Guild Wars 2

While I disagree with… well, pretty much everything here, I’m glad you put so much thought into it. Granted, it makes me feel a little guilty when I casually dismiss it, but it was an entertaining read.

YES, YES! OP, may God bless you and your friends for doing ANet’s job. Unfortunately you won’t get paid for it, but if by any chance you do succeed in your intentions, we’ll have one good game to play.

Will you try and raise the question of PvP servers where I can attack those pesky Asuras on sight?

When I played my first GW2 BWE I was overwhelmed by how many skills the elementalist had. Of course, it was a brand new game and I’d put in a grand total of 5 hours playtime with the ele, so of course I wouldn’t have all the skills down.
Fast forward a month. My main is a Ranger and it’s such a great profession. But I’m only lvl 40 and I’m getting bored with the limited number of abilities I have access to. I find myself constantly swapping weapon sets just for variety. I’m chasing down tameable pets just so I have access to more utilities. I want to buy all of my unlockable skills (even if I won’t use them) just so I have more options.
There is no other class that I prefer over the Ranger. However, I think I’m going to reroll a Guardian for variety’s sake.
In summary: I need more abilities. Give each weapon a pool of abilities from which you can choose the 2, 3, or 5 to equip. Add at least 10 more utility skills per profession. Make traits a bit stronger and more impactful on the gameplay. +10%dmg to Greatsword isn’t gamebreaking…it’s less than you’d get in GW1 from “customizing” the weapon. Not to mention that traiting to add dmg to a particular weapon is odd considering the focus Anet has put on wep swapping. And elites need some love. Most of the time they’re just thrown in at the end of a build.

I like the system having skills tied to weapon hand. I’d like to see a system where you can pick and choose somewhat like gw1 though.

for example: a sword might have 12 main hand skills and 12 off hand skills. you can pick 3 main hand out of the 12 and 2 offhand out of the 12 for your bar.

it keeps the flare of the current system, but allows the customization we crave.

To Hieronumous,

“While I disagree with… well, pretty much everything here, I’m glad you put so much thought into it. Granted, it makes me feel a little guilty when I casually dismiss it, but it was an entertaining read.”

Thank you very much for taking the time to read everything. Perfectly fine that you disagree. I cannot thank you enough for actually reading everything and THEN telling me that you disagree. That is just as meaningful as someone telling me that they agree. The way I look at it though, “It can never hurt to make it better.”

To the rest of you, agreed. Nothing wrong with allowing players to pick whatever weapon they want, and giving them skills to accompany each. That does not have to be game breaking either. With the current system in place, I can honestly say that I believe a larger variety would not unbalance the game. The game is already very heavily weighed on needing to work as a team. Variety works hand and hand with that without forcing people to fulfill static roles. Because lets face it: The system currently in place removes needing specific roles, that means that there also are no roles to be played. Everyone is a fulcrum. Sure, you have ’balance…. ’ Why? Because there is nothing on top of it. You sit stale. You never change. You are this single, unimportant character. You are a mindless number. You have no sense of purpose in the game, and thus for some, no reason to play. The central point to keeping a games vitality intact, is keeping a constant flow of ideas and gameplay that is ever changing. In the new model introduced by Guild Wars 2, the one thing that keeps games alive and kicking, has been removed mostly, if not entirely from the game.

Now, to claify: The system in Guild Wars 2 currently removed the need for having specific healers, dps, etc. Those roles are spread across the board. HOWEVER, along with this, they also removed any and all variables. Without these variables, it is no longer fun to experiment. When you exhaust your already limited supply of skills, you have nothing to do but move to the next class. Then what? When you get there, you realize that many of the skills are nearly identical and that you are just doing the same thing with a different color tie. This grows old, very quickly.

I’m sorry Arenanet, but no matter how much you brag that your game is dynamic. It is anything but. You have made a game, in which everyone must enter under the understanding that everyone must run at the same pace, wear the same clothes, eat the same food. It is nothing more than a glorified marathon, in which, upon completion, offers nothing more than a “Hey, want to do that again?” There is no incentive, no reason to continue. Removing instances has not removed the spam of lfg… I see that just as much now as ever. You had many great ideas, and terribly failed at executing them. You, of all people, I had expected much harder thinking involved in making a game. You simply cannot make everything the same. You cannot remove incentives. People play to be rewarded. People work to buy a house and cool things to put in it. Nobody works just for the sake of taking up time. Or maybe some do? Maybe that is your new player-base? People who just play with you take waste their time? Sounds like that obnoxious person who only texts you because they are bored.

I do not work because I want to be better than anyone else. I work because I enjoy being able to buy new clothes, new games, have new things to do. Your game, is like my world in reverse. You work for nothing. You work with no end result. The only thing you have is “I have this title and you do not!” Yah, and I have a sticker that says “I’m with stupid” and you do not. Does that make me awesome? A little bit. But not enough to really matter. If I work to buy a nice care, fine. Dang right I’m going to show it off. Does this mean I am better than someone else? No. Why? Because everyone else on my street has a different car. All slightly better or worse, looking and performing slightly different. Some are for racing, some are for cruising around looking cool.

What is your game metaphorically? That little beater that everyone is forced to drive. The best they can do to make it stand out is get a little air-freshener with the words: “God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals” as if that means anything. At least in my world, I always had a reason to try harder, or to change my tactics. If someone’s car took off faster than mine, I could either match their acceleration, or have comfort knowing that I could beat them on the long stretch. And there are so many cars out there, that I will always be changing how I deal with it. Sorry for the analogies, but I am really trying to make this issues easier for people to understand.

Having “the best” gear was linked to accomplishment originally. Yes, some people just liked to brag, so what. It was more a matter of, if you had this max gear, you could get the job done better. That is what made you valuable.

With the model from Guild Wars 1, it was no longer about having the best gear. The level cap was 20, and all weapons had, generally the same stats. BUT, you have the ability to stand out of the crowd by making your very own builds, new combos, new ways to harass or heal, new ways to enjoy the game. You could create combinations that got things done better, or in different ways. You were on equal playing grounds, but at the same time you were able to be above them because you hand-built your build. You have the same skills that anyone else had access to, but you put them together more productively. That is what made the game enjoyable. When you sit here, knowing that you are in no way different from anyone out there, that your space as a character, as a person, is not more important than a simple, generic:" Hello, how is your day?"… how does that make you feel?

I spend most of my time working, or coaching. I am a very outdoorsy person. But When I come inside to relax, I do not sit down at my laptop hoping to press 1 repeatedly, or to do something simply for the sake of doing it. I want to be part of a community, I want to have a role that is important, valuable. You removed that from the game, and therefore my desire to play it. Honestly, the only reason why I stick around is because I see the great potential that this game has. Sadly, you gave me a glass with nothing in it but an idea and asked me to fill the cup for you. I’m generous, I have no problem with that. But it really urges me that you aimed for such an over-simplified game. Especially if you want a competitive player base… Is this a joke? You make everything the same and expect it to be competitive? Your game is like… two monks with 0 energy wanding each other to death. The only way to stay alive is to strafe repeatedly. (Dodging old-school.) Woah woah, hold on. Time to get my necro! (Wands) Warrior! (stab) what aboutttt a BOW! I can kill him with a bow! Sure, slight different from damage. but if you remove our skills, and our ways to truly stand out. That is what you have reduced this game to. Add slightly improved graphics, with more polygons, and make strafing more visually appearing… and vuala! Naked wanding! Aka, Guild Wars 2! I’d love to see that as a competitive E-sport. I should make a video. (;

Now, my end-all be-all response to Guild Wars 2’s model, of making everyone the same:

If you do research on organizational balance and adaptive infrastructure, you will come across these trends. I have quoted the following as they are not my own words, but do accurately describe what I am trying to say. You will find many sources of the same general wording.

