I have talked to many people about how with each weapon comes 5 sets of skills. I myself think this idea is very good, a lot of others do but I find the players who loved Guild Wars 1 in particular are having issues with this. I’m even having some problems with how customizable your fighting was in guild wars 1 was compared to now. I’m starting to notice each class is very predictable in PvP. You see the weapon set and get that awareness of the five standard skills. Now what I’m posing isn’t to change the system by any means, just expanding it slightly to offer more customizable options, uniqueness and control over your character. I’m going to focus on the Ranger to fully show what I mean.
Slot 1 – Long Range Shot – Further the arrow flies, more damage it does
Instead of only allowing the player this option, why not have a drop down arrow (exactly like utilities) to allow a selection of one-three other skill types similar to the action it performs. For this I will choose two just demonstrate the idea. I am literally taking skills from Guild Wars 1 so the development is already there, it would just need to be implemented and balanced.
So default would be Long Range Shot but the other two options could be
2. Power Shot – A regular attack with extra power – would not be affected by distance. Does more damage than Long Range Shot up close but at further distances Long Range Shot would be stronger.
3. Called Shot – An attack that deals no extra damage but flies twice as quickly. Hitting targets more frequently and faster.
This is the framework of how the idea would play out. For the last 4 skills I will show the default first, then the two secondary options.
Slot 2- Rapid Fire – Fire multiple arrows at your target. 10-sec Cooldown
Option 2 – Dual-Shot – Fire two arrows at one target. 5-Sec Cooldown
Option 3 – Splinter Shot – Fire an arrow at enemy target, if hits adjacent foes also are hit. 10-sec Cooldown. This skill would give that multiple target damage but as an AoE affect.
Slot 3 – Hunter’s Shot – Causes 10 stacks of Vulnerability. 12 sec-Cooldown
Option 2. Sundering Shot – Deals slightly extra power and ignores 10% armor. 10 sec-Cooldown. This is the same concept as Vulnerability but doesn’t apply a condition.
Option 3. Precision Shot – An Unblockable attack. 8-Sec Cooldown. Similar again but no extra damage, rather a counter to blocking foes.
Slot 4 – Point Blank Shot – A knockback that sends foes further closer you are. 15-Sec Cooldown
Option 2. Pin Down – A shot that cripples target for 5 seconds. 15-Sec Cooldown. This would give the longbow a great cripple affect.
Option 3. Concussion Shot – Interrupts foes current action and Dazes for 2 seconds. 20-sec Cooldown. Similar to the crowd control style of the other two but has uniqueness
Slot 5 – Barrage – AoE affect that cripples and damages foes in target area 30-Sec Cooldown.
Option 2 – Multi-Shot – Fire three arrows in a spread arc for extra damage. 20-Sec Cooldown. Has that AoE affect but focuses more on smaller groups and maximizing damage.
Option 3 – Glass Arrow – An arrow that deals extra damage and shatters on impact. The foe and surrounding foes are stricken with 5 stacks of Bleeding. 30-Sec Cooldown. This still would give the AoE affect but finally offer more to condition based-players.
This is basically what I mean. It didn’t take long for me to plan this out, I just references the Guild Wars 1 Ranger skill list. I think even three alternative skills would be great, but I used two to try to condense the post. It would add a great amount of variety and open up a world of build expansion with skill keeping the weapon set skills mechanics.
Curious to what others think of this as I thought it was a quite intriguing idea.
Thanks