SPvP players’ capacity to develop well-honed tactical play is severely hindered by the inability to see our allies’ and opponents’ skill selections. We enter skirmishes blindly, we make tactical choices just in case our opponents have a certain skill equipped, and we trip into vulnerable positions when they use a skill we didn’t expect. Fumbling our way through combat does not create quality PvP. It creates messes. Messy battles with messy errors, and the hope that you can correct your mistakes on the fly, by making another messy choice. We spend too much time figuring out the situation, and too little time using that knowledge to make good choices.
Here’s an anecdote to clearly illuminate how it feels: As an avid League of Legends player who had never got into the original DotA, I wanted to jump on the wagon with DotA 2. By this point I had learned the map and mechanics of MoBA games well enough that nothing surprised me about the map layout, controls, skill functions, gearing, currency, and so forth and so on. However, I knew nothing at all about the champions and their skill sets. As a result, every battle turned into a process of trial and error where, in order to learn my opponent’s capabilities, I needed to let them use those abilities on me. Until that point I couldn’t tell you whether my opponent was ranged or melee, burst caster or tank. As the game progressed I adapted to each new skill used, but overall this limited my choices to those skills I had already encountered.
SPvP reproduces this tactical limitation with every single new match. You’re up against a Ranger. Will she unload a host of traps in front of you, or will she hit quickness and use her pet to absorb damage? You’re up against a Thief. Will he call in more thieves for backup, or stun you with basilisk venom? You’re up against a staff wielding Necromancer. Will he swap out to daggers and dive in for some melee burst, or grab a scepter for kiting and attrition?
Granted, with enough time spent in DotA 2 I can eventually internalize all the champions and skills. They’re static: once you learn about a champion, you basically know their skill set forever. Heck, I can read up on the champions beforehand as a way to cull that learning process. Then I could go in and play using informed, tactical decisions from the start. In GW2, unlike DotA, I will never reach this point. No matter how much I know about the classes, their skills, their utilities, and their traits, I will encounter a barrier to tactical decision making because the possible skill combinations get scrambled with every new opponent.
Players’ choice of skills should be visible to opponents and comrades as soon as the match begins. Weapons, utility skills, healing, and elite selection all are necessary information for us to develop a reliable, fundamental set of tactics prior to entering battle. This knowledge changes the way we approach shared space, the weapons we choose, and the timing with which we use our own skills. Arguably, it controls everything about how we combat our opponents. Our decision making and tactical play should not hinge on whether or not we already face-checked our opponents. It should hinge on whether we know how to prepare for their skill set, and whether we can adapt to their timing.
How do we solve this? (TLDR:) The leaderboard seems like a good place. Just a few icons would suffice. Class, Name, Weapon/Weapon, skills, score. That could cut out most of the mess and replace it with clean, tactical play.