Guide to posting Weapon Skill Suggestions

Guide to posting Weapon Skill Suggestions

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Zacchary.6183

Zacchary.6183

Just a small guide to show everyone how to build a nice and organized post when posing additional weapon ideas for your profession. These guidelines are something I use whenever I post my ideas for weapon skills and I only hope that it makes it easier for players (and devs) to analyze and determine the effectiveness of the suggested skills. So without further adieu, I give you the guidelines:

1.) The Skill Template!

When posting individual skills, I always organize them by lists. Usually I have lists inside lists whenever I have a complex skill to post but they usually look like this:

1.) Skill name CD Cost (or initiative)
Flavor text.
Cooldown:
<insert other tooltips here>

For specific types of skills, I use these templates:


1.) Skill name
Flavor text.
Cooldown:
<insert other tooltips here>

—> Skill name
Flavor text.
Cooldown:
<insert other tooltips here>

—> Skill name
Flavor text.
Cooldown:
<insert other tooltips here>


1<situation A>.) Skill name
Flavor text.
Cooldown:
<insert other tooltips here>

1<situation B>.) Skill name
Flavor text.
Cooldown:
<insert other tooltips here>

1<situation C>.) Skill name
Flavor text.
Cooldown:
<insert other tooltips here>


1a.) Skill name Cost
Flavor text. Turns into <skill 1b>.
Cooldown:
<insert other tooltips here>

1b.) Skill name Cost
Flavor text. Turns into <skill 1c>.
Cooldown:
<insert other tooltips here>

1c.) Skill name Cost
Flavor text.
Cooldown:
<insert other tooltips here>

And be sure you list them in numerical order.


2.) The Maffs! (No! Please, not that!)

By all means, spam /supermegasadface:c emotes because in order to make your topic look good you need to make sure the math to each skill is spot on. So break out your calculator and get to calculating!

First off you need to post a formula that your ideas will be based off of, but more importantly follow the damage formula. This will standardize your set so you aren’t blindly posting random bullkitten numbers cuz yolo. For my topic, I used the formula:

2000 Power * 1265 Maximum Rifle Weapon Strength/2597 Heavy Golem Armor Rating * Skill Coefficient

Next, I give each skill a Skill Coefficient and then plug the numbers into the formula that I am using to produce my damage. Be sure you round the damage to the nearest 1. It should look like this:

Damage calculated = 2000 * 1000/ 2597 * skill coefficient

2.) Falcon Pawnch 5s CD
Punch an enemy in the face causing their soul to implode.
Damage: 53138 (69)

BUT WAIT! WHY YOU NO FOLLOW FORMULA EXACTLY?!

Because multiplication and division work together like addition and subtraction, so A*B*C/D is going to produce the same answer as A/D*B*C. However to get the correct damage, the armor rating has to be the only denominator in the formula. I like to mix the coefficient with the damage multipliers whenever I decide apply them.

Anyway…


3.) The Details!

I can’t stress this one enough. Construct every skill by making every part look categorized. The name should be on top and noticable. The tooltips need to be distinguished from the variables but not so much it becomes part of the general list above it. Take for example:

1stealth) Bullet to the Knee
End their adventuring days with a high caliber bullet to their kneecap.
Damage: 536 (.55)
Range: 1200
Cripple: 8s

The situation is part of the name and number and it is bold to

Basically the further into detail you get the less you should use to categorize each detail. Makes it look nice and organized.

Another thing I do is use a triple dash to separate my skills. Doing – - – 2 lines down from the last occupied line will draw a line across the post and effectively organize individual skills.


4.) Updating!

Finally tweak, update, advertise and keep your thread afloat if you notice there is support for it, whether it is potential support or not. Just make it look good and not entirely overpowered and people will give you your thumbs. Even if it looks overpowered, the only thing that really matters is getting the concept through. Anet can nerf it to oblivion later.

Otherwise, let it die. Simple.

Well thanks for reading! I hope the forums see more great weapon ideas from this. Happy posting!

Guide to posting Weapon Skill Suggestions

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Olba.5376

Olba.5376

BUT WAIT! WHY YOU NO FOLLOW FORMULA EXACTLY?!

Because multiplication and division work together like addition and subtraction, so A*B*C/D is going to produce the same answer as A/D*B*C. However to get the correct damage, the armor rating has to be the only denominator in the formula. I like to mix the coefficient with the damage multipliers whenever I decide apply them.

No, no no. If you’re going to post formulae, use parentheses.

The reason your “formula” does not work is because the order is a*b/c*d, which can be interpret as meaning either (a*b*d)/c or (a*b)/(c*d). The reason why you can “ignore” this when doing calculator math is because the calculator only operates with two values and a single operation, thus eliminating the ambiguity.

When writing formulae of any kind, always make sure they are unambiguous. You cannot just assume that people will know what you mean. You also cannot assume that people will use the formulae the way you intend it to be used.

If you absolutely want to avoid using parentheses, split your formulae into subformulae. For example, in this case you could do:

  • Total Damage = Base Damage / Defense
  • Base Damage = Power * Weapon Damage * Skill Coefficient
  • Defense = Target Armor

You could have saved yourself a lot of time by linking straight to the Wiki and telling people to use the formula in it.

(edited by Olba.5376)

Guide to posting Weapon Skill Suggestions

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Zacchary.6183

Zacchary.6183

For the record, the one on the GW2 wiki doesn’t use parenthesis except to distinguish where the numbers come from. And it doesn’t use them aside from that because using parenthesis in a simple equation such as damage calculation only serves to overcomplicate it.

That doesn’t mean I don’t understand where you are coming from. If there was addition and subtraction added to damage calculation then I would most definitely use parenthesis and unambiguous formulae. But that isn’t the case here.

Guide to posting Weapon Skill Suggestions

in Profession Balance

Posted by: Wyrden.4713

Wyrden.4713

oh no, pls not more maths

just my ytb channel

FeintFate~