GW2Guru Dev ChatFollow

If you happened to miss the GW2Guru dev chat we've got a recap of it all for you here! Joining the chat were ArenaNet developers: Jon Peters - Game Designer, Isaiah Cartwright - Game Developer (skill balancer), and Eric Flannum - Lead Game Designer.

Underwater Combat

Ravious: How does underwater combat work, especially in regards to wards and other ground targeting skills?
Jon Peters: There is no ground targeting in underwater combat because we can't guarantee that there is any ground around to target. Once we reveal more about underwater combat this will make more sense. We understand that underwater combat is very different in nature so we aren't just going to translate our ground combat into 3D space.

Guardians

Neok: Can you tell us about an Elite Skill for the guardian?
Jon Peters: Yes, Guardians have elite skills. Here is one I can tell you about. It is called Sanctuary. It cretes a bubble around the guardian that keeps enemies from entering it. While it exists allies can enter the bubble to regenerate health, but cannot use skills inside of it.

Archaes8: Now that we've seen the Guardian, we know it's good in groups, but how effective is it in solo combat? Can this class be as much of a heavy hitter as the warrior?
Jon Peters: We balance every every profession so that they are effective solo and in groups. The Guardian Virtues are built specifically to be held when soloing or used when in a group. There are also many NPS, and pets that can benefit from activating your virtues as well as other players that you aren't grouped wth but are playing a dynamic event with. The guardian like every othr profession also has many different utilty skills that can allow him to make a variety of builds. A guardian could equip 3 summoned weapons, or 3 shouts.

Lyssa: Can people jump over wards if they get to high enough ground? Will Guardians be considering the terrain when placing their wards down?
Isaiah Cartwright: All aoes are actually spheres or boxes so if you get high enough you can jump over them but depending on the size of the aoe can jump over it but you will need to get high enough but it's takes cliff or a ledge. This makes placement of aoes very 3 dementional.

DarkWasp: I would like to know if they have any specific examples of cross-proffession combo moves for the Guardian, such as the arrows through firewall combo that Eles and Rangers can do together
Jon Peters: Guardian just got in so we are not ready to talk about cross profession combos until we are done finalizing them.

DaS_BrOt_2MaL: How does the guardian's spawned weapons behave AI-wise? Can you order them to attack a certain target? Do they act as klind of a "second auto attack"? can you send them to certain positions etc?
Jon Peters: The spawned weapons act similar to a defensive pet. They will defend you if you are attacked and they will attack what you attack. When you command them with their special skill you can pick the target they use it on by using the command skill on that target.

DavidTheHammer: Are you concerned about Guardians being an overly popular class at launch, given the popularity of the paladin/wammo archetype?
Isaiah Cartwright: Like all our professions we need to make sure no profession is over powered, Guardians are going to be a popular support class but from the start we've made sure they are not the next healer or some invincible tank.

Marketplace

Sirrush: How is the Marketplace going to work? Can we track things like volume sold per day, median price, etc. etc.?0
Isaiah Cartwright: We're still working out all the details on which stats well show Im pretty sure we're not going to show volume per day but median is in bounds of course things change a lot around here : )

Loading Screens

Q: We understand that while it's more of a persistent world than Guild Wars, there will still be loading screens between the big zones. About how much time will a normal player spend going through loading screens as they play?
Eric Flannum: It really depends on the player in question, but we try to pace the game such that a player is never required to go through multiple loads in a short period of time. That being said loads are for the most part pretty infrequent unless you are prurposefully bouncing back and forth between maps.

PvP

Q: In one occasion, Jeff Strain has said in a Kotaku interview how winning in WvW will give the conquering world certain bonuses such as increased health regeneration or healing rate, or enhanced loot drop rate. Now this spurs a few questions. In order to avoid migrations to a certain world, will the winning world be closed for some time? Will there be any restrictions during WvW battles, as well?
Eric Flannum: We are still working out details on this but in general people will only get the bonuses during the contest, not after. In addition we may impose a time period where you are ineligible to recieve the bonuses after switching servers.

vani: How will World vs World server allocating work when it comes to people from different continents?
Eric Flannum: We will try to match up servers in WvW so that similar timezones are matched against each other. We don't want to purposefully create mismatches in WvW.

