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[Wallach]

If they insist on giving a shit about their economy, trait refunds are the wrong place to target anyway; all that the fee is going to do is encourage people to follow guides that other players have written instead of learning and experimenting for themselves (and that's going to be a problem even if respecs are completely free, so I don't know why they'd want to exacerbate the situation).

If they want to take a significant amount of money out of the economy, they should be taking a percentage out of every transaction that goes on in the auction house - and if they already are doing that, then they should just increase the percentage fee until it's at the level they want.
At least if you want to avoid participating in a gold sink that revolves around the auction house, you need to take the time to arrange buying and selling over some external auction site/forum (which is much less convenient than the AH, and requires that you personally invest time in setting up the deal - time that you could have used to make more money had you gone with the automated AH solution). Avoiding a respec cost is as simple as sticking to whatever cookie cutter 'build guides' happen to be in vogue, and never straying from them.

The auction house and probably the in-game mail system are good choices for tuning outbound gold. Between that and the crafting/durability costs, you should be able to get to whatever levels you need to keep reasonable pressure applied. You could also do something like applying a small fee for stuff like creating custom titles, some guild-related customization functions, things like that. There's enough opportunities there that it makes the use of a gold fee on the traits seem like a really odd choice. I wonder what their intent is.

Edit - Reading yesterday's post on the official blog, I read this:

After a character has spent their trait points, they can visit a trainer to reset their traits and refund their previously spent points for a small fee.

We realized that an important part of building a character is some sense of permanence. With this new system, you are flexible enough to change if you really want to, but you should still feel like the choices you made matter while you are out adventuring or slogging your way through a dungeon. In competitive PvP, you have a separately saved trait build and can respec free of charge.

I don't know, I can't help but feel there's not much sense of permanence in a system where there's only a "small fee" involved with changing it, much less one where you are completely free from that restriction in one section of the game.

 

[Jira]

If they insist on giving a shit about their economy, trait refunds are the wrong place to target anyway; all that the fee is going to do is encourage people to follow guides that other players have written instead of learning and experimenting for themselves (and that's going to be a problem even if respecs are completely free, so I don't know why they'd want to exacerbate the situation).

If they want to take a significant amount of money out of the economy, they should be taking a percentage out of every transaction that goes on in the auction house - and if they already are doing that, then they should just increase the percentage fee until it's at the level they want.
At least if you want to avoid participating in a gold sink that revolves around the auction house, you need to take the time to arrange buying and selling over some external auction site/forum (which is much less convenient than the AH, and requires that you personally invest time in setting up the deal - time that you could have used to make more money had you gone with the automated AH solution). Avoiding a respec cost is as simple as sticking to whatever cookie cutter 'build guides' happen to be in vogue, and never straying from them.

Edit: If GW1 is what most people would call a 'broken economy' (and I don't know if that's really true: it's a pretty functional and relatively stable one, even without any gold sinks to speak of; it's just that cosmetic upgrades cost a lot, and the difference between a 99.9% effective and 100% effective variant on the same kind of equipment can seem disproportionate), then imagine what would happen if it cost gold to respec there. Would it really affect the people contributing to inflation - the ones who load up on a farming build and then do the same thing over and over four hours/days/weeks, amassing hundreds of thousands of gold in between build changes? Or would it just become a nuisance to people who are playing the game for fun, and who like to play around with a different loadout for every new story mission?

GW1's economy is only broken in the sense that A. The community had to make their own currency because they could carry around so little of it per character/account and B. Because you didn't have to spend any money unless you wanted to because there were no required money sinks to keep the economy in check.

Another example of a broken economy is WoW, all you need to do is look at the inflation that has only increased since the game has come out.

If you want an example of the perfect gaming economy, just look at EVE. The materials for the items you want to create cost nearly the identical amount as the item itself. That and requiring even the lowest level materials in the most rare and expensive items keeps things in check, it allows you to gain money even at the starting end of things since there's a constant demand for the most basic of materials.

As for the respec costs, I'll wager a guess that by the time you want to respec, you'll have gained the amount of coin needed to do so 5+x over, I don't see it being an issue.

