Guild Wars 2

Guildwars even unbalanced as it was and apparently “broken” skills system was world and universes above and better than what we have in Guildwars 2..

The skills in Guildwars 2 are so basic and lacking depth i’m surprised anyone can say its better here than its predecessor, seriously we have 5 skills to spam another 5 skills we occasionally spam, move around a bit occasionally dodge and people call that deep and complex…boggles the mind…

Yes i know what blast finishers are yes i know i can chain skills, neither are needed most are useless and broken, the rest its easier to spam the first skill…

Honestly this console game setup is bad and we are in need of a lot more skills or a large overhaul to make this game “deep and complex”, oh and Guildwars 2 skills system is just as unbalanced and “broken” as Guildwars was just we have less stuff to push…

Despite the vast number of AVAILABLE skills, you wouldn’t nessecarily use 99% of the possible combinations due to synergies between skills.

For example while a warrior COULD fill his bar with fire, frost, air and earth spells, a warrior does not possess the energy pool to cast lots of magic, nor would he be able to properly invest into 4 seperate magic schools and still yield useful damage from the spells.

On my ranger for example, I probably only used at most 3 or 4 different combinations of attack skill in across dozens of different builds. While there might be 100 different arrow skills, they didn’t necessarily form useful chains out of context .

GW2’s weapons could afford to have variants, but each represents at least one useful chain, sometimes 3 or 4 chains depending on selection of offhand and stats distribution (For example mesmer sword/focus can be utilised several very different ways depending on traiting)

It’s very easy to look at GW1 through rose tinted glasses while omitting some of the details of how GW1 actually played. It’s also worth remembering GW1 today has about 4 times the skills it had at launch

Ryuujin.8236:

Despite the vast number of AVAILABLE skills, you wouldn’t nessecarily use 99% of the possible combinations due to synergies between skills.

For example while a warrior COULD fill his bar with fire, frost, air and earth spells, a warrior does not possess the energy pool to cast lots of magic, nor would he be able to properly invest into 4 seperate magic schools and still yield useful damage from the spells.

On my ranger for example, I probably only used at most 3 or 4 different combinations of attack skill in across dozens of different builds. While there might be 100 different arrow skills, they didn’t necessarily form useful chains out of context .

GW2’s weapons could afford to have variants, but each represents at least one useful chain, sometimes 3 or 4 chains depending on selection of offhand and stats distribution (For example mesmer sword/focus can be utilised several very different ways depending on traiting)

It’s very easy to look at GW1 through rose tinted glasses while omitting some of the details of how GW1 actually played. It’s also worth remembering GW1 today has about 4 times the skills it had at launch

In Guildwars i had a Ranger/Mesmer, never once did i have too little mana to cast my Mesmer skills and it was a very nice build also my Assassin/Ranger primarily used Bows and never had an issue with both sets of skills.

Here in Guildwars 2 i’m stuck with the same 5 -10 every day in and out get monotonous and boring, build variations are non existent because most outside of the well used don’t compete and are mostly unusable..

… even so.. more option can keep people from being bored. so.. i hope they add more in the future.

Once the game is actually balanced to the point that most Weapon sets, Utility/Healing/Elite skills and Traits are actually worth using you will see a lot more build variety.

And once the balance is in good shape then we’ll likely eventually get new weapons, new traits and new skills.

As for the weapons skills being locked… We’ve known that for ages.
Way before the release, even.
I find it highly unlikely that they’ll change it drastically.
I wouldn’t rule out having limited swap skills in the slots, though.

I’m not sure why this thread needed to be Necro’d up from 3 months ago.

Chopps.5047:

Vayne.8563:

dimgl.4786:

Vayne.8563:

Because GW 1 was very well balanced. It was so easy to balance all those skills. What you might not be realizing is that GW 1 was a nightmare for some people, because of the number of skills. People didn’t know how to make builds. A lot of people tried the game, failed heavily and went on to different games. Anet doesn’t want that to happen again.

Now people are forced to take a self-heal. They’re forced to have at least some skills that work together. Sure it doesn’t suit you, personally. Doesn’t particularly suit me either. But that doesn’t mean it’s not better from a design point of view, or better for the game.

The combination of the number of skills in Guild Wars 1 and the second profession mechanic made the game virtually impossible to balance. It screwed with PvP and PVe became so easy it was meaningless, down to the point where you could use a Rit to solo farm ectos in the underworld.

I too miss the skill selection from Guild Wars 1, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a good reason for not having it in Guild Wars 2.

Omg! A game that makes players think?! SAY IT AIN’T SO!

