Hey guys, Im just going to jump right into it.
We have defined roles that differ from the traditional MMO of Tanks Healers and DPS, some people miss the idea of filling their role and seeing visible contribution to an outcome, however that doesn’t mean GW2 has to ditch its idea of self sufficiency, you can have your cake and eat it too!
What if…
The roles we DO have defined being Crowd Control, Support and DPS actually had visible impact?
I think theres a difference between everyone can do everything….and everyone can do everything at once….GW2 would benefit from distinct seperation of hybrid builds into these 3 roles.
How can we do that? Heres an example….what if hammer for warrior or guardian had its damage cut in half like the physical damage on the weapon cut from 985-1111 to something like 420-580….using that weapon has little damage relevance but is all about the cc, …. now what about support?
What if the only way to gain certain boons or even all boons or perhaps even stacks of boons above 3 ONLY via support weapons like staves. Lets say on your own you can get 1-2 stacks of might via traits n stuff but to hit 25 stacks of might you NEED support orientated professions look at guardian empower….perfect example.
What if aegis was a boon that was ONLY available from support weapons? Suddenly they have a more prominant role, that clutch aegis stopped x ability or x mechanic in PvE.
Now lets take a look at the PvP and PvE applications….PvP I’m pretty sure would improve 10 fold, CC has no damage but sets up damage dealers….support gives out the boons to provide more meaningful burst tertiary heals things like that etc etc. Dps can’t give themselves boons or crowd control and rely on their teams for that….PvP would be epic!
PvE you can now start to design encounters AROUND these roles instead of the individual avoiding mechanics like stand out of red circle. Heres an example….What if just one of the mechanics of a particular boss was that he spawns an add far away from him and that mob takes 10 seconds to walk to the boss, upon reaching the boss he explodes giving the boss a massive damage buff wiping the raid. Now lets say if he doesnt reach the boss after 20 seconds he explodes regardless and leaves a little aoe on the ground that damages players. Here is 2 key awesome mechanics….CC is paramount as you want to lock down those mobs ( they don’t take damage but can only be cc’d ) ….so you need to CC them for 10 seconds worth of travel time. The AoE they leave on the ground further acts as a dps timer….as more aoe crops up the fight gets harder and harder etc….
This puts emphasis on those support roles maintaining high fury uptime and stacks of might. Its okay Anet I know I’m awesome I accept your job at arena net as a content designer =P….but in all seriousness what do you guys think? Do yas see where I’m coming from?