Guild Wars 2

While I like how your skills change depending on your weapon, I feel that in the end there are just TOO few of them.

Its the major reason GW2 has been boring for me as I feel I have way too little tools to play with in combat, and the ones I have aren’t particularly exciting.

It would be cool if a weapon skill set had multiple skill styles. Like if you use a sword, you could choose between an ‘agile’ sword skill bar and an ‘aggresive’ sword skill bar for example.

A larger variety of skills would really help this game out I feel.

Sorry to dissent, but I must disagree. One of the things I hate about most MMOs is the annoying number of skills they throw at you. GW2 strikes a very good balance of keeping a narrow skill band without sacrificing much in the way of depth.

That being said, given the number of weapons each class can use, there’s really not a lack of skill sets to try.

I agree. More than anything most classes utility skills just feels so shallow and bland though.

I think the current system works great. Please don’t add more skills.

Rynn.1324:

Sorry to dissent, but I must disagree. One of the things I hate about most MMOs is the annoying number of skills they throw at you. GW2 strikes a very good balance of keeping a narrow skill band without sacrificing much in the way of depth.

That being said, given the number of weapons each class can use, there’s really not a lack of skill sets to try.

I don’t mind the NUMBER of skills, but lots of skills just do very underwhelming things. Like I think that if some abilities just did one or two more or different things, they’d be much better.

Like with the Mesmer; Feedback and Mimic. Why would you ever pick Mimic over the Feedback bubble?

Feed back bubble is insta cast, creates a combo field, makes an area that reflects projectiles for 6 seconds. Mimic makes you stop attacking, makes you block for 4 seconds, absorbs one projectile, after the 4 seconds you can use the ability to send the one absorbed projectile back at a foe, with a 3/4 second cast time.

To top it all off there’s a bunch of traints that buff glamour skils (Feedback) to confuse when cast, blind when cast, add confusion when blinding, shorter cooldowns and longer durations. While Manipulation (Mimic) only has shorter cooldown and increased range. I mean one compared to the other, Mimic is a pretty useless ability.

Now if Mimic did a couple extra things here and there, it could be a nice skill.
There’s a LOT of underwhelming skills in the game which just make you think “now WHY would I pick this over that?”

Rynn.1324:

Sorry to dissent, but I must disagree. One of the things I hate about most MMOs is the annoying number of skills they throw at you. GW2 strikes a very good balance of keeping a narrow skill band without sacrificing much in the way of depth.

That being said, given the number of weapons each class can use, there’s really not a lack of skill sets to try.

As a thief.. when doing quests and the like, I’m always just spamming one or two skills to optimally clear enemies while emptying the cooldowns on Utilities in between. Its almost always the same experience.. and I’m getting bored with it. Which class do you play?

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_all_skills

Because more is not always better.

Delryn.7235: Mimic is good when fighting alone. And once charged it’s a 4sec invulnerability with a 25sec cooldown. There are worse utilities.

Animando.7956:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_all_skills

Because more is not always better.

Delryn.7235: Mimic is good when fighting alone. And once charged it’s a 4sec invulnerability with a 25sec cooldown. There are worse utilities.

Well it only absorbs projectiles, so a non projectile attack still hits you, thus not at all invulnerable. If you want invulnerable Warriors for example have abilities that compared to the Mesmer’s Mimic is much better.

To top it all off the skill is currently bugged cause when I get hit with a projectile I still take damage even though I absorbed the projectile to be resent, but ignoring that since it’s not intended (hopefully).

Also even 1vs1 Feedback bubble is still better since it gives you a combo field for your finishers to add confusion, reflects projectiles for longer AND you can attack while it’s up. I honestly haven’t faced a one single mesmer that’s used mimic against me.

I vote for additional skill mechanics (like combos!), this way there wouldn’t be a skill spam on the screen but still more possibilities. As I said once, I’d love to see profession-only combo requiring like 3-4 people to channel its effect, could be massive or just a temporary buff.

Once charged (with a projectile that deals 100% damage) Mimic fully blocks ALL non ranged attacks while reflecting ranged ones which is incredibly useful to survive 10 people chasing you in WvW. But I agree with you: it’s totally bugged. It does things it shouldn’t and vice versa.

Anyway: I am totally against more skills as long as we have bugged/unbalanced traits/skills/tooltips in the game.

Rynn.1324:

Sorry to dissent, but I must disagree. One of the things I hate about most MMOs is the annoying number of skills they throw at you. GW2 strikes a very good balance of keeping a narrow skill band without sacrificing much in the way of depth.

