Guild Wars 2

I saw this on YouTube and I have a question…Where do in game these skills actually exist, the arrow teleport one? the Exploding arrow? The Warrior guy reflecting all particles? Mesmer making his group dissapear for few seconds? I’m serious Where is all that they showed on trailers.

Exploding shot-Thief shortbow skill
Shadow shot-Thief shortbow skill
Wall of reflection-Guardian skill
Mass Invisibility-Mesmer Elite

I would also say it looks like at some point everyone was on some sort of initiative system, look at them spam those skills! Although maybe they knew firing of a skill and waiting on a cooldown was boring, so they hid that part.

Here is the funny thing…doesn’t that combat look awesome?

It is slower, more controlled, things die in fewer hits.

As opposed to us standing there letting auto attack whittle away as we wait for our bigger attacks to come off cooldown. Looks static and boring sometimes.

For balance reasons if you have multiple players combat might be trivialized with the ability to one shot monsters like that though. Yet, if we can one-two shot monsters, then in a slower paced combat system like that, they could too.

Also with the aspect of group play and things dying faster, swarms of mobs becomes more interesting and dynamic. More players are better to down the multiple mobs easier versus one player running out of attacks and getting overwhelmed.

Single target abilities are faster cooldown to be used more frequently while area effect abilities should be on long cast times or long cooldowns so that group content is not trivialized by one player with good AE.

Taking note of the elementalists pushing back skelks with water spells, now area control becomes more interesting to “buy time” for other attacks or to space out enemies better. This could open up more fight mechanics with area denial to win events and keeping enemies off your defense objective. Control and support players could feel beneficial instead of everyone needs to dps to win.

The only downside to a system like this is the prospect of projectile attacks “from” the mobs. Ranged combat would have to become more controllable versus just spamming from a distance. So max/min distance, blocks, and absorption could help protect players from ranged attacks.

For boss fights, there could be long moments of invulnerability and the players have to work to create openings using skills or environment. Much like the Super Adventure Box Frog King fight. He only took three rounds of attacks, but it caused the players to move and think a bit without focusing on high HP pools and cheap spammed mechanics.

Solo would be faster in some aspects because you would be fighting more mobs more frequently as you work your way into a cave, while in another point of view you have more time to think and use skills instead of just spamming things on cooldown for the most part.

Outgoing damage looks good in those videos, but the biggest question is how would incoming damage be dealt with so that players did not get constantly one and two show themselves.

Well I can tell you from an engineer point of fact that we do not have rifle shots that turn the enemies away and make them run.

We do not have jump shots that actually work that fast.

None of our skills kill that quickly a more accurate show would be us having to put down an entire set of all three turrets that do damage along with our healing turret, and a drop elite to kill that quickly.

Also those grenades, nothing like what’s actually in game. The actual number of grenades to kill even a single skritt in a level 60+ zone is 15 and that’s with heavy condition damage build.

The mine doesn’t actually do much damage it just has a knockback.

And we absolutely do not have the ability to catch spells and then throw them back with our shield.

Whats sad is now it’s one of the weakest PVE classes in the game because we’ve yet to see them repair the damage they’ve done to the class for months because they didn’t initially separate the behaviors and damage nerfs between the three play styles PVE PVP WVW which has damaged this class immensely.

Two static fields in a row, something dodgy going on there.
Two meteor storms in a row & it actually hitting something, Anet hacked their own game!!

At least one thing stayed true to the game.
The blonde thief pressed two & one shot something ;p

CMF.5461:

Here is the funny thing…doesn’t that combat look awesome?

Outside of the awesome sound effects, the combat looks heavily set up and horribly slow and boring. I’m glad it’s much more fast-paced than that movie showcases.

You all realize that those video clips were made as marketing material by ANet to display the ideas of the skills back when they were revealing the professions, right?

None of those videos are to be taken as anything but marketing and have no balance, or real gameplay involved.

For example, the Elementalist profession page:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/elementalist/

I am sad that the sound effect of mesmer surge skills didn’t last to the release It sounded so cool!

Since you’re such a kitten list all skills in this video.

Hahaha the thief with grabbing the branch off the oakheart lol

Well to be honest, the combat in that video looks so much more alive. Yes, it might be slower, but at least there you don’t have to spam auto attacks all day. These skill videos played a big part in hyping me for the game. All of the professions look so much more fun.

