Armor, Weapon, or a combo of both sets?

[MasterD]

Has there been any suggestions about having sets added into this game?

I know they have named weapons, but having a set of the weapons doesn't really do anything for you. I think it would be awesome to have weapon/armor sets that give bonus stats.

For example have a green named shield and named axe add some bonus stats if you have both equipped. Add extra stats for armor with the same name. Kind of like Diablo 2 style. That was something I really liked about D2 back in the day. WoW kind of added that in with weapons but none of the new ones I have played have integrated it in for both weapons and armor and I think it would be a great idea.

What does everyone else think?

[Aiiane]

Considering that it directly goes against the core concept of Guild Wars' item philosophy (that of having maximum-benefit items fairly easily accessible to all players, and difficult-to-obtain armors are for looks only), I don't think this is going to happen. The only D2-esque thing that I might like would be the Divine Aura-type effect.

[MasterD]

Considering that it directly goes against the core concept of Guild Wars' item philosophy (that of having maximum-benefit items fairly easily accessible to all players, and difficult-to-obtain armors are for looks only), I don't think this is going to happen. The only D2-esque thing that I might like would be the Divine Aura-type effect.




That works too, just curious if anyone had suggested it or if there was news of it :)

[katya]

The idea is interesting in principle. I agree with Aiiane that it is unbalancing if applied in a strictly Diablo II sense. However, the idea of being able to craft a suit of armour and weapons for yourself (Using found components), thus creating a "green" set customized and nameable for your character (Even with no inherent bonus beyond the mods and runes you put into it) would be fairly nice to have.

[BahamutKaiser]

I believe every piece of armor in the game is in a set.... so adding something new to a "set" of armor is just a better set of armor, not a special bonus to "sets" in general.....

I could see them making some armor sets which give unique improvements if all 4 or 5 pieces are worn together, trading of some fundimental strengths for something that usually isn't on that classes armor, like additional energy regeneration, but that is complicated at best.

Elementist armor, 5 pieces, 50 armor a piece, 5 energy on gloves and body, 1 energy regeneration on slacks and boots, and one energy regeneration on the headpiece if all 5 pieces are equipted together.

It might work..... it might not.

As for making weapon and off hand sets with special bonuses, this clearly offends the balanced between single and off-hand combinations vs dual hand weapons. I already think the combination of a great single handed weapon and a great off-hand item outweigh a great 2 handed weapon. Giving single handed weapons along with an off-hand "set" bonuses would be even more unfair.

I would like to see some interesting things done with weapons and armor, but I think balancing the effectiveness of a 2 handed weapon with dual objects should be addressed first, and then some creative additions.

[MasterD]

I would agree with you that one hand with off hand tends to be better than a two hand weapon, but that is why I was thinking that maybe you would have a two hand weapon that goes with an armor set to get the bonus. That way it evens out the whole one hand/off hand vs two hand weapon abilities.

[Rush Rocks]

I think Anet should open up the way to create armor, like using different materials could add different stats, like in a piece of ele armor that usually requires no glittering dust, if you were to add it the armor would give you +2 energy for 2 pieces or +5 energy for 5 pieces...with a maximum amount of course...
Of course this could also mean adding more materials to the game

[Rush Rocks]

lol sorry my second reply in about 10 mins.
I didn't really input much into your idea in my last post
In general I think you have a good idea, but something else that might be cool was making it so whenever you killed a monster that drops a named weapon it could also drop named armor...and then if you collect all the named armor you could get some bonus while wearing it... or make it so you could salvage it and get something like (I'm just thinking of some random monster) Rune of sskai: adds the modifications of any named armor piece to a piece of armor of your choice at the penalty of using up the rune slot...

[MasterD]

The rune part is an interesting idea, I hadn't thought of anything like that. I like it!