That being said, given the number of weapons each class can use, there’s really not a lack of skill sets to try.

I agree. On most MMOs they throw so many skills at you and by end game you are only using about the same amount that you use on here.

Goodness, now I’m going to become a broken record!

As I have now stated in multiple threads… (/hidesface!) I completely agree the skill system needs a face lift.

Quests leading to new skills (even by factions), quests leading to unlock new weapons, skill capping special monsters and bosses, really there are a ton of fun ways to engage the player with achieving skills and specializing their characters.

More choice is better

A great money maker for Anet would be a hilarious skill (like summon cowface that could put cow masks on other players.. or something) in the black chests with a similar skill available in game through laurels or some other reward system.

Just some ideas.

EDIT: I’m liking ‘Cathead’ better that could summon a cat holding onto people’s heads.. oh oh oh OR Quaggan hugs! Summons Quaggans holding onto people’s chests… >.>

luna.4916:

As a thief.. when doing quests and the like, I’m always just spamming one or two skills to optimally clear enemies while emptying the cooldowns on Utilities in between. Its almost always the same experience.. and I’m getting bored with it. Which class do you play?

I play an engineer as my main who primarily uses a flamethrower/elixirgun build. It’s pretty much the opposite of my other classes in terms of how many skills I’m juggling at once. My mesmer and warrior alts rotate through a handful of skills; my engineer is juggling 10-12 at any given time.

There are a number of things GW2 could take from GW in terms of this:

• Skill Capturing – Instead of just giving us the skills, make us hunt for them.

• A Variety Of Weapon Skills – Give us a pool of 2 – 4 skills for each slot that keep in with the theme of the weapon, but allow to mix the playstyle up a bit. For example; Warrior Sword 5 Riposte could be exchanged for Seeking Blade, that causes Bleeding if Blocked, while Ele Fire Staff 3 Flame Burst could be exchanged for Rodgort’s Mark, which causes the next application of Burning to also deal all of its damage in a Burst.

• Skills Have Additional Effects When Criteria Are Met – This, IMO, was what added depth to the GW system, and not the sheer number of skills. For example, Teinai’s Crystals would deal damage, but also apply Cracked Armour if they were suffering from a Water Hex. This allowed people to build skills that chained together for devastating effect when used properly.

the game needs more INTERESTING skills. how many people do you know that actually switch between the definitive best healing skill on a class? how many people actually use different elites? why are there even so few and uninteresting elites with such large cooldowns to begin with? why are most of the utility abilities either useless or conceptually broken? why don’t the orders have skills? i find it so hard to believe that the skill variety and concepts are such a step down from gw1

Rynn.1324:

Sorry to dissent, but I must disagree. One of the things I hate about most MMOs is the annoying number of skills they throw at you. GW2 strikes a very good balance of keeping a narrow skill band without sacrificing much in the way of depth.

They could do it while still keeping the few number of active skills by increasing the number of weapons available to each class or by adding more weapon skills to each weapon and the player would have to choose which weapon skills to use, like the slot skills.

We get the deck building aspect of GW1 with the GW2 approach.

TheDaiBish.9735:

…

• Skills Have Additional Effects When Criteria Are Met – This, IMO, was what added depth to the GW system, and not the sheer number of skills. For example, Teinai’s Crystals would deal damage, but also apply Cracked Armour if they were suffering from a Water Hex. This allowed people to build skills that chained together for devastating effect when used properly.

OMG this! I miss this so much.

Valento.9852:

TheDaiBish.9735:

…

• Skills Have Additional Effects When Criteria Are Met – This, IMO, was what added depth to the GW system, and not the sheer number of skills. For example, Teinai’s Crystals would deal damage, but also apply Cracked Armour if they were suffering from a Water Hex. This allowed people to build skills that chained together for devastating effect when used properly.

OMG this! I miss this so much.

Ranger Shortbow is the closest we have to this for the moment

This game would be much better if ANet used the resources they put into developing the holiday events, lost shores, fractals and flame and frost into adding new traits and skills for each class.

Czar Peter.7961:

This game would be much better if ANet used the resources they put into developing the holiday events, lost shores, fractals and flame and frost into adding new traits and skills for each class.

And I believe they will. The game is still so new…

yeah please add more skills, I love having half my skill bar filled with useless and very situational skills.