I just need to take a look at my Mesmer cooldowns right now (apart from auto attack): 8s, 14.5s, 28s, 28s. And that’s already traited for 20% staff cooldown. It’s obvious that most of the time I will be auto attacking. And I won’t even start with utilities (loved that warrior chaining stomp and rush in the vid).

Marketing or not, it’s looking outright better than what we have right now – auto attacks all day long.

RoterFuchs.9216:

(loved that warrior chaining stomp and rush in the vid).

That’s the other thing. With abilities not on a strict cooldown like that, a combo chain system would create some interesting skill dynamics.

I know that the game is too far along it’s own path now to ever be anything like what was in that video but I just wanted to express what I felt was a true action oriented combat system.

Yes I know it was scripted and all marketing, but I think marketing got it that time, sadly.

If this game were to be like those videos then:

• Stats on gear currently would have little to no meaning as things die too fast for a traditional rpg stat system.
• Gear becomes all but cosmetic if stats do not matter, sine it is about the actions player took and not the stats on their gear or trait lines.
• Combat would obviously have to be reworked completely and that is time and effort they do not have.
• The players would be frustrated at a drastic change in the game after playing it for a year one way already.
• It just might be too hard for some people with an emphasis on don’t get hit or you die. This would be everywhere and not just boss fights.

Again I express my like and interest in a combat system like this. When Super Adventure Box came out, the first thing I noticed was the combat in it.

Things died in 1 or 2 hits, and the player also only could take a few hits before dying as well. It was so simplified and generic that is summed down the combat system into what the original idea was. Action.

I remember making a post about how much I liked the SAB combat. Even if it was very slow and simplified and yet it was still difficult enough where you had to learn enemy attacks, don’t rush in just spam attacks, use them with precision. After mastering the attacks and timing, and learning what all the abilities of the enemies were, you were able to run through the SAB with relative ease. Yet I still died sometimes if I was not paying attention. Small mistakes mattered still.

What we have now I think is a lot of fluff and overinflated systems added to the combat. There is the core idea there still, but it is hidden in stats and buffers to make it more palatable to the current user base of most MMO’s.

I only wish we could have something like in the video for a day so people could experience it and see that even if it is slow, it could be awesome.

I wonder if they could have a separate server with “action style combat” rules on it for people like me =p

People, these are class previews made to LOOK stunning and pretty. These were the class reveal videos that showed a small preview of some skills. This was way before Open Beta Weekend testing.

Obviously some skills changed (Veil acted like Shadow Refuge while in game it’s a curtain and Engineers using the now Mesmer skill “Absorb”)

Some of them are still in this website if you click “The Game”→ “Professions”

You obviously don’t see elementalists using meteor shower and water trident back to back. Or Fear inducing rifles.

Tldr these werepreview videos to make the classes pretty and beautiful

I think we know that, but the concern I am expressing has to do with the fact that those videos captured a combat system that could be more interesting than what we have now.

Taking high damage and low damage out of the system and replacing it with “you hit the enemy and it only can survive 2 or 3 hits”.

Now that damage has been removed, berserker gear versus clerics gear is meaningless. That is good or bad how you see it.

A lot of people have expressed concern with the combat in this game and how it is all about doing damage now and they are right to many degrees. The HP on enemies is far too high and the damage they do is far too high as well. Add on top of that the idea that our control and support abilities are very restrictive since we do not want to have a traditional trinity system in this game.

By removing high and low damage and just having “damage”, you now open the door for support and control to be viable again.

Super adventure box again had a stick (hit enemy) and a whip (stun enemy). The whip would not kill anything, but if used right you could control the enemy to create openings and make it easier to survive.

Yes these were made up and staged for the simple sake of marketing to make the game look fun and interesting. To entice players into playing the game.

Guess what, players wanted to play the game because of these marketing videos and various interviews talking about how different combat would be here. Then we see it is nothing like those videos.

That is sort of the point. The videos, while staged, are what some people wanted to play.

I wish I could play with no cooldowns.

Ranger would actually be pretty kitten good in dungeons if I could just spam barrage all day.

Shezu Tsukai.8291:

Exploding shot-Thief shortbow skill

That’s actually a warrior longbow skill. Not cluster bomb. Different animation.

The funny bit is that I have had people come to my house in real life when I’m playing and they thought the combat looked AWESOME. So maybe there’s a difference between how combat looks in trailers when you haven’t played the game, and how it feels when you’re playing the game.

