Guild Wars 2

Hey, I’m new to GW2, but have played traditional MMOs since EverQuest. Which might be a handicap, because it seems like GW2 is really different!

My first question: Where are the rest of the attack skills? I get that attack skills are tied to weapon selection. But as far as I can tell, each weapon type (or pair) only ever gets five attacks. Does that mean that I’m going to spend my entire adventuring career using the same five attacks over and over again forever?

I’m used to gradually unlocking a long series of new skills, which means that my strategies and playing experience is constantly evolving (which is pretty much the whole reason I play). I realize that slot skills and traits will do this to some degree, but I’m only to level 6 and I’m already bored with just pressing the same five buttons that I was pressing at level 1.

(I realize that I can change weapons, but that changes my entire play style, which is not what I’m looking for.)

I hope that I’m missing something, because otherwise I love this game! It’s absolutely beautiful, there’s so much to do, the zones are really dynamic, and it has so many other features that I wish every MMO had.

Thanks.

So you can change your heal skill (6) and your 3 utilities (7-9) and your elite (10) out of combat. Usually this can vary your combat, just depends on what you’re using.

First: you can equip a different weapon whenever you’re outside of combat. You SHOULD be changing up your playstyle pretty often. Well, that’s not exactly right…each weapon type gives you different abilities, but all weapon types are generally thematically similar for each class. You should know ALL of your class’s weapon skills and therefore know what weapons are best suited for certain situations. NEVER stagnate on just one weapon, because that means you’re limiting your options and refusing to change even when your setup is completely inadequate for the task at hand.
Second: at level 7, all classes but engineer and elementalist unlock the ability to weapon-swap to another equipped set. Basically, this allows you to (for example) start off with a ranged weapon, attack from range, and then switch to melee when the enemy gets in your face. There’s only a 9 second cooldown on weapon swaps, and using both sets effectively and swapping often is highly enouraged.
Third: as previously mentioned, you’re meant to use your utility skills as well (7, 8, and 9). At level 30 you also unlock an elite skill slot; elite skills have long cooldowns but can completely change the course of a fight if you use them right.

You unlock utilities skills as you level and eventually an elite skill.

The real thing that you’ll be toying with as you level up to 80 will be at level 11 you start to get into your traits. Which give you small stat boosts but also things like increased toughness while holding a staff, or having a chance to burn enemies on a crit. Traits make your skills behave differently and will be what makes you stand out instead of what skills you take into battle.

Rainbow Sprint.3215:

You unlock utilities skills as you level and eventually an elite skill.

The real thing that you’ll be toying with as you level up to 80 will be at level 11 you start to get into your traits. Which give you small stat boosts but also things like increased toughness while holding a staff, or having a chance to burn enemies on a crit. Traits make your skills behave differently and will be what makes you stand out instead of what skills you take into battle.

This is 100% correct. Traits modify skills and your class’s unique abilities, and they’re pretty much the most important factor in customizing your character to fit your playstyle. Essentially, you’ll want to focus on one or two things you want to do extremely well, and then choose your traits accordingly so that your abilities synergize with one another and accomplish whatever goal you set for yourself.

You get 5 weapon skills (so 10 skills for everyone but Elementalist and Engineer who get 20 and 5 – 25 respectively). You then get 1 healing skill, 3 utilities and 1 elite (unlocked at level 30). The utilities and elite skills are a combination of offensive, defensive and support depending on what build you decide on and what utilities you want to use.

Also every profession has access to their own special abilities on F1 – F4 which can be improved through traits.

Edit: Ninja’d by like everyone!

Most profession have between 60 and 80 skills that you can unlock. But at any given time you can only have :

15 Skills (5 that you choose, 5 for you main weapon and 5 for you secondary weapons). Engineer can have up to 22 skills and Elementalist have access to 25 skills.

You can also switch weapons and skills between combat to fit the next encounter.

This system have pretty much the same amount of option as the usual MMO, but you only have access to a portion of these options during combat. Which force people to choose wisely what they bring and to make the most of what they got. This also bring the number of skills to a more manageable amount because keep in mind that this is an action MMO. You need to move around and dodge a lot more than the usual mmo. If you stand in place and focus on a long rotation of skills you gonna get your kitten kick. We usually have some dps rotation, but they are shorter and you need to break then to dodge an attack or to interrupt an enemy etc. Its a different gameplay, some people like it better, other prefer the usual system.

Actually, Engineer can have up to 34 separate skills in a single build. The Ele comes in with a staggering maximum of 41 skills in a single build. Pretty crazy huh!?

Honestly OP you might want to roll an Ele. You seem to crave a higher skill-ceiling so Ele may suit you; all weapon sets have attunement-specific skills, and there are four elemental attunements. At any one time, your weapon will grant you 20 skills (5 Air, 5 Earth, 5 Fire, 5 Water). The difference is that the Ele’s attunement swapping is a class mechanic to replace (most) other professions’ weapon swap, so while you may only have one weapon equipped, you can swap attunement at-will incurring a short cooldown on your previous attunement. It will take time for you to memorize all skill effects and what skill in what attunement is a combo field, what is a combo finisher, and how to tailor those attunement/skill combinations relevantly to the different content, but it’s all memorization… you’ll get there with enough time.

Definitely try playing as elementalist. Not only do they have a large amount of skills due to their attunments(fire, water, earth, wind), but they can also conjure magical weapons. Each of these has their own set of skills. I for example, play as a ‘healer’ elementalist, but I also use Ice Bow and Fiery Greatsword, since they are amazingly fun to use. Greatsword especially.

I can understand the OPs shock at how the GW2 weapon based attack skill system works (or appears limited) but while there are a few classes that are (temporarily) locked into 10 attack skills (2 weapon sets) while engaged with enemies, there is plenty of variation in other areas to prevent “repetitive game-play” (if that’s what you are looking for).

If there aren’t enough attack skills for you, play an elementalist.

It’s not necessarily the attack skills, in other mmos the skills you bring into battle determine your build. In this one it’s your utilities and your traits. Telling him to be an ele won’t fix his issue.

The game still has a build system for your character, it just works a different way.

anyone who dares call themselves gw2 veteran players will also have, on top of the 2 weapon sets equipped, 2 more weapon sets in the inventory to swap with out of combat.

say you are a warrior using greatsword and axe+mace, you will need a warhorn and a longbow/rifle in your inventory when you need to a) travel quickly and b) use ranged capabilities.

not only that, any good warrior will also have a miriad of consumable items to both attain buffs and summon minions to distract aggro.

the skill ceiling further increases this next patch, in which traits will be fully resettable out of combat, meaning that people can basically change their entire build on the fly, more reason to not only carry several extra weapon sets, but a full additional armor set.

so in summary, you must not only learn the 10 weapon skills you’re given, but also the entirety of your possible weapons, your utility and elite skills (also swappable out of combat), your traits, all the possible foods, oils and useful consumables, all the weapon and armor stats and their efficiency at every situation, and finally how they all interact to come together.