“Successful teamwork depends on the right balance of people working toward shared objectives, with a supportive infrastructure and mechanisms for resolving any organizational conflicts.”

“This development requires a balance between an optimal level of risk and interdependence. Perhaps somewhat ironically, some minimal level of risk and interdependence are necessary to create opportunities to demonstrate trust. Without any risk or interdependence, trust is not necessary. " Without trust, there is no need. In the Guild Wars 2, there is no way to build trust or be value as a player.

jebidiah ubershiet.2580:

I like the system having skills tied to weapon hand. I’d like to see a system where you can pick and choose somewhat like gw1 though.

for example: a sword might have 12 main hand skills and 12 off hand skills. you can pick 3 main hand out of the 12 and 2 offhand out of the 12 for your bar.

it keeps the flare of the current system, but allows the customization we crave.

If they did this alone, the game would DRASTICALLY improve. Even without more utility skills. If they added more utility skills as well, the game would be epically awesome.

…Then they would just need to fix the death system and end-game rewards such as titles, dungeons, etc.

@LanceHavenbay.2067, I could LITERALLY sit on vent for hours with you reminiscing of the golden age of Guild Wars 1. (Yes, that is an invitations) I LOVE Guil wors, you just don’t even know, best game hands down. I’m truly hurt by the direction they took this game.

Let me first start out by saying I’m mad, so when this posting gets a bit dicey, I warned you.

I’m not even sure if anyone from the gw1 development staff even helped make gw2, seriously, can we get confirmation on this? Why did they feel the need to remove everything that was Guild Wars, from guild wars2? not just remove but crudely cut out with a dull rusted spoon…

PvP: Guild Wars 1: So I’ll use just a standard PvP-only Character, I start out, I open the PvP Panel, I have a choice of EVERY rune, insignia and inscription for any max level weapon and armor. I’m now going to make all the weapons sets I require for the specific PvP I’m doing, which Is going to be a vast number I fill all the 4 of my weapon slots and well as my Character storage panel and I will use ALL of them. Now into the PvP, let’s Random Arenas as an example (I have Gladiator Rank 10 xD). BOOM I’m monking! Hokay. now for my build options, do I heal? Do I prot? Do I Heal Smite? Or any other amalgamation of monking, the choices of builds are endless… For sanity sake I’m running Word of Healing standard RA monking build. I queue in, Boom, Load in I have Myself (monk), An assassin (standard Condidamage build), A ranger (let’s say Burning arrow, D-shot standard rupt build), and finally a Hammer warrior (standard). So this is an ideal Balanced team, Though this a rare occurrence, being that it is random you can get anything (making it fun and new every time). BOOM Combat starts, we run to middle stop access the other team. Monk, Warrior, Mesmer, and Ele, I know now that I’m priority, I’m going to go for high ground switch to my Slashing shield set, because I know that warrior is running Axe and running right at me, I move on the bridge up top, he auto attacks me to build adren I WAIT, because I know he’s about to apply Deep wounds, I count his swings, I know he used Enraged charged he built more adren from the first swing, I see the animation, BOOMSHAKALAKA, Shield bash, I knock him on hiskitten and prance away. That entire interaction happens in a matter of seconds. the shear timing and player to foe interaction alone is just massively impressive. Moving on. The ele spike my Sin, I switch to my 40/40 Healing Cast patient spirit -> WoH. OOPS Mesmer used Diversion!!!! now my WoH is down for 60 seconds, Warriors back, switch to 20/20/20 Prot Staff Cast guardian, Kite. my Warrior take blind from Mes, It’s buried by cripple and burning, I WAIT, for cripple to and burning to wear off, remove blind, NOPE Mes PD my effing REMOVE CONDITIONS! now all my Prot skills are on a 15 second CD. Not to worry our sin and Ranger has burst down the opposing teams Monk, there team is crumbling, the Mesmer attempt to res, nope, D-shot by ranger, Ele goes for res, nope, Earthshaker goes down, KD -> Crushing blow, Ele is out cold.. Warriors still up, easy work at this point burst him down GG. Just the subtleties during that entire 5 minute match can’t even be written, the cancel casting I did during that match to waste the mesmers rupts is amazing, the unspoken conversations between you and an enemy, just being in the persons head anticipating the next move they will make is something that doesn’t exist in ANY other game. Not to mention all the move fakes I did to make the warrior waste his Bulls Strike.

Guild Wars 2: sPvP: I’m a mesmer… I load in, oh look a theif.. Auto attack blow all my skills he still have 75% of his health, I did nothing to shut him down…………………………… He gets away… I go to cap a point zerg comes in I get totally destroyed I lay on my back and throw confusion beams out of my finger tips… dead. What fun……..

. TL;DR: Player to player interacion is dead. They absolutely devimated it, player skill is dead, nothing in PVP is hard to any stretch of the imagination.

I can’t even speak to PvE right now I’m so mad, I will say that I find GW1 Vanquishing less tedious and boring than GW2 Running around doing “Dynamic Events”(AKA: The same 5 things repackaged over and over) and hearts.

This game is so vanilla, so bland, boring, pointless, I can’t even understand how people are enjoying themselves…. Do you even realize all you are doing is basically Auto attacking and rolling on the ground?kitten Guild Wars has ruined my childhood, GW2 hit me right in my childhood with a Semi. All of my feels are hurt, I have lost all abilities to can anymore.

Edited by moderator: Edite excessive caps

stefandawson.8179:

@LanceHavenbay.2067, I could LITERALLY sit on vent for hours with you reminiscing of the golden age of Guild Wars 1. (Yes, that is an invitations) I LOVE Guil wors, you just don’t even know, best game hands down. I’m truly hurt by the direction they took this game.

I’m not even sure if anyone from the gw1 development staff even helped make gw2, seriously, can we get confirmation on this? Why did they feel the need to remove everything that was Guild Wars, from guild wars2? not just remove but crudely cut out with a dull rusted spoon…

Everything you said was dead on. I’ve asked myself the same thing, about whether or not the original developers made Guild Wars 2. Because, honestly, after Guild Wars 2 came out, I am now ashamed of the company that I used to love. Like you said, skill has been taken out of the game. The few tactics involved only play a small portion of your actual effectiveness in the game, unless you MUST flank, or immobilize a foe who is near a zerg. Watching skills has been removed. I mean… That would up the skill curve, if there was actually ever any skill worth rupting. Rupt the heal right? It is a pretty obvious animation. It’s like your guy raising his hand saying: “Ok! Hit me! I’m healing!” I’m fine with that. Am I fine with the fact that most of the time I am in organized pvp/dungeons I spend half my time being dragged or knocked in various directions? No. I mean, half the time I spend being dragged before I even get a chance to get up. The tactics of this game are now immobilizing your target. The second you do that, they have no way to counter anything you do. At all. No dodging, no nothing.

In Guild wars 1, I ran pretty much the equivalent to what I have now. Condition damage with cripples, a pet (and no heal.) I made use of strafing in Guild Wars 1. I would dodge out of range of pretty much everything I could to compensate for my lack of healing. And you know what? Even with the slow health recharge after exiting combat, I still managed to do well enough to regenerate my health enough to take a few more hits and do my duty.

