Like most of Arena Net’s consumer base, I have play MMO’s for over ten years and Video game (in one form or another) since late adolescence. And like most, I have a tendency to evaluate my play experience and compare it with others I know who play. I am writing to discuss the conclusion of one such conversation, where in I was asked “what is the one change you could make if you were able?”. At the time I honestly didn’t know. I find it hard to criticize software as polished as Guild Wars 2 while still being in its infancy. Rather, my though process drifted towards what would enhance my play experience (on any class) and the experience of those around me. My suggestion: have the 7-9 utility slots rotate sets with the 1-5 weapon slots. This would allow further flexibility in play styles and would conform to Arena Net’s perceived goal of presenting a simple and clean interface. Now I’m introducing this to the forum simply to socialize the idea with both the administration and with the consumer base’s.
The weapon types associated with GW2 classes offer a broad range of play styles (long, mid, close, and melee range / direct damage, critical damage, condition damage with control, mitigation and survivability). Most classes have several utility slots that lend themselves quite nicely to any of these styles. But with only three, they are usually limited to one facet at a time. Yet most classes have two weapons slots offering us two different styles if we choose (with obvious exceptions such as the Elementalist). If my character can swap between a melee and a ranged combat style simply by swapping weapons, why shouldn’t I swap between a melee and ranged set of utilities to complement those skills? Likewise, with a single target set and a multiple target set or whatever styles you as the player gravitate towards.
To address several counter arguments (or the ones that I have thought of). The first concern I think of, is having the ability to use a powerful utility skill twice by simply swapping weapons. The first solution is to have that individual skill share its global cool down with both proposed utility sets. So if you activate an ability then change sets, you would still be required to wait for its cool down to finish regardless of how many utility sets it was mapped to. The second solution may be to only allow any given utility skill to be mapped to one utility set and not both; but this would present a challenge with passive skills such as signets. The second concern is a class that only has one weapon and cannot rotate weapons. As the attunement system is already an advantage of the Elementalist class (granting 20 weapon related skill as opposed to 10 on most classes. Each of which have a separate cool down) they may not be subject to swapping utility slots as they can’t swap weapons. However, should Arena Net feel this may be unfair to the class. You may be able to link two or even four utility sets, one to each attunement (although I have enjoyed playing an Elle, I am against this proposition). And the third concern which I am unequipped to answer: what is the increased difficulty of balancing (class to class) while having to take six utility slots into consideration, instead of three? And is it feasible? What may sound like a good idea in one aspect of the game may completely break another aspect of game play entirely. And I feel as the consumer, we frequently neglect balancing issues in aspects of the game we don’t typically play. Then over emphasized imbalances within aspects we do play (I enjoy WvW, open PvE and some Dungeons. I have limited understanding of SPvP). Thus, I leave this issue to the design teams.
I apologize for the wall of text and feel that I have sufficiently outlined my thought process. For those who had the attention span to get through it . . . Should you feel it’s a notable idea, please feel free to comment and/or share it with others that play. If it proves to be a bad idea, no harm done; as this will most likely be my one and only post on this topic. I am sure you will rage below.