/sarcasm

I’d like the idea of “skills within skills” or “tree’s” off each skill where after you have capped the basic skills of a weapon you can continue to use it for additional levels it or you can gain… thus unlocking tiered multi-pathed skill tree’s to add flavor, utility, effects to a given weapon based on how long you use it or the class of weapon… maybe future weapons could gain things depending on what perks you chose off the tree or something… like different elements for swords that add different graphical looks and aura’s… really that would never make me leave gw2… i love it in all other respects :{D

Just my 2¢

~Blasto

EDIT: no complaints with the number of skills… i dig hot swapping weapons if i want a utility vs dps vs defensive or whathaveyou build… never liked having to span my keyboard in one fight :{P

TheDaiBish.9735:

There are a number of things GW2 could take from GW in terms of this:

• Skill Capturing – Instead of just giving us the skills, make us hunt for them.

Please no.

Elite skill hunting in GW1 was one of the worst features, to me, because you had to sacrifice a skill slot for Capture Signet and sometimes the Elite skill you cap, in normal/non-hunting gameplay, is borderline useless because you didn’t put any points into it (i.e. getting an Elite Prot Prayers skill when you have 0 points in it).

draakdorei.9436:

TheDaiBish.9735:

There are a number of things GW2 could take from GW in terms of this:

• Skill Capturing – Instead of just giving us the skills, make us hunt for them.

Please no.

Elite skill hunting in GW1 was one of the worst features, to me, because you had to sacrifice a skill slot for Capture Signet and sometimes the Elite skill you cap, in normal/non-hunting gameplay, is borderline useless because you didn’t put any points into it (i.e. getting an Elite Prot Prayers skill when you have 0 points in it).

Who says it has to be the same system?

Since we can swap skills out in the world, I’d say what you are complaining about would be a non-issue in GW2.

Animando.7956:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_all_skills

Because more is not always better.

Delryn.7235: Mimic is good when fighting alone. And once charged it’s a 4sec invulnerability with a 25sec cooldown. There are worse utilities.

I wish GW2 had that many skills…

draakdorei.9436:

TheDaiBish.9735:

There are a number of things GW2 could take from GW in terms of this:

• Skill Capturing – Instead of just giving us the skills, make us hunt for them.

Please no.

Elite skill hunting in GW1 was one of the worst features, to me, because you had to sacrifice a skill slot for Capture Signet and sometimes the Elite skill you cap, in normal/non-hunting gameplay, is borderline useless because you didn’t put any points into it (i.e. getting an Elite Prot Prayers skill when you have 0 points in it).

Yea, but you could respec for free in town so who cares…

GW1 skill cap system was awesome in the way that hunting for pokemon is awesome.

There has been many threads about this problem already, and keeping seeing new ones just confirm that it is indeed a problem for some of us.
Like others I’ve already expressed myself on the subject elsewhere, but I have to salute TheDaiBish for summing it up in a few clear points :

TheDaiBish.9735:

There are a number of things GW2 could take from GW in terms of this:

• Skill Capturing – Instead of just giving us the skills, make us hunt for them.

• A Variety Of Weapon Skills – Give us a pool of 2 – 4 skills for each slot that keep in with the theme of the weapon, but allow to mix the playstyle up a bit. For example; Warrior Sword 5 Riposte could be exchanged for Seeking Blade, that causes Bleeding if Blocked, while Ele Fire Staff 3 Flame Burst could be exchanged for Rodgort’s Mark, which causes the next application of Burning to also deal all of its damage in a Burst.

• Skills Have Additional Effects When Criteria Are Met – This, IMO, was what added depth to the GW system, and not the sheer number of skills. For example, Teinai’s Crystals would deal damage, but also apply Cracked Armour if they were suffering from a Water Hex. This allowed people to build skills that chained together for devastating effect when used properly.

^^ This. Exactly. Precisely.

I didn’t play that much GW1, but if you tell me all of this was there … man I can’t understand the reason why they took it away.
If it’s because of complexity, then it is naive to believe that a game that is supposed to be played thousands of hours can stay fresh with only so few combat options (choices, skills, traits, etc.).

And also :

Czar Peter.7961:

This game would be much better if ANet used the resources they put into developing the holiday events, lost shores, fractals and flame and frost into adding new traits and skills for each class.

^^This.
I won’t say it enough : I don’t understand why mmo devs in general shift their efforts so much towards pure content after release and don’t dare to touch the mechanics.

You could give us new bosses, new horizons, new zones, new weapons all you want … We will still be performing the same actions, with the same choices, all night with our char … Which is the biggest source of boredom.

I’ve said this before but I couldn’t disagree more with the OPs suggestion. A key part in GW2 pvp is reading your enemy, and knowing that when you see a GS warrior that he has 100b combo prepared, you can react based on that. Removing that element would be extremely damaging to the pvp game. Pve sure, add whatever to that.