 

[Jira]

Necromancer skills 2.0

.

 

[Hoo-doo]

Do we have any indication on the prices of the trait refunds? Nobody in beta checked this out?
I never heard of anyone claiming it as a "gold sink" at all, literally all we know is that it's a small fee.

Wouldn't we have heard it earlier from the beta-players if the respec costs were high? I don't get where people got this idea from.

 

[Guesong]

So begins a new age of Build Wars!

Here's what I'm doodling around with atm :

CQC Engineer

Pistol/Pistol
Pistol/Shield
-Elixir H
-Slick Shoes
-Flamethrower Kit
-Elixir B/C/R (depends)
-Elixir X

Gameplan is to unload all the conditions possibles with Pistol/Pistol ASAP before switching to Flamethrower Kit and going in.

Traits
Basically contains :
-Regeneration while using Armed Kit (Flamethrower!), 15 % Reduced Flamethrower Skills Cooldown, Extra Damage when using Flamethrower, +90 Toughness when using Armed Kit (Flamethrower!). That's one part of synergy.

-Second part is 10 % faster endurance regeneration, 10 % extra damage when endurance is full, and getting an endurance boost when consuming elixirs.

-To top it off, I have reduced pistol cooldowns and faster kit swapping, as well as having 10 % of my Vitality bonus as Condition Damage.

Here's hoping there's a Traits AND skills builder all-in-one soon, getting tiring to switch pages.

 

[Coxswain]

As for the respec costs, I'll wager a guess that by the time you want to respec, you'll have gained the amount of coin needed to do so 5+x over, I don't see it being an issue.

If the time it takes to earn the money required to respec is more than, say, the one to two minutes it takes to see whether the tweaks you've made to your build are making you more or less effective, then it's an issue.

 

[nataku]

Respecs are free in beta for testing purposes.

 

[Retro]

It should cost money to refresh the total before you head out, though. As in, you go back, respecs are free, but when want to leave, you "stock" 4 resets (or arbitrary number) to use out in the "field"..

I prefer an automated approach; you simply step into a town and it flashes something small in the UI like "Trait Resets Refreshed!". If there's some kind of monetary cost associated with it, it would either be annoying (a pop-up every time you leave the city) or easy to forget.

With Retro's idea you could also say in a way the waypoint travel cost to a city is the cost of refreshing your resets. I think this system could work perfectly, if anything maybe they restrict it somehow in dungeons or pvp? Maybe lower the number of resets?

Another approach that is still a 'gold sink'; when you first gain access to Traits (level 11), it explains the whole "Reset" system and gives you one free. Additional resets (in addition to the one you get for free) would cost gold to unlock and have a level cap. We already know you're going to be heading back to town for your Master (40) and Grandmaster (60) Training Manuals (which are probably gold sinks themselves); stagger the levels at which you can increase the number of Resets by buying them at level 30, 50 and 70.

That means that if you want to blow your money on being able to respec anywhere (and honestly, how many people will leave town without having their Traits set?), you have to pay for it (and the more resets you buy, the higher the costs)

That.. actually makes a lot of sense.
This actually might be the better system. Neat, can't wait to try it out for myself.

Glad I explained it clearly. I already have a pretty good idea how it will work from designing skill systems of my own as a hobby. I have one particularly cool concept that abandons classes all together and allows players to build their own mix of melee, modificaiton and magic, and like the trait system players would be able to pick which skills they wanted in any order. You can read that here: Triangular Logic. I really should start posting more crap there. </shameless self promotion>

That's pretty much what Martin (ANet CM) over there is doing at this point. You can tell from his responses that he's getting really fed up with the way the community is acting.

Poor Bastard. I hope the pay is good. I don't think I could be an official community manager, I have a low tolerance for whiny bullshit, especially when it comes to unimportant stuff (in the scheme of things) like video games. First World Problems and all that.

 

[Jira]

Do we have any indication on the prices of the trait refunds? Nobody in beta checked this out?
I never heard of anyone claiming it as a "gold sink" at all, literally all we know is that it's a small fee.

Wouldn't we have heard it earlier from the beta-players if the respec costs were high? I don't get where people got this idea from.

