New and Improved Weapons

I know I can't be the only one a little dissapointed with item drops in Guild Wars, especially after playing the likes of Diablo 1 and 2, and other MMOs (especially Lineage 2, that game has style! Too bad its so busted). Coming from some of the same people responsible for the Diablo games we should be privy to really cool weapons like the "Bloodletter", "Swordguard" or "Windforce". Instead we have the "Icy Hammer of Pruning", my suggestion to the Arenanet guys is take a hint from the Diablos and inject a healthy dose of style into your weapons. So we'll see stuff like "Collossal Gladius of Bloodletting". Now I know what your saying, cool names like that just dont allow for what Arenanet is trying to do, what with the weapon components. Not True, collossal could stand for +20% damage, and Bloodletting could stand for 10% longer bleeding duration.

So really what I'm saying is, make the weapon and item drops "cool".

The issue with that is that 'cool' is a very subjective value. You're describing the sort of 'cool' that typically appeals to teenagers.

I'm personally quite happy with the adverbs they chose: instead of 'of bloodletting' suffix they have a 'barbed' prefix for lengthened bleeding duration. You just imagine sharp barbs growing from your blade, tearing through the skin and flesh when the blade strikes. 'Cruel' for lengthened deep wound, giving the sense of a cold, sharp blade cutting deeper than is strictly necessary, and so forth.

You're right though, 'of pruning' is sort of 'uncool', but something that basically amounts to a lawnmower doesn't necessarily have to sound cool.

no... he's right... COOL ITEMS RULE

get the modelers together for a weekend retreat
and go and steal every cool sword ever...
EXCALIBUR... RAGNAROK... CLOUD'S SWORD... all that shiz...

give em l33t names like.. ULTRA BADASS SWORD...
KILLER BLADE
LONG SHAFT
SWIPER'S FURY
DEATH BLADE

CHOICE IS A GOOD THING... its like a buncha hot babes standing around...
YOU DON'T KNOW WHICH ONE TO DO... and you can't afford any of them...

SELLING RARE MAX DMG FELL BLADE 100000000k

Like I said, teenagers.

no really.. new weapons.. but this can come later
I AM HAVING OTHER ARGUEMENTS at the moment


i'm here for an arguement... oh well this is contradiction

//i actually got a staff of pruning... so which monsters are plants?

Maybe we could have masterwork weapons with special qualities. But we certainly don't need more 'badass' names for weapons. Players should be able to describe those themselves, such as calling their greataxe "Little Richie."

yes... and lil thom and his BIG THOM axe... can i axe you a question?
talk to big thom!

Well ok maybe "cool" was a bad way to put it, perhaps interesting would be better. The drops are a tad lackluster. The prefixes aren't really the issue here it's more the designs of the weapons. There extremely limited, such as +1 swordsmanship(10% chance while using skills) why is the +1 attribute need to be limited? More entheusiastic and interesting sounding prefixes and suffixes would indeed be good I think we can agree. But the gameplay designs of the weapons really need to be made more interesting, so that interesting weapons are more common. Finally I think the visual designs of the weapons definately need tweaking, the basic weapons look fine. A short sword will only ever be a short sword. But the advanced weapons arent very aesthetically pleasing. The fiery dragon sword for example looks retarded, with a hilt so large it'd be too unbalanced to swing properly and the "blade" looks like two flaming intertwined fireplace pokers. Anyways, what I'm getting at is that nine times out of tem when you get an item drop it's lackluster at best.

Also "Cruel" and "Barbed" were in the Diablo games, what I was getting at with the prefixes is that there mostly very boring sounding such as pruning. Also I wouldn't mind seeing some "unique" named items in the game, sort of legendary artifacts. Items with histories basically.

I hear you, but the issue with more excessive weapon modifiers is that they shift the balance of the game from player skill further towards equipment. The current weapon modifiers are an accent to the max damage weapon you wield, reflecting your style of play. If you're an enchantment-heavy monk, you'll take a staff of enchanting. If you're a knockdown fanatic, you might want a heavy hammer for extended knockdown duration. These modifiers already have some variety to them (for instance, the +1 swordsmanship upgrade has a 5-20% or so variety in activation chance), but their relative underpoweredness is part of the game balance, and part of the nature of Guild Wars: equipment doesn't decide the winner in a match.

Aesthetics are a different matter, I personally don't mind the current designs, they can always add more I guess. I wouldn't mind special appearance or names/stories to be linked to weapons, as long as your Galrath's Swift Slasher [legendary] [unique] weapon only does 15-22 damage with the same sort of modifiers a regular sword can have, and that's probably immediately the problem: people want their 'uber' sounding/looking weapons to actually be uber. Right now they have things like glowing Chaos Axes and flaming Dragon Swords for those people, but as mentioned they have exactly the same stats and modifiers as regular swords, just with 'cool' names and looks.

it is not a huge issue for more weapon buffs, but weapons are really a lacking part of the game, each sowrd does practically the same damn thing and just look a little different, instead of more buffs for EVERY weapons, why not change the already existing stats of weapons and create MORE weapons?