In most MMOs you don’t end up using more than ten skills, no matter how many they give you. I think the same is true in Guild Wars 2.

When I played Rift, I had everything macroed to 2 buttons. I used maybe five buttons. more skills, but all the skills did the same thing with different cooldowns. It wasn’t choice…it was the illusion of choice.

To some degree, one might say the same thing about Guild Wars 1. You had optimum builds most people used and then there were skills like mending. Besides a few “trick” farming builds, most skills went unused.

I didn’t know a ton of memsers in Guild Wars 1 that ran around with illusory weapon or Signet of Illusion. There were better skills to use.

And one of the biggest problems in Guild Wars 1, the one that really killed the game for a lot of people was that Anet was unable to balance the skills. Part of this was the number of skills and part was the dual professions. Regardless, the balancing became more and more strained as more and more skills were added.

Which is why I’m against adding skills too quickly. I’m sure more will come with more weapon selections in expansions.

I disagree also, the game does not need new skills however 1 extra utility bar would be nice but that’s it, and this is why each class can use different types or weapons and weapon combos which in all “almost” if not equals the same number that roughly other mmo class skills have.

I love my thief because I D/D and I often switch to my P/P to do some ranged attacks and they got their skills and vice versa and plus i could go sword/dagger or pistol/dagger as well and don’t forget about the underwater skills.

I think Guild Wars 2 just simplifies using skills pretty much so you don’t got a horrible UI look with buttons everywhere and this is something I really love about Guild Wars 2 HOWEVER I do feel that some classes mainly focus on using one skill but my thief, when I go D/D I usually go skill 1, and end up using heart seeker when they are half way, and if there is a bunch of mobs? No problem I use skill 3 which is a nice AOE bleed, and when I want to annoy zergs? I stealth in and out using my 5th skill cloak and dagger, and it’s a good way to slowly destroy siege weapons if they don’t think to AOE you down. I sometimes use the 4th skill throwing the dagger to cripple but not often but when I go pistol/pistol I typically only use skill 3 the most and that’s it and I noticed some classes use one skill the most or auto attack. With my engineer I could just switch between my gadgets and what not but the thief is my favorite class by far.

Also don’t forget the the trait line, I’d even call that skills really, well some of them at least, and I don’t need to give examples.

I have to disagree with those who disagree =b Playing devil-advocate.

Having a few skills is nice, especially to be able to read what kind of combo to expect in pvp (a GS Warrior for example). But there is truly nothing wrong with having a variety of skills. It makes everyone a little different! We both may be a GS Warrior… but I’m a COOLEr GS-warrior. Why? Because it satisfy me better with the skills I’ve selected.

But what do I want more than more skills?! I want MORE Weapons! I want 2-hand axe, and a pike/spear. >=) Want to run that pike up some ogre champ’s behind!

Oh, and I’m not supporting to have a whole bunch of skills either… A-net already says they want Quality of Quantity when it comes to skills (unlike GW1).

I think there are enough skills in the game. But I agree with those that say that there are a lot of utility- (and elite-) skills that are are not good enough to pick them.

On my ele I use a variety of 6 utility skills, although I have a lot more. But compared to the ones I use, the others just feel so underwhelming. Same goes for many classes, I assume. There are just some skills that are so awesome that you feel like you’d gimp yourself, if you took up something els.

But with the skills on the bar I’m fine. these ten skills are exactly as many, as I’d want to use. Add more and it gets clunky. I’ve played wow and similar games for a long time and I think if we are honest, of the 40 skills you’d get there, you’d only use 10, or even less, in most circumstances anyway.

And I always use more than just the skills on my bar. I adjust them outfight, whenever I think of it to be as well prepared for the obstacles to come, as possible (like changing from dd to staff when we come to a keep/tower or when I run in a large zerg). On my guardian I switch between 5-6 weapon sets and utility sets, so that I am best prepared for the upcoming fights. It’s just a bit too clunky to change them in my opinion, and I would like if you were able to predesign two or three skill bars that you could change with just one click when you’re outfight.

Play engineer, as someone has already said.

Equip 3 kits. You now have more skills than you can handle. Have fun.

It’s not a gimmick either, 3 kit builds can be pretty good… for engineers anyway.

Really? I don’t think so. The majority of people didn’t even manage to grasp the simple idea of combo fields 6 months after release. We don’t need more skills to confuse them even more.

luna.4916:

While I like how your skills change depending on your weapon, I feel that in the end there are just TOO few of them.