It was hard enough finding footage of the press dodging, getting such a specific piece of info is nigh impossible. I'll email a guy I know who was in beta.

 

[Sent]

Yeah, I don't think it's set in stone yet. The problem is, the actual useful feedback is so buried in whiny bullshit that I worry there's no way they'll get the message. I mean, if I were part of the Dev team and I said "Hey, let's see what people think", I'd see the venomous, hyperbole-laden clusterfuck of a response over at Guru and put a gun in my mouth.

I really don't see the big deal behind going to town to respec traits or whatever. I don't mind devs giving people a hard reason to go to towns.

 

[gunbo13]

Guardian Balanced(PUG)

Mace/Shield
Sword/Focus
-Healing Breeze
-Tome of Wrath
-Smite Condition
-Renewed Focus
-Hammer of Wisdom

• Mace chain heals, has a symbol and prot skill
• Shield for defense, low health, runaway
• Sword has blind and tele
• Focus has blind and prot
• Tome of wrath for time burst damage
• Smite condition due to 60s CD on CoP
• Renewed focus timed properly for defensive resets
• Hammer of wisdom for timely KD due to loss of hammer

Opt:
Use CoP or SoR if condition spamming is prevalent

Traits:
http://www.gw2tools.com/calc/#t-g-ffkkf:Waa.baa.cXa.YZa.Waa
Would take way too long to explain. But it is well structured.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Necro Chilled Applying Jerk(TEAM)

Chilled is a condition that causes those affected by it to acquire a blue tint and have a 66% movement speed reduction. While chilled, skills already recharging will recharge 66% slower. Stacks in duration.

Staff
Scepter/Focus
Consume Conditions
Spectral Grasp
Corrupt Boon
Well of Darkness
Lich Form

• Spam chilled with spectral grasp, chillblains, Spinal Shivers, and deathly chill.
• Consuse and apply conditions otherwise
• You are a jerk

Traits:
http://www.gw2tools.com/calc/#t-n-kfkff:XWa.baa.cXa.baa.caa

• Chillblains (chilled) casts if you are low on health
• Spinal Shivers (chilled) casts when triggering DS
• Spectral Grasp (chilld) lasts longer
• 15 reduction on chillblains(chilled)

 

[Retro]

I really don't see the big deal behind going to town to respec traits or whatever. I don't mind devs giving people a hard reason to go to towns.

It honestly doesn't bother me either, as we'll be going back to town for all sorts of things like banking, buying/selling, etc. and money usually isn't an issue for me in MMOs anyways. But it seems to be an issue for some people and I guess it's just my nature to look for a solution. I can see myself wanting to respec occasionally, but not so often that it would be a problem to just stop and go visit an NPC and pay a nominal fee.

People seem to think that if you have to pay for every single respec, nobody will ever experiment. I can kind of see where they're coming from, but I don't see it meriting the kind of ruckus it's causing over at guru.

 

[birdchili]

Poor Bastard. I hope the pay is good. I don't think I could be an official community manager, I have a low tolerance for whiny bullshit, especially when it comes to unimportant stuff (in the scheme of things) like video games. First World Problems and all that.

they need to empower the cm to ban pretty freely, possibly enabling some sort of moderation by more respected community members. there's lots of nonsense on gaf, but you don't get away with the really egregious stuff here because a) you'd be banned in a second by mods that are actually participating in a good number of the threads. b) the community itself is generally pretty good at letting junior members know what isn't tolerated.

i feel the biggest likely false promise of this game is going to be: "you'll always be glad to see some other players come to join your fight".

 

[Retro]

they need to empower the cm to ban pretty freely, possibly enabling some sort of moderation by more respected community members. there's lots of nonsense on gaf, but you don't get away with the really egregious stuff here because a) you'd be banned in a second by mods that are actually participating in a good number of the threads. b) the community itself is generally pretty good at letting junior members know what isn't tolerated.

i feel the biggest likely false promise of this game is going to be: "you'll always be glad to see some other players come to join your fight".

