Guild Wars 2

As of late, the game has started down a path that emphasizes gear. This is not an evil in itself, as many argue. However, it can and will become a severe detriment to variation and creativity among builds when gear begins to be more important than skill.

Yes, I’m going to compare this game to Guild Wars 1. Let’s see what happens:

We all know that in Guild Wars 1 armor was level-based, without tier. Level 20 armor was max armor, period, the end. It was a good, simple system. What, then, was the point of playing the rest of the game if maximum ‘stats’ had been reached at a very short amount of time played relative to other such games?

Skill. Or should I say, skills. It was reminiscent of a trading card game. The fun was mixing and matching different builds based on the skills you had and, when you grew tired of making what you had work, you went out and got more skills. Why? It was fun, interesting, and made you use your brain. You had to create builds with foresight in mind if you wanted to reach maximum efficiency. Creating a build involved planning, then skill gathering, and then the enjoyment or tragedy of watching your custom build be made or broken in the field.

This was fun and intellectually challenging.

What we have here, in Guild Wars 2, is apparently a severe lack of skills, which take out a whole lot of skill in customizing a build. And with the introduction of Ascended Armor and Infusions, the emphasis becomes more about what gear we will be wielding determining our competence rather than our ability to intuitively select skills appropriate for certain encounters.

This worries me. This isn’t fun. This isn’t creative. We have armor that serves too much of a role, and skills that are not important or varied enough.

What makes this game different than other gear-based MMORPG’s? In GW1 progression was about build customization to overcome challenges. Yes, gear was important, in terms of specialization through Runes, but not important beyond that. The fact that tiers such as Rare and Exotic exist and Ascended is being introduced are already signs that GW2 relies too little on personal ability and capacity and more on simply having the right stats.

GW2 is not GW1. I’m not saying it should be. But I think they could definitely benefit from implementing more opportunities for individual creativity and intution beyond acquiring gear and using halfway pre-defined and halfway categorized skill slots. Overcoming a difficult challenge is a lot more rewarding when we invent the designs to do so, rather than accept the method that is placed before us.

What do you all think? How can Anet best re-prioritize skill?

I completely agree with you. Besides, Guild Wars 2, supposedly being Guild Wars’ sequel, should respect its former player base better.

It shouldn’t be GW1, just also shouldn’t have strayed so far. In guild wars we had countless ways to customize our playstyle, and gear was just the cherry on the top of the cake, while in GW2, gear seems to be the cake itself.

You could spend a lot of time just thinking on the choices you could make in GW1, ranging from attributes, skills and armor upgrades.

In GW2, it is pretty straightforward: max this stat and period. Gear over skill.

I agree for the most part.

But the response you will get from the grind head types will be

“GW1 was not an MMO!”

I would enjoy a system with more skills to choose from. To be honest, I also would enjoy being able to use more skills at once. I’m one of those players who hates the tradeoffs I have to make when deciding what goes on my skill bar. I constantly swap weapons trying to cast more skills, too. Six more skills to play with would make me very happy.

Balancing for PvP would be a horrendous nightmare, but hey, not my problem. Other devs have managed it. Sort of. Minus a few nervous breakdowns probably.

The combat mechanics in GW2, however, does require some skill, and groups of really skilled players can do well without proper gear, even without voice chat coordination.

But then again, gear makes all the difference.

Eandur.8109:

It shouldn’t be GW1, just also shouldn’t have strayed so far. In guild wars we had countless ways to customize our playstyle, and gear was just the cherry on the top of the cake, while in GW2, gear seems to be the cake itself.

You could spend a lot of time just thinking on the choices you could make in GW1, ranging from attributes, skills and armor upgrades.

In GW2, it is pretty straightforward: max this stat and period. Gear over skill.

Exactly. It feels over simplified and unrewarding. What’s the fun in using tools already made and handed straight to us to accomplish challenges meant to be handled by them?

We all enjoy freedom of choice and the ability to use our methods while others use theirs. The blatant limits on choice and customization are truly disappointing, between the outright and unsatisfactory number of skills, to the funneling of certain types of skills to certain slots, to the outright predetermined nature of the first five slots based on weapon. Honestly, the weapon-specific skills are great in theory. Perhaps in the future we will see, rather than a specific 3-5 skills per weapon, a list of skills per weapon that can fit those slots.

The combat mechanics in GW2, however, does require some skill, and groups of really skilled players can do well without proper gear, even without voice chat coordination.

But then again, gear makes all the difference.