Its the major reason GW2 has been boring for me as I feel I have way too little tools to play with in combat, and the ones I have aren’t particularly exciting.

It would be cool if a weapon skill set had multiple skill styles. Like if you use a sword, you could choose between an ‘agile’ sword skill bar and an ‘aggresive’ sword skill bar for example.

A larger variety of skills would really help this game out I feel.

you not the only person that feels this way.

Meh, as long as ANet insist that we play PVE by sPVP balance it will favor (AOE) DPS over anything else. This because the game still do the classic PVE thing of throwing waves of mobs at us while the CC and support/healing is laughable within such a scenario. End result is a endless DPS kite.

Vayne.8563:

In most MMOs you don’t end up using more than ten skills, no matter how many they give you. I think the same is true in Guild Wars 2.

When I played Rift, I had everything macroed to 2 buttons. I used maybe five buttons. more skills, but all the skills did the same thing with different cooldowns. It wasn’t choice…it was the illusion of choice.

To some degree, one might say the same thing about Guild Wars 1. You had optimum builds most people used and then there were skills like mending. Besides a few “trick” farming builds, most skills went unused.

I didn’t know a ton of memsers in Guild Wars 1 that ran around with illusory weapon or Signet of Illusion. There were better skills to use.

And one of the biggest problems in Guild Wars 1, the one that really killed the game for a lot of people was that Anet was unable to balance the skills. Part of this was the number of skills and part was the dual professions. Regardless, the balancing became more and more strained as more and more skills were added.

Which is why I’m against adding skills too quickly. I’m sure more will come with more weapon selections in expansions.

Yea, but the fact that you could be a Mesmer and use those skills made GW1 ultimately more fun for me.

All they did in GW2 was take away all the ‘unused’ skills and turn them into boring ‘unused’ traits.

(active > passive imo)

Right now I would just be happy with them letting us have more than 2 weapon sets available to switch between. Gw1 we could have 3, more Anet please give us MORE.

Vayne.8563:

In most MMOs you don’t end up using more than ten skills, no matter how many they give you. I think the same is true in Guild Wars 2.

When I played Rift, I had everything macroed to 2 buttons. I used maybe five buttons. more skills, but all the skills did the same thing with different cooldowns. It wasn’t choice…it was the illusion of choice.

To some degree, one might say the same thing about Guild Wars 1. You had optimum builds most people used and then there were skills like mending. Besides a few “trick” farming builds, most skills went unused.

I didn’t know a ton of memsers in Guild Wars 1 that ran around with illusory weapon or Signet of Illusion. There were better skills to use.

And one of the biggest problems in Guild Wars 1, the one that really killed the game for a lot of people was that Anet was unable to balance the skills. Part of this was the number of skills and part was the dual professions. Regardless, the balancing became more and more strained as more and more skills were added.

Which is why I’m against adding skills too quickly. I’m sure more will come with more weapon selections in expansions.

Agreeed

scoobymode.1942:

I disagree also, the game does not need new skills however 1 extra utility bar would be nice but that’s it, and this is why each class can use different types or weapons and weapon combos which in all “almost” if not equals the same number that roughly other mmo class skills have.

I love my thief because I D/D and I often switch to my P/P to do some ranged attacks and they got their skills and vice versa and plus i could go sword/dagger or pistol/dagger as well and don’t forget about the underwater skills.

I think Guild Wars 2 just simplifies using skills pretty much so you don’t got a horrible UI look with buttons everywhere and this is something I really love about Guild Wars 2 HOWEVER I do feel that some classes mainly focus on using one skill but my thief, when I go D/D I usually go skill 1, and end up using heart seeker when they are half way, and if there is a bunch of mobs? No problem I use skill 3 which is a nice AOE bleed, and when I want to annoy zergs? I stealth in and out using my 5th skill cloak and dagger, and it’s a good way to slowly destroy siege weapons if they don’t think to AOE you down. I sometimes use the 4th skill throwing the dagger to cripple but not often but when I go pistol/pistol I typically only use skill 3 the most and that’s it and I noticed some classes use one skill the most or auto attack. With my engineer I could just switch between my gadgets and what not but the thief is my favorite class by far.

Also don’t forget the the trait line, I’d even call that skills really, well some of them at least, and I don’t need to give examples.

Agreed again

I think 5 active weapon skills is OK, but I would like to see more skills of the same weapon type to be able to choose wich one to use.

My example is stupid but 5 rangers look different and unique and all 5 of them are using shortbow with same weapon skills

EDIT: Like they dont know to shoot in some kind of different style? XD