Guild Wars 2

Not going to complain. I do love the fact that 5 abilities really balances the weapons out and such forth, and that the abilities provided are quite varied, but I just think it causes the game to become a treadmill way too fast.

In Guild Wars, we had a whole load of abilities but were limited to I think it was 10? On the action bar. We were given the option to select each attack. Why couldn’t weapons have about 10 abilities each, while allowing the player to select 5 of the 10? This means you could switch it up every now and then, and opponents in PvP will be less predictable.

I’ve not really played much recently, but I do love the game. It’s just this one thing that really irks me. If a game becomes repetitive, it’s often a bad sign – And while GW2 manages to spice up questing, it definitely dumbed down combat quite heavily.

Remember, in GW1, while you could have 8 skills, those skills didn’t change on weapon swap. So think of your GW2 character as being able to pick 2 sets of 5 skills…. and your ‘supprise’ moment in PvP can come in with a weapon swap (yes, I know this does not apply to rangers and engineers.)

GW2 gives you access to more skills on the fly than GW1, especially when you can re-slot utility skills while out of combat, instead of having to re-zone and lose progress to change your bar.

Also, several GW1 skills were either repeats (which allowed you to slot the same skill twice with a different name), or were obvioisly inferior (higher energy cost with same cool down, or higher cooldown for equivilant damage) and got left by the wayside.

A larger contributor to GW1 build variety was the 2 profession system, but that left a lot of things for the devs to struggle to balance.

Would be nice with 2 sets of weapon skills per weapon and if balance is a concern they could just exclude it from pvp or something would make the gameplay way more dynamic.

CassieGold.7460:

Remember, in GW1, while you could have 8 skills, those skills didn’t change on weapon swap. So think of your GW2 character as being able to pick 2 sets of 5 skills…. and your ‘supprise’ moment in PvP can come in with a weapon swap (yes, I know this does not apply to rangers and engineers.)

GW2 gives you access to more skills on the fly than GW1, especially when you can re-slot utility skills while out of combat, instead of having to re-zone and lose progress to change your bar.

Also, several GW1 skills were either repeats (which allowed you to slot the same skill twice with a different name), or were obvioisly inferior (higher energy cost with same cool down, or higher cooldown for equivilant damage) and got left by the wayside.

A larger contributor to GW1 build variety was the 2 profession system, but that left a lot of things for the devs to struggle to balance.

Oh I know, it’s great that we can change weapons, but the problem is that certain weapons are simply incredibly dull to use.

In my case, I really enjoy these -

Dual axes
Greatsword
Long Bow
Rifle

The rest… I just don’t enjoy them. I dislike the hammer’s silly animations, and the slightly less satisfying gameplay of one handed weapons and shields/support.

Problem is that I’m slowly losing grips with the weapons that I enjoy. They have become a repetition. There’s only so many times I can repeat the same cycles of attacks before I lose interest in these weapons, and after that there’s nowhere else to go. I enjoy playing a warrior in my MMO’s and playing another class kills the point of an MMO entirely, that being choice and customization.

Having abilities to constantly strive for with your chosen weapon seems like a fantastic idea to me. Weapons aren’t just an aesthetic feature – They’re your main gameplay element. They choose how your character functions and plays. That’s cool! But… Not when you have literally zero choice on how to use said weapons.

I actually like it the way it is. If you want more abilities you can just switch to a new weapon/s. I was getting sick of trying to manage 10+ skill rotations in some other games, I really like the simplicity of this setup in GW2. I think having more skills would lead to having to min/max certain rotations like in other games. Geez in Rift I had a 13 skill rotation to get max dps, I am past those days. This game is so much more relaxing.

Ruprect.7260:

I actually like it the way it is. If you want more abilities you can just switch to a new weapon/s. I was getting sick of trying to manage 10+ skill rotations in some other games, I really like the simplicity of this setup in GW2. I think having more skills would lead to having to min/max certain rotations like in other games. Geez in Rift I had a 13 skill rotation to get max dps, I am past those days. This game is so much more relaxing.

You didn’t read my post.

I said having more abilities per weapon, but you select 5 of them to use.

That means there is more variety and more to unlock, but you still have a small rotation.

I totally agree.
Please Add

I know what your are saying but having more skills would just lead to min/maxing and there would be a lot of skills that would be useless just like in most games. You would have the 5 best skills and that is what would be used so you would still get bored with the same 5.

