Guild Wars 2

GW1 didn’t have weapon swap cooldown (they had a small delay but that could be avoided with skills), but they have it in GW2, which is pretty annoying because many combos are being restricted (and because they promised a game that feels the same as GW1, which it certainly does not [combat-wise]). We cannot swap to a weapon specifically for just 1 skill and swap back to create certain combos (use skill 2 and 4 on 1 weapon, for example, and swap to another just for skill 3, and swap back for skill 5, etc…). Or when swapping just for defensive purposes, players are punished for 10 seconds (in which usually, they just spam 1 until 10 second passes rather than using their skills in a clever fashion). Eg. rangers have to be stuck on a sword/dagger set for 10 seconds just so they can evade a hit. Or a thief can’t swap to sword just for the evade attack and swap back to dagger to continue backstabbing because of weapon swap delay. etc.. etc…

Currently, we cannot mix up all the different possible skill combos from our entire arsenal. Instead, we just 1 combo spam until weapon swap delays 10 sec. passes (also, no mana system also contributes to the notorious 1 spam combo….). The system discourages player to use skills from across other weapons because of the 10 second punishment, which means less flavor in combat. If weapon swap delay was taken out, there’d be more room for viable combos/builds/strategies.

And going off the mana thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/mana-system

WARNING: ALIEN LANGUAGE IF YOU DID NOT PLAY GW1***

Weapon swapping and mana pool system had a huge relation that created for clever techniques:

-If you’re out of mana and cannot cast, you can actually cast more spells by swapping to another weapon that has more mana (at the cost of mana regeneration). You wouldn’t want to stay on the high mana weapon set because you lose mana regen., so when you’re not casting, you are on a different weapon set to have maximum mana regeneration.

-Monks could swap to zealous spears to gain energy back (each hit recovers mana at the cost of mana regen.) if their doing nothing else. Then they’d swap back to another weapon set when they’re actually casting to avoid the mana regen. loss. It was a clever technique to gain around 5 pips of mana regen.

-You could counter energy denial mesmer by swapping to low mana set because you have 0 mana on that set (so they’d have no energy to steal) but actually have like 20ish on another set

-etc.. etc..

Point is: The no-weapon-delay system created for more complex things a player could do that could turn the tide of the battle through pure skills.

I agree it could set up an interesting combo situation. And in lieu of more skills, would be ideal. Even if not instant, then maybe 2 seconds or something

I’m sure there was a reason for the CD tho, anyone know what the reasoning is?

No cd kit swapping is probably what engineer is best known for, without it they would loose a lot of identity (Whats so unique about them anyways?)

Though I wouldn’t mind if other classes could instant swap too, wouldn’t bother me either way.

@ Penguin – Good thing I didn’t make the same account name, or there’d be much confusion in the forums when we both posted.

@ OP – I would like the Thief class to get an ability like this, since their attacks have no cool downs. It would be nice to be able to swap out dagger and pistol offhands for lots of stealth and blinds.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

@ Penguin – Good thing I didn’t make the same account name, or there’d be much confusion in the forums when we both posted.

Nah you should have, there was another Penguin on these forums and I would be like " I don’t remember posting that!" having three penguins on one thread would be too hilarious and confusing for probably everyone

I frequently hit the weapon swap key on my thief all the time by accident (right next to auto attack – great spot for it lol). Often this locks me out of swapping back to my preferred set and pretty much means I kitten myself for a few precious seconds. Very self destructive in pvp. Maybe its my fat fingers, but I wouldnt mind if the cooldown was eliminated. They will need to apply cooldowns or restrictions to on weapon swap abilities or this will be widely abused.

Another difference from GW1 is that all GW1 classes could carry 4 weapon sets and swap to them during combat. In GW2, some classes can carry 2 sets, some only one. The ele can swap alignments to change skills, and an Eng can activate a kit. But a ranger with greatsword/short bow cannot swap to a longbow in inventory during combat.

Big difference is that in GW1, your skill bar could not be changed outside of town (some exceptions like signet of capture and Norn transforms) so GW2 is more flexible on skills than GW1, but less on weapons.

Adding an additional weapon set swap, maybe purchasable by an 80 for skill points from Miyami or someone – that might be a nice incentive for max level characters.

As long as they maintained a cooldown on the weapons switch sigil procs, I would fully support removing the CD on swapping.

Hickeroar.9734:

As long as they maintained a cooldown on the weapons switch sigil procs, I would fully support removing the CD on swapping.

They do, it’s around 7 seconds.

ghettogenius.9174:

I frequently hit the weapon swap key on my thief all the time by accident (right next to auto attack – great spot for it lol). Often this locks me out of swapping back to my preferred set and pretty much means I kitten myself for a few precious seconds. Very self destructive in pvp. Maybe its my fat fingers, but I wouldnt mind if the cooldown was eliminated. They will need to apply cooldowns or restrictions to on weapon swap abilities or this will be widely abused.

Maybe it would help if you bind weapon swap to another key

i think they should but 10sec is ridiculously too long. Five sec would be nice.

Penguin.5197:

Maybe it would help if you bind weapon swap to another key

I put it on an extra mouse button and I can roll with it pretty well as long as I keep an eye on the swap meter.