A trinity system doesn’t make for much more exciting combat. It just creates a privileged minority out of tanks and healers. So now, instead of a dungeon group just falling apart because of rampant stupidity and failure, it can also fall apart because of primadonnas rage-quitting when you don’t bend to their will.
Yes, a balanced trinity system does all that crap you mentioned, which is why having friends and a good guild to play with made the experience much more enjoyable.
What you are wrong about is that having a balanced trinity does actually make combat more interesting, complex, strategic and rewarding. We can go on about this for hours, but it is pretty much a fact that cooperative play and meaningful encounters were much better in GW1 due to a balanced trinity than in GW2.
I still say Guild Wars 1 didn’t have a trinity. WoW has a trinity.
The reason Guild Wars 1 didn’t have a trinity is because there’s no aggro mechanic. There’s no taunt mechanic. Sure Guild Wars 1 players called certain people tanks, but tanks weren’t strictly necessary, at least in PVe.
I never used a tank in PVe. Not once. That means that in Guild Wars 1, the trinity didn’t exist. Not as it does in other games.
Based on your definition I agree 100%. I also never did the whole tank thing in GW1.
My opinion of the trinity in GW1 would look more like a balance between damage, healing/prot and utility. Or, frontline, midline and backline.
Have you played many other MMOs. If you did, you’d know why I hate the trinity. It’s very constricting. Not just on the player’s side, but on the development side as well.
I played Rift for a while and I have to tell you, I learned to hate the trinity as it exists in most MMOs.
Which doesn’t mean Guild Wars 2’s combat couldn’t be improved. But I think there is a lot to the combat that only really comes into play in a couple of hard encounters.
Yeah, here is the rub, I haven’t played any other MMO’s. I have tried them and quit after a week or two.
Guild Wars 1 was it for me, so my views on the genre are a bit warped. I played a few FPS games I liked and I am a big fan of the Elder Scroll games.
I really like the action oriented style of GW2, I just think the synergy in teams from GW1 is missing.
A lot of the synergy is optional, or hidden. They made a game people could zerg, but if you play with the same people day in and day out Guild Wars 2 has a lot of ways you can syngerize. It’s just knowing those ways, or learning them. Many are not immediately apparent.
One encounter I like to talk about is the Flame Elemental in the fractals, at the end of the grawl path. A lot of people have trouble with that battle. Particularly at one point, when the elemental gets a fire shield around it and summons lava elementals. That’s when a lot of groups wipe.
When I’m there on my mesmer, using the fourth greatsword skill, in combination with timewarp takes that shield down in seconds.
Actually as a mesmer, I don’t really do enough damage. I’m far more based in support. I do depend on other people to damage creatures while I support the party with boons and hurt the enemy with conditions. It’s sort of the role I made for myself. But I’m always helping the party.
A lot of the fields I lay down I do for the party to combo off of, and I usually say when the field is going down on mumble, so people can capitilize off it.
In fact, this game is usually hard on pugs, but great if you’re playing with a team of the same people day in and day out. There are so many things you can bring. One of our normal team includes a ranger in it. While the ranger is often considered to be of questionable use in a dungeon, we find that the search and rescue pet thing can be very handy and has occassionally gotten us out of trouble.
As a guild we talk about what we’re bringing so we don’t always double up on things, and we have a variety of skills represented. Some people are better at some jobs than others.
But the roles are less defined by the game and more defined by our skills as players and our play styles.
Those who think this game is becoming WoW should be forced to play WoW for a few months. They would see just how wrong they are.