A lot of people have come on this forum and said this is probably one of the best MMO combat systems they know. I like it better than the more static ones like WoW, Rift and Guild Wars 1. I like moving while firing. I like dodging.

How many people have gone back to other MMOs and returned to Guild Wars 2 when they realize how bad MMO combat actually is.

I remember more than a few posts about this.

Vayne.8563:

I like moving while firing. I like dodging.

Thing is, the dodging and moving bit wouldn’t change. The game would just become somewhat harder and less auto attack focused. In fact moving and dodging would become even more important, while you have to chose which skill fits best, instead of simply doing your skill rotation and then auto attacks.

I guess that’s the reason why over time thief has become my main class. Combat is much more engaging (and difficult), and you can actually choose from your skills more than once in a short time frame, so you don’t have to rely on auto attacks all the time.

tigirius.9014:

And we absolutely do not have the ability to catch spells and then throw them back with our shield.

Just tossing this out here; at the time that trailer was originally produced we did. It was a two-stage skill that let you catch any projectile and hold it, then toss it at another target. Mesmers had a skill just like it once (now it just steals boons). Why it was removed I can’t say; but I do miss it. I guess it was just too powerful, or too hard to use.

RoterFuchs.9216:

Vayne.8563:

I like moving while firing. I like dodging.

Thing is, the dodging and moving bit wouldn’t change. The game would just become somewhat harder and less auto attack focused. In fact moving and dodging would become even more important, while you have to chose which skill fits best, instead of simply doing your skill rotation and then auto attacks.

I guess that’s the reason why over time thief has become my main class. Combat is much more engaging (and difficult), and you can actually choose from your skills more than once in a short time frame, so you don’t have to rely on auto attacks all the time.

Thieves can do this. It’s their profession mechanic. Thief skills have no cooldown. Because there’s no energy management in the game, you have to have cooldowns or balancing professions would be a nightmare.

The reason skills were presented that way was so people could see them. And remember, when those videos were made, energy was still in the game. Energy was removed from the game after those videos were made, which could account for the discrepancy.

Anet removed energy, partly because of the fan outcry against energy potions which were going to be in the game.

That doesn’t change the fact that the gameplay and combat style presented in this video is a lot more appealing to me than what we have right now. I know it’s not gonna happen, but a “what if” discussion doesn’t hurt, does it?

Shayd.9712:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JRMBvpqGPI

I saw this on YouTube and I have a question…Where do in game these skills actually exist, the arrow teleport one? the Exploding arrow? The Warrior guy reflecting all particles? Mesmer making his group dissapear for few seconds? I’m serious Where is all that they showed on trailers.

All the skills are in the game, the warrior Long bow skill #3 is the exploding fire arrow thing. However, the combat in the video is shown without cooldowns, so they are literally using a skill over and over when in game there are 10 – 45 second cooldowns on some of these skills. Like the Blocking of the River Drakes fire.

Shayd.9712:

Since you’re such a kitten list all skills in this video.

Elementalist:
1) A Glyph of some sort (early cast animation copied the current Empower, Ether Renewal etc), followed by Meteor Shower
2) Phoenix
3) Static Field -> Chain Lightning
4) Water Trident
5) Churning Earth

Warrior:
1) Eviscerate, with a Chop
2) Stomp and Savage Leap
3) Sever Artery->Gash->Final Thrust and Shield Bash
4) Arcing Arrow
5) Shield Stance and Mace Bash->Mace Smash->Pulverise

Ranger:
1) Barrage + Moa/Bear attack chains
2) Hunter’s Call, Slash->Kick
3) Bonfire, Poison Volley
4) Serpent’s Strike, Hornet Sting, Crippling Talon
5) Whirling Defense

Necromancer:
1) Unidentified Mark (effects heavily modified for release version since this video), Doom
2) Bone Minions, Putrid Explosion
3) Grasping Dead
4) Unholy Feast (early version), Locust Swarm
5) Life Siphon

Guardian:
1) Orb of Wrath, Shield of Absorption
2) Leap of Faith, Strike->Vengeful Strike, Virtue of Courage
3) Zealot’s Defense, Flashing Blade
4) Banish, Wall of Reflection
5) Hammer of Wisdom->Command, True Strike->Pure Strike-> Faithful Strike

Thief:
1) Unload, Scorpion Wire, Pistol Whip
2) Cluster Bomb->Detonate Cluster, Infiltrator’s Arrow
3) Dancing Dagger, Death Blossom, Heartseeker
4) Shadow Shot, Caltrops, Roll for Initiative (early version without the roll), Body Shot
5) Flanking Strike, Hide in Shadows, Steal (early version)