[Aiiane]

lol sorry my second reply in about 10 mins.
I didn't really input much into your idea in my last post
In general I think you have a good idea, but something else that might be cool was making it so whenever you killed a monster that drops a named weapon it could also drop named armor...and then if you collect all the named armor you could get some bonus while wearing it... or make it so you could salvage it and get something like (I'm just thinking of some random monster) Rune of sskai: adds the modifications of any named armor piece to a piece of armor of your choice at the penalty of using up the rune slot...

Again, the concept of having an "extra bonus" for something that you'd have to collect is going against the core mechanic of GW's items, which I don't think should happen.

P.S. You can always use the edit button for up to an hour after your post, the mods generally don't like double posting. :smiley:

[BahamutKaiser]

The "Core Mechanics" of GW are not a stone chisselled standard. With the Level Cap and Armor strengths we have an obvious standard of easily reached and universal levels of effectiveness. With Weapons, Weapon Mods, and skill aquisition we have a significant dispargence though. Only people who farm for weapons and wealth can obtain the very best and effective weapons for their class and builds, many players don't have the time to search for or accumilate wealth to access the best weapons and mods, so there is a difference in power.

That being said, the difference in weapon strengths and obtainability should be demolished, not increased. Merchants and smiths who can provide weapons with every flavor of boost and Traders who deal in Mod parts should be introduce to the game to reduce the difference in weapon availability. Rare and coveted weapons, armor sets, and otherwise, should be valuable in appearance and vanity alone, they should not allow players to gain a significant advantage by spending more time searching and grinding.

The idea for making armor + weapon sets sounds fun, but the very strict and dedicated guildlines around armor, and the need for less disparity make this idea totaly disfunctional for GW. It should not be considered or accepted by Anet even if it does move well with certain players. More stength and power advantages to players who grind more is a taboo subject in GW, and should always be denied.

I do appreciate the progess and developement of characters in some games, building your character (through enjoyable means) to heights of power and prowess can be very fun. But it does not belong in this game, and has been rejected as part of the baseline for GuildWars structure. I also appreciate the simplicity and effectiveness of this standard in this game, and it should not be removed, it should be pursued even further.

[Rush Rocks]

Sorry I didn't know about th edit thing, im kinda new to these forums...
But building on the rune idea
You say a bonus for a collectible item goes against core mechanics of the game, and in that your right, so instead of having armor, just use my rune Idea, have them drop runes, or like for sskai a green naga vambrace that could be salvaged for a green rune...
and the rune could also kind of reflect the way you need to fight the monster...like sskai (In my opinion) Tends to attack fairly quickly, so his rune could boost attack speeds by a certain amount of time...These runes could be sold by rune traders at a price (probably high since they should be very hard to find)

Or another concept could be battle usable items...like you know how sometimes in the Forest (the ones around the kurzick lands) You'll come upon a monster and it kinda seems like reinforcements fall from the sky to help it? Anet could implement something along the lines of Antennae of summoning: Summons two bone minions (or some animal or something) To aid you in battle for (however many seconds)


sorry if anything is unclear, I just randomly stumble upon ideas when I'm typing and need to get em down before I forget...Any Questions Post em up or Pm me or what have you...

Also Kaiser, what you said is very logical and would make it fair to everyone but unfortunately at the same time it would make everything the same, everything would be boring, there would be no excitement in going out and attacking a named monster, you wouldn't have the hopes of getting a "Special" Weapon cause it would be easily duplicated. In essence it would make everything boring...it would probably reap havoc on the game economy as well...Prices would plummet because nobody would be able to get these "special weapons"

[MasterD]

If everything was available to everyone in the game you would ruin the game in about a month max. When everyeone can just go to a merchant and buy what they want no matter how good it is you lose so much. No one would bother doing any PvE because there would be no point. Turning GW into a strictly PvP game isn't a good idea either. I love doing the PvE aspects of the game and personally would stop playing if they dropped it.

As far as grinders getting the best gear....Well they should, they are willing to spend the time to find the drops. This doesn't have to be something simple either though. With more and more bots being banned everyday by Anet, it is going to get back to the people having to go and grind and spend the time which will make the price of certain items jump back up, which is a reward to those who are able to spend the time to find the good items.

