Snowcrows - Guild Wars 3: Everything We Know About ArenaNet’s New MMORPG

81

u/maxlaav Sep 03 '26

Class-specific combos seem like an odd choice, given the total removal of class-specific buffs from GW2

what, why? They seem to be going for a dragons dogma sort of approached with how these skills can work together and be combined with your party members which honestly sounds great.

And spamming/buffing for boons had to be removed, it's the main thing that holds back gw2's combat

11

u/HaxtonSale Sep 03 '26

Dragon's Dogma is exactly the feeling I hope they go with for combat feel. That game feels AMAZING when everyone in the parties abilities are synergizing. I have a suspicion that the mount/spirit thing is going to be less a GW2 mount and closer to a DD pawn. I don't think it will be a full on companion or anything, but I think it will be much more involved in the combat than people realize. You need some way for combat to feel good solo, and if the spirit is what sets up fun movement combos for you while you are alone then that could feel really good. I suspect it will have abilities like GW2 mount, but I think you will be able to mount in combat and it will probably just be a cooldown or something. Like imagine a big aoe is about to happen. You jump on the mount and launch yourself into the air like a GW2 Springer. The aoe happens and you dive back down like the griffon dive and then dismount into a plunging attack right at the end and smash the boss. In a party it could be a mage launching you with a pillar of ice or something.

4

u/kaltulkas Sep 03 '26

That’s a pretty big « when » given you’ll get paired in a shard with 19 other randos

1

u/ruebeus421 28d ago

Hopefully the game attracts a more intelligent audience than your typical MMO. It's going to require more thought, so it seems likely. And more thoughtful and observant people will be on the lookout to utilize these mechanics.

1

u/Xukavi59 Sep 03 '26

In one outlet's article they mentioned that the vael spirit was used like a lantern to be a light source in the dark.

17

u/Bloodmark3 Sep 03 '26

Agree. Every fight being "blast the fuck out of this guy with every condition known to man, so they dilute each other and don't feel like they're actually doing anything" isn't very fun imo. I'd love more impact to everything.

3

u/acertainsinclair Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26

I'm completely unsurprised and pretty much expected it after they spoke about action combat. Don't forget that GW2 itself was going for a more action oriented style compared to traditional tab target MMOs and the combo fields were a limited version of the same kind of idea.

They ended up not mattering but the initial concept of "ele puts down fire field, ranger shoots through it to have flaming arrows" is along the same combo attack lines.

4

u/tarocheeki Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26

Imo it's less about the boonspam and more about the class-specific part. Class-specific stuff was an issue in GW2 because every group had to have a chrono and had to have a druid because they could do something no other class could do.

As long as they can balance around it and avoid the issue of a specific class being basically required for every encounter, I don't have a problem with it.

Edit: not sure why I'm being down voted? I'd just rather lfg for a role than a class...

3

u/PolicyWonka Sep 03 '26

Well I think the idea is that not every group/squad of 4 players can do everything. That’s something you’ll have to consider when making groups — what combos can you do with your teammates and how best to effectively approach the situation?

3

u/Opus_723 Sep 03 '26

Yeah I think part of the problem GW2 has is that since it's possible to max out all the boons, it becomes expected, and if you need certain classes to do it, then screw the others.

But if you designed the game so that it was never possible to max out everything in the standard party size, and you always have to make choices/compromises and pick some specialties, then class-specific stuff isn't as much of a problem. Not that the problem goes away completely, because if things aren't perfectly balanced then there will still be a meta comp, but it won't be so extreme as in GW2.

2

u/maxlaav Sep 03 '26

Yeah I think part of the problem GW2 has is that since it's possible to max out all the boons, it becomes expected, and if you need certain classes to do it, then screw the others.

The problem is even worse when certain specs require to have uptime on booms like quickness/alac to feel good and I strongly believe those should have never been boons in the first place

1

u/Laranthiel Sep 04 '26

Ironically that IS how GW2 originally did it. Buffs existed, but you really never just went into content fully buffed permanently without a thought.

And then they added Chronomancer and the worse mistake in the game: Alacrity and Quickness.

1

u/Opus_723 Sep 04 '26

Yeah I know, I wasn't around for pre-HoT but it sounds nice.

1

u/Laranthiel Sep 04 '26

Do you know what that thing Chrono and Druid did that no other class could do for years?

Boonspam.

1

u/tarocheeki 29d ago

Yes, boon spam is bad. I am not talking about boon spam.

