[Kvinna]

Thanks to everyone who promoted, joined and asked questions for the live IRC chat! I'm sorry that we couldn't get ask more this go around; there were a ton of good questions!

Here's the transcript of today:

[INDENT][Neok] Can you tell us about an Elite Skill for the guardian?
[EricFlannum] Jon is typing away
[EricFlannum] its very exciting
[IsaiahCartwright] lol
[JonPeters] 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.

[Sirrush] How is the Marketplace going to work? Can we track things like volume sold per day, median price, etc. etc.?
[EricFlannum] Just a warning for when Isaiah answers questions... he speaks a strange language known only as Isaiac (bears a striking similarity to poorly spelled english)
[JonPeters] There isn't a google translate for it...sorry
[IsaiahCartwright] 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 : )

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?
[EricFlannum] 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.
[EricFlannum] Izzy has been teaching me how to spell
[IsaiahCartwright] *flex*

[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?
[JonPeters] 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 NPC, 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
[JonPeters] 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?
[IsaiahCartwright] 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.
[JonPeters] yes you must be demented to jump over an AOE!

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?
[EricFlannum] 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.

[Ravious] How does underwater combat work, especially in regards to wards and other ground targeting skills?
[JonPeters] 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.

For the necromancer: is the Shadow Fiend immobile, aside from the use of Haunt?
[IsaiahCartwright] 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.

[Vorsakan] Can you tell us how skill tiers work? Are all skills tiered?
[JonPeters] 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.

[noxicon] Will GW2 feature a combat log, or any method of reviewing combat events after the fact?
[IsaiahCartwright] 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
[IsaiahCartwright] use it as they like.

[Vorsakan] What are the effects of the "frozen" condition? Can we roll while crippled, frozen or immobilized?
[JonPeters] 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
[JonPeters] combat in some demo videos, but you won't be able to when we ship the game.

[Corsair] 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?
[EricFlannum] 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.
[EricFlannum] *balance
[IsaiahCartwright] *flex*
[JonPeters] Eric is sitting too close to Isaiah and his aura is rubbing off on him...

[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
[JonPeters] Guardian just got in so we are not ready to talk about cross profession combos until we are done finalizing them.

[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?
[JonPeters] 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
[JonPeters] and will only be a benefit to their master.

Will there be an option to preview armor and weapons on your character?
[EricFlannum] 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?
[IsaiahCartwright] 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.

[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?
[JonPeters] 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.

[patrickvp] Can you talk about the agro mechanic? Is it DPS based, armor based, random, or something else?
[IsaiahCartwright] 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.


[IsaiahCartwright] Colin says hi
[Kvinna] HI COLIN OMG
[Kvinna] oops, sorry
[Kvinna] Colin messed me up
[Kvinna] all his fault
[EricFlannum] That's ok he has that effect on everyone...
[JonPeters] we are as well...
[Kvinna] I heard he's badass
[EricFlannum] oh he is... he just pretends he's not.
[Kvinna] This question first :)

[Vorsakan] Do effects such as daze, fear & stun interrupt an opponent, or otherwise prevent successful completion of a skill being activated when they are inflicted
[JonPeters] Yes, if timed well daze, fear, stun, knockback, knockdown, and launch can all interrupt an opponent.

[vani] How will World vs World server allocating work when it comes to people from different continents?
[EricFlannum] 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.

[DavidTheHammer] Are you concerned about Guardians being an overly popular class at launch, given the popularity of the paladin/wammo archetype?
[JonPeters] There is no logner the concept of a just plain interrupt
[IsaiahCartwright] 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.

[JonPeters] Thank you to all of you for showing up for this. Was really fun.
[EricFlannum] Thanks for all the awesome questions. And special thanks to Kvinna for the fantastic moderation!
[JonPeters] Wish we could answer everyones questions!
[IsaiahCartwright] Thank you for coming and all the great questions! [3 : )
[Chalky] Thanks guys!
[Kvinna] Thanks to Jon, Eric and Izzy for answering our questions. Sorry we couldn't ask more, maybe some other time! :)
[Naut] Good luck! :D
[Kvinna] And I heard there are other interviews scheduled. :)
[Kvinna] On certain podcasts.
[Kvinna] So watch out for those. :p
[Kvinna] Thanks, everyone.[/INDENT]

Thanks to ArenaNet and Jon, Eric and Izzy for taking time out of their busy work schedule to answer some questions for us. :)

[Chalky]

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions, sorry we couldn't ask them all!

[Naut]

You left my bit at the end out :(

[Vorsakan]

Thanks for all your hard work running this, Kvinna. :cool:
And for asking some of my questions! :o

Thank you, Anet, too! :cool:

Many fundamentals I've been curious about...

* So underwater combat does indeed have it's own skills; that seemed the most likely but great to know for sure.

* Conditions & boons have different power levels too! That certainly makes tiers intelligble, but I'm intrigued how they evolve...

* Chilled affects currently-recharging-skill cooldown too! Water elementalists just got a whole lot more interesting in PvP...

* Position is the prime factor in drawing enemy attention; good to know!

* Daze, fear, stun, knock & launch all interrupt, and there is no longer such a thing as a plain interrupt - exciting!