I do applaud the game here. They have good base combat mechanics that show promise. But again, as you also mentioned, I feel that gear is still being placed too high on the list of important factors. I feel that it should be Skill Build > Mechanic Mastery > Gear, roughly. Assuming that Mechanic Mastery would be the deciding factor in evenly-built player-versus combat, and the distinguishing factor between two players using the same build in PvE, with Gear preferably playing as little of a role as possible.

Indeed, a list of skills per weapon would really be a great addition, and I would love to see this implemented. But I will lie if I say that I am hopeful of this happening, for it seems the bias is to keep the gear progression coming. At least in the short term.

Gear progression doesn’t require skill. It just requires grind and spare time. As you pointed out, gear should be secondary, complementary to player skill, as gears are supposed to be tools, accessories.

It is most disappointing that I actually have to run dungeons for gear in GW2, or farm mats for gear. You also needed mats and gold for the level 20 armor in GW1, but you’d only need it once, and by the time you hit 20, you’d probably already have them.

And even then, with such low level cap and no gear progression at all, you would never be stagnant or bored for there was still much to do. I believe you remember well the feeling: “oh, I MUST have that elite skill” ~Goes through mountains and deserts after a boss to capture their elite~

Eandur.8109:

And even then, with such low level cap and no gear progression at all, you would never be stagnant or bored for there was still much to do. I believe you remember well the feeling: “oh, I MUST have that elite skill” ~Goes through mountains and deserts after a boss to capture their elite~

As time goes on I find that I have nothing to do in GW2 (I haven’t even gotten a character past 60).

To the OP:

The reason I played GW1 so heavily and for so long WAS the fact that it was like a card game (e.g. MTG).

The fact that this system does not exist in GW2 just gives me another reason not to buy any more expansions.

To those who argue that GW1 was not an MMO:

I’m glad. That’s why I played it over WoW. It was more like Diablo meets Magic the Gathering. I had high hopes for GW2, but apparently with the title of MMO comes extremely boring mechanics, so I think I’ll pass on future GW2 related content.

Eandur.8109:

I believe you remember well the feeling: “oh, I MUST have that elite skill” ~Goes through mountains and deserts after a boss to capture their elite~

This, in essence, is what I loved about GW1. Looking at that shiny new elite on the skill bar after a long and often challenging fight is an unparalleled feeling of reward. And how, after obtaining the skill, I’d stick around in that zone for a while just for the sake of having two elites at once. I felt so cool. It was a blast.

/nostalgia

Again, not saying GW2 should be GW1. But heck, why can’t it be as much fun? Freedom of choice to tackle challenges in creative and intuitive ways is key, as well as properly implementing and rewarding mastery of mechanics. I wish for more varied and more free-form skill bars, but I dare not hope for these changes, lest my remaining enjoyment of this game is further crushed by the contemplation of what it could have been.

Sigh.

Ahh, I remember making bizarre necro builds that would face roll in random arenas because nobody had encountered them before and didn’t know what to do.

Waffler.1257:

Ahh, I remember making bizarre necro builds that would face roll in random arenas because nobody had encountered them before and didn’t know what to do.

Haha, that reminds me of a Rit/A build I used to run in FA!

Was so fun to have a Warrior run up to me expecting an easy kill just to have me knock him down and four shot him!

Those were the days…

Agreed. Skill should be the determining factor instead of the awful term of “gear score”.

I hope that in future updates and expansion packs more skills are introduced and more freedom is given to the skill bar. Unless this happens, I feel that we are beginning to head down a path that no one really wants to take.

Oh the good times

Guildwars… a game where no two people played the same build….EVER! well at least it felt that way not to mention the tournaments.. oh god..why the hell is it only 5 people per party now?!?!?

I understand that the majority of people had to come from such a stupidly simple game like WoW, but there are people who genuinely loved the original GW mechanics such as myself.

The fond memories of having to capture skills was amazing. The endless combination of skills was challenging to create and play!

GW2 doesn’t even come close to capturing those moments. Sure its a really good game, but its not a “great” game. I hope this changes with the expansions.

KensaiZen.3740:

GW2 doesn’t even come close to capturing those moments. Sure its a really good game, but its not a “great” game. I hope this changes with the expansions.

Me too. Hope is all we have left, because so far we don’t have any concrete reassurances that skill will still pervade over gear.

Really my worst fear for this game is that PvP (or competency in PvE) will turn in to fights over before they began – where the victor could be easily predicted beforehand based on gear alone.

Not saying that’s what’s happening yet, as the stat increases are meager. But, by the time the whole set is out, I sure hope they would have introduced much more freedom and variation in skills, since as a set Ascended gear will provide significant stat increases. (not to mention being required for high end pve play)