In Guild Wars 2, I have a very well balanced mix of Toughness, Healing, Condition Damage and power. I have 1/3 my potential power, but having a maxed pet makes up for it. I run sword and shortbow, and can put up impressive damage on light and foe alike, while dodging better than most because of the use of my evade skills in conjunction with my +50% regen dodge rolls. But guess what? Kd and immobilize spam, seen pretty much everywhere you go…. You are dead. No question. At least in Guild Wars 1 I could put something into my build to prevent the obnoxious kd spam or control hexes. I could bring a warrior defense skill, Shroud of Distress, ANYTHING. Control skills aren’t meant to be solid game breakers. If you get blackout, sure it slows down your progress in your role, but it doesn’t ruin the whole match. The only way to get completely shut down was to not be paying any attention, or to have someone else have a bar dedicated to keeping you down and nobody else.

I’ll take you up on that offer once I find time. I’m mixing in my work and coaching and other errands. That and trying to make as big as an impact as I possibly can toward Anet. Because they haven’t just pushed me away, they have pushed many, MANY loyal vets away. Speaking of which, I’m forming a guild back in Guild Wars 1, trying to bring back Fort Aspenwood and Random Arenas. The pvp formats will be able to pretty much be guild run. <3 Meaning, if we get 16 active people on at once, we can do guild-scrims, FA style! If you are interested, let me know.

As for your caps edit… xD At least now I know someone from Anet is actually going over this. And I hope you are reading this too: I am spending countless hours of my personal time, creating skills for a game you already released. I am doing research endlessly on subjects that you should have already taken into account from 7 years of the previous game. Guild Wars, is by no means, Guild wars. No anymore. You have completely destoyed what it was, and what it stood for. Torn down the walls of my childhood, and I seek to rebuild them. I am not telling you to make Guild Wars 2 back into it’s previous form. I do understand that things do change with time. But for you to remove every single trace of your success? I hope you are ready to lose all of your followers as well. When I am finished writing the call system, skill list, pvp formats, pvp maps, dynamic event chains, title effects, costumes, etc etc etc…. I will be sending you one huge email detailing every aspect.

In a way, I feel like I am doing your job. And I’m fine with that. I’ve spent countless hours of my life fooling around designing games on my computer, scrapping them and remaking them. At least now, even if it never happens, I am putting my effort toward something that truly matters. Something that could potentially change the course of many people’s gaming future. If you want a game to defy all games, stop trying to become other games. Guild Wars 1 broke the mold, and now you are breaking the game. You are now nothing more than a conglomeration of other games that have been released. I have no idea why you thought standing out, meant dressing up like everyone else.

I can say that I, myself, never log onto Guild Wars 2 anymore, other than for testing purposes. Although that is quite frequent, based on the amount of work I have to do. I want you to know that I despise every second that I am connected to your servers. Seriously, from the deepest part of my hard. From the sappiest speech I have. “I was one of your biggest fans.” I remember as a kid, always wanting collectors edition. To, throw my money at you for making such a great game. Come now, I buy collectors, and now want nothing more than to throw your game in the trash, if nothing more than symbolic disrespect for the lack of care you put into the creation of this game.

To your environmental artists, you are out of the fray. You have done a SPLENDID job at making your maps, PvE and PvP alike. You have thought hard and long about the design of each and every zone.

To your server technicians, coders, etc. Bravo. Although many people somehow miss the obvious updates and whine. You have done an amazing job at keeping the game up and running, an running smoothly. You really have.

To the people who designed the skill pool, functions, dynamic events, removed the true call function, removed the pvp formats, removed the skill needed from the game, removed the progressive difficulty and the need to truly work together…. You all have been placed at the lowest place on my list. For other companies who have made games similar to yours, at least they did not know any better. You knew what made you strong, and left it sitting. In face, you put a paper bag over it’s head, hoping it would never be seen again. (That is partly untrue, because you still keep Guild Wars 1 alive, and I do greatly appreciate that.)

I want you to know, that I would put in countless hours to theoretically develop this game into a more enjoyable, more productive use of time. Even if things never change. If they never do, I will be sitting right here, that thorn in your side. Reminding you of the things you could potentially do differently. Things that, although (now) require a lot of work, can be done, and would cause your game to skyrocket in sales, players, enjoyment, and longevity.

But until then, expect me to discourage each and every person that I see, stranger and friend alike, to never even considering purchasing your game. Or, at the very least, trying the game before they buy it, so they can see how horribly boring and simplistic it is. And go spend there money on something actually worth the money.

The only thing I can honestly give you a high-five for, is not taking on the heavy-greed oriented companies like Hi-Rez, (I know this portion of the post may be removed.)who overprice everything in the game in attempt to make a buck. Hi-Rez is another company that destroyed a game I loved. Tribes 2. And after their forums because nothing more than a haven of ignorant fan-boys, I left. And have done the same thing to them as I will do to you, should you never fix the error of your ways. I’m talking negative promotion up the wazoo.

To everyone who has read through this entire post, whether you agree or disagree: Thank you for taking the time to be a productive member of the still current, development of Guild Wars 2. Yes, the game will always be in development. :P Because ,(Not so much anymore) overall I (used to) think they care(d.)

Places like Fort Aspenwood, havens for all who loved their share of PvP has been reduced to this. With how you have your game currently, expect the same in the near future. As, I know, personally, I will be a huge contributing factor. Now, given people will be entertained up until they finish their personal story, maybe some lore, and each event once… It will take a while for everyone to get to that point. But as soon as those are all finished, expect to lose players. Expect to lose your fan-base, your lovers, your followers, and all those who valued you as a reputable company.

Premixed.4567:

Dang, that is like an essay. good luck having people actually bothering to read through that. (I know I had no inclination to)

I’m sorry that simple text deters you. In school you learn something called skimming. Basically, as you will notice, I bolded the main points of each portion. If this is too hard a taste for you, I am pleased to inform you that in the future there will be an abridged version in which all items will be bullet-ed rather than in essay format. Because this is currently a discussion, not a simply bug fix, you cannot expect anyone to simply list point by point. Why? Because then you have people coming with no no clue what they are talking about, trying to shoot down everything as if they understood any of it. At least you were honest enough to say you didn’t read it. Many others will come here and pretend like they read it, then make commentary as if they actually understood any of it.

Now, on top of the bold-ed ideas, you will also notice that there are categories. Given that they are not beautifully refined at this point in time, but for anyone with even half an interest, the text has been organized in a way that is easy for most to seek what they are looking for. Let your eye slide downward toward the text and make commentary on anything you feel that you have relevant information to respond to.

So, either you just don’t care, which is fine. You are in the same hole as others Or you simply are lazy. Either way, that is fine by all means as well. It is not unlike countless others who cannot spend 5 minutes intelligently skimming through text.

Next time you do your homework, do not read the whole book front to back looking for one sentence. Skim, usually looking for bold-ed topics, or obvious points of interest and within that section, look for something pertaining to what you are looking for.

If you are here without caring, you might as well not even post if you have nothing to say that contributes to the discussion. I apologize for the bite, but in all ways this is true.

I completely agree with you 100% I rarely play guild wars 2 because of it.

May I suggest making a petition rather than making a forum?

PixelPredator.6987:

I completely agree with you 100% I rarely play guild wars 2 because of it.

May I suggest making a petition rather than making a forum?

That is the hopes. First I have to make this thread, and have people contribute their ideas. To make a movement, I have to make sure everyone is on the same page. Please tell everyone you know to come and place their commentary, for or against the points that I have provided. The more people that contribute, the more fully I can organize an abridged version to submit to Anet.

With a large enough community, you can accomplish anything. Even if that means we just have to overwhelm them. I am trying to do this in a friendly, productive way though, rather than doing a public stunt or demonstration. I want Anet to know that these statements are from our heart and not some rage-machine.