[Neo Nugget]

Looks like we got quite a few good questions answered from everybody. I'm glad we got an answer to the combat log question everybody's been talking about lately.

I do wish Colin was would have joined the chat. That would have been fun ;)

[Naoroji]

Boo @ leaving Naut's bit out :p.

[Whisper]

No one asked about the sylvari redesign? :(

[IDarko]

I really hoped for a hint about the sillhouete at the far left xD It was fun nonetheless!

Quote

12:28pm JonPeters yes you must be demented to jump over an AOE!

Made me lol!

[Intrepid]

Good work for running a smooth chat. Good variety of questions and it was fun to see the dev's comments!

[Hardscript]

Should have asked about their plans for server locations 'Mainly oceanic' tired of having 400-500 ping in mmo's just cos i live in australia.

[Kvinna]

Whisper said:

No one asked about the sylvari redesign? :(

It was queued, but we just ran out of time. :(

[Lyssa]

Yeah this was awesome. I'd love to see this happen again sometime. The more A.Net does it the better they'll get ^^.

Kvinna said:

It was queued, but we just ran out of time. :(

Can we see the queue? Just for curiosities sake?

Edited by Lyssa, 27 January 2011 - 10:47 PM.

[Naconix]

The pet AI improvements was the highlight of the chat for me.

[Jonny10]

That was quite unique, and Mumble as nice addition. Thx for setting it up :D

Hi Colin!

[Lord Bazaah]

Combat log was definitely my favorite part.

[Yokohama]

Damn shame I missed it. :(

Now my good day is ruined. :'(

[Matthew Browne]

You guys are all awesome, and a big thanks to JP, Izzy and Eric :D

On a side note, launch? What is it? Some kind of a knockback?

[Whisper]

Lord Bazaah said:

Combat log was definitely my favorite part.

That part actually made me sad.. :( ... Now the game will be ruled by math, we will end up with optimal builds which will mean

LF scepter+scepter warrior must have x/x/x spec....Yea... There goes individual play style... and my hopes that pugging might be entertaining this time around...

[Brise Bon Bons]

Great questions everyone, and great job on the moderation GW2G staff! Thanks also to ANet for showing up. :)

Vorsakan said:

* So underwater combat does indeed have it's own skills; that seemed the most likely but great to know for sure.

* Chilled affects currently-recharging-skill cooldown too! Water elementalists just got a whole lot more interesting in PvP...

Those were the big surprises for me. Particularly the underwater combat tidbit. I'm really curious what we'll see now - they can't possible be making underwater versions of every ground targeted skill! that's a huge amount of work...

Also, as has been asked many times, what on earth is the "launch" condition? :cool:

[Vorsakan]

Matthew Browne said:

You guys are all awesome, and a big thanks to JP, Izzy and Eric :D

On a side note, launch? What is it? Some kind of a knockback?

Launch is indeed a knock, but upwards.
It's by far the rarest effect known so far, with zero confirmed video footage (to my knowledge).

Speculated launchers are:

Elementalist > Elite > Tornado - launches foes you touch. N.B. Surely there's footage of this?
Warrior > Hammer > Devastating Hammer - launches your foe.
Warrior > Warhorn > Call to Arms - launches nearby foes (after a lengthy cast).

[Glapthorn]

Kvinna said:

[JonPeters] NPS is an unrevealed profession?

This might seem incredibly stupid, but what did JonPeters mean when he said NPS? Surely he didn't just give us an acronym for an unrevealed profession did he?

[Daelin Dwin]

Glapthorn said:

This might seem incredibly stupid, but what did JonPeters mean when he said NPS? Surely he didn't just give us an acronym for an unrevealed profession did he?

It's a misspelling of NPC.

[Naut]

Glapthorn said:

This might seem incredibly stupid, but what did JonPeters mean when he said NPS? Surely he didn't just give us an acronym for an unrevealed profession did he?

Developers can joke you know, they do actually have souls.

[Eragon Zarroc]

awesome, will read this later since i was unable to pay attention to chat wile in class :( like the notation of who asked what question ;)

[LastDay]

Tornado, the Elementalist Elite skill launches opponents, as does Devastating Hammer, a Warrior Hammer attack.

But yeah I dunno if I've seen any footage of it anywhere.
I wouldn't be surprised to see the Air Attunement give more spells that Launch...

[Short]

Some nice information there, especially on WvW and underwater combat.

[jazilla]

big ups to the big wigs here and at anet. that was a proper chat. cheers :) great questions too. i was bummed my question about why the Guardians got heavy armor didn't get answered, but the questions chosen made up for it.

[Xiov]

I'm worried about that PvP "fear." If it makes me run anywhere, I will be tentative to play Pvp.

[Versidia]

Is it too late to ask a question? I'm wondering now what the stability and vigor boons do.

[HellzMailman]

Kvinna said:

[Kvinna] [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
[JonPeters] Guardian just got in so we are not ready to talk about cross profession combos until we are done finalizing them.

Emphasis mine, ofc.
I realize this is far fetched, but they couldn't actually be...releasing the new professions as they are added to the game, could they?!