An idea to make grinding in the same spot easier though would be to make spawns completely random. For example if they implemented the rune idea or weapon and armor sets or anything along those lines, make sure that they are worldwide random spawns so that no one can just continually do the exact same thing over and over again until they finally get the item. To solve the problem of level, just make a few different sets, some for low, medium and high level characters which are found in areas that that level person would normally be in. For example Oogie Boogie can be a level 8 boss that drops a low weapon set, and he randomly spawns anywhere East of the Shiverpeak mountains and North of the Desert.

What do you guys think about that?

[Aiiane]

As far as grinders getting the best gear....Well they should, they are willing to spend the time to find the drops.


Define "best". If you mean statwise, this is not true for Guild Wars - that's the whole concept behind PvP characters.

If you mean "looks good" or "is rare", sure. Low req/rare skin weapons, 15k/FoW armor.

[BastDawn]

If everything was available to everyone in the game you would ruin the game in about a month max. When everyeone can just go to a merchant and buy what they want no matter how good it is you lose so much. No one would bother doing any PvE because there would be no point.

Is that why you play the game? I sure don't play the game just to get stuff. I want to play all the missions and quests on all my characters; getting shiny armor and weapons for them is the icing, not the cake.

Back on topic, I really hate this idea. Mix-and-match gives far more variety to the game. Let's encourage differences between characters, rather than having everyone strive towards the same "leet" set. (Is anyone else grateful that Factions introduced more 15k armor types, thus making FoW armor dyed black less of an ubiqutous cliche?)

[Aiiane]

(Is anyone else grateful that Factions introduced more 15k armor types, thus making FoW armor dyed black less of an ubiqutous cliche?)

Pfft, screw black dye. My FoW is purple. :wink:

[BahamutKaiser]

Reducing the prices to reasonable amounts, and providing universal means of obtaining more items isn't a bad thing, this is a pick up and play game, no matter how much time you like to spend on it, and pick up and play functionality is the most unanimous praise GW gets from almost every game review.

Have you ever wondered why a shooting game is fun? You spend no time leveling up, everyone can get whatever weapon by reaching a certain location, or in some games through a very short process, and people play for hours a day. The reason is gameplay, people enjoy the gameplay, they don't need to spend hrs, days, weeks and months.... please not years, to get what they want and enjoy the game. Your trying to tell me that creating a baseline of power which everyone can reach "reasonably" ruins the enjoyment of players who like to spend endless hours, I say many people never get to enjoy the game because of the disparities between strengths of advanced players and new ones.

It takes long enough for a new player to gain the skills, progress, and technique to match and compete with advanced players; spending time grinding, searching, and bartering should not be another barrier they have to overcome in order to enjoy the game to its fullest. With easily obtainable strengths, everyone is able to enjoy their characters capabilities to their fullest, and people who want to spend endless amounts of time obtaining "rare" equipment get the satisfaction of better looks, not more power.

I'm sure the rich upper class of America enjoy their advantages over others as well, and wouldn't want it to be easy for everyone to be wealthy; I don't give a damn, I want to be happy to, and in a game, I shouldn't have to "work" to get what I want. Every function of the game, whether it be combat, fame, or developement, should be fun, if it can't be made into a fun experience, then it should be undermined, I don't need a virtual job, I certainly don't need to put in hours of my time working for assets in a video game, and grinding for materials and items is not a minigame which I enjoy, it is a chore.

I still hope that someone will make a MMORPG with absolutly everything you could ever ask for, great character developement which doesn't revolve around monotinous grinding, obtaining wealth through enjoyable minigames which are not boring chores, multiple facets of enjoyment and a combat engine that involves equal parts of skill, character developement, and FUN. GuildWars is not equipped nor designed for that, it's strength is it's quick and easy character developement and its emphasis on playing the game instead of preparing to play the game. Because this is a rare feature in good online RPGs it has made the game wildely popular, and those qualities are the ones that should be focused on.