I think it is too hard for gfame companies to balance a large nuber of skills and that is why you end up with certain skills that work better than others.

I’m not saying you are wrong and maybe they could implement that in an expansion, I would be ok with it as it was kept to choosing 5 out of the 10.

Seconded, I too would like to see some actual variety in skills, but I heavily doubt we’ll see that, or at least anytime soon. The devs are dreadfully afraid of overstraining complete noobs, so we’ll have to make do with what we have.

Ruprect.7260:

I know what your are saying but having more skills would just lead to min/maxing and there would be a lot of skills that would be useless just like in most games. You would have the 5 best skills and that is what would be used so you would still get bored with the same 5.

That’s not necessarily true. As long as the 10 abilities per weapon are diverse enough, and all fill different roles (damage, support, CC, hybrids, etc), then the system would be about playstyle choices, not min/maxxing.

Also, your statement could be applied to the current weapon sets. If there were clearly 5 best abilities (associated with certain weapons), then players would only ever use those weapons for their class. But there is currently a lot of diversity in the weapon choices, and people are constantly trying new combinations. There are a few outliers, but as long as weapon abilities aren’t just duplicates of each other with 1 improved characteristic, people will use them to fit their custom roles.

Psychodrake.2017:

Oh I know, it’s great that we can change weapons, but the problem is that certain weapons are simply incredibly dull to use.

In my case, I really enjoy these -

Dual axes
Greatsword
Long Bow
Rifle

The rest… I just don’t enjoy them. I dislike the hammer’s silly animations, and the slightly less satisfying gameplay of one handed weapons and shields/support.

Problem is that I’m slowly losing grips with the weapons that I enjoy. They have become a repetition. There’s only so many times I can repeat the same cycles of attacks before I lose interest in these weapons, and after that there’s nowhere else to go. I enjoy playing a warrior in my MMO’s and playing another class kills the point of an MMO entirely, that being choice and customization.

Having abilities to constantly strive for with your chosen weapon seems like a fantastic idea to me. Weapons aren’t just an aesthetic feature – They’re your main gameplay element. They choose how your character functions and plays. That’s cool! But… Not when you have literally zero choice on how to use said weapons.

A few things to remember (drilling into warrior specifically.)

#1: Warrior has 19 different weapon combinations, more than any other class in the game. My thief would kill to have as much selection as a warrior has. I know that’s not a main part of your argument, and that you dislike many of the available options, but I felt if i didn’t mention this, I would do the dialogue a disservice.

#2: If you want to see some of the diversity in weapon skills, take a look at how your traits impact your weapon skills, and look at the way you can make your warrior play differently, using the same weapons. Example: If you like longbow, I assume your longbow is traited, but take the same investment into Tactics and change your focus to banners or shouts… the result will pull your longbow warrior in from 1200 range to 900 range, and allow you to maximize more on your group support. Just because you have the same 5 skills, doesn’t mean they’re functioning the same.

There are examples of this all over the game. A necromancer with ground targeted wells plays very differently from a wells necro that doesn’t have that trait slotted. Likewise, a guardian who traits heavily into virtues will function differently from one who does not, even though the skills on the weapon bar are the same.

#3: From the list of options you listed: GS + Longbow + Rifle…. all of these are 2h weapons, which lock up your entire skill bar without room to customize within weapons or build synergy. Personally, I like the tactical flexibility of Longbow because I have access to a Combo Field + 2 combo finishers (including the ability to blast my own field, always awesome), control, access to 3 conditions outside of the imobalize, and the ability to work at 1200 range when traited. It’s an extremely versatile weapon platform. But, if that gets old, there isn’t a lot you can change. If you look at more 1h weapons + off hand options, you get to work with more options for creating synergy that changes up your play style.

Last thing: If you could swap out a skill on any of the weapons you named, what would you want to see in it’s place?

Bear on the job.6273:

Ruprect.7260:

I know what your are saying but having more skills would just lead to min/maxing and there would be a lot of skills that would be useless just like in most games. You would have the 5 best skills and that is what would be used so you would still get bored with the same 5.

That’s not necessarily true. As long as the 10 abilities per weapon are diverse enough, and all fill different roles (damage, support, CC, hybrids, etc), then the system would be about playstyle choices, not min/maxxing.