Skills

Vorsakan: Can you tell us how skill tiers work? Are all skills tiered?
Jon Peters: Yes, all skills are tiered. How tiers work is that roughly every 10 levels a new tier of a skill becomes available at a trainer. Players can then visit the trainer and learn the new tier. This will generally improve the damage of a skill or the power of the condition or boon that it uses.

Q: What are the effects of the "frozen" condition? Can we roll while crippled, frozen or immobilized?
Jon Peters: Frozen condition is now called Chilled. Chilled will slow your character down and also slow down the recharge of any skills that are currently recharging. You will not be able to roll when chilled, crippled, or immobilized. We are still working on implementing some of these details so even if you see it in a demo doesn't mean it is true. Like for example you can use your inventory while in combat in some demo videos, but you won't be able to when we ship the game.

Q: For the necromancer: is the Shadow Fiend immobile, aside from the use of Haunt?
Isaiah Cartwright: No he can move around and attack on his own, the Haunt ability just allows you to move him to a new target, we've also debated adding blind to the Haunt ability to give it some more versatility.

Combat Log

noxicon: Will GW2 feature a combat log, or any method of reviewing combat events after the fact?
Isaiah Cartwright: Yes there will be a combat log, we fell people should be informed about how skills work so they can understand how combat works, this allows people to better understand the game and make better decisions about how to play the game. It's not practical to play the combat log up nor do we expect players to play with it up but we do believe in giving players as much info as people and let them

Vorsaken: Do effects such as daze, fear & stun interrupt an opponent, or otherwise prevent successful completion of a skill being activated when they are inflicted
Jon Peters: Yes, if timed well daze, fear, stun, knockback, knockdown, and launch can all interrupt an opponent. There is no logner the concept of a just plain interrupt

Pets

Q: Pet AI has been lacking in all the videos we've seen, they've been unresponsive and their damage output leaves much to be desired. Are there any plans to address these issues?
Eric Flannum: Pet AI, blance and pathing are definitely things that know we have to improve before launch. We're actually working to address these issues right now.

fallot: What's the degree of control a ranger exercises over it's pet? If it's AI controlled, aren't you worried they'll become a liability instead of a benefit?
Jon Peters: Pets are never going to be a liability. They can only help you. You can customize what skills they have available as well as set them on passive, defensive and aggressive. You can also give them specific commands such as attack, come and stay. As Eric said we are improving the pet AI, balance, and other aspects of them as well. Needless to say they are taken into account when we balance and will only be a benefit to their master.

UI

Q: Will there be an option to preview armor and weapons on your character?
Eric Flannum: Previewing armor before you buy it is certainly something that we'd like to add to the game. It's on our wishlist so if we end up shipping without it I would imagine that we'll add it some time after launch.

Zedd: Guild Wars had a GUI that promoted in-team communication. Since there's no teams per-say in GW2, will there be any means of communicating to other peope about skills i am using, enemies i have targeted, etc?
Isaiah Cartwright: There are parties in GW2 and we plan to have the same sorts of communication for communicating in a parties as we had in GW1.

Game Mechanic

patrickvp: Can you talk about the agro mechanic? Is it DPS based, armor based, random, or something else?
Isaiah Cartwright: Currently its a combination of DPS, Positional, and a bunch of other factors. Currently how close you are to the enemy is the biggest factor.

Edited, Jan 27th 2011 7:59pm by Inde

Good chat really, nice number of questions asked. I think some of them were poor choices, since we had just been told them in interviews (like if Guardian can solo, etc.) but still a good read. Thanks for the break down though, makes it easier to reference.

I think the skill tiers was an interesting bit of information. Have they talked about skill tiers before? I think that was new info.

Really excited that there is going to be a combat log, I think there will be an option then to write the combat log to a text file.