Guild Wars 2

…untill you have them unlocked in PvE. I think this is a huge step backwards for SPvP.

One of the initial goals for SPvP was that you could join it at lvl 1 and start playing with a leveled playing field(same options as those who have played for a whole year). Ofc, there was a matter of skill difference, but you did not have to farm gear or skillpoints to get into the action.

Now, you require 25 skillpoints to get the new healing ability for each class.

I guess, what I am trying to say is, that it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth, and I am worried what more we can expect in the future, if this is somekind of new trend.(new skills only available for people who have played for X-hours).

What is even worse(kind of) is that I couldnt find a single thread about this topic. It is a big shift in the way that SPvP is viewed, and yet noone mentions it on the forum. Is the forum community this small?

You know you can buy leveltomes with glory and silver? That’s how you do it if you only pvp.

Besides, none of the new healingskills are viable anyways unless your playing phantasm something at which point you are just as useful to your team as an invis thief.

they want you to play PvE as well and not only sPvP.

the new healing skills are easily unlocked if you have been playing PvE casually everyday.

not to mention most of them are pretty trash in spvp

It seems like they are designed for WvW, not PvP.

Ok I will try to respond to everyone:

@RaZaC: Sure you can buy skill tomes. Still does not change the fact that it is not available as soon as you enter SPvP.
Even on their online “manual” it states that you will have access to the same abilities and traits as everyone else, even as a lvl 1.
That is no longer true. Now you have to “pay” for it.

@Deimos Tel Arin: Similar answer as above. SPvP used to be “jump in and play, if that is your thing”. So if I did not want to bother with farming and grinding, I could just jump into SPvP.
Now it is “jump in and play, but if you want access to every ability, you will have to pay or farm a bit in PvE/WvW”.
And when they begin to do that(paying “extra” for skills), what stops them from making new skills with similar requirements?
Like, they could introduce new eliteskills for every class, costing 50 skillpoints. Or new utilities for 30. Or a new weapon(for that character only) for 40.

@Acandis: First of all, “trash” is opinion based. Secondly, it does not matter if they are trash in SPvP.
I used to have the ability to test things, to try out different builds and setups, without having to worry about getting all the skillpoints first.
Now, I will need to pay for that skill(and for each class) to see if it is worth it. Meaning I potentially waste 25 skillpoints(for each character).
And what if the abilities are changed, so that they are no longer “trash”?

@Empathetic Fighter: If that is the case, there is no need to introduce them to SPvP.

I want to make myself clear that I do not agree on the way they implemented the new skills. But they already stated that they (the devs) will not do it again this way.

Fendelphi.7951:

@Deimos Tel Arin: Similar answer as above. SPvP used to be “jump in and play, if that is your thing”. So if I did not want to bother with farming and grinding, I could just jump into SPvP.
Now it is “jump in and play, but if you want access to every ability, you will have to pay or farm a bit in PvE/WvW”.
And when they begin to do that(paying “extra” for skills), what stops them from making new skills with similar requirements?
Like, they could introduce new eliteskills for every class, costing 50 skillpoints. Or new utilities for 30. Or a new weapon(for that character only) for 40.

indeed. at launch, guild wars 2’s sPvP had everything unlocked. skills, trait points, sPvP amulet for stats, etc.

but if we compare to the original guild wars 1, all skills, gears must be unlocked in PvE first before they can be used in PvP.

but there is also the option to unlock the skills via PvP currency otherwise known as balthazar faction back in guild wars 1.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Balthazar_faction

for casual play, in a 4 v 4 random arenas, 40 faction per unique kill, that’s 160 faction per team of 4 defeated, 50 for winning, so that’s 210 factions, and bonus 50 if no one on your team died.

so that’s 210 or 260 factions per win.
0 factions if your team did not manage to kill anyone.

normal skills cost 1,000 (5 wins?) balthazar factions to unlock, elite skills cost 3,000 (30 wins?) balthazar factions to unlock

though 25 skills does seems quite a lot for sPvP only people with only 5 character slots who kept on deleting and making new characters.

RaZaC.1963:

I want to make myself clear that I do not agree on the way they implemented the new skills. But they already stated that they (the devs) will not do it again this way.

Hopefully. But as they already changed their initial method, what is stopping them from change this statement again at a later date?
If there is something we should have learned from the gaming industry, it is that it is always subject to change and that nothing is holy, especially if the community lets them do so without objection.

@Deimos Tel Arin: But GW 1 had much more “Guild”, if you know what I mean. In GW2 you have to rely on 3rd party products a lot to get a decent guild running. And as for PvP, you also had the easy access for multiple loadouts and setups.
I dont know if it was because of that, but it felt less tedious and more “free”.

You can work around it, and it’s not a big enough deal for anyone to throw a tantrum about (the way a lot of people did), but it’s definitely a poor decision, and a step backwards.

I also loved that even though this was an MMO, anybody could step up to the level cap and into equivalent gear, then get right to the head bashing. A perfectly even playing field. ANET gets a lot of grief, but that was something that they absolutely got right from the start, and they deserve a lot of credit for how well they did it. Why they’d retreat from that is anybody’s guess.

I can live with it, since they’ve learned their lesson, but one does have to question the decision making process that went into it.

I am in full agreement that this was a horrible way to introduce new skills and I hope they not only never do this again, but revert it and give us tomes back.