GAF shenanigans are kept to a minimum because the terms of service are loose enough people can act like gamers tend to act, but tight enough that stupid, hateful shit gets shut down immediately. That, and nobody wants to wait another year and a half to get another account approved.

In game, I don't think the community will act so bad. I'm sure City / Trade chat will have its fair share of Barrens Chat-esque "Anal [skill]", Chuck Norris and "Murloc Movie Titles" garbage, but I shut off that kind of crap off straight away. Out in the world when you're trying to get stuff done, I think the worst we'll have to deal with are idiots who are knocking enemies out of AOE, etc.

 

[Jira]

they need to empower the cm to ban pretty freely, possibly enabling some sort of moderation by more respected community members. there's lots of nonsense on gaf, but you don't get away with the really egregious stuff here because a) you'd be banned in a second by mods that are actually participating in a good number of the threads. b) the community itself is generally pretty good at letting junior members know what isn't tolerated.

i feel the biggest likely false promise of this game is going to be: "you'll always be glad to see some other players come to join your fight".

How so? Every system they've put in encourages group play 100%. Everything from being out and about, to resurrection, to gathering materials is all very group oriented, even your personal story is as well. The more people that are around the more challenging and fun things get. Combat is built around group play through support & control of your enemies, resurrection is a cooperative element where the more people getting a person up the faster it goes, cross profession combos are entirely built around playing with others. They even asked themselves with each system they put in "can this be griefed?" If it could they tried to fix it, if they couldn't they took it out entirely. Same thing applies for all of the Dynamic Events, they'd design one and ask if they could grief it, if they could they tried to fix it, if they couldn't fix it they took it out with no further questions asked.

Oh, were you talking about the community? If so yeah that's inevitable, all communities have their rotten apples.

 

[Dash27]

Necro skills 2.0

Any chance there was a Ranger one of these I missed?

 

[Rad-]

Looking at the traits and skills, ranger seems to be pretty darn powerful PVP class again. Just like it was in GW1. Good ranger spike was one of the strongest team builds in the game.

Though I don't mind, I played plenty of ranger spike. Will probably start with a ranger here too.

 

[birdchili]

it's inevitable that there will be ways to grief.

some stuff that immediately comes to mind:

- a bunch of characters spamming high-visual-effect aoes into your line of sight.
- using skills to push monsters out of melee range

even the fact that monsters get buffed when there are more characters in the fight can be used to be irritating: someone could show up to a fight, engage a monster to "buff it", but then play like an idiot on-purpose, avoiding aggro so you get killed.

don't believe there won't be griefing because anet claims they've designed around it. that's a path to disappointment.

 

[RepairmanJack]

I think limited resets away from town would work, and just to make up for the money sink just make it cost a little more to waypoint travel to a major city when you are out of trait resets. That and raise the percentage taken from auctions a little should more than make up for not charging to respec.

Also I hate IE and hate that I can't join in on the build talks....damn you all.

it's inevitable that there will be ways to grief.

some stuff that immediately comes to mind:

- a bunch of characters spamming high-visual-effect aoes into your line of sight.
- using skills to push monsters out of melee range

even the fact that monsters get buffed when there are more characters in the fight can be used to be irritating: someone could show up to a fight, engage a monster to "buff it", but then play like an idiot on-purpose, avoiding aggro so you get killed.

don't believe there won't be griefing because anet claims they've designed around it. that's a path to disappointment.

You will have your assholes here and there but I think for the most part this wouldn't be too common. A lot of times things like this showed up in other MMO's because the kill was stolen or people were pissed they werent going to get exp or what not. Without those problems I don't really see this being a problem except for the asshole every great once in a while.

 

[Lanbeast]

Also I hate IE and hate that I can't join in on the build talks....damn you all.

Me too. Nothing like working for the government and being 10 years behind.

 

[gunbo13]

Looking at the traits and skills, ranger seems to be pretty darn powerful PVP class again. Just like it was in GW1. Good ranger spike was one of the strongest team builds in the game.

Though I don't mind, I played plenty of ranger spike. Will probably start with a ranger here too.

So little open areas makes me a doubter. WvW is different.

Me too. Nothing like working for the government and being 10 years behind.