Engineer:
1) Throw Mine, Rifle Turret, Hip Shot
2) Poison Dart Volley, Glue Shot, Big Ol’ Bomb
3) Jump Shot, Net Shot, Hip Shot
4) Poison Grenade, Freeze Grenade, Flash Grenade, Slick Shoes, Grenade
5) Drop Bandages, Magnetic Shield (early version split in to 2 stages where you could fire the stored projectile a few times)

Mesmer:
1) Mass Invisibility, Spatial Surge, Ether Bolt
2) Mirror Images (early version with longer cast), Mind Wrack, Temporal Curtain, Mind Slash
3) Chaos Storm, Blink, Winds of Chaos
4) Phantasmal Duelist (early version), Ether Feast, Mind Wrack
5) Portal, Spatial Surge

There ya go.

Well done.

Auesis.7301:

Shayd.9712:

Since you’re such a kitten list all skills in this video.

Elementalist:
1) A Glyph of some sort (early cast animation copied the current Empower, Ether Renewal etc), followed by Meteor Shower
2) Phoenix
3) Static Field -> Chain Lightning
4) Water Trident
5) Churning Earth

Warrior:
1) Eviscerate, with a Chop
2) Stomp and Savage Leap
3) Sever Artery->Gash->Final Thrust and Shield Bash
4) Arcing Arrow
5) Shield Stance and Mace Bash->Mace Smash->Pulverise

Ranger:
1) Barrage + Moa/Bear attack chains
2) Hunter’s Call, Slash->Kick
3) Bonfire, Poison Volley
4) Serpent’s Strike, Hornet Sting, Crippling Talon
5) Whirling Defense

Necromancer:
1) Unidentified Mark (effects heavily modified for release version since this video), Doom
2) Bone Minions, Putrid Explosion
3) Grasping Dead
4) Unholy Feast (early version), Locust Swarm
5) Life Siphon

Guardian:
1) Orb of Wrath, Shield of Absorption
2) Leap of Faith, Strike->Vengeful Strike, Virtue of Courage
3) Zealot’s Defense, Flashing Blade
4) Banish, Wall of Reflection
5) Hammer of Wisdom->Command, True Strike->Pure Strike-> Faithful Strike

Thief:
1) Unload, Scorpion Wire, Pistol Whip
2) Cluster Bomb->Detonate Cluster, Infiltrator’s Arrow
3) Dancing Dagger, Death Blossom, Heartseeker
4) Shadow Shot, Caltrops, Roll for Initiative (early version without the roll), Body Shot
5) Flanking Strike, Hide in Shadows, Steal (early version)

Engineer:
1) Throw Mine, Rifle Turret, Hip Shot
2) Poison Dart Volley, Glue Shot, Big Ol’ Bomb
3) Jump Shot, Net Shot, Hip Shot
4) Poison Grenade, Freeze Grenade, Flash Grenade, Slick Shoes, Grenade
5) Drop Bandages, Magnetic Shield (early version split in to 2 stages where you could fire the stored projectile a few times)

Mesmer:
1) Mass Invisibility, Spatial Surge, Ether Bolt
2) Mirror Images (early version with longer cast), Mind Wrack, Temporal Curtain, Mind Slash
3) Chaos Storm, Blink, Winds of Chaos
4) Phantasmal Duelist (early version), Ether Feast, Mind Wrack
5) Portal, Spatial Surge

There ya go.

Those skill vids are created in sterile enviroment, probably while combat was still in developement. Pratice target dolls are replaced with mobs, doing attack only when its required for show. They are not representation of combat system in whole.

Imagine how group event would look like with this pace of combat. 30 mobs standing around without much attacking and moving, and 20 players each attacking once every few seconds, killing mob in 1-2 shots. It might look cool at first glance, with nice camera angles and sweet graphics but in pratice it would be dull. Not to mention that everybody would be able to dodge any attack…

I don’t know guys but after watching that vid I think weapon skills should ALL do away with cooldowns and be put on an inititve type system like the Thief class……

Keep healing and utility skills with cooldowns however.

Really I see no real point for cooldowns on weapon skills, if they REALLY need to limit some of the skills for them they could just add longer cast times.

Oh and as for the outgoing damage in this vid and how quick things died, I see it exactly like this when playing in starter zones lvl 1-15 on any of my level 80s so maybe for the purposes of this video that’s what they did.

