Guild Wars 2

Years ago, in the ancient times of Tyria, the world was a different place. The gods still favored our lands, dragons were all but legends, and the Mursaat were a threatening force.

During this time, PvP and PvE were considered two separate entities of the game and many skills had different versions for PvE and PvP. This meant that the devs could change how skills worked against other players without affecting how they worked in “normal” play.

I, for one, think this needs to happen for GW2. Some skills in PvE are just not very useful, while in PvP they are overly useful. One example I can think of (as an Engineer mind you) would be the Engineer’s Turrets. If you run turrets in fractals or a dungeon, they will almost always immediately be destroyed, or just generally useless without extremely perfect placement. On the other hand, Turrets in PvP are extremely useful, more than viable and only require the player to put a few seconds of thought into turret placement.

If PvP and PvE skills were completely (or even mostly) separated this could allow devs to concentrate on each aspect of the game separately, take more input from the player base, and generally improve the quality of the game, in each area of the game.
I would love to hear your opinions, discussions and disagreements on this.

Love to see it but I remember hearing that they hated it deep inside because it was too much work to have two seperate versions of skills

While I can see why many feel separate balancing would be a good thing, there are two problems with separating things:

1) Players will find it more difficult to swap between the two game modes, while using their favourite builds. Having both modes balanced the same keeps that same ‘feel’ and capability between to two. Separate them too much and the same build could feel very different and make it difficult to transition between the two modes.

2) Anet will have a much harder task, and require more resources, to balance the game separately for each mode. Not only that, but it would be easier to adjust a few encounters, than it would be to balance two separate sets of skills. Balancing encounters around the skills is more efficient in the long run than balancing the skills around the encounters. If you change a skill to combat one boss, it may upset the balance for another. But if you balance a boss to fit the skills, the skills will remain viable for other encounters.

So the basic principle to what I am saying is: Balance the skills based for PvP and balance the encounters for PvE.

In GW1 you had total control over the skills you selected, GW2 we are bound by weapons this is the main difficulty in tasking the separation.

I still think its a good idea though – might get a stronger roll out of this idea with the exp (fingers crossed).

Coulter.2315:

(fingers crossed).

you don’t have to, wont happen, ANet is the one who said they don’t want to do it, why would they bring it up now? doesn’t make sense…

Rin.1046:

While I can see why many feel separate balancing would be a good thing, there are two problems with separating things:

1) Players will find it more difficult to swap between the two game modes, while using their favourite builds. Having both modes balanced the same keeps that same ‘feel’ and capability between to two. Separate them too much and the same build could feel very different and make it difficult to transition between the two modes.

If for any reason they would bring it back from gw1, they would most likely also bring back the build template save which solves that issue easily. Only issue stopping them now is there lack of handling multiple projects

pandas.9450:

Rin.1046:

While I can see why many feel separate balancing would be a good thing, there are two problems with separating things:

1) Players will find it more difficult to swap between the two game modes, while using their favourite builds. Having both modes balanced the same keeps that same ‘feel’ and capability between to two. Separate them too much and the same build could feel very different and make it difficult to transition between the two modes.

If for any reason they would bring it back from gw1, they would most likely also bring back the build template save which solves that issue easily. Only issue stopping them now is there lack of handling multiple projects

I know what you mean, but its not just about how easy it is to change builds. Its also about being comfortable with your build and, with minimal adjustment, being able to transfer it between each mode.

You are asking them to do so much extra work. This will never happen. Look at all the useless buffs they add in during ‘balance’ patches. People say ‘Why the hell did they just buff that, not one single person uses it for any build’. Well that is because people use it in PvE. Most of the buffs they list as ‘PvP balances’ were never even used in any builds at all. Horrible skills to place on your bar.

You can’t just buff non existent utilities etc and expect people to start using them because they got buffed. You have to consider, would anyone in their right mind find the utilities in this classes builds less useful than this newly buffed skill. The answer 95% of the time is no.

There are a couple things, and only a couple that are balanced on different levels in the game. 1 of which being confusion. Confusion in PvE and PvP are completely different. They want you to play the whole game. I know, silly no matter what side you are on; if that isn’t what you are into. To do this would also split the game even more than it is; which is fine by anyone on either side of the spectrum, but not in their interests.

No, I don’t want two separate versions of skills. The Mechanics should change, but not the actual skills themselves. Example, Torment in PvE got a huge damage buff while Torment in pvp hasn’t changed.

The skills mechanics themselves should be changed while its sfx, animations, should remain. Nothing like having someone level to 80 then jump into pvp only to realize their class is completely different.