If you would be kind enough to spread this thread around, or even link it in your signature, that would be greatly appreciated and would greatly help to promote this movement. <3

To Premixed,

Due time my time restraints, I have to go run errands.

I have however, quickly gone through and bold-ed several points that I did not previously cover. In time, I will progressively re-organize information and make it easier to access and read. Up until that point, please be patient and realize that this is a much larger task and time consumption than you may realize.

If they completely changed the skill system .. how would you prefer to see the skills distributed?

There is a topic about it here -
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/POLL-Adding-New-Skills-Vendor-vs-Free-vs-Others/first#post249326

I actually do not support many of those ways listed, but I will post on that thread.

I really don’t see how anyone could disagree. Giving more options and variety to the play is never a bad thing. I like the idea of a weapon having X amount of skills and then picking and choosing which ones suit you.

Right now.. Eh, having all my skills unlocked at level 3 for my preferred choice of arms, all the way to level 80 is really boring. And all the traits you unlock are just passives, they don’t change your play style at all. Even making unlockable abilities in the traits would be nice, just anything to give more variety.

For my 80 thief I am forced to not use one or two of my abilities if I want to play effectively. So really, you only have about 4.

This will never happen though, sorry to be so negative, but it is too much of a design change for the developers to ever make. I imagine right now they just have a small team working on this game to keep it sustained, while the developers employed under NCSoft are working on another title or the expansion. The only possibility I see of this system ever being implemented is with an expansion.

Guild Wars 1 had a multitude of useless skills that no one used, and you’d be laughed out of groups and serious PvP if you brought them.

There was no “100 different ways to makes a protection monk”, there was 4 variations.

The devs realized this, and just cut down the amount of skills. Now you choose between specs and weapons to support specs. This is not Guild Wars 1.

To any moderators reading this, I want to let you know, that although I am not finished with the skills and the maps/pvp formats and dynamic events, I am currently compiling and abridging the current information provided in this thread, into an easier to read format. Thank you for your time.

Premixed.4567:

I am fully expecting you to dismiss this like you have with everyone else who doesn’t think your way.

I’m sorry to hear that you have that view. It is pretty clear upon reading what I typed, that it is not blatant “shooting down” as you seem to see it as. I have actually done research and provided documentation detailing my beliefs. All counter-arguments that I have seen thus far have nothing behind them, and by all means that gives to the right to assert that thus far, the information I have provided is correct.

You are more than entitled to your own opinion, and a fully respect that. But as with everyone else, I ask that, in order to clearly define why you are against my points, you provide counter evidence.

You will notice I have provided countless skill examples, combination examples, solid data, skill bars, et cetera. I kindly ask you to do the same. Yes, it requires work, Immense work, and time. But in order for your counter-arguments to have any weight what-so-ever, it is a must.

Also, I have already gone over the fact that due to time restraints, I have had not time to fully organize this thread. I really wish I had, but I have a life outside of this thread, and it takes lots of time to preemptively organize these threads. I spend my (usually) very little free time I have to post in these threads. I realize that the texts can get quite hectic, thus is what happens to many people. When this thread is filled with more information, from both sides of the spectrum, and when I have the time, I will be able to organize this into an easier to read format. Thank you very much for reading through it, as I do greatly appreciate it, even if it troubles your mind to have to deal with it’s chaos. Hopefully, in the near future, I will have this thread organized into the easy-to-read format in which you seek. Keep in mind though, that any additional data or input will be hectic upon original submission and will need to be gathered and refined again, exactly the same as it’s previous counter-part.

Actually, he’s right. You did ignore his point.

He said that you want Guild Wars 1, and this is not it. This is a different game.

Someone doesn’t need to write out an essay to tell that this clearly isn’t the game you were looking for.

Also, the devs have their hands full with the current amount of trait/skill/gear combinations and balance. Your idea is too farfetched to even blink an eye at.

Premixed.4567:

You want Guild Wars 1, updated. You dont want Guild Wars 2. You want another expansion. Exactly the same formula, only new content. You expected this and are bitter it is not to your expectation.

Not at all. That is actually already covered in the thread. I was, and have always been looking forward to the sequel of the game. With the understanding that it would be entirely different. I however, was not expecting them to drastically reduce the skill required to play the game, nearly all tactical concepts involved in team-work, nor was I expecting the ocean of skills to be reduced to a shot-glass full of water. I was expecting as much work to be put into this game, as the previous game.

I have known full well since the original talk about Guild Wars 2 that it would be an entirely different playing field. I have also already stated that I see GREAT potential in this game, and that overall it has a lot to offer. It simply needs love and devotion.

The dynamic events are repetitive and need nothing more than someone who will sit down and expand them: Bandits will not just attack the same farm over and over, they will block trade routes, harass villagers, infiltrate other building. By expanding the dynamic events, in such a way, the game will feel much more alive, and thus far more enjoyable, even on repetitive completions. The events will overlap and branch out, exactly the same as how dungeons currently work. Although yes, it is the same dungeons, their are multiple outcomes based on whether players succeed or fail on a specific part of the event tree.

The skill system is amazing, minus the fact that it is dry and repetitive. The movements involved in combat now allow for so many options that were never available in Guild Wars 1. I do greatly admire and appreciate that. However, even with that addition, the skill recharge has been significantly raised to the point that players can no longer be involved in fast-paced combat for more than the first few seconds of the fight. After an allotted time, your skills are all cooling down, and your dodge bar is empty. This leaves room for nothing more than fleeing and healing, give that you are not being dragged back and forth by your foes or countlessly interrupted on your 1 healing skill.

As to clear roles, I would have to argue against that. There are no roles. You are all the same thing with a slightly different flavor. That has been acknowledged since release. Support is a must on every player, as by yourself, you are simply not able to heal your entire team, put out enough damage to take out a boss, etc. Your work is directly linked into everyone else’s effort. All of you, as a whole, are 1 role. Apart, you are nothing. That is another thing that has been stressed since release: All players will contribute equally.

As for character creation, I feel no different from my importance as a Hero from Guild Wars 1. Sure, I have more options for my hair, but that does not mean I am any more or less important based on how many shades I can dye my hair. Now, on my personal opinion, the identity you have is not noticeably defined. I am a generic hero, exact I look different from other players. As is true with other games. The interactions that I have with NPCs seem to do nothing more than give me slightly different, non-game-effecting speech options. As far as I know, the cinematics do not change, you ultimately come out the same in the end. Now, I do realize that you can choose to, say, defend one place instead of the other etc, etc, and that is cool, and makes me feel more involved, but it is in no way a must to make me want to play the game. The story was captivating (to me) enough to play it regardless. Having these options does make the game more enjoyable. Those options are also something I am very pleased to have introduced to the game.

Missions still exist, they are called Storylines. :P The only difference is you no longer have the need to bring Heros or Henchman along in order to complete this. This was to make the game more available for casual players. And to make your role seem more important. When you travel with 7 other people, doing the same mission, generally speaking, you feel that your value is diminished, as someone else could be doing more work than you.

Open world, although I admit that I was wary upon the initial mention, I do greatly enjoy this new addition. The instances still exist, but overall it is nice to meet a few new people while traveling, and to make friends while resing downed explorers. I do however feel like the game is less social, because everyone is running past each other on their own goals, compared to friendly chatting during the downtime that they look for a group. This, is something that I am perfectly fine with as well, even if it is a completely different playing field.

