Guild Wars 2

A lot of people have praised GW2 for “fresh, dynamic combat”. However, I’ve been playing elementalist for a little over a year now and haven’t felt much of it dynamic when running with staff, nor have I seen it from other players in dungeons and fractals.

The glorious exception is the Volcanic Fractal, where Hot Foot effect during the boss fight requires you to move. It feels refreshing, yet during that battle I always realise how much time I spend standing still and casting Meteor Shower (ele staff 5). Is this game GW2 or not?

= ELE =
That’s why I’d love to see a complete rework of Meteor Shower, the most boring skill in the whole game. It was nerfed recently but it still takes forever to cast. Instead, I’d like to see a version of it that will take some time to cast, but allow players to move meanwhile, yet the shower will begin after the cast ends. This way in PvE it’ll still deal a lot of damage over time, while in PvP/WvW players will see the AoE ring a few second before taking damage (as it won’t be easy to make ele stop casting).

Maybe an animation of AoE skill charging from Gorseval’s World Eater stage could be used while the skill is charging to teach people when to avoid AoE (though maybe not in WvW, as it will allow players to distinguish ele’s attacks from others). Or maybe this animation is not even a good idea at all, since Meteor Shower isn’t a burst-damage (but it could be, and that’s a thought, isn’t it?)

= GENERAL =
For some classes, the only reason to move while DPSing is using the “+10% damage when moving” food. That’s nice, so maybe there should be more variations of this effect? And more items with such effects?

Or maybe constant bonus damage when moving should be added to all professions, so new players will be encouraged to move and movement will become a part of meta?
That would be a huge change, I know. But generally, some high-level players tend to move around all the time anyway.

= END NOTE =
At the other hand, such changes may not work well with GW2 movement system, as it’s generally not so easy to keep moving sideways and select AoE areas to attack at the same time to keep nice DPS. Maybe the key binding for all players should be changed then, to bind strafing to A&D instead of turning? But then, where should turning go, as it’s nice for accessibility and allow to play without a mouse?

So many things to consider and it’s not surprising, as I’m suggesting changes to core mechanics.

Yet the idea of Moving Wars 2 looks too good not to talk about.

Being rooted while you cast Meteor Shower is a balance decision, not just because ANet doesn’t want us moving around. It makes you a clear target since you are setting up a highly damaging AoE attack with one of, if not the, largest AoE sizes in the entire game. So yea, it makes sense for you to be rooted while casting it, it gives players a better chance to interrupt you, or put down enough pressure to get you to move, canceling the cast.

For everything else, if you want to move more, go for it. Generally though if you don’t need to move there isn’t much reason to move.

What OriOri said: if you want to run around 24×7 in combat, play a class that doesn’t root while using abilities. Necromancer, for example, has no root in the scepter condition rotation. Ranger mostly doesn’t.

The trade-off for that amazing “boss stands still, you don’t have to move” DPS you see with elementalists topping the DPS rankings? In the real world, where the boss isn’t static, and you do have to move, your DPS drops way, way more than classes that perform equally well on the golem and in the real world — but “equally well” can be as low as 1/3 of ele DPS.

Which, coincidentally, is around the output of an average ele DPS in real world raiding and so forth.

certain abilities have the nature of high risk high reward like when u do meteor show on ele or when you do your cs rotation with chrono u you die in that process or get cced its your fault for not knowing whats happening around you as well as if you pull it off the pay of is immense hence the dynamic nature of the combat.

Seriously, I don’t know where to begin with this…

Meteor shower already has a loading animation. He twirls around. Everyone who bothers knowing the other classes knows this animation by now, and know what it means.

Also, the ground circle is laughably easy to avoid, and if not for that, then the first meteor to land are also a good enough cue hard to miss. If you do, then it’s on you, and I would not see a whole class penalized off of a skill that is already hard enough to land successfully because some cannot pay attention.

Also, I don’t get your incentive. You say yourself that older player move more. That means it’s a learning issue, which is resolved with times, why add a candy on top of it? The game itself fuel the need to move around fairly well on itself, simply by the fact that there is no tank.

Of course big blob won’t move as much, but they also have the need to remain close and huddled together. I don’t see much PvP, roaming or small man squad PvE remaining immobile in aoe-filled land. Recipe for disaster that.

Your end note.

The skill can be modified through your own interface. Some like it as is, some don’t. Some hate the layout as a whole (like I did) and changed everything. Most people encourage keybinding strafe to ‘A’ and ‘D’.

Overall, I just feel like this suggestion is a way to ask the game to give a crutch to a player who can’t be bothered to learn how to walk.

Well, thanks for honest replies.

I can see Meteor Shower pros (important one being that it worked for years), I just wanted to see if I can push the game in certain direction by showing people a possibility. While it clearly failed, maybe one day someone will be thinking how to make GW2 less similar to MMO and then the more feedback he has the better, right?

Don’t mind this thread then, because I did realise changes I proposed aren’t likely to happen back when I was writing original post. But if someday it may be useful, then it’s better to write than to be silent.

I admit I was bored when making this thread, and not really thinking (I can see how excited I was, now I cannot even stand looking at my first post). I admit I’m in a stage where I think I finally know a lot about the game when in reality I probably know almost nothing. I admit I haven’t learn to appreciate some content in GW2 like other classes (I’ve tried but my playtime is nothing compared to main character) and high-level PvE yet. I admit I’m now just trying to justify the existence of this thread and not really succeeding.

I felt like leaving the thread hanging and pretending it didn’t happen wasn’t the right thing to do, so now I can leave.