Aquatic trait line INCOMING?

[Rico.6873]

(CANNONBALL!)(BIG SPLASH APPEARS)With the buffs to the Aqua boss in fractals, and how hard it is to get aquatic gear in generalIt would be cool if we could get some ascended drops for our Breathers in fractals/raiding (if they ever release a underwater raid)or from certain underwater bosses in PVE, also getting some level 80 breathers when you kill mobs underwater would be sweet/salt!

It would be a awesome dream if they added a 4th trait line, hidden with a simple aquatic click to change the skills abilities of your water weaponsThat would be a dream come true!

What do you think of the underwatercombat in Guild Wars 2?Should it be improved now? later? with the next water dragon expension? or should they ignore anything underwater related?Have you fought the new Jelly boss in the underwater fractal? how was it? any fun? could it use some changes?

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

The changes to aquatic don't require people swapping their gear. Masterwork breather and exotic weapons are fine, combined with the gear people use on land.

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I'd love to see a second major revamp of Aquatic combat, because it's fun and different from the stuff we usually do. I doubt very much if it's in the cards.

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FYI there are some existing threads discussing the pros and cons of the new fractal. Right now, more dislike it than like it, although I suspect that has a lot to do with last night's instabilities and the mechanics being new (no established method for clearing now).

[mindcircus.1506]

There hasn't been a new underwater dynamic event added to the game since Core other than that one at the pirate docks in Istan. Other than that QoL pass last year the content has been largely ignored.The developers actually invented a mount who's reason for being is to efficiently help you avoid underwater combat... then they buffed it to let you skip over it faster.

I really dont see Arenanet doubling down on the underwater experience any time soon.

[ugrakarma.9416]

Underwater is one of these foruns overrated stuff by a vocal minority. No matter how Anet invest on it, any underwater content will be empty in 2 weeks, its just waste of resources.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

Considering that having underwater traits mixed in with on land traits are icky, I'd prefer it if underwater builds were separate.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@mindcircus.1506 said:There hasn't been a new underwater dynamic event added to the game since Core other than that one at the pirate docks in Istan. Other than that QoL pass last year the content has been largely ignored.The developers actually invented a mount who's reason for being is to efficiently help you avoid underwater combat... then they buffed it to let you skip over it faster.

I really dont see Arenanet doubling down on the underwater experience any time soon.

I'm sure I did an underwater event off Amnoon docks.

[Rico.6873]

@Eloc Freidon.5692 said:Considering that having underwater traits mixed in with on land traits are icky, I'd prefer it if underwater builds were separate.

Do underwater traits really need 3 traits to work?Isn't one enough?

[Astralporing.1957]

@Eloc Freidon.5692 said:Considering that having underwater traits mixed in with on land traits are icky, I'd prefer it if underwater builds were separate.You have a separate and limited weapon and skill selection for underwater, that often won't work well with normal land builds. You also already have a separate skill bar for underwater content. Considering all of that, underwater having a separate trait selection should be a no-brainer even if there won't be any underwater traitlines.

[Brother.1504]

The vast majority of players don’t like underwater combat. I remember loads of complaining back in the day about this.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Brother.1504 said:The vast majority of players don’t like underwater combat. I remember loads of complaining back in the day about this.

I don't think there's any clear evidence about what fraction of players dislike underwater combat. People complain when ANet gives away stuff, so it's hard to estimate popularity|unpopularity based on what people post or say in /map.It's plausible that there are more who strongly dislike compared to strongly like; I wouldn't bet on whether there are more in the middle who are perfectly fine with underwater combat in small doses.

What seems more likely to me, as evidenced by some of the posts in this thread (and the one about Aquatic Fractal) is that lots of people aren't familiar with their skills underwater... and that leads to frustration when they feel forced into underwater combat.

[Scoobaniec.9561]

Underwater combat is better than land one. People are just not willing to learn it and tbh why would they? Theres literally no purpose to go underwater atm

[mindcircus.1506]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

@mindcircus.1506 said:There hasn't been a new underwater dynamic event added to the game since Core other than that one at the pirate docks in Istan. Other than that QoL pass last year the content has been largely ignored.The developers actually invented a mount who's reason for being is to efficiently help you avoid underwater combat... then they buffed it to let you skip over it faster.

