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[Column] Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns and Character Progression
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Players have been waiting for this moment, but that wait is finally over. The first expansion to Guild Wars 2 is finally announced! Even though not everyone could make it to PAX, Twitch allowed tens of thousands of players to tune and and soak up the excitement, and boy did we soak it all up. ArenaNet not only announced the long awaited expansion, but also gave some info regarding the features of Heart of Thorns, which seem to focus around character progression.
Read more of David North's Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns Character Progression.
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The Engineers are getting the hammer, and some sweet looking armor!
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I know you will get plenty on here who will tout how this is the greatest thing even.
It sounds promising, the ability to start branching out more is a good thing. It has taken long enough and hopefully they won't wait 3 more years to expand more.
Ugh, yeah, it has. Straight out of Colin's mouth, 'one specialization per profession'.
Not to mention mastery lines are a rip off of Everquest's AA system that's been cloned in hundreds of other MMOs. But nope, you're right David, this mastery system is truly unique and not 'standard formula'.
Thanks for the article, now I'm gonna go bash my head in the wall.
I hate to break it to you there mr article writer but that armor already exists in the store I have it, not the head mind you but the rest of it it's called magitech.
Post max level advancement is also not something new, STO already has that system called Specializations. I'm sure that other games have done that before. I'm not saying it's not good mind you just that they didn't invent it.
I for one won't be buying this expansion unless they address some seriously game breaking problems with their current design that the features they've listed so far will not take care of like their terrible loot system, their TPcentric progression, and their tendency to make warriors be able to solo five mans in PVE while they harm classes like Engineers even though they claim they've balanced properly. (ever play explosive builds? completely useless this game is a joke in that two handed swords are better than pistols and rifles, if that had happened in real life we would have had a very different WWI and WWII)
What are you basing this off of? My dual pistols engineer is usually one of the top players in PvP, and in PvE I can easily solo champions and veteran karka. I think it all depends on your build. Especially when you consider the engineer as currently the engineer probably has the most diverse set of useful builds out of any other class - both in PvP and PvE.
A WoW diehard fan talking about games ripping off systems, life is ironic isn't it.
David once said, "Guild Wars 2 is unique in that it brings people together to complete tasks and missions, that's why it's amazing". Read that, digest it, and read it again.
His articles are horrible, often misinformed or outright lying, and he willfully ignores the rest of the MMO universe.
Why they still let him write here is a mystery to me. Well, not really, they did just give MMO of the year to Marvel Heroes.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
Yes, guns outmatch swords in the real world. But his is a fantasy world that also has to adhere to game mechanics to at least try and make a balanced approach.
My stance has, and likely always will be (unless substantial evidence is provided otherwise, and even then it will be on a case by case basis) that melee should be more powerful than range in terms of raw DPS. This is dependent, of course, on the game's own mechanics and if melee is more risky than ranged. Risk vs. reward in a lot of senses. If you have a higher chance to be felled in melee than in ranged, then you should be able to do more DPS. Especially if the fights have mechanics in which you have to dodge or move out of the way of things. Range oft do not have to worry about most mobs and simply moving won't stop them from keeping on with the attack.
Place this in situations whereby there is mass PvP, and it's likely melee will be torn down before they even reach a zerg of players that sports mainly ranged. Focus fire and being to easily identify the threat.
This is why I am 100% not okay with games like WoW whereby you always see ranged with the highest DPS and oft described as the best PvP classes (even giving them incredible defensive capabilities). I mainly play as tanks or healers, though every time I see someone post recount (a DPS tracking mod) in chat, nine times out of ten it's a ranged dps... and I think to myself -- if not outright type if they're annoying enough -- "Yes... we get it. You're a ranged DPS, and I just think that's adorable." It takes much less skill to play ranged in WoW and I've even had guildmates who have said they'd rather shoot themselves in the foot than play ranged in WoW or FFXIV (though melee in FFXIV are sometimes usually stronger in a true risk vs reward factor -- at least with certain classes and back when I played).
Guild wars 2 diversifying their classes could turn into a good thing. Hopefully it's done right and covers some weaknesses of each class so that they're more viable in most situations or at least a different playstyle that's also entertaining for a change of pace.
Uhh, have you even played GW2? He's right. Players do come together to help each other out with heart tasks, revives, and events. It's actually unique, in that you don't need a group to do these things. The only other MMO that is similar is Rift's events.