Please do give me examples of the role variations you speak of, (and demonstrate how they are superior to Guild Wars 1), as I feel that I have provided sufficient data counteracting that statement. It is very clear that the type of damage or trait setup you have is defined based on what weapon you use.

The trait system needs a complete rework, not just spice. Unless you like your soup with nothing more than water and oil. They put together an idea and left it half-completed. Traits in no way refine your character, they simply add minor bonuses to the stats you’ve already chosen, mainly based on the weapons you have equipped. This was also covered previously in the thread.

The main point of this thread is to bring up the creation and development of larger skill pool, that will allow players more creatively, and less repetitiveness in their combat. Simply adding 5 skills to each of the slots associated with each weapon would accomplish this.

The second point of this thread, is to stress the need of a larger pool of utility skills and lower the awful 2 minute long recharges that allow you to use most skills only once in each combat situation. Because this, in no way promotes dynamic, critical thinking in combat. It promotes stagnant kiting and healing, mixed with infrequent and inadequate dodging.

The third point of this thread, is to promote more entertaining ways to acquire skills, such as completing jumping puzzles, finishing dungeons, using combo fields, etc. This would allow people great current-game and end-game opportunities, allowing for them to expand their possible skill-bar into more enjoyable, more unique styles. This would also make it so that players who have completed the game, not have new things to do. New skills to seek, acquire and use.

Now, just to be clear a second time. I am in no way dismissing anyone’s opinions, unless, as has happened countless times before, you bring me a statement with nothing to back it up. I have spend countless hours accumulating this information and posting it, (although not in the most beautiful format) for all to read. And then people come around arguing against the clear data I have provided with nothing more than: “You are wrong.” And honestly I laugh a little inside. You are telling me, someone who has done research and posted it, that I am wrong, when you in turn have done nothing more than express your un-educated opinion. Or, have expressed your educated opinion with no proof that you know what in the world in you are talking about. Which, by the way, ends in the same result: Your statement meaning nothing of any kind of value.

This is a constructive thread. If you have nothing constructive, or informative to say, you may as well not even post.

Now, as before, I kindly ask you, and everyone else to come back when you have done research, and post your counter-argument with your results against my proposition.

Thank you very much for your time.

veritech.1048:

Actually, he’s right. You did ignore his point.

He said that you want Guild Wars 1, and this is not it. This is a different game.

Someone doesn’t need to write out an essay to tell that this clearly isn’t the game you were looking for.

Also, the devs have their hands full with the current amount of trait/skill/gear combinations and balance. Your idea is too farfetched to even blink an eye at.

Whatever makes you content to believe. Farfethed you say? Impossible you say? I’m possible. If you wouldn’t happen to notice simply by reading, I am saving the developers countless hours by doing research and formatting skills, events, and end-game for them. lol. This requires no use of their time in present tense. If you would read the thread, you would also see that I mentioned having this content possibly added in a further update or expansion. There is plenty of time from now until then to take these ideas into consideration and implement them at a later date.

You posted before I had a chance to type my response, and that is fine. I will simply tell you both to look up.

As to being impossible, I personally believe that one can accomplish anything if they put their mind to it. It make take countless hours of work, often going unrewarded in the least, but it can happen. If the developers ever truly agreed with any portion of what I am posting about, they could and most likely work in their free time to add such content, if they felt compelled to do so. And that is my intent, to compel them to do so. To stress the significance of these points.

It is people like you that I can see freaking out when staff members introduce the “Commando” class on April fools; Something that they made on their free time… And you yell at them for wasting your money and their time? Psh.

Stop trying to come up with pathetic comments about, “This isn’t Guild Wars 1,” “Learn to play,” “Stop whining” or “This is not your job, it’s Anets.” …Or even “You are wrong.”

If you don’t have anything constructive to post, don’t waste you energy typing a response.

Veritech, First off, there will always be Elitist groups no matter where you go, that require that everything be done a specific way because “This way is the best.” To my personal experience, most of these players do not know their head from a hole in the ground and have no basis of their opinion other than the fact that they are comfortable with what they currently have and do not want to stray from that zone.

Another factor, was that many Elitist groups used builds that were generally able to be used easily with repetition and practice.

For example, a WoH monk is fairly simply to run once you get the hang of it. WoH monks, as you may well know, were all over the game. They were fairly well balanced, and worked well for a variety of environments. This was true for other builds, but people were just too lazy to sit down and experiment. I however, greatly enjoyed the that option of creativity, and am thus seeking to bring it back.

I however, like to be creative and find new ways to make effective builds. I came up with a monk build, that on most condition, provided me with a near endless supply of energy and MASSIVE heals that I could spam. The build also contained, mostly-perma anti-melee. I can guarantee you that you have never seen this build before, as I am pretty darn sure that I invented it. Yes, it was VERY high micro, but it was WELL worth the effort.

I highly anticipate your snide retort.

Premixed.4567:

You want research and evidence?

Guild Wars 2 Design Manifesto
Third paragraph – “Guild Wars 2 is the perfect game for Guild Wars players, but it’s not just the same game repeated again”

Nine GW2 Follow Up Questions with Eric Flannum
The entire first question dedicated to this exact issue. Back in May 2010!

Yeah, too bad you did not read what I just posted. If you are going to repeat yourself on an assumption that you made up yourself, I’m not even going to respond to you. It would be a waste of my time to converse with someone who has assumed and is hell-bent to uphold their preconceived assumptions, despite everything pointing against their silly claims.

“You execute the same strategy over and over again, just augmented over time with better and better gear. After a while it starts to feel like you’re playing a spreadsheet. Combat needs to be about making creative choices, and it needs to feel immediate, active, and visceral. Combat needs to be about making creative choices, and it needs to feel immediate, active, and visceral. " Oh look! Traits! Oh look! The whole reason of this thread! Because others and myself got pulled into the media-hype and were hugely let down!

“GW2 adds even more possibilities for distinguishing yourself in combat. Now you can choose a race, and each race comes with unique combat abilities, such as the Norn’s ability to transform himself into a bear.” Oh looks, racial skills aren’t in PvP and you get like what… one?

“What I covered here is just the tip of the iceberg.” Actually, that is the entire ice-cube. (;

That entire article is nothing more than media-hype. Anyone with half a brain can tell you that. lol. I can think of a million ways to tell you how absolutely amazing my shirt is right now. All of my exaggerated talk does not somehow magically make my shirt some super-hero outfit, despite how much my text may imply it.

" game companies don’t have to just keep making the same games over and over again to be successful." Funny because Guild Wars 2 is a conglomeration of every single MMO on the market. xDDDDDDDDDDD

So how about your research round 2? I look forward to another good laugh! Sorry, but a media-blog is not research. I really can’t believe you seriously tried using a blog as a source of viable research. xD That is like, the frosting on the cake, that fell off the party-hat-wearing Dolyak.

Next article:

“That means you have access to 15 skills at any given time” (… for the rest of your life) lol.

Others and myself would much rather have static skills in combat and have more variety to change things up. I’m sorry, but 15 is a joke. I could come back at you with: “Because Guild Wars 1 was an instanced world, being in town was the equivalent of being out of combat. Even with just 5 slots available, I could come up with far over 50 combinations. Oh wait. Combinations? You mean to say that they aren’t just static forever? “That’s right sir! You have a nearly unlimited number of skills and combinations! You are no longer bound to using 15 skills for the rest of your life!” Oh sorry, my world was in reverse for a second.