I love games that make you think. I also recognize that the kind of game Guild Wars 2 was going to be depends on traffic and, unfortunately, if you make people think, you’ll seriously limit the number of people playing the game. Guild Wars 1 had 20% of the staff of Guild Wars 2. This is a much bigger project and has to appeal to a much wider audience.

WoW doesn’t make anyone think and has a zillion players. Guild Wars 1 did make people think and had far less (though many just as devoted). I’m a Guild Wars 1 fan and loved the game.

But I’m also aware that a game that aims to be mainstream can’t make people think too much, because there are fewer smart people than average people (pretty much by definition lol).

In competitve counterstrike, builds are very vanilla and many people take similar loadouts. But since there’s not build wars, well, I suppose no one thinks. Right? That’s what you’re saying? The guy that got into position to fake a flashbang with a pistol for the win? He’s not a thinker at all!

And how about real life sports? Everyone starts with the same gear and the follow a strict set of the same rules. Well, gee, it’s all positioning and timing and no build wars.

I guess none of those people think either?

And how many people play competitive counterstrike? Everyone has the same build in chess also, but it’s not the most popular game in the world because of the depth of thought required to play it.

And chess isn’t dependent on the masses to make the game work. Nor is competitive counterstrike. That’s why your analogy doesn’t apply to this situation.

Anet creates an MMORPG that has content updates, needs constant bug fixes and they want to expand and grow into more. In order for this to happen Anet needs players. Not just a few. They need a LOT of players. The more or play, the more spend money in the cash shop which funds the game, and more importantly funds the GROWTH of the game.

It doesn’t matter that some people like competitive counterstrike and chess. That’s great. But more people today play games like Farmville than games like chess, sad though it be. And because of that, more people have to be catered to.

Guild Wars 1 had some real problems with accessbility and in some ways it paid for those problems. Anet is aware of those problems and has said so. It’s one of the reasons they created the game the way they did.

You can argue with me all you want, but obviously Anet saw and fixed a perceived problem. I’m pretty sure they have a decent handle on various reasons Guild Wars 1 never really made it main stream.

Grounder.7381:

… even so.. more option can keep people from being bored. so.. i hope they add more in the future.

They’ve already said straight out they will be adding more over time. How long a time is anyone’s guess.

One quote I remember specifically was during a Reddit AMA when someone asked the devs about two-handed axes. The dev replied that we need to leave some weapons for expansions…paraphrasing but that was the answer.

Game is not build on guild wars 1 engine, game designers told players this more than a year before release. Some players not listen.

Conncept.7638:

Game is not build on guild wars 1 engine, game designers told players this more than a year before release. Some players not listen.

Actually it apparently is a revamped Guildwars 1 engine, i’m betting this is why it has so many limitations…
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2

Game engine

Guild Wars 2 uses a heavily modified Guild Wars game engine which includes support for true 3D environments, more detailed environments and models, better lighting and shadows, new animation and effects systems, plus new audio and cinematics engines and a more flexible combat and skill-casting system.

Gaile Gray has indicated the game supports DirectX 10, but does not require it to play. Guild Wars 2 utilises the Havok physics engine to provide ragdoll animation and destructible environments, as well as occlusion culling technology licensed from Umbra Software to optimise 3D object rendering. ²

Dante.1508:

Conncept.7638:

Game is not build on guild wars 1 engine, game designers told players this more than a year before release. Some players not listen.

Actually it apparently is a revamped Guildwars 1 engine, i’m betting this is why it has so many limitations…
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2

Game engine

Guild Wars 2 uses a heavily modified Guild Wars game engine which includes support for true 3D environments, more detailed environments and models, better lighting and shadows, new animation and effects systems, plus new audio and cinematics engines and a more flexible combat and skill-casting system.

Gaile Gray has indicated the game supports DirectX 10, but does not require it to play. Guild Wars 2 utilises the Havok physics engine to provide ragdoll animation and destructible environments, as well as occlusion culling technology licensed from Umbra Software to optimise 3D object rendering. ²

I don’t think the OP is talking about the actual game engine, as his complaints are aimed entirely at the differing play mechanics rather than programming mechanics. If he thought the game had to be similar because of a shared design engine, he’s very much mistaken, just look at what people do with the blizzard world and map editors. Some of those games aren’t even remotely recognizable as coming from the same engine as their parent games.

TLDR. But having not played GW1, i was surprised to read classes had ’ a few hundred skills’.

What to take away from this is… players had the tools to have their individual classes balanced. Since options were available.

GW2 is the flip side. Not much choices, and we gotta rely on Anet for some decent balancing. Hopeful?

Just look at arrow carts.