Guild Wars 2

So, this hit me a little while back, and I got to thinking. What if they added Ability Skins to the game as a reward/Gem shop item. This would open up world of neat possibilities and give people more options to be a little more unique. It would work like this:

It’s an item with an use. (Consumable) Works much like a dye.
Once used, going into the ability panel (http://tinyurl.com/onhcemx) you can click on an ability that has an ability skin, it would open a small pop up box, similar to chosing utilities that show Default or Special skins.
Click on the special skin, and the ability would take on a new appearance.

Now, this could be interesting for everyone, in different ways and magnitudes, but for sake of example and because my main is a necromancer, this is an example I’d love to see:
Risen Minion Ability Skins:
Bone Fiend: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/a/ae/Risen_Wizard.jpg (Ranged, casts a shadow bind, same thing as Rigor Mortis)
Flesh Golem: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/b/bf/Risen_Abomination.jpg
Blood Fiend: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/3/3d/Risen_Acolyte.jpg
Bone Minions: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Risen_Defender.jpg

Thoughts? Ideas for others (Including other classes)?

While it’d be neat, one thing Anet have said in the past is that for the sake of PvP, it should be possible to learn the animations of each ability. Making it possible to change them makes this a lot harder (and if the game is to have eSport potential, it’s just as important for spectators to tell what’s going on as well).

This isn’t as important in PvE, but high level play still requires players to be able to adapt to what their team members are doing, and part of that is also knowing skill animations. At the very least combo fields need to remain very recognisable.

To that extent, only legendaries affect our skill animations to any major degree, and those aren’t even available in sPvP. The only real exception is pvp finishers, but all you really need to know that a player is using one is the fact that they’ve stopped moving in front of you.

So for the sake of what I’ve said, this is unlikely to truly happen anywhere outside of PvE, and in PvE, one of the draws of legendary weapons is that they change certain skill animations. I don’t think it’s a bad idea (if restricted to PvE) personally, but I don’t see ANet doing it any time soon.

While it sounds like a neat idea, I have to agree with Dingle on this one.

GW2 is advertised as a “play the game, not the UI” type thing. Meaning, you should be watching what is going on in the actual game instead of watching your UI.

If you started changing spell/ability effects, it would end up giving an advantage (in a way) in PvP. Seeing as spells/abilities are identified (or meant to be identified) by the effect, it would cause a lot of confusion in PvP and mess up, like Dingle said, spectator mode.

So having people with different spell/ability effects for the same abilities/spells, would go against the whole “play the game, not the UI” philosophy.