Not true... first of all, the "helping a player out" is mostly inadvertent for hearts and dynamic events. In fact, DCUO doesn't allow for Kill Stealing... so for example you have to kill 20 of X mob... and you just tag one and someone else kills it, you still get credit. In this way players are helping players out in the same fashion as GW2,,, they just happen to be there at the same time doing the same thing, and everyone gets credit.
Warhammer was doing it long before that and CoX was doing it before that.. and many MMOs followed.that had some type of public grouping effect. What GW2 does differently is that they make it more obvious its happening because its pretty much the entire scope of PvE.
Engineer with hammer, reminds of Vulcan in Smite.
also excited for the new profession, glad they didn't add new levels with this expansion now everything added will be counted as "endgame". people will still find things to bitch about though no matter what they do.
my top MMOs: UO,DAOC,WoW,GW2
most of my posts are just my opinions they are not facts,it is the same for you too.
Meh,do we at least get more skills on the action bar? becasue if not then its the same old pile of boring.
Basically clicking away text windows ruins every MMO, try to have fun instead of rushing things. Without story and lore all there is left is a bunch of mechanics.
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I don't think arena.net really understood what players meant with specialization and character progression. Some silly traits to help you in the new xpac areas isn't really "improving your character" and the new skill sets don't promote customization because there's only one per profession and you cannot mix and match.
Maybe the next expansion pack has enough options to actually talk about customization...
Probably because you're just one opinion and the MMORPG staff don't see it from your point of view.
This is not a game.
This. I know balancing could be an issue. And even though GW had lots of unused skills I could alway refresh my build by more skills or a different secondary class.
Some of the stuff they announced sound nice...but this is ANET we're talking about. Have to wait and see what the finished product will look like.
I really doubt it and one of the main reasons i can not get excited about anything related to this game.
I think you may have completely missed the point to this game. 'Mob Tagging' is part of a series of design decisions all based around the idea of players helping each other. You're mostly right about hearts, they are the MOST far removed from Anet's design approach. They exist, because many people needed help 'guidance' as to where to go in the game. And were either incapable, or unwilling to go out and explore on their own. They were lost, they needed some amount of handholding. That is what hearts are. On face value, you're right, they don't encourage group play. However, what they do is direct players to areas with nearby events. Many of which do encourage group play. And indeed what happens is you have players going along in their own little world and then start bumping into other playes doing events. These are tools that are designed to push players towards each other, even if you yourself don't see it. Furthermore hearts don't exist in any of the upper level content. They are there solely to ween new players into the gameplay experience.
That said, there are a multitude of reasons to play with others, to help out others. To say otherwise is basically electing to be a dodo bird. You get better loot for grouping with others, you get rewarded for reviving others (it helps progress many events, you can get exp, and players often thank you for it as well). Furthermore, with the more elaborate events you have entire zones of players coordinating to achieve goals. Look at Vinewraith for example. You have players communicating in map chat 'hey how are you guys doing over there, do you need help, we may need backup over here!' etc. etc. etc.
I'm sorry, but you just don't see those kinds of things in other MMOs. The closest thing other mmos have to that is endgame raiding, and Cyrodil.
The article is undoubtedly late, and flawed.
However, if you think the mastery system is a rip of of Everquest's AA system, you didn't pay attention. Given how it was advertised, the mastery system isn't unique to games, but it is a feature we haven't really seen in an MMO. It's not like everquest, and instead more like metroid. You wanna enter that secret room? Well you need to go discover how to use a grappling hook first. That is the mastery system, and it's honestly a welcome addition.
I have yet to see an MMO have such a feature set.
I just wish they would bring in some kind of tank and healer action.. Doesn't have to be a complete trinity but a functional healer would peak my interest a lot more in this game. Right now its just DPS fast enough to kill before you mess up an evade and die.
Seems like an easy balance for me, Have stances for weapon sets where you can absorb 50% damage per hit but do 50% less damage and 150% threat, and a stance to heal 150% more with 50% less damage. (I just threw the numbers together)
Keep the ability to zerker through everything pve for people who want that, but for people like me who like to play with group compositions would bring an aspect in the game that i really miss. I think a lot of people would PVE that way even with the speed zerker mode available
i don't concider ONE choice to be a specialisation, rather 10 more level.
if they wanna give us the chance to specc in anything... i am still waiting for my "uniqueness", which will most likely never happen :P
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
Just give us the expansion!
Any estimation about the release date?
All Time Favorites: EQ1, WoW, EvE, GW1
Playing Now: WoW, ESO, GW2