WORLD of content under water that goes unused because Anet was real useless when it came to desinging underwater playability. If they make it so that underwater is fluid and plays well, you have added a ton of content to play now and into the future. Why anyone would think this is a waste of time is beyond me.

[Ashantara.8731]

@Ayakaru.6583 said:I can already hear the argument “but that wouldn’t be lore friendly, we need mechanical filters underwater to breathe”.

How so, when there already is one helmet skin for underwater breathers?

[Ashantara.8731]

Another ~7 hours to go. =)

[Danikat.8537]

I like the idea of making all head gear into breather skins, or simply scrapping breathers and just using your existing head gear underwater.

I also like the idea of having the Rime-rimmed Mariner's Rebreather as an available skin, because on some characters I like the effect.

@Ardid.7203 said:While this will be wildly unpopular, I would prefer breathers becoming necessary, whit a drowning system added to the game, and Anet adding lots of new breather skins. Of course, these are just personal taste and even more, mere dreams...

If they did that they'd have to also go back to giving new characters a breather at character creation, instead of when they reach level 8 and underwater combat is introduced via the level-up rewards. It would be horrible if someone had just started playing, had heard/seen videos of people going underwater with no breath bar or other restrictions and when they tried it the first time they drowned.

(Or they could introduce a system where you have a breath bar if you're not wearing a breather and only have infinite air if you equip one. But that would be a lot of work for something most people would only see once or twice, if they happen to go under water before level 8.)

[Mewcifer.5198]

I would like all the headgear skins to also work as breather skins, there isn't really much reason for them not to.

[Wurstwassertrinker.7028]

I would be fine, when they fix the damn disappearing flesh golem ....Jumping into water, flesh golem away, crawling out ..and what have I to do? Recast the sweet guy...Come on, this boy (or girl?) is only a casted piece of flesh and cannot be under water like his friends shadow etc.?

[nosleepdemon.1368]

Oh brilliant, they can finally fix this total abomination of game design. Here's hoping that they delete underwater combat entirely along with the Quaggans.

[TamX.1870]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:Since the Wardrobe, I've been advocating that ANet eliminate breathers as gear and turn them into skins (so you only need six runes, not seven).

I would vote for this.

The other option would be implementing full underwater builds. Nowadays, in many classes you don't have any synergy between your regular and underwater weapon sets, because of very limited skills in underwater ones. As an example, your condi gears & builds are very suboptimal for most underwater skills which would benefit more for power builds. I hope that the forthcoming underwater combat overhaul addresses to this problem, too, e.g. getting rid of underwater weapons entirely and using the regular weapons and their skills instead. Or then, creating entirely separate underwater builds with their own skill sets, traits and specializations. But it would be simpler to bring open air sets to underwater just to make it easier to keep things balanced in the future.

[Nyel.1843]

@nosleepdemon.1368 said:Oh brilliant, they can finally fix this total abomination of game design. Here's hoping that they delete underwater combat entirely along with the Quaggans.

I don't want miss underwater content, it's awesome. It just needs better tweaking and balancing, which hopefully is done today. Underwater content is super rare in MMORPGs nowadays and GW2 is outstanding in that regard.

[Ardid.7203]

@Danikat.8537 said:I like the idea of making all head gear into breather skins, or simply scrapping breathers and just using your existing head gear underwater.

I also like the idea of having the Rime-rimmed Mariner's Rebreather as an available skin, because on some characters I like the effect.

@"Ardid.7203" said:While this will be wildly unpopular, I would prefer breathers becoming necessary, whit a drowning system added to the game, and Anet adding lots of new breather skins. Of course, these are just personal taste and even more, mere dreams...

If they did that they'd have to also go back to giving new characters a breather at character creation, instead of when they reach level 8 and underwater combat is introduced via the level-up rewards. It would be horrible if someone had just started playing, had heard/seen videos of people going underwater with no breath bar or other restrictions and when they tried it the first time they drowned.

(Or they could introduce a system where you have a breath bar if you're not wearing a breather and only have infinite air if you equip one. But that would be a lot of work for something most people would only see once or twice, if they happen to go under water before level 8.)

Although I agree, I would still love if they added such a underused system. They already have some similar cases like armor "breaking" and disappearing after repeated damage goes un-repaired (something I didn't even knew existed until last week), the never evolved "personality" thing, diverse cool items people hardly uses (Like the Mechanical Devourer Suit), most NPE mechanics (Like insta dying until level 5), the whole Jewelry and Chef craft lines (What percent of all that food people actually uses?), or even the transforming legendary armor... Etc.IMO, that something will see little use is no reason not to have it. If it will add something new and good to the gameplay, even if tiny, it has value.

[Thelgar.7214]

I haven't been this excited for an update ever.

[Minna.7895]

@Danikat.8537 said:I like the idea of making all head gear into breather skins, or simply scrapping breathers and just using your existing head gear underwater.

I also like the idea of having the Rime-rimmed Mariner's Rebreather as an available skin, because on some characters I like the effect.

@Ardid.7203 said:While this will be wildly unpopular, I would prefer breathers becoming necessary, whit a drowning system added to the game, and Anet adding lots of new breather skins. Of course, these are just personal taste and even more, mere dreams...

If they did that they'd have to also go back to giving new characters a breather at character creation, instead of when they reach level 8 and underwater combat is introduced via the level-up rewards. It would be horrible if someone had just started playing, had heard/seen videos of people going underwater with no breath bar or other restrictions and when they tried it the first time they drowned.

(Or they could introduce a system where you have a breath bar if you're not wearing a breather and only have infinite air if you equip one. But that would be a lot of work for something most people would only see once or twice, if they happen to go under water before level 8.)

Wasnt that the case at Release? Or at least in beta... breathe bar i remember something like that . Otherwise hell yes to making headgear and breathers into one and even more for making wintersday breather a skin i can transfer.

[Cyrin.1035]

1 more hourrrr!!! I'm watching the price of UW precursors bounce up and down. Rage was 30g two weeks ago :p

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Minna.7895 said:Wasnt that the case at Release?Not since before launch. Maybe in the earliest BETA.We've never needed breathers in the live game.

[Ardid.7203]

Expect floating and moving platforms in the next Episodes. That is all I'm going to say.

[nosleepdemon.1368]

@Nyel.1843 said:

@nosleepdemon.1368 said:Oh brilliant, they can finally fix this total abomination of game design. Here's hoping that they delete underwater combat entirely along with the Quaggans.

I don't want miss underwater content, it's awesome. It just needs better tweaking and balancing, which hopefully is done today. Underwater content is super rare in MMORPGs nowadays and GW2 is outstanding in that regard.

There's a good reason it's super rare...

[Cyrin.1035]

10 min! Patch notes incoming!

[Cyrin.1035]

Patch up! Go go go! =)

[Nyel.1843]

@nosleepdemon.1368 said:

@Nyel.1843 said:

@nosleepdemon.1368 said:Oh brilliant, they can finally fix this total abomination of game design. Here's hoping that they delete underwater combat entirely along with the Quaggans.

I don't want miss underwater content, it's awesome. It just needs better tweaking and balancing, which hopefully is done today. Underwater content is super rare in MMORPGs nowadays and GW2 is outstanding in that regard.

There's a good reason it's super rare...

Yeah most devs are too lazy or not capable of creating it. Look at SWTOR or ESO, devs didn't even implement diving or swimming.

I am very pleased that GW2 has a lot of amazing underwater stuff.