Paulytnz.7619:

I don’t know guys but after watching that vid I think weapon skills should ALL do away with cooldowns and be put on an inititve type system like the Thief class……

Keep healing and utility skills with cooldowns however.

Really I see no real point for cooldowns on weapon skills, if they REALLY need to limit some of the skills for them they could just add longer cast times.

Oh and as for the outgoing damage in this vid and how quick things died, I see it exactly like this when playing in starter zones lvl 1-15 on any of my level 80s so maybe for the purposes of this video that’s what they did.

No point on say warr shield cooldowns? Stun spamming sounds awesome, only not for guy thats beeing stunned for 7 seconds while five guys are shredding him…
Or how about ranger applying poison seven times with 7 attacks and other guy is removing it seven times with cond remover, and after all initiative is spend they are back on square one…

Oh yes…exactly, someone finally summed up my ideas on this game.
I mean, GW2 is a great game, the first one i thought was worth spending money on, and the first glances of it made me fall in love. But now… I feel betrayed.
Let’s look at effects. All those nice particle animations. Wonderful, really catches the eye and I would not want to stop using such skills. These are not present in game, maybe a few (guardian skills looked similar). Yeah, it WAS a marketing idea, to make it more appealing, but if the technology is given, the effects are there…why not use it? Why deny players the right to see these images in game, the ones they have chosen to adore from the moment it was revealed. Why? I feel betrayed…
GW2 promotion was all about how combat is changing, how unique fast paced and full of action it will be. And for the first few weeks, maybe months it felt like that. Dodging was something new, the effects compared to other MMOs is decent… but simply put: not enough. Biggest problem is what many others before me mentioned: the pace of combat, auto attack spamming (when it was said before that there will be no auto attack…). It would be nice, to spam auto attacks, BUT… after around lvl 40-50ish… mobs die soooo slow and not because you are a noob or have no decent equipment…they simply have too much hp, and combat is basically: auto attack, waiting for bigger attack cooldowns and dodging from time to time. Compare it to WoW for instance (yea…feel free to throw rocks at me), where you stood in one place and pressed buttons, quite boring in the 21th century. Now it is all the same… except that you have to dodge quite a few times if you want to survive, since your hp is generally low and mobs do much damage, which becomes such a drag… I would be happy to dodge all around and perform these acrobatic and tactic things, if it is rewarding. But it still takes almost a minute or not 2 (or more Dear God) to kill one single mob… even if I spend several golds per lvl to equip better stuff as I level my character. No… terribly boring, and I lvoe lvling… I lvled all classes to feel them, to try them and it just turns out boring and dull and is a drag.
The first zone is always fun, because you can run through it, full of action, fast, and then you switch to the second one (15-25) and everything takes exactly 10 TIMES MORE to kill… once you reach sparkly fen, you just wish you were dead isntead of spamming auto attacks with their crappy animations, and no actual effect or benefit or excitement.
It might be too long, but I’m playing since headstart, never once gave up hope on this game, constantly promote it, since it still better than most. But regardless, I feel betrayed and let down, with this current system. The world is empty, players only do events in the first zones, or are in LA, or the actual living story map, and other than that i feel alone. Alone with my auto attacks, and that is why i am seriously considering taking a break. Sad story, because it looked so promising, could have turned out so well…
TL,DR: we should have these animations in game

1:28 – 1:41 Dual wielding axes, no weapon switching. Can you spot the obvious lie here?

Ah, another they lied to us thread. Nothing beats them. Except walking away from people who continually lie to you, but that would be too easy.

Yargesh.4965:

Ah, another they lied to us thread. Nothing beats them. Except walking away from people who continually lie to you, but that would be too easy.

Or you could tell those people to stop lying and man up. Nah, rather run away.

RoterFuchs.9216:

Yargesh.4965:

Ah, another they lied to us thread. Nothing beats them. Except walking away from people who continually lie to you, but that would be too easy.

Or you could tell those people to stop lying and man up. Nah, rather run away.