I'm currently running SQL queries that take 1hr a test. I'm on gaf while waiting. What else can I do? Other work?

/<3 cursors, firefox

EDIT:
You guys are not spreading out your traits enough for passive bonuses.

 

[Jira]

it's inevitable that there will be ways to grief.

some stuff that immediately comes to mind:

- a bunch of characters spamming high-visual-effect aoes into your line of sight.
- using skills to push monsters out of melee range

even the fact that monsters get buffed when there are more characters in the fight can be used to be irritating: someone could show up to a fight, engage a monster to "buff it", but then play like an idiot on-purpose, avoiding aggro so you get killed.

don't believe there won't be griefing because anet claims they've designed around it. that's a path to disappointment.

You have to be actively participating for an event to scale, if you hit a mob once and just run around in circles, it will scale back down. The game is constantly polling to see who's actually doing things. If you're there just to attempt to grief, you'll be taking a dirt nap really quickly. Mobs in GW1 & GW2 are not stupid, they play more like humans than anything and go with logical choices such as who's doing the most damage to me or who has the least health or who's healing and they'll gun for them. People will no doubt attempt to grief in some way, but success is in no way a guarantee seeing as mobs can crush you flat faster than most people think.

 

[razgriz417]

.

<3 thanks for finding this!

 

[Jira]

Any chance there was a Ranger one of these I missed?

Hmm, nevermind I don't think there is. People seem to be making them so it'll happen soon.

 

[Shakala]

Wow. I'm overwhelmed by the possibilities of just one class, how am I supposed to try multiple?

 

[KaoticBlaze]

damn I always said i would only play elementalist then guardian but now i think im doing elementalist then necromancer, then guardian....summoning a minion army is too good to pass up

 

[Retro]

Wow. I'm overwhelmed by the possibilities of just one class, how am I supposed to try multiple?

By not playing any other games for the next couple of years, like most people who play MMOs do.

 

[RepairmanJack]

By not playing any other games for the next couple of years, like most people who play MMOs do.

Using this as my justification to build a new pc for this.

 

[Jira]

OHHHH NEW REDESIGN WITH TRAITS

http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en

 

[Retro]

Using this as my justification to build a new pc for this.

My wife, finally realizing that this whole "We're playing Guild Wars 2 together" thing was gonna happen whether she wanted it or not, decided it was time we started looking into getting a new PC for me. Especially since she upgraded hers about a year ago. My old one was almost 7 years old and upgraded as far as it could go.

OHHHH NEW REDESIGN WITH TRAITS

http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en

Awesome. I wanted to be able to see skills and such while using the other calculator, now everything is all in one place. Magnificent.

 

[BrettWeir]

On the topic of griefing, I pray they have a system in place to deal with the inevitable onslaught of gold spammers.

 

[RepairmanJack]

OHHHH NEW REDESIGN WITH TRAITS

http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en

Wow.......and it actually works for me. And of course I'm heading into a meeting right when this is posted.

 

[Retro]

On the topic of griefing, I pray they have a system in place to deal with the inevitable onslaught of gold spammers.

If there's a "Report Spam" option straight from chat and they go out of their way to shut down farmer accounts, hopefully it won't be too bad. Every MMO has that though.

 

[Jira]

On the topic of griefing, I pray they have system in place to deal with the inevitable onslaught of gold spammers.

I think botting is going to be severely reduced due to the dynamic nature of the game and the combat system. You can macro your rotation in every other MMO and know exactly where stuff is going to be, but in GW2 mobs can kill you 1v1 quite easily and even more so the higher level you get. Even if they find somewhere to farm single mobs, events can kick off and ruin their entire farm. The global marketplace and trade being mail based goes a LONG way in eliminating WTB/WTS spam so it will make gold farmers stick out like a sore thumb in chat.