I have putting out the suggestion of addinf two-handed swords and axes for a long time but they are enver heard, we need 1 handed versions of weapons (less damage but attack fast) and two-handed weapons (attack slower, heavier hitting, and able to hit multiple targets directly in front of you)

If i was a warrior, i would LOVE to run around with a Zweihander (large two-handed sword...and i mean LARGE, for those who don't know "zwei" means two, and hander...well you can take a wild stab at that one)

the small single handed weapons attack fast with lower damage but allow for players to use shields and up their defence, the two-handed is mainly damage dealer.

have a good 10 types of small swords ranging in damage depending on their item level (more damage = higher requirements, you need higher requirements to use the weapon effectively)

Rigth now we have something like Falchion dmg: 3-5 at teh start and Falchion dmg: 15-22 at the end...which i hate, it is the same damn weapon with more damage? how the hell? they need things like Longsword dmg: 15-22, Broadsword dmg: 20-28, Flamberge dmg: 30-36, if you get the idea...each weapons has its own preset damage, but can only be used with the right requirements, instead of having the exact same weapon with different requirements and damage.

Of course the models and skins for these new swords would have to live up to the "cool" standard as well, but that would be hard to do, almost any massive two-handed sword is cool looking.

But perhaps the prefix/suffix on the weapons might determine the look of the weapons too..."barbed" can have it look liek barbed wire surroundign the sword and "cruel" could make the sowrd have serations in the main attaking side or something...bah noone will listen to me anyways, everytime i post an idea noone ever listens

I'm not so sure this is just a post that can be dismissed as a "silly teenager" post.

People love collecting cool stuff. There are games where people do nothing BUT collect cool stuff, and they have broad appeal. A lot of the appeal of games like "The Sims" and "Animal Crossing" are simply about getting STUFF. And almost all RPGs use armor and weapons as a carrot to keep gamers interested. I am still trying to get a certain piece of armor in the PS2 game Champions of Norrath.

Having a better variety of drops in armor and weapons would certainly appeal to many gamers. I think GW is weak in this area.

--Nokomis

Okay, wait. I like where you're going with this.

But how about instead of that, we have unique drops, of swords that have specific names, like the Bloodletter, Excalibur Jr., and Cortana the Cruel? They'll be incredibly rare, and not repeat that often, but wouldn't be ANY better than normal swords stat-wise, they'd just look cooler. That way, it would satisfy balance-purists as well as collectors. I'm a genius.

Well the "cool" names in Diablo were reserved for legendary, unique, supposedly one-of-a-kind (in the story sense) weapons. Sure, plain old magic items in Diablo may have sounded cool as well (Cruel Colossus Blade of Quickness) but many people have also poked fun at this as well(God's Zarconium-encrusted Bastard Blade of Llama-Slaying)

I think the current Guild Wars naming system follows closely with Diablo's, as in it gives prefixes and suffixes certain names, then tags those names onto the weapon.

What we need is maybe a nice unique weapon, such as when a warrior primary Ascends he gets a sword, hammer, or axe with unique names, like the King Slayer, or Mountain Crusher, or Heaven Splitter.

Has anyone read the series 'Book of Swords'.

Farslayer =)

about the "cool" names and such that's just a personal preference and whatever you go for it can never suit everyone, unless you allow a player to change the names of his/her weapon.

as for the damage problem, I personally don't mind seeing the same weapon name with higher damage later on. the problem here is indeed that it has a max damage and add ons are pretty fixed.
about the damage, I don't have an idea for it atm.
the add ons.. just more.. and dropped more.

Maybe like GW admins can put up an Email adress to send ideas for new Add-ons in and implement the best 10 or so.


About armor.. that I don't really like, it doesn't get dropped really, you have like 3 types per profession type which you can buy at fixed locations.
I like the way it looks the stats so far are nice etc.
but it's just a lot the same with all players while weapons/skills/attributes all can be different which creates diversity.. which is just awesome.
So why not create certain add-ons for armors to create more diversity in them, that will make up for the lack in no drops of armor and 3 prefixed types.
but add-ons from a defensive point of view, like:
armor bonus
energy (regen) bonus
health (regen) bonus
Elemental Defence bonus
Poison resist bonus (shortened DoT)
and so on..

the only thing I don't like about the names, with my Warrior character I have a sword.
it's an Ebon Wingblade sword of Swordsmanship.
Blade and sword is sorta the same.. sounds a bit weird but that's it.

Maybe a /nameweapon option?

See this -
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=18554

Really what I was gettin at is that most RPGs have certain "wow" items, Diablo 2 has it's uniques (Grandfather, Windforce, Sword Guard etc). Final Fantasy has too many to name, but generally each character had their "wow" weapon. Basically items with a little bit of background and prestige to em, items that you strived to get. Guild Wars doesn't, it has a pretty good array of magical weapons but nothing really to strive for. Nothing that really stands out, once in a while the numbers roll right and you get really neat weapons. But really thats about as common as an intelligent comment coming out of Paris Hilton (well maybe not that uncommon).

Exactly! You get the point, stat wise they'd be on par with the other stuff as not to break the balance. But they'd be unique in that they had a real name and a unique appearance. For example a sword like "Rurik's Spirit", really it's just a max damage fiery dragon sword with say +15% damage vs charr. But give it a unique name and some unique art and you've got yerself a collectable. Sets of unique weapons would also be great, say the equipment set of one of the game's heroes like Justicar Hablion. Granted since armor isn't a drop this idea falls flat before I even wrote it, but nice idea regardless.

I think one argument people will use is that this much detail into a simple boost in coolness factor (new art, new names, etc.) will be unnecessary and probably waste ANet's time.

I have no opinion on this matter, really...would be cool, but whatever.