" to those players who either aren’t interested in the deck building aspect (or are just not that good at it)" “To people who don’t care to customize their game, or suck at it.” Youuuuuuu meannnn someone who is too lazy to make their own build, or simply sucks at making it? Practically word for word, from YOUR source. <3

“One of our designers did the math and the possible number of combinations is in the millions.” Can you say Trillions for Guild Wars 1? xD

“you can just choose to play with the people who happen to be around you while you’re out adventuring. This is made possible through shared goals, and dynamic content” Again, I am fine with an open world, yada yada yada, learn to read, etc etc etc. Guild Wars 1 forced you to be social, otherwise you couldn’t get through some places. Just saying. (Till Heros came in, or unless you were a boss at flagging Henchmen.)

As for the last statement: “Players will be unable to change professions in Guild Wars 2. We’ve designed each profession in the game to be very distinct and different from each other, and many of our game systems take that into account.” I think that qualifies for being put up in a poll. Because as far as I’m concerned, most of the skills across all classes are nearly identical, other than the name and animation. There are slight differences, yes, but nothing that really defines each class as being truly different. However, Elementalist weapon skills, Turrets, etc… I will say, are very nice ideas for the game.

Again, media hype is not research. Please research more before posting. I look forward to your future response. Hey, I may seem like a [duck] now, but truth be told, everything I’m saying is spot on. And you have still yet to prove me otherwise. In face, I just used your own post against you. Touché sir. Touché.

Your college professor would slap you for using a blog as a source. What has this world come to? Why is valid research no longer important to people? Are Facebook, Twitter and Blogs seriously the only source of “intelligent” information that people read nowadays? Does anyone here actually sit down and think about things? /facepalm

You seem to find yourself overly important. This is both amusing, and sad.

Writing big posts about how you’re doing all the work, while ignoring any form of criticism unless it’s in point-by-point form to argue your drivel does not make you any more intelligent than the average complaint thread posted every minute.

This is not Guild Wars 1. The system has depth, you are just choosing to ignore it because it’s not the depth you wanted.

To put this in short form, lrn2play and rtfm.

My last post was deleted, let me rephrase in a “friendly tone”….

@veritech.1048 Glad you brought up Protection monk, are you speaking from any real PvP experience? the DEPTH of just playing protection monk FAR exceeds anything in this game, in challenge, skill, and player-to-foe communication.. In what ways does Guild Wars 2 specifically fulfill your PvP needs now? was your ideal PvP dream, Auto-attacking with a 0 resource, cool down dictated bland combat system? Oh yes what an innovative system they made. Oh wait that’s what they did originally but decide to regress to some sort of kittenized form of awful WoW style PvP. So sorry the skill ceiling in GW1 was a difficult grasp for a lot of people. If GW1 was released today it would be praised as the BEST PvP system in the history of MMOs. GW1 Peeked before it’s time.

“To put this in short form, lrn2play and rtfm.” -veritech.1048

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If I moderator finds this to be in any sort of unfriendly tone, I meant all of this sarcastically.

Hail Guild Wars 2! Single greatest game entity in the history of the universe! no human or any sentient race universe wide has known such a perfectly done system of player-to-player combat

“You seem to find yourself overly important.”

Nope, but sadly, unlike you I am putting in effort to improve the game. And I am doing it in a productive way. I am not sitting here trying to troll people, like you are. I am doing my research before posting, an taking other people’s ideas into consideration when they provide valid input. The sad part, is that people with counter-arguments simply have no supporting evidence.

Nothing has been ignored. Please re-read the above content until these facts settle into your head. Everything has been simplified for you as much as humanly possible, and I cannot spoon feed you any longer.

Your ignorance is bliss. I have nothing left to say to you since everything you have left to say is extremely illogical and irrational. Good day to you sir, and may your future endeavors be full of epicosity.

Any further posts by you will be completely disregarded.

Now, the only thing I ask is that the moderators make sure that you do not turn this thread into a hate-thread. So that it may remain productive.

Thanks.

Stefandawson, “Anger will never overcome ignorance. Clarity of mind is the only peace in unsettling waters.”

Just leave him be to boil in his own pot. We have made out points; he can move on or tantrum on his own time. He is just an attention seeker who will get no more attention. Amen.

relax bro, give the game a year or so, im sure u’ll have plenty more builds available. long story short, GW1 was not a good pvp game. it really wasnt, objectively speaking. making constant comparisons to a horribly balanced pvp title does not help your arguments.

Premixed.4567:

You are trying to insist that there are 15 skills for the characters life? you can change weapons and utility skills whenever you please out of combat.

My point is, assuming you have 5 skills per weapon, generally speaking. And 3 weapons (not including underwater.) You have a total of 15 ‘static’ skills. You can swap weapons, but you can never swap the skills? Make more sense? I hope that clarified that for you.

In Guild Wars 1, if you only have 5 slots, you could fill it with numerous chains, combos, skills, etc. Given that in the original, chains were not compact. Even with that being said, there were far more total chains, and skill options available to a player than there currently is.

You currently get 1 chain per weapon. So, that is 9 skills. Correct? And then (assuming off hand doesn’t change for the simple point of a demonstration) you have 4 more skill slots that never change. In Guild Wars 1, those 5 slots could be filled with chains, single skills, skills from other professions, etc.

I am really truly honestly, not trying to shoot you down. And I do greatly appreciate having a mature conversation/debate with you.

Also, I do not fully understand your post, as I already went over the theoretical “out of combat” equivalent for Guild Wars 1. Please clarify and illiterate. Thank you.

nerva.7940:

relax bro, give the game a year or so, im sure u’ll have plenty more builds available. long story short, GW1 was not a good pvp game. it really wasnt, objectively speaking. making constant comparisons to a horribly balanced pvp title does not help your arguments.

That honestly depends on your opinion, but many vets and myself beg to differ that it was a great PvP game that required attention to details and lots and lots of teamwork. The game being horrible in your eyes do not make it horrible in everyone else’s eyes, and therefore my points are still valid.

Also, lol. READ UP. <3 I have said several times. I am not seeking an immediate fix. In fact it says it on this same page, I’m pretty sure. “I am perfectly fine with these points being implemented in a future update or expansion.” I don’t know how many times I have to post that till people start paying attention.

Another main point, is that the developers who made the game should have though deeper about how long someone could use the same skill repeatedly until they got bored.

nerva.7940:

relax bro, give the game a year or so, im sure u’ll have plenty more builds available. long story short, GW1 was not a good pvp game. it really wasnt, objectively speaking. making constant comparisons to a horribly balanced pvp title does not help your arguments.

Horribly balanced in comparison to what? Objectively speaking? So you have extensive experience in GW1 PvP to be perfectly objective?
Back to my point the game had a very high skill ceiling, I hate to make this comparison, but like League of legends.
Playing PvP well in the game was the most rewarding experience in a PvP title you could have. Getting to a level of playing well took time and energy, you have to learn the ends and outs of every class.
If Guild wars was horrible PvP, what was good PvP? I don’t see where you are going, can you provide examples of specific PvP? I can’t think of one title that has the same subtleties, require the most player focus and precision.. I mean really, have you ever interrupted a 3/4 second cast time skill with a 1/8 cast time skill on pure instinct alone in any other title? Do you even know what quarter knocking someone is? I’ve clearly been spoiled for Guild Wars 2 by playing Guild Wars 1, what in the world was I thinking?

Premixed.4567:

All your examples and changes are referring to Guild wars 1, but you say you dont want to make it the same.

Correct. Sorry, getting a little tired. It is getting late.