 

[birdchili]

By not playing any other games for the next couple of years, like most people who play MMOs do.

i was in a monogamous relationship with an mmo for a while, but it ultimately made me unhappy. there were so many more games that needed my love and attention...
.....

it seems like there won't be a huge difference in playstyle between low-level characters and higher-level ones, since you'll have the same attacks at low levels that you have at high levels (i haven't looked too closely at traits to see how much they'll affect this, truthfully). i expect you'll be able to bail on a class you don't like much earlier/more easily than in a game where a higher-level power could radically change the playstyle. i'm undecided if this is a good thing or a bad thing

 

[Retro]

i was in a monogamous relationship with an mmo for a while, but it ultimately made me unhappy. there were so many more games that needed my love and attention...
.....

it seems like there won't be a huge difference in playstyle between low-level characters and higher-level ones, since you'll have the same attacks at low levels that you have at high levels (i haven't looked too closely at traits to see how much they'll affect this, truthfully). i expect you'll be able to bail on a class you don't like much earlier/more easily than in a game where a higher-level power could radically change the playstyle. i'm undecided if this is a good thing or a bad thing

The nice thing about GW2 is that you won't feel like you're wasting a subscription fee or falling behind your friends on the endgame loot treadmill if you stop.

It apparently takes about 10 hours to reach level 15. Knowing the way I play (exploring, stopping to smell the roses, etc.) it could easily be a level an hour. I think by then you'd know for sure whether a given profession is up your alley or not. I'm thinking I'll probably give some of them until level 20, especially if they're classes I like the concept of but don't 'get' right away (engineer, thief).

 

[Jira]

The nice thing about GW2 is that you won't feel like you're wasting a subscription fee or falling behind your friends on the endgame loot treadmill if you stop.

It apparently takes about 10 hours to reach level 15. Knowing the way I play (exploring, stopping to smell the roses, etc.) it could easily be a level an hour. I think by then you'd know for sure whether a given profession is up your alley or not. I'm thinking I'll probably give some of them until level 20, especially if they're classes I like the concept of but don't 'get' right away (engineer, thief).

Far less than 10, Yogscast did it on their Charr in a matter of a few hours give or take based on editing. At one point they gained 3 levels (6-9) in 10 min.

 

[Retro]

Far less than 10, Yogscast did it on their Charr in a matter of a few hours give or take based on editing. At one point they gained 3 levels (6-9) in 10 min.

Ah. I was going off a PC Gamer video as that was the source I actually remembered. Good news all around.

 

[Vinci]

Far less than 10, Yogscast did it on their Charr in a matter of a few hours give or take based on editing. At one point they gained 3 levels (6-9) in 10 min.

I remember that video with the massive level gains. To be fair, it looked as if they were working their butts off during each fight they had during that time frame. Basically, it looked fun rather than game-breaking.

 

[Ashodin]

OHHHH NEW REDESIGN WITH TRAITS

http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en

ohhhh yesssssss.

fuck the wiki!

I thought Greatsword has Symbol of Retaliation now not symbol of swiftness? That's not updated!

Jira can you find a video of someone using the Guardian skill Shelter? I need to know how it works, the description is nebulous.

 

[Retro]

ohhhh yesssssss.

fuck the wiki!

I thought Greatsword has Symbol of Retaliation now not symbol of swiftness? That's not updated!

Some of the Traits aren't finished (Guardian Virtue line is just names) and I've spotted a couple errors in the skill text already. Hopefully that's fixed soon or, better yet, we get an official version from ANet.

 

[birdchili]

The nice thing about GW2 is that you won't feel like you're wasting a subscription fee or falling behind your friends on the endgame loot treadmill if you stop.

this is mostly good, though i actually worry (loving the loot as i do) that the motivation to keep playing capped characters will be low. i so won't be motivated by achievements... perhaps some of the aesthetic stuff will compel...

 

[Jira]

ohhhh yesssssss.

fuck the wiki!

I thought Greatsword has Symbol of Retaliation now not symbol of swiftness? That's not updated!

Jira can you find a video of someone using the Guardian skill Shelter? I need to know how it works, the description is nebulous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cHMzEL5p7dY#t=1693s

I THINK he uses it there, but I can't be sure as it's the other guy and I've yet to play the game so identifying some skills isn't as easy.

 

[Ashodin]

Some of the Traits aren't finished (Guardian Virtue line is just names) and I've spotted a couple errors in the skill text already. Hopefully that's fixed soon or, better yet, we get an official version from ANet.

