ArenaNet:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/More satisfying spells.

(You call that a Fire Storm?)
If you look at the spell effects in Neverwinter Nights or Dungeon Siege, both of which are much older than Guild Wars, the spell effects for the higher end skills put it to shame. In NWN, for example, when you let loose a firestorm, it's a violent torrential downpour of cinder and flame that shakes the screen and rumbles with a subwoofer-rattling growl. In Guild Wars...a couple of little fireflies fall on your target's head.

I recommend for Guild Wars 2, you take a page from the NWN playbook and make spells and attacks a more satisfying sight to behold.

So how will you know what to upgrade to a fantastic display of chaos and destruction? Well. The choice is yours. But if you want a guildine to start with... I have one word for you: Elite. When someone uses an elite skill, if there's one thing that should be over-the-top and unmistakably noticable, that's it. When a monk casts Ray of Judgement, make a brilliant flash of holy light engulf whatever it hits. When a mesmer casts Echo, make an ethereal aura pulse out and dissipate from their head, leaving only a hollow echoing sound effect to indicate it's waiting to activate. When a warrior uses Earthshaker...well...duh. Make the earth shake. When a Necro animates a Flesh Golem, make the corpse rattle and shake as the Golem's arms and bones lunge forth from the ground, devouring the remains before materializing into a walking cuttlebone of death and destruction. (insert Muwahahaha here)


 * Why this is a good idea
 * Ooh...pretty colors.
 * Because with fewer skills in the game, A-net can afford to make elites look more awesome, make fire look more like fire, ice like ice, lightning more lighting, and so on.


 * Why it may not work out
 * Making every skill an elaborate display of color, light, and sound may promote serious performance issues for people who are spamming skills left and right, especially when it's a full 8on8 match with NPC's chiming in with their two cents. So you can't do this for *everything*.
 * And ^this^ boys and girls, is why you should ALWAYS read the suggestion the whole way through. Just to clarify, he suggested this for ELITE SKILLS ONLY.