You understand correctly that I do not want Guild Wars 2 to become Guild Wars 1. However, I do not want the developers to throw away some of the aspects that make the previous game enjoyable. Make sense? New ideas are great. I am a huge supporter of change. But when you take out the key components that made a game successful, and replace them with new elements that are drastically below par, that is where I feel the need to step in and say: “Hey, that’s not right.” The skill system is the only thing I have huge beef with. The dynamic event system needs to just be less repetitive, that’s an easy fix. Just takes a little love to branch them out like they did with the dungeons.

Yes, you are right. I will admit that Guild Wars has had it’s fair share of time. But I’ll bekittenif some half-aatxe skill system is to over-take it and claim to be superior. I am seeking to improve the game, not from the bottom up, but from the key elements that are missing love.

Wait until I compile all of this into an abridged version, then we can actually start caring about how many people agree or disagree. Then we can take a poll and see how many people actually want or would like to possibly see these changes implemented. If the outstanding vote is against it, so be it. I will accept my loss. I will not give up my cause, but should the poll weigh in favor that this system in perfect, I will acknowledge that fact as so.

As of right now, this is a discussion to help people from both sides add information regarding the subject. That is why it urges me when people come here and post “You are wrong” with nothing backing it. This isn’t a child’s play fight. This is a mature thread, for people looking to improve the game as a whole.

If someone comes here with data against my points, I will effing hug you. I am seriously, expectantly waiting for someone to shoot me off this ‘High-Horse’ that some of you think I am riding. You have no idea how happy I would be for someone to actually put in a little elbow grease and do research against me. I would freaking love you forever.

stefandawson.8179:

I’ve clearly been spoiled for Guild Wars 2 by playing Guild Wars 1, what in the world was I thinking?

lol. I can’t even enjoy PvP on other games after Guild Wars 1. lol. Apparently Guild Wars 1 made me a bitter perfectionist. xD Every game I play… “Not Guild Wars.” It needs a commercial.

Good thing Guild Wars wasn’t also a first person shooter, or I’d have to live in a hole the rest of my life.

I think it’s funny that people hate on Anet for having small server issues, but they leave the entire skill system unchecked with the excuse: “It’s a new game, what do you expect?” LOL. I dunnnooooooooo, maybe the same thing you expect.

I love that entire “this is a new game” argument.

“Press Release – March 27, 2007

Guild Wars 2, Guild Wars Expansion Announced

NCsoft, ArenaNet reveal future plans for high-flying online roleplaying franchise; Guild Wars: Eye of the North scheduled for holiday 2007 release

Bellevue, WA., March 27, 2007—NCsoft® and ArenaNet® today revealed their exciting plans for the future of the hugely successful Guild Wars® franchise. The companies announced that development already is underway on a full sequel to the original Guild Wars games. Guild Wars 2TM will draw from the game mechanics that made the original Guild Wars one of the most popular online games ever and will add a fully persistent world. It was also revealed that, like its predecessors, Guild Wars 2 will not have a subscription fee. No launch date was announced, but the ArenaNet team anticipates that Guild Wars 2 will go into beta sometime in the second half of 2008."
http://www.guildwars.com/events/press/releases/pressrelease-2007-03-27.php

They’ve been in development for almost 6 years.

“Guild Wars 2TM will draw from the game mechanics that made the original Guild Wars one of the most popular online games ever and will add a fully persistent world.”
One half of that was correct(ish).

Premixed.4567:

The access to 15 skills at a given time quote is referring to 5 weapon skills times 2 weapon sets, plus heal, utility and elite.

You make a choice on each weapon slot, plus you make a choice of the 5 secondary slots. Thats the equivalent of 7 slots.

I havn’t played guild wars 1, but from what I gather just reading this thread, the weapon in GW2 is acting like the Elites did in GW1. They form the base of your build, and you’re given skills to compliment the intention of that base.

Sir. You have earned a cookie. That’s probably the most intelligent thing I’ve hear anyone say on these forums. My question to you now though, is: What purpose does the Elite Skill now server if the weapon is an Elite equivalent?

You have earned great respect from that comment. You are the first (counter?) argument I’ve seen with something of true value.

I would still have to say, the the sheer volume of skills available in Guild Wars 1 allowed for a far greater amount of bar-creation.

So, since you have not played Guild Wars 1, the best way I can try to explain it to you is this:

You have a primary profession with a Primary skill, which basically gives you a unique identifying (Trait), if you will. The primary skills gives you access to anything from, more energy, lower skill energy cost, better healer, energy upon enemy death, armor penetration, energy on critical etc. So, if I want to take advantage of those Primary, I must be the profession that has the primary attribute.

To step things up, any profession could use any weapon, but you have to make your second profession the profession capable of wielding the weapon you wanted. So, Warriors have Hammers, Swords, Axes, etc. Welllll, I want my warrior to have daggers, so I make him part Assassin. Make sense? (You could also just wield any weapon you wanted to, because it looked cool… even if you could not use it effectively. Kind of sucks not being able to walk around with my Dhuum Scythe on my ranger.)

Now that I am W/A, I can use either my Hammer, Sword, Axe, Daggers, Shield. And my primary attribute will be armor penetration. So although, I do not have to use my primary attribute, it can help depending on your build. If I am seeking to kill light-armored targets, I do not need armor penetration. Make sense?

Since I am part Assassin, I also have access to ALL Assassin skills. So, I can now shadow-step to my foes, bash them with a Hammer, etc. Or, I can use my Daggers and destroy heavily armored foes quickly. Because Dagger mastery is not a primary attribute, and it increases my chance to hit twice. So now, I am this tanky, but very powerful mass of W/A against heavy targets. My trade-off is that Warriors have slower energy regeneration, and I do not have many ways to gain energy. So my build must now be made to compensate for whatever points I chose to neglect. There will always be a strength and a weakness. A solid Assassin is squishy, but deals heavy damage to lighter targets. I can be A/W and use the Warriors hammer to knock down my target, and unleash a deadly fury of my double-strikes.

Now, between my Warrior and Assassin professions, I have a total of 400 skills. These skills, while they cannot be swapped in the match, can be swapped for free at any time that I am in a town or outpost. If I want to modify my build in any way, I can learn from my errors and do so once I win, lose or… leave. Now, as a Warrior, I can be more than an Assassin; I can use any of the other 9 professions. So, assuming each profession has 200 skills. I can use up to 2000 different skills to make my build. (Some professions have less skills, the actual total for all classes is 1235) So, thing about that. Even if 235 skills were incompatible with your build, you still have 1000 skills to choose between for that 8 slot bar. (Which, is a Risen-ton of combinations.)

You could use any weapon you wanted, and skill you wanted. You could make a Warrior that used water magic to freeze is foes, fire to burn them. You could make your warrior throw spears at people, FRENZY MENDING, etc etc etc.

Now, if you compare that to Guild Wars 2, the only thing that currently out-shines the Guild Wars 1, is that you can change your weapons out of combat. But think… Can you imagine, having to walk allllllllllllllllllll the way back to town, just to change your skills? That would be stupid. In thus they HAD to make weapon swapping out of combat allowable. Otherwise you would leave the game on the spot because you would sure how truly limited you are.

Your weapon swapping out of combat is no different than my swapping in town, because the second I left town, I was always in combat.

I hope this helps clear things up for you.

AT Stefandawson, AYEE!!! THANK DWAYNA! ANOTHER INTELLIGENT BEING!!!

“Guild Wars 2TM will draw from the game mechanics that made the original Guild Wars one of the most popular online games ever and will add a fully persistent world.”

I honestly don’t feel like they drew anything from the mechanics except the names of the skills. LOL. Hence this freaking thread.

Thank you for pulling that up. I didn’t even think to look for that.

