Guild Wars 2

I was wondering if there was a way for developers to see the amount of time the player base uses certain traits or utilities?

For example:
Out of all the rangers if “We Heal as One” is used 71% of the time, Troll Unguent is used 24% of the time, and Healing Spring is used only 5% of the time. Wouldn’t that be a clear indicator that Healing Spring needs some love and WHaO could be toned back?

Players will naturally sway to the skill that is more powerful or useful, so it could be a useful indicator of what should the developers look at rather previous patches where something was changed and the whole player base goes “What? Why..?” I’m not saying that everything should be exactly even, but it would totally raise some eyebrows. If the percents were more like 50, 30, 20, that’s much more balanced and players are obviously choosing certain skills for certain situations. Like the fact that 0.00001% of the population uses traits like Predator’s Instinct compared to the other two adept traits because of how awful it is. Maybe the developers just don’t know? This way players wouldn’t have to resort to begging on the forums for some skill balance, and the developers could have hard proof “We buffed Predator’s Instinct because whenever a Ranger uses the Marksman trait line it is only selected 0.1% of the time over the other two traits. We would like to see it used more.”

Thoughts?

where did you get the % from?

Ramoth.9064:

where did you get the % from?

They are pulled out of thin air as examples.

ANet has that data, yes. And they use it to balance, which is why the best players among (as the worst) are always surprised at the choices ANet makes in balancing.

So considering 100% of thieves use teleport skills this makes me very exited to see it nerfed to the ground. Also the necro and guardian staff, same rough 100% usage.

Anet actually going by logic when buffing and nerfing classes would be a new and exciting concept!

Want to bet warrior greatsword will still be buffed next patch while engineer rifle is nerfed because purity of purpose?

Yes, ANet has the numbers. Our chars and what they do are part of their computer programs so there is a lot of information the Devs can pull out from the skills we use and when.

As others have mentioned, arenanet has all this data and much much more (for example breakdowns of skills used per game mode which is of prime importance to balance concerns).

Obviously if some skills are predominant they varant review. That alone does not mean anything though without context. Condition cleanse skills were useless before condition damage got reworked to the state it is in today (well not useless but cleanse was way less of an issue) meaning they were run less. Does not mean that they were underpowered, simply that the game balance did not warrant their use.

UnitedChaos.8364:

For example:
Out of all the rangers if “We Heal as One” is used 71% of the time, Troll Unguent is used 24% of the time, and Healing Spring is used only 5% of the time. Wouldn’t that be a clear indicator that Healing Spring needs some love and WHaO could be toned back?

All this example would show is that “We Heal as One” performs better than Troll Unguent within the gametype it was used in due to many different reasons. Better synergy, better healing, better condition cleanse etc.

It also only addresses class balance within the ranger class and in no way is an indicator as to how those 2 skills compare to other class healing skills. In essence “WHaO” might me more powerful than Troll Unguent but both skills might be underpowered compared to other class healing skills. In this nerfing “WHaO” would damage game balance overall.

Dawdler.8521:

Want to bet warrior greatsword will still be buffed next patch while engineer rifle is nerfed because purity of purpose?

Cant tell if sarcasm or secretly part of balance team.

But really, Warrior GS could actually use buffs as could most of the Warriors weapons/traits. They are pretty much locked into 1 build as far as PvE goes and PvP/WvW makes them play Stance Dance Revolution due to condi’s.

If % of usage would be an indicator of strength… I can only imagine how the bearbow ranger would have to be nerfed into the ground :S
Srsly: Don’t balance by such numbers without context.

Tornupto.2304:

If % of usage would be an indicator of strength… I can only imagine how the bearbow ranger would have to be nerfed into the ground :S
Srsly: Don’t balance by such numbers without context.

Thats so 2013 its smoke scale longbow now mate.

If a skill isn’t being used for anything, isn’t that a good time to actively remove the skill and replace it with something that would benifit alternative (or situational) builds?

Nerfing based on popularity seems like a great way to kitten everybody off in the end, as the nerfwaggon jumps from class to class.

Linken.6345:

Tornupto.2304:

If % of usage would be an indicator of strength… I can only imagine how the bearbow ranger would have to be nerfed into the ground :S
Srsly: Don’t balance by such numbers without context.

Thats so 2013 its smoke scale longbow now mate.

True. The point raised is still valid, though.

When?
When it’s the same stale FG/PS ‘synergy’ meta for years. :\

I agree that it would be totally incompatible comparing between classes. It would just be nice to bring some skills back into play or tone them down. Like I said, I’m not asking for it to be evenly split because things vary etc, but if something is never used it would be a good way of pointing it out. They would have to use their ‘human intuition’ and balance across classes like they already do.