I really dont see Arenanet doubling down on the underwater experience any time soon.

I'm sure I did an underwater event off Amnoon docks.

I totally stand corrected here. You are right.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Brother.1504 said:The vast majority of players don’t like underwater combat. I remember loads of complaining back in the day about this.

I don't think there's any clear evidence about what fraction of players dislike underwater combat. People complain when ANet gives away stuff, so it's hard to estimate popularity|unpopularity based on what people post or say in /map.It's plausible that there are more who strongly dislike compared to strongly like; I wouldn't bet on whether there are more in the middle who are perfectly fine with underwater combat in small doses.Isn't the evidence that through 2 expansion cycles now we've seen

one

two dynamic events take place in open world content? Isn't the vast unfinished space below Tangled Depths? The fact that Herald was not usable underwater for almost three years?Choices like these by a developer with actual participation stats and feedback sessions.It's not hard to assume if their numbers and feedback showed other than a passsionate few enjoyed it, they would have done things like had places to explore and red-conning mobs in Ember Bay, or all that coastal area in Istan or many other logical places to do so.What seems more likely to me, as evidenced by some of the posts in this thread (and the one about Aquatic Fractal) is that lots of people aren't familiar with their skills underwater... and that leads to frustration when they feel forced into underwater combat.I'm absolutely sure a lot of what you are hearing right now is absolutely L2P-related. But honestly speaking I always felt that the moment you go underwater the pace of the game slows down. It's seldom rewarding.in terms of the experience.

[Toolbox.9375]

All I want to see is a "sunken" mode, where you move and fight just as you would on land, only under a weakened Cripple/Slow effect given the thicker "air".

[Brother.1504]

@"Toolbox.9375" said:All I want to see is a "sunken" mode, where you move and fight just as you would on land, only under a weakened Cripple/Slow effect given the thicker "air".

Why? All those things are conditions and undesirable. What rationale behind wanting to self inflict a reduced less precise method of movement. One of gw2’s appeal is fast paced action style combat.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

@"Brother.1504" said:The vast majority of players don’t like underwater combat. I remember loads of complaining back in the day about this.

This is largely because of slower combat (fixed now), fewer skill selections (slightly increased last year when they fixed combat speed), and the fact that half of the traits don't work underwater and there's no "build swap" for traits like there is for skills. There's also the issue of camera movement not allowing a proper full spherical movement, but I'm not sure that's feasible to fix.

If they fixed the second and third issue, then a lot of complaints would just be legacy complaining - people who didn't like it before it was fixed, and are so stuck in that mindset that they refuse to even try to like an updated underwater combat.

[Toolbox.9375]

@Brother.1504 said:

@"Toolbox.9375" said:All I want to see is a "sunken" mode, where you move and fight just as you would on land, only under a weakened Cripple/Slow effect given the thicker "air".

Why? All those things are conditions and undesirable. What rationale behind wanting to self inflict a reduced less precise method of movement. One of gw2’s appeal is fast paced action style combat.

It's better than what we have now. I dislike losing access to the weapons, utilities, and traits that I've chosen for every other area of the game.

[Brother.1504]

@Toolbox.9375 said:

@Brother.1504 said:

@Toolbox.9375 said:All I want to see is a "sunken" mode, where you move and fight just as you would on land, only under a weakened Cripple/Slow effect given the thicker "air".

Why? All those things are conditions and undesirable. What rationale behind wanting to self inflict a reduced less precise method of movement. One of gw2’s appeal is fast paced action style combat.

It's better than what we have now. I dislike losing access to the weapons, utilities, and traits that I've chosen for every other area of the game.

But but, torch, warhorn, under water. ?

[Swagg.9236]

lmao, considering how restrictive and one-dimensional GW2 gameplay already is on land, doing something like forcing a suite of aquatic passives upon the game and forcing players to take them in order to be viable within certain, underwater encounters would basically be the ultimate way to desecrate the already desiccated corpse that is Tyria's underwater content. Thinking further on it, I guess anet could always do that same, tired trick of forcing players to grind collections and brainless farms in an isolated zone so that they could use some arbitrary and esoteric mastery ability to kill some new underwater enemies spawned into a corner somewhere. At least that way, the garbage that would be an "aquatic trait" could be quarantined within a specific area, unable to actively bother anyone outside of its respective instances.