Premixed, he is addressing everyone else not you. I’ve have countless people try to yell at me for this being a new game. Not targeted at you.

“You are safe.” xD

Premixed.4567:

I guess my whole point of this is, the way we choose skills has been set, by design and explained. I totally agree there is no where near the amount of skills to choose from or combinations. By design.

Combat speed, skill downtime are valid concerns and easily tweaked, assuming they can be balanced across the board.

Welcome to the Darkside. xD

I’m not saying things must come now, but do you at least see that in fulfilling these points, they cannot hurt the game?

@Premixed.4567 Sorry I do feel like I am being off-topic, I will try to stay more to point in future postings, I wasn’t ever addressing you though.

I’m more trying to swat the flies buzzing around this thread, I find your counter points actually constructive, bravo to you sir.

Stefan, do me a favor and don’t get into a drunken brawl with any Dwarves until we finish this development with Guild Wars 2.

Last time that happened, you disappeared till I beat Guild Wars 1. xD

Stefandawson, I think you may have actually dealt the Final Thrust to future “this is a new game” posters. Thank goodness!

That is fine Premixed. I’m not asking to have this be Guild wars 1. I was giving you an example of previous variety.

The aim for this is simply an increase in skills, not a Warrior-Guardian-Theif-etc mix. The idea behind it is allowing players more opportunnities to experient with different roles. Damage, Support, Control, without being limited to a specific weapon. And to be able to do so in multiple ways. Nobody wants to spam the same skill all day.

So to clarify. No W/A. xD Warrior will have only warrior skills. But there will be more warrior skills to choose from at any given time. Make sense? You are still a warrior. You are still unique. But now you can stand out from other warriors who have the same weapon as you, in more ways than you currently can. And you can now also create you own skill bar, making your game even more enjoyable. You are now YOUR warrior, not just A warrior. Make sense?

Here is a sample of the petition that I am building. Please give it a look and provide feedback on any portion of it. I will not be ready to submit this petition until I finish the skill list and finish balancing their interactions.
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- Redo the weapon skill system: make the left side of the bar customizable.

-Add 2 new skills for each slot, for each weapon. 58 new skills per class.
(The ideas is that each slot can be chosen to have a skill that reflects a specific quality: such as Damage, Control or Support. Although control does not necessarily mean immobilization, an support does not mean a solid heal. For example, a sword is currently set up for conditions. You would be able to instead set it up for more of a suppot role with Melandru’s Strike which grants buff/heal, or Igneous Rage which may grant a small daze. I am still fine tuning skills, and so these are just examples pulled out of my aft. I want players to be able to take up multiple types of play styles within their class. Guardian will still be better at support, but Ranger will be able to provide a different form of support other than just those silly spirits.)

-Add 2 new skills for each slot, for each underwater weapon. 20 skills. (Water skills would be balanced independently because obviously, they are only used under water.)

-Add 47 new PvE only utility skills to each class. Obtainable through jumping puzzles and dungeon completion, as well as Survivor Title completion.
(This will promote far more current-game and end-game exploration and play-ability.)

- Lower cool downs on utility skills by approximately half of their current time.

-Add a dueling system.
Give players the option to be “Ready to Duel.” While this option is selected, the player may give or receive duel challenges and has an icon next to their name. Players can request to duel other players. If a player denies them, they cannot request again for 30 seconds; however, the play who denied the request, may then request to duel the play that they recently denied. This will make it so you can still duel with people that you accidently duel with, but will not be harassed to be dueled by someone. When this option is turned off, no players may request a duel from this player. A duel would spawn a impassible dome around the players, similar to Shield of Absorption. The dome will not be visible or effect anyone’s mobility except the dueling players, the same function that you see when you harvest a node. This is to prevent obnoxious domes popping up everywhere you go…

-Add incentives to titles.
(By adding minor incentives, you give people a reason to go after a title. And the percents, I believe, are low enough to not be game-breaking, but high enough to encourage players to want to seek them.)

PvP titles on the other hand, players will now have an awesome emote to be proud of, just like Guild Wars 1. Now rather than just having people click your name for a title you can, /rank and show off your awesome emote! I really tried to avoid making PvP titles interfere with gameplay. I did however add a minor benefit to WvWvW related titles to encourage players to build and repair walls and siege weapons. This may be a bad call, so please provide your input.

Titles:
>Each title tier will increase 1% per each rank achieved toward the listed effect.
>Each title has its max potential listed below. PvE titles DO NOT work in PvP. PvP emotes can be used outside of PvP, in areas such as towns or in explorable areas.

PvE
Slayer–Add a 4th tier to Centuar/Zhaitan: 4% increased trophy drop rate.
Revives: Increase revival speed by 5%.
Combos with allys: Deaths caused by skill combos now grant 5% additional experience.
Influence Earned: Increase reputation earned by 5%
Puzzle achievement: New utility skill related to the theme of the puzzle. 39
Dungeon Paths completed: New utility skill related to the dungeon. 8
Successful gatherings: 10% chance to harvest 1 additional item from a node.
Salvaged: 5% increased chance of rarer material and 5% chance to recover an upgrade.
Events completed: Additional 5% cash rewarded per event completed.
Hearts completed: 4% Karma discount on items from renown Karma Merchants.
Survivor: Elite Skill (Still being developed)
Cultural pieces: Max tier of ALL collected pieces, allows you to wear a unique set of town clothes. Have any ideas for it?

PvP:
Total kills in WvWvW: Special emote on player kill
WvWvW repair: 5% chance that 1 supply will repair/build for 2 points worth rather than 1.
WvWvW Seige built: 5% chance that 1 supply will repair/build for 2 points worth rather than 1.
PvP Tournaments: Special emote, that changes the higher the rank.

Other:
Miniature collection: One SUPER AWESOME mini-pet that can only be obtained by maxing the title.

Other things that will be addressed in the future:
- Improved trait system
Events:
-Branch Dynamic events out, similar to dungeons, allowing them to have different outcome and chains, rather than repeating in a constant cycle. (Bandits who were driven from the farm excessively will now attack travelers.)

Other Titles:
Hints Title? Ideas? I don’t know what that is and haven’t looked it up yet.
Servings Title? Ideas? I don’t know what that is and haven’t looked it up yet.
Drinks Title? Increased intoxication effects? xD Ideas? I don’t know what that is and haven’t looked it up yet.

PvP formats:
- Fort Aspenwood Equivalent.
- Random Arenas

I am currently in process of designing PvP formats, although my rough draft for a Fort Aspenwood equivalent can be found here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Remake-Fort-Aspenwood/

Premixed, if you have any ideas at all for weapon/skill system improvements… even something you think sounds silly, please post it. I look forward to hearing back from you soon. It’s 6am. Time to sleep. I’ve been productive enough for one day. xD

Once I get time to finish up creating skills and pvp formats, I will submit the petition for everyone to vote on and eventually pass up to Anet. As for events, I will have to manually walk through the game and write up interesting stories for each event. xD So do not expect that project to be finished anytime soon. lol

I have no eta on the skills at the time being, as my schedule is very hectic. Hopefully I can spend my weekends writing up skills and playing with their functionality. And after that, I trust Anet’s awesome artists to whip up some quick animations in no time. They are awesome like that.

Here’s to a better tomorrow!

LanceHavenbay.2067:

I can clearly state, as a fact that Guild Wars had a far greater level of customization for your build. That is obvious, just from looking at the sheer number of skills, not even factoring in team synergies, or stats.

Sheer number of skills isn’t a fact for anything… You can have 1000 skills, but what does it mean if 900 are doing quite the same? My answer to that is: Nothing!