This. I just tried to make my build on it and I had errors, grr!

Anyway, my utility skill line for my build:

6: Healing Breeze in groups, Shelter solo

7: Sword of Justice (once your weapons don't disappear from their activated ability, mash the shit out of that button whenever it's up, unless it's situational like the hammer one)
8: Judge's Intervention (between this, Flashing Blade, and Faithful Strike, people are NOT getting away from you. Oh hey, sup burn!)
9: Signet: Bane or Signet: Wrath. I can't tell which one does better, but I'm thinking increased personal damage + 15% damage bonus means more damage overall than condition damage. Though I can TOTALLY see someone building a burn condition damage build. I love how flexible this game is!

10: Tome of Wrath. Of course!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cHMzEL5p7dY#t=1693s

I THINK he uses it there, but I can't be sure as it's the other guy and I've yet to play the game so identifying some skills isn't as easy.

I remember that video - I think you might be right, as when he does it for the few seconds of heal, he takes no damage (as blocking stops all damage). You have to be aiming at the target though, so I'm not too sure how well that's gonna work (back yourself against a wall? Turn towards the guy directly as much as possible? IDK). Looks pimp though. I think it'd take getting used to. That skill is definitely good for soloing, and the healing breeze is better in groups. Good thing you can change out utilities easily. I'll edit the healing slot up top:

 

[Retro]

this is mostly good, though i actually worry (loving the loot as i do) that the motivation to keep playing capped characters will be low. i so won't be motivated by achievements... perhaps some of the aesthetic stuff will compel...

While I know alt-itis will set in quickly once I have a character at max level, I'm not convinced the motivation to play them will dwindle to nothing. After all, there's likely to be large scale events and such happening in the world and things to complete / find / etc. that require a max level character. Plus, WvW is there (even though your characters are auto-leveled to 80, Traits and gear are supposed to make a difference).

This kind of end game has never been tried before in an MMO. We'll have to see what's waiting for us when we get there.

 

[Ashodin]

While I know alt-itis will set in quickly once I have a character at max level, I'm not convinced the motivation to play them will dwindle to nothing. After all, there's likely to be large scale events and such happening in the world and things to complete / find / etc. that require a max level character. Plus, WvW is there (even though your characters are auto-leveled to 80, Traits and gear are supposed to make a difference).

This kind of end game has never been tried before in an MMO. We'll have to see what's waiting for us when we get there.

400 dyes dude. 400 dyes.

four. hundred. dyes. +

 

[Hoo-doo]

Have they removed the racial elite abilities? I remember a skill called "Hounds of Balthazar" for humans, for example, summoning two fiery dogs.

 

[Retro]

400 dyes dude. 400 dyes.

four. hundred. dyes. +

Plus daily achievements, weeklies, getting 100% completion on all the maps, finishing your personal story, running dungeons to get armor with unique cosmetics to transmute, crafting, etc. Plus whatever gets added in for housing / guild halls. Not to mention leveling up whatever guild you're in to have all sorts of cool bells and whistles.

Yeah, I'm gonna roll alts for fun, but a max level character isn't going to collect dust like they did between raids and content patches in WoW.

Have they removed the racial elite abilities? I remember a skill called "Hounds of Balthazar" for humans, for example, summoning two fiery dogs.

I don't think it's gone, it's just not showing on that Skill Tool because it doesn't give you a choice of race.

 

[RepairmanJack]

I am going to have a hard enough time selecting what utility skills I want to use let alone the traits. There really is so many damn ways you can go with this.

Does the different traits and skills movement buffs all stack? Right now I am seeing Elementalists being able to move 35% faster.

 

[birdchili]

400 dyes dude. 400 dyes.

getting a +0.01% speed buff would be a stronger motivator for me than unlocking puce, but yeah... some of the aesthetic stuff might be fun (i'd be more about getting the "right" dye for my fashion-forward threads, of course... don't care so much about the "collect" aspect).

and capping a character will surely lead to alts, but you need to come back to that first capped toon and still have stuff to do that's fun and challenging. it's possible i'll get into pvp/wvw stuff, but it's not a strong draw for me.