Also, your statement could be applied to the current weapon sets. If there were clearly 5 best abilities (associated with certain weapons), then players would only ever use those weapons for their class. But there is currently a lot of diversity in the weapon choices, and people are constantly trying new combinations. There are a few outliers, but as long as weapon abilities aren’t just duplicates of each other with 1 improved characteristic, people will use them to fit their custom roles.

I agree it would be great that way, if they could build diversity without any outliers. But I got to say I have yet to see a game company perfectly balance all skills so it could be about playstyle and not min/max.

I just really like this game the way it is “about playstyle” and would hate to see it become a min/max mess.

Im sure this is something the devs will introduce eventually.

Either sub types of weapons that have different skills to the main type, or a few sets for each weapon type that players can pick from.

I dont mind how it is now, but id absolutely love more freedom with customising my skills.

I like the idea, but Id rather see more weapons.

adding abilities to existing weapons and allowing people to change them will severely effect how some traits work. Thats a lot of rebalancing.

introducing new weapons types simply augment existing traits with extra inclusions for alike-weapons. (greatsword and harpoon damage increase now also effects halbred) things like that.

they way the system is set up, it just makes sense that this would be the route they went IF they expand non utility skills for anyone.

roachsrealm.9284:

I like the idea, but Id rather see more weapons.

adding abilities to existing weapons and allowing people to change them will severely effect how some traits work. Thats a lot of rebalancing.

introducing new weapons types simply augment existing traits with extra inclusions for alike-weapons. (greatsword and harpoon damage increase now also effects halbred) things like that.

they way the system is set up, it just makes sense that this would be the route they went IF they expand non utility skills for anyone.

I’m more in line with this type of thinking. Aside from Warrior, who can equip almost everything in the game, many classes could benefit from having an existing weapon added with a new set of skills for that class with that weapon. Thieves have wanted 1200 range and a sniper rifle for a while (as an example), and many classes could be expanded simply by offering to off hand something they can main hand (or vice versa), ala the Colin Johanson comment about Dual Pistol Mesmers (and all the laughter that the off hand remark caused.)

I would love to see more weapons skills than just more weapons. Like traits and skills, they could be earned as the character progresses. I would at least like to be able to change the order of the weapons skills given.

Agree with OP.

It not only would be nice to have a pool of skills for each weapon but also a way to move skills around on the skill bar so they make sense to you with how you play. I almost get a feeling the skills were put on in a random sequence. One weapon will have a leap skill at one spot and another has the leap skill at a different spot for example. I would love to be able to put the leap skills in the same number slot or put a vulnerability skill right before a big damage skill, instead of after.

The skills are orderd according to their cooldown, nothing else.

I wholeheartedly agree, if they would change this it would be totally awesome. Choosing skills outside of combat/precombat was one of the things that defined GW1 and the thing that made me feel unique, even if it ended with most players getting the same skills in the end, in GW2 they have gimped the skill choice almost to oblivion.

If they hadn’t been for the trait system I would have stopped playing all together but it is a bit of a dodge not to get into the skill balancing issue. Devs said that skill balancing was an issue in GW1 but the way they changed it in GW2 was almost too much if you ask me. They made it almost into a game where your customization almost didn’t matter, sure you have a few skills that are different, but you can only use them to get an edge in a few situations once every other minute or so. You cannot radically change your playstyle in the way you could in GW1, you still use the same skills 90% of the time when a using different build but the same weapons.

If we could get more selectable skills for our weapons outside of combat that would be awesome, giving each weapon 10 skills would be a great thing for an expansion where we could alter the 5 skills however we want.

Dumbing down games has been something I’ve seen for a long time as a gamer and I find it very sad. Games that I remember as great games where games that forced me to think and had a sever consequence for failure. Don’t make games just a way to kill time, aim to make it an experience worthy of remembering. Anet has done that in some regards and GW2 is a great game, but there is so much potential in this game to make it so much better.

I didn’t read the replies for this just because the title gave me an idea. Instead of having more skills per weapon and being able to swap them out like utility skills why not each weapon have a different role? For instance tank, support, AoE, ect and while not in combat be able to pick and choose what role you want to play and with what weapon.

It’s just food for thought I know I could just swap out my weapon for a different type, but some people want to use a certain weapon and be able to do different things. Me personally I think it is fine the way it is and no more skills should get added. Otherwise it will get to be like GW1 with the thousands of skills at your disposal and most were terrible.