Swim Speed Infusions

[Adzekul.3104]

It's nice to have the new content, and the suggestions / speculation about what further content this may enable, but I am wondering ... how much swim speed do I really need? What are ANet's expectations for the player base?

A preface on me and my play style: I have 9 characters; one of every class. I do not anticipate ever having more, but who knows. Suffice it to say that with 9 I am very busy with my play time. I try to do story content on every one, and I try to get ascended gear plus relevant builds on every one. "Relevant" depends upon whether or not the character is only for story content, or open world content, or WvW or some combination of these. I do not play PvP or and do not currently partake in Fractals or PvE raids, because frankly I do not have the time or the inclination to grind even more than I already do.

That said, I can see getting swim-speed +10 infusions on all characters. But do I really need swim-speed +15 or +20? I am not even going to ask the question about +30, because I do not have the 350 thousands days or 25 thousand gold available (see Reddit or the Wiki, people have done the math) to ever achieve this goal. In terms of agony infusions, I think the current maximum that has ever been made is something like +18 to +20, and this is from mature content. So what on earth is the reasoning behind having any swim-speed infusions beyond +20? What are the developer expectations in terms of how far people will progress towards +30? Do they expect at least 1 person in the entire GW2 game to get to this level at some distant point in time?

Discussion (and Dev commentary) requested.

PS: it would be nice to see comparisons of +10 and +15 on in-game swim speed, once someone has advanced to this point. Actually, maybe ANet should make a short video of this for a forth-coming Guild Chat. Actually, if they do this, it would be nice to see +10 vs +20 vs +30.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

The first question i would ask is : Does the Infusion stacks with other Movement Speed Bonuses?My warrior has always Warrior's Sprint traited.

If it doesn´t stack then i would just put a +10 on every character and call it a day.

[killermanjaro.5670]

I've just stuck a +10 on and I'm using the rest as a source of a little extra gold, I really can't see myself building up enough to get the higher tier ones. I would also like to know exactly what the speed differences are, and what scenario they are intended for.

I always thought if more underwater based content was released then we'd get underwater speed boosts in the form of a mastery track, or underwater mount, so I don't really understand why speed boosts were done as infusions anyway.

[tippolit.3591]

I'd like to know why I would want to use our one aquatic headgear infusion slot for one of these over a normal attribute infusion (power, precision, vitality etc.).

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

@tippolit.3591 said:I'd like to know why I would want to use our one aquatic headgear infusion slot for one of these over a normal attribute infusion (power, precision, vitality etc.).

Because you think the extra speed is more useful than an attribute boost. If you don't think that, you use an attribute infusion.

[Pifil.5193]

@Adzekul.3104 said:It's nice to have the new content, and the suggestions / speculation about what further content this may enable, but I am wondering ... how much swim speed do I really need? What are ANet's expectations for the player base?

I cannot speak for ArenaNet, of course, but to answer your question with a question: how much time do you spend swimming? Most days the time I spend swimming is zero or close to zero. So that's how much time I personally intend to spend on getting swim speed infusions for my characters. ;) I'll do the daily krait killer and get chests but that's because a) I hate the krait, b) to sell infusions while the price is good and c) for the title. If the price drops a lot before I get the title I'll start throwing +10s into my waterbreathers.

I also wouldn't expect that much new underwater content, there's a vocal minority who love it but, in general, it's not that popular and I believe that if they intended to add a lot more underwater content they never would have added a swim speed bonus in this manner. To me the swim speed infusion seems more like busy work to keep those who want underwater content occupied rather than a prelude to anything more engaging.

[Urud.4925]

@Pifil.5193 said:I'll do the daily krait killer and get chests but that's because a) I hate the krait [...]

DESTROY! DESTROOOOOY!!Sorry, OT, but I felt the urge to say it. I love that voice actress.

[Ikkeman.9280]

@killermanjaro.5670 said:I always thought if more underwater based content was released then we'd get underwater speed boosts in the form of a mastery track, or underwater mount, so I don't really understand why speed boosts were done as infusions anyway.

I also think that swim speed boost should come in form of a mastery. To me, it would be interesting to see a water-related mastery. But yes, unfortunately, not enough of that content is released, so I guess it wouldn't be worth the effort right now.

[Hesacon.8735]

@Ikkeman.9280 said:

@killermanjaro.5670 said:I always thought if more underwater based content was released then we'd get underwater speed boosts in the form of a mastery track, or underwater mount, so I don't really understand why speed boosts were done as infusions anyway.

I also think that swim speed boost should come in form of a mastery. To me, it would be interesting to see a water-related mastery. But yes, unfortunately, not enough of that content is released, so I guess it wouldn't be worth the effort right now.

Something to spend mastery points on. There could be a couple water related central tyria masteries that would make sense with the current system.

[Urud.4925]

I've read a few threads asking for an underwater world in the next expansion, but also several complains that that would be too boring. Probably ArenaNet is doing some pre-balance before adding 1 new underwater map in one of the LW4 and see how the playerbase receives it. It makes sense before going "all-in" with an expansion (it would be too risky).

Back to the topic, I found a video

that shows the difference between a +16 and a flat +0. Someone asked for a comparison between a +10 and a +16, maybe he will add some new info.It would be nice to know at least if the increase in speed is linear with the infusion (+20 is the double than +10) or not. I'm too poor to try any experiment, I'm selling the few infusions that I get :/

[Gondolph.7201]

It`s really unsatisfying to get no clear information what your increased speed is when you move from +10 to a +11 infusion. Is it 1%? Is it 1% for +10? Whats the calcuation formula?

[Zaraki.5784]

@"Gondolph.7201" said:It`s really unsatisfying to get no clear information what your increased speed is when you move from +10 to a +11 infusion. Is it 1%? Is it 1% for +10? Whats the calcuation formula?

From wiki: "According to tests done in-game, a +10 Swim-Speed Infusion equals to +33% movement speed (underwater)."So, if we can supose it is linear, +15=+50%, +20=+66.6% and +30=+100% (so every +1=+3.3%).

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

The Devs explain how the Swim-Speed Infusions work in the latest Guild Chat video, if anyone is interested.

[Adzekul.3104]

Thanks for the tip, but I just watched the whole thing, and there was sadly no mention of the nitty-gritty of what the +10, +15 etc actually means. We still need to have someone do this "for science" I guess.

[Dami.5046]

I'm just wondering why they have been introduced, as frankly I hardly spent anytime in the water - So i'm quietly hoping it's because the Jade sea is now water not jade and there is a whole new world there to explore. ;)

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

The Devs said the Infusions were additive, and also stacked with other speed buffs.

[Aeon.4583]

I really would like to have unique slot for those swim infusions. I have +5stat+9agony resistance in my aqua breather. And i really don't want to remove it. Always changing it, will be annoying procedure.

Reminder - enrichment infusion slot.

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

@Aeon.4583 said:I really would like to have unique slot for those swim infusions. I have +5stat+9agony resistance in my aqua breather. And i really don't want to remove it. Always changing it, will be annoying procedure.

Reminder - enrichment infusion slot.

You don't actually require that infusion slot for AR in the current fractal structure, as the highest underwater fractal is <= 141 AR.