I have yet to see these so called lies. But I guess I am just not you.

zallesz.1650:

Oh yes…exactly, someone finally summed up my ideas on this game.
I mean, GW2 is a great game, the first one i thought was worth spending money on, and the first glances of it made me fall in love. But now… I feel betrayed.
Let’s look at effects. All those nice particle animations. Wonderful, really catches the eye and I would not want to stop using such skills. These are not present in game, maybe a few (guardian skills looked similar). Yeah, it WAS a marketing idea, to make it more appealing, but if the technology is given, the effects are there…why not use it? Why deny players the right to see these images in game, the ones they have chosen to adore from the moment it was revealed. Why? I feel betrayed…
GW2 promotion was all about how combat is changing, how unique fast paced and full of action it will be. And for the first few weeks, maybe months it felt like that. Dodging was something new, the effects compared to other MMOs is decent… but simply put: not enough. Biggest problem is what many others before me mentioned: the pace of combat, auto attack spamming (when it was said before that there will be no auto attack…). It would be nice, to spam auto attacks, BUT… after around lvl 40-50ish… mobs die soooo slow and not because you are a noob or have no decent equipment…they simply have too much hp, and combat is basically: auto attack, waiting for bigger attack cooldowns and dodging from time to time. Compare it to WoW for instance (yea…feel free to throw rocks at me), where you stood in one place and pressed buttons, quite boring in the 21th century. Now it is all the same… except that you have to dodge quite a few times if you want to survive, since your hp is generally low and mobs do much damage, which becomes such a drag… I would be happy to dodge all around and perform these acrobatic and tactic things, if it is rewarding. But it still takes almost a minute or not 2 (or more Dear God) to kill one single mob… even if I spend several golds per lvl to equip better stuff as I level my character. No… terribly boring, and I lvoe lvling… I lvled all classes to feel them, to try them and it just turns out boring and dull and is a drag.
The first zone is always fun, because you can run through it, full of action, fast, and then you switch to the second one (15-25) and everything takes exactly 10 TIMES MORE to kill… once you reach sparkly fen, you just wish you were dead isntead of spamming auto attacks with their crappy animations, and no actual effect or benefit or excitement.
It might be too long, but I’m playing since headstart, never once gave up hope on this game, constantly promote it, since it still better than most. But regardless, I feel betrayed and let down, with this current system. The world is empty, players only do events in the first zones, or are in LA, or the actual living story map, and other than that i feel alone. Alone with my auto attacks, and that is why i am seriously considering taking a break. Sad story, because it looked so promising, could have turned out so well…
TL,DR: we should have these animations in game

Except for the number of complaints there were in beta about too much flashy stuff going on and no one could see what was doing on and could Anet please change it. Or don’t you remember that bit?

Yargesh.4965:

RoterFuchs.9216:

Yargesh.4965:

Ah, another they lied to us thread. Nothing beats them. Except walking away from people who continually lie to you, but that would be too easy.

Or you could tell those people to stop lying and man up. Nah, rather run away.

I have yet to see these so called lies. But I guess I am just not you.

Oh I never said they lied. I just picked up on what you said (Reminder: “Ah, another they lied to us thread.”). No need to get personal, I wasn’t attacking you.

However I simply do like what I see in those videos more than what we have ingame right now. It might be just marketing, or they decided to take a different path from what can be seen, I don’t know. And it really doesn’t matter, since I guess it won’t be changed anytime soon.
Still, bringing up such topics shows ANet that changing the current combat might not be a bad thing and that there are players who would enjoy that, even if it was just little changes. There’s always room for improvement. We just show ANet where they should look.

@Vayne: Not everyone played beta I guess.

RoterFuchs.9216:

Yargesh.4965:

RoterFuchs.9216:

Yargesh.4965:

Ah, another they lied to us thread. Nothing beats them. Except walking away from people who continually lie to you, but that would be too easy.

Or you could tell those people to stop lying and man up. Nah, rather run away.

I have yet to see these so called lies. But I guess I am just not you.

Oh I never said they lied. I just picked up on what you said (Reminder: “Ah, another they lied to us thread.”). No need to get personal, I wasn’t attacking you.

However I simply do like what I see in those videos more than what we have ingame right now. It might be just marketing, or they decided to take a different path from what can be seen, I don’t know. And it really doesn’t matter, since I guess it won’t be changed anytime soon.
Still, bringing up such topics shows ANet that changing the current combat might not be a bad thing and that there are players who would enjoy that, even if it was just little changes. There’s always room for improvement. We just show ANet where they should look.

@Vayne: Not everyone played beta I guess.

Whether you played beta or not, those videos were pre release, and the amount of complaints about particle effects were myriad. These skills were changed because the fans asked them to be changed. You can still look up transcripts of old AMAs on Reddit where people asked for particle reduction to be looked at.