I know this is a long read. Please read it through to the end. It isn’t your standard “WHA WHA RACIAL SKILLS SUCK MAKE THEM BETTER NOW” thread.
Hi. I am reasonably new to the game (I am level 40) and, as such, have little experience with the most important and fundamental gameplay mechanics or how they work. As a result, I am likely to get something wrong in this thread. If so, please correct it without dismissing the entire post as stupid. Thank you.
I am very disappointed with the implementation of racial skills (racials) in this game. I understand that racial skills were designed to not have much use, so that players would not be forced to choose a particular race over another when making a character in order to be effective, allowing combos such as Sylvari Warriors, Norn Elementalists and Charr Mesmers without making them any more or less effective then their counterparts from other races. I think that, while the current idea works, it doesn’t completely fix the problem, and is a messy solution – it simply results in a bunch of useless abilities which nobody ever uses which just take up space. In the few cases where a racial ability is useful, it’s existence works against the efforts of the developers. It is effectively a catch 22.
I think a far more elegant solution would be to detach the racial skills from the races altogether, and instead tie them to the religion or culture that a specific race generally follows. (the human gods, the animal spirits, the pale tree etc). Each race would be identified by these gods, similar to how they are now, and all characters of that race would be associated with that religion by default. This means the skills associated with that deity are available to purchase with skill points from the beginning like they are now. Throughout the world a new type of NPC, the priest, would be available to change your religion for a small fee (40 copper * the number of skill points invested in racial skills), which would remove all your current racial skills and allow you to choose ones associated with a different race. When this happens, all skill points invested in racial skills would be refunded.
Of course, with this change, the skills can be made just as powerful as regular utility skills and elites, as they are now effectively usable on anyone without having to sacrifice or change the visual representation of your character, and would allow people to have access to abilities they would otherwise never use (I despise the look of the Norn, so I will never ever get to use any of their abilities under the current system). It also allows the developers to safely add features like Racial Trait Lines, racial passives etc because it would no longer clas with their original goal. This system also has the added benefit of allowing these skills in PvP and WvW, since the player could now have a choice of which religion they choose to follow in PvP and WvW independently of their PvE character, which means any potentially overpowered skills are available to everyone, regardless of race, putting everyone on the same footing.
What are your thoughts on this idea?
(edited by PlausibleSarge.2318)