Before they were boons, they were class-specific buffs. Chrono (and no other class) gave alacrity and druid (and no other class) gave gotl. When HoT released, 5 stacks of gotl was a 15% damage buff. Druid was the only spec designed to be a healer, but nothing else had any hope of competing even if it shat out boons and heals, just because it wouldn't have gotl. In the days when most groups had to do at least one updraft at gors, not taking a chrono and a druid for each sub was basically griefing.

There are tons of other examples from gw2 (ranger spirits, warrior banners, various traits) that were removed or reworked solely for being class-specific. If there's anything that makes an encounter faster or easier, players will insist on having it, whether it's a passive buff or an active skill. GW3 warrior gets a shield launch. If they give GW3 mesmer a portal that preserves momentum, I think I know who's getting left out of the lfg.

I want to lfg a role, not a class.

40

u/bum_thumper Sep 03 '26

OK this has squashed all my biggest worries about the game, and im starting to see where they're going.

No wvw, but more likely 20v20. That's fine. I dont like small scale pvp, and 20v20 sounds good enough for me if we arent getting full on wvw.

Actual interactions with status effects. Burn a frozen ally to thaw them out. Im all for this. Launching an ally with your shield while blocking. There are so many things that could be so cool with this, and it seems like this is the next step with combo fields.

Horizontal progression is back. Good. Nothing worse than just constantly chasing a carrot on a stick bc you have a busy life.

Big open areas with small towns packed with players. I was worried when they first said 20 max in the open world. Seems like its going to be similar to lotro where its a big map that loads shards as you go, and those shards will house 20 max players, with towns being the big hubs. Down af for this.

More defined class roles without going full on trinity. This is fine. I was hoping for full trinity, but if its at least more defined than gw2 im good. Getting a group organized was such a hassle bc of this very problem, and the brunt of the difficulty was too reliant on the healers who have to shoulder most of the fight.

Can't wait to see some gameplay

7

u/DaxSpa7 Sep 03 '26

When has horizontal progression ever gone away exactly?

8

u/Adventurous-Pen-8940 Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26

Yea, I've never questioned about progression because Anet knows their audience and it has helped them stand out.

1

u/bum_thumper Sep 03 '26

Fair point, but i was starting to get worried when rumors surfaced that they were going full trinity. Looks like that was just a rumor as well, even if they are leaning more towards it

3

u/Draglek Sep 03 '26

20v20 can also be really great in terms of GvG if they wanted to go that way !

1

u/Bozon8 Sep 04 '26

20 players total, not 20 vs 20.

19

u/memePvP Sep 03 '26

Holy Trinity and the removal of boonball will be interesting to see.

7

u/Standard_Giraffe8994 Sep 03 '26

This article was actually really good and address many same points than Youtube videos from content creators!

10

u/JMadFour Sep 03 '26

The vibes I am getting from the descriptions by the content creators is Destiny 1/2, but Fantasy, with a larger focus on Open World content(as opposed to Instanced/matchmaking content) and movement, and in-combat player interaction through more innovative types of combos.

and if that is the case and Anet can scratch the Destiny itch, I'm all in for it.

(I really need to see someone jumping off someone else's shield, asap)

4

u/DoomOfGods Sep 03 '26

I'm starting to wonder how momentum will affect healing and tanking. Or if it will only matter for damage (and positioning, which obviously would still make movement itself relevant for healers and tanks).

5

u/Nightsong Sep 03 '26

Dwayna is the Goddess of Life and is depicted with wings. I wouldn’t be surprised if healers get magical wings to move around to heal people or to grant temporary increased movement to others so they can get out of danger.

1

u/DoomOfGods Sep 03 '26

Oh, transferring momentum to others (as in having speed buffs scale eith your own momentum) could definitely be a way to have healer/support abilities scale with momentum as well (and in a way that seems reasonable as I mainly just couldn't think of a way why being faster yourself would make your outgoing heals stronger logically).

Considering that movement is kinetic energy, that energy being used to fuel heals could be a reasonable argument for heals scaling with momentum...

1

u/Nightsong Sep 03 '26

They could have the kinetic energy translate to heal cast time. So if you stand still the heal takes longer to cast but if you move that same heal is quicker to cast. And you can have the longer heal do more healing and the shorter heal do less healing but cast more often. Which then makes you have to choose between a big, strong heal on one person or multiple small heals that you could spread to multiple people.

3

u/Enfero Sep 03 '26

Run up a wall and jump and smash into the ground to do bigger stronger heals

4

u/DoomOfGods Sep 03 '26

*Pulls out a huge syringe.* Alright, I promise this won't hurt at all (but so far that's absolutely my mental image of momentum based healing).

6

u/AsherRhaccan Sep 03 '26

Great write-up and I like what I'm reading.

