Guild Wars 2

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When I first heard about Guild Wars 2’s fixed weapons, trait and utility system, I really didn’t think it was a bad idea. I figured that the trait lines and utility skills would give enough sense of progression. However, as I was leveling and after I reached 80, and played the end game extensively, I have come to the conclusion that the current state of progression is lacking.

It lacks in both the sense of progression and the sense of choosing a unique character path, both what makes an RPG a RPG. Pretty much every MMORPG has a tree of abilities. Though many are flawed and railroad you into one path or another, however I think they exist for a reason. It gives the RPG player their desired progression and specialization. The carrot on a stick as some put it, isn’t a bad thing as you are always working for something new or making a new choice for your character. The character stays fresh from 1st level to max level.

The problem with Guild Wars 2 is that the feeling is simply lacking. I think ArenaNet realized this when they broke the utility skills into different levels of cost and created the trait tree, but I don’t think you went far enough.

I think the idea of unlocking every weapon skill early on was in theory sound, but I don’t think it was a good idea from my point of view as an RPG player. Using the same attacks over and over without upgrade, without change, became redundant before I reached level 80, let alone after all the time I’ve been playing end game.

Suggestion starts here.

My suggestion would be a system that would have the access to weapon abilities evolve over time. The 1 skill on each weapon would slowly get more powerful through not only damage but what it can do, with a new icon and modified name and special effect as it progresses.

The skills 2-5 would have their default abilities, but new abilities could be unlocked via the Trait lines. Instead of Major traits being the same as minor traits, each Major trait would make a new weapon or utility skill available to use. A Major trait could also completely replace a weapon or utility skill with a new and improved version with a new name and effect to go along with it.

In this system, you could even have it where you unlock Major traits with skill points with each level (Adept, Master, Grandmaster) costing more, giving a post-80 progression to unlock all the Major traits across all trait lines. Minor traits in this system could then be selectable like the Major traits currently are.

I think something like this would give a greater sense of progression and customization that currently lacks in Guild Wars 2

I actually don’t like talent trees and whatnot in most MMOs. I dislike the idea that I have to be really high level before I even get access to some of the cooler abilities; GW2 lets you use all your skills by level 30 (when you get elites) and I like the fact the game isn’t always about getting some new ability. In many MMOs, this feels really forced anyway, like the devs really, really wanted to come up with new abilities and were all… hmm, well, we did fireballs and iceballs, so… errr… frostfire? Yes, this will work!

That being said, more variety is always good, but you have to realize something like this would take massive amounts of work. Not only would you have to come up with huge amounts of abilities for each class, you’d have to keep them properly balanced too, plus create animations and whatnot. I just don’t think this is plausible, sad to say.

More progression is not needed, only more customization.

The thing i would like to see in the coming expantsions are new skills for each weapon. This will give more freedom in building your character like in guild wars 1.

The progression system you suggested i’m not a fan of, simply because people that only PvP will never note the progression at all and i dont think it’ll add more customization, which as the poster above me stated is what we need.