I would like to see alot of improvements to the game, but I think it is exceedingly clear that this game doesn't revolve around getting even more and more powerful weapons, higher levels, and uber equipment, it revolves around fun gameplay in PvE and PvP, good skill selection and combat strategy and tactics. Adding some new equipment, or anything else along the lines of a rarely obtainable boost in power for the people who spend more time playing (and there are people who put their whole life aside trying to accel in these digital realities) is an offense to the very basis of GW.

Whether or not you have been "trained" to enjoy grinding and searching for rare items through monotinous means isn't relavent to the wellbeing and improvement of GW. I know there are alot of those people out there, I have played MMOs where everyone was required to fulfill outragiously long and monotinous tasks for YEARS! to develope their character and enjoy what the game has to offer. Those people have been brainwashed into that kind of gameplay and think it is a neccessity to enjoy the game. Those people are called "gamers" in a very derogitory sense, because they have actually learned to enjoy the rigorously boring and lame tasks these fantasy games have thrown at them. To me, those people are just as addicted as coke addicts, which is why people started calling games like those "EverCrack", they have been subjected to crappy gameplay experience in the "hope" for achievement for so long that they actually believe it is enjoyable. You have only to expose a normal person to such games to realize that they are uttery weak and poorly made, many games in general require some conditioning and exposure, as well as certain personallities to enjoy digital experiences, but the utter extreme "brainwashing" that makes you think grinding is not only acceptable, but fun, is pathetic.

When I first started GW I thought a long time about how a few more levels would be fun to have, just so we can play as "stronger" characters. Even then, I didn't want to spend anymore time grinding, but realized that since you gain Exp so easily and quickly in this game, it wouldn't take but a moment longer to gain another 10 or 20 levels. But as you play the game it becomes exceedingly clear that added progress and developement are not neccessarry to have an enjoyable game. Better gameplay mechanics, elaborate additions to exploration and combat, new types of skills and classes, these are the things that make the game more fun. The only thing they "should" add to the game in future expansions is new ways to play (new classes), and new things to play (new kinds of combat), along with regularly expanding what we already have. Adding more (and there already is some) grinding and advantages for players to spend a lot of time farming will not improve the gameplay or enjoyment for "sane" players.

Grinders should not get the best gear, that is where you are absolutely wrong, and you can take that mentality back to the MMO you got it in, because it doesn't belong here; Understand?

[Rush Rocks]

Kaiser you don't have to get all offended, to everyone their own.
Everyone has their own opinion and a different mindeset on where they would like to see the game go, not just one opinion is right, these are **Suggestions** What Some people would like to see happen, they arent saying it will or must, they arent saying that your opinion is wrong. There are a million ways I could argue against what you just wrote, but I'm not going to because you are entitled to your own opinion. Besides, the point of the forum is not to argue over basic principles of Guild Wars but to enjoy the ideas of others and make improvements or say that you don't think it would work.

please just calm down, we don't need to start a mudslinging contest, I especially think that last statement was a little bit harsh...Anyway, not to offend, but who are you to say whats fun and what isn't? Like I said, to each their own...

Now could we please start thinking about the original thread topic or other ways to improve upon it so Maybe it would work? Even if it doesnt work it would be cool to see where the idea goes...

[katya]

It could work by making customisation like that visual only. Do not provide any stat boosts beyond what you can get currently, balance is maintained and you can still grind for unique looking gear, if you so choose.

[Aiiane]

It could work by making customisation like that visual only. Do not provide any stat boosts beyond what you can get currently, balance is maintained and you can still grind for unique looking gear, if you so choose.

Which is basically what I said in the first reply to the thread. :wink: I think I'll stick with that.

[katya]

Which is basically what I said in the first reply to the thread. I think I'll stick with that.

Yup - makes me wonder how many people bother to read the entire thread? :rolleyes:

[Rush Rocks]

How about you can get a green rune, with no armor bonuses but since you said to think more along the lines of a visual effect, why not give them the named creatures aura?