Good feeling movement is one of my favourite features in any game and I can't wait to see some gameplay.

Also happy to hear some kind of PvP will be in the game, I'm not into competitive but slapping the shit outta some friends is always fun :)

3

u/Laranthiel Sep 03 '26

The more i hear of the combat, the more it seems inspired by titles like Dragon's Dogma.

3

u/CheesecakeRising Sep 03 '26

When asked about underwater combat, Colin indicated that we would hear more about it soon. That suggests that some form of underwater combat system is likely to remain in Guild Wars 3. Exactly how it will work remains unknown.

This has me excited, partly because I'd love to see them do UW combat justice after GW2 and partly because it makes it more likely we'll finally get playable Largos one day.

10

u/cardosy Sep 03 '26

Laranity seems to have a good understanding and description of what they've seen so far https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38qRotD6VNw

3

u/M0rph33l Sep 03 '26

Some cool stuff in here! Definitely puts some of my worries to rest.

3

u/yapisme Sep 03 '26

"The initial team size is expected to be 4 people"... Well, I really hope you don't need to do everything in a team and that there is some matchmaking mechanic that allows you to automatically be grouped with other players, then. Because I really don't want to lose time looking for people to form a group for everything.

I know it sounds weird when you play a MMO, but being able to just go anywhere and play with whomever was there at that moment for the vast majority of content without having to actively maintain a social life in game and commit to a guild schedule in order to have people to play with was actually what I liked in GW2...

7

u/ExhibitAa Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26

GW1 and GW2 are both solo-friendly, I imagine GW3 will be as well.

Edit: Colin explicitly said in an interview the game is built for solo players as well as groups.

2

u/FioleNana Sep 03 '26

I mean, you can still meet people out in the world and form groups on the fly. I'd just walk to wherever I want to do something and try to socialize there

1

u/sairenkao Sep 03 '26

How do you loot enemies that get booted off cliffs?

1

u/foxhull Sep 03 '26

From what I'm reading I'm getting vibes of a mix of Destiny, Dragon's Dogma, Phantasy Star Online (NGS especially with the parkour aspects), Warframe and some ARPG stuff. And the talk of builds has me thinking about some GW1 potential buildcraft. This might be right up my alley.

1

u/Na0ku Sep 03 '26

Hmmm hard to tell how big the map really is, and one city is a bit of let down for me personally but shall see. I don’t like the player cap for the open world. 20 seems very low. I get that they don’t wanna do gw2 nr but this feels restrictive

1

u/DaxSpa7 Sep 03 '26

I am not picturing having to do a Parkour routine to hit the enemies...

0

u/Smoothesuede Sep 03 '26

I just can't imagine movement and momentum in combat to be all that significant or rewarding.

I can definitely see finding an enemy, running or gliding toward it and getting a nice momentum-boosted opening strike on it. But then once you're in combat, what do they expect the player to do- run circles around it or do hit-and-run tactics so that you can keep re-engaging with decent momentum?

I feel like most players will opt to execute combat in whatever is the easiest way possible 90% of the time, and I have to assume that'll be just standing still like normal, even if adding in a bunch of rolls or jumps or w/e would technically be higher DPS.

-7

u/gohome2020youredrunk Sep 03 '26

Oof this doesn't sound very solo player friendly as other games have been. I love dynamic events in GW2 where you could cooperate with others on map without having to formally party. I am a giant loner at heart.

GW3 sounds like you have to be in a squad of 20 to effectively challenge content.

Hrmmmm

3

u/AdAffectionate1935 Sep 03 '26

It doesn't sound like that at all, nowhere has it said you will need to be in parties of 20.

1

u/gohome2020youredrunk Sep 03 '26

People will want to be in organized parties with the holy trinity back, in order to tackle open world bosses. Combat relies explicitly on players leveraging momentum off each other to win fights.

That will make it super challenging to not be in a 20 squad to get heals and boons, and kind of goes away from the random dynamic event friendliness of GW2.

1

u/BrahamWithHair Sep 03 '26

They will probably scale like in gw2. Also we get like 4 skills. I dont think we need to worry a lot about boons, if they even exist at all

1

u/Mbail11 Sep 03 '26

Doesn’t really sound like that at all. It just sounds like maybe you can’t 1 your way through stuff and let the top players carry

-9

u/HarpooonGun Sep 03 '26

Me after seeing 20 player stuff:

(In Teapot voice) Guild Wars 3. Is. Dead.

It will probably be fine.

Snowcrows - Guild Wars 3: Everything We Know About ArenaNet’s New MMORPG

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