Guild Wars 2

Evan Lesh.3295:

Things that must be in a template:

• Weapons
• Sigils
• Rune
• Amulet
• Skills
• Traits

Technically, the only really important things are skills and traits, just like in GW1. Everything else is mostly a bonus for PvP which uses standardized equipment.

Overall, that doesn’t really use up much more data than the old template code. It should also be ping-able for chat, again in a similar fashion as in GW1. The rest can wait.

No need to reinvent the wheel…

Honestly, in my opinion, the only thing that really matters is the traits. While armor, weapons, trinkets and skills are very nice to include, the biggest headache is going through the traits.

With the stat pieces, build confusion generally isn’t too much of an issue if you have an efficient layout of your bags so that you can click through your desired combo. And with skills, they feel more situation based and being that there is only 5 slots to select for it’s not too much of a chore to just manually select them. Traits, on the other hand, are more tedious because you have to reapply the correct amount in each row and go through each roman numeral ability making sure you select the right one.

By focusing on just traits I think it would be a simpler and faster system to release while giving you a solid core to build off of and more time to devise a way to add your other suggestions later.

Evan Lesh.3295:

You are all recognizing the problem with PvP templates versus PvE templates:

PvP builds can be constructed regardless of what items you own. The templates can even save weapon type and give you a free level 1 item if you don’t have a weapon in your inventory already because PvP has normalized attributes.

PvE/WvW builds must include actual items. This mean sharing non-PvP builds becomes very complicated. Either you simply can’t do it, or templates save out exact items for reapplication AND save out item type/level/rarity/prefix/suffix/etc for sharing.

Another aspect you guys are hitting on is the need for template ‘chunks’. This means templates are not an all-or-nothing application, but can be pieced together from various parts. For instance, you could have an ‘appearance’ template that consists only of wardrobe skins, dyes, and a finisher that you can apply and save separately from a ‘functional’ template that may contain skills, traits, and amulet.

This is quite an intricate detail, but you may even want to leave individual skill/trait slot empty in a template you’re sharing like a wildcard.

Start small, man. Basic template it still better than no template.

Evan Lesh.3295:

Things that must be in a template:

• Weapons
• Sigils
• Rune
• Amulet
• Skills
• Traits

Apart from that (if not already included in thoughts) the attributes of the gear which might be solved as a poster above has suggested, that the system looks for similar alternatives in the inventory, if not available -> gives a message.
From a (a bit) casual WvW-Viewpoint I’d also like to see the usage of consumables somehow. At least I would prioritize that higher than the suggested style options.

Evan Lesh.3295:

• Sharing (chat links? codes? urls?)
• Viewing (seeing some else’s vs. seeing your own)

Must!

• Websites (third-party sites should work with in-game)

I’d like to see a successor to the pvxwiki, maybe in the mistpedia. But that is up to the community.

So, right off the bat, I have to say that having a saved template system similar to GW1’s would be fantastic. There have been so many times that I’ve taken a screenshot of my trait window just to ensure that when I tool around with a new build I can remember what my previous build was like if I wanted to go back.

Now, I’m not going to claim to be the guy with all of the answers, so I’ll just stick to runes for now, but what about if we had a button on the hero panel that lets us switch between two sets of armor runes? A player could use it to separate their PvE runes from their WvW runes or could have two sets assigned just for PvE play or WvW play. I can tell you that (in the current system) if I had sunk an unreasonable amount of gold into my Superior Strength runes, I would hate to overwrite them with another rune set if I wanted to try another build with the same armor.

While we’re on the subject, why are runes and sigils on the TP anyway? It’s been my understanding that the rune sets were set up to diversify our playstyles, but we basically gold-gate anyone who doesn’t farm from getting the more expensive runes and sigils. There should be an NPC that sells runes and sigils at a reasonable, equal rate so players could play around with runes without wasting a lot of money or (at the very least) would allow certain players to feel like they can venture away from their Scholar or Strength sets without losing their money. We can still leave the account-bound runes to the Dungeon tokens if people still want that system, or maybe players can unlock them in that aforementioned NPC through dungeon completion (say, maybe completing all of a dungeon’s paths, since I believe that players should be rewarded for their diligence and not solely on their ability to farm gold).

I know I’m venturing a little off topic, but that’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while. So, to reiterate, here is my proposal: have a saved template system that assigns traits and skills, give us the option to switch between two rune sets on the fly in the hero panel, and further build upon the positive changes made in the April feature patch to make the runes and sigils something we can play with freely and not grind for.

Edit: I wanted to acknowledge that I posted this is in the PvP forum without even directly mentioning PvP, but I feel that the Hero Panel switch could also apply to a button in the PvP Panel.

Roe.3679:

Start small, man. Basic template it still better than no template.

Agreed. Start with skills and traits which are common across all game modes. Build up from there. We don’t really need need super intricate templates (which are bound to be buggy) right off the bat.

Just take it One step at a time :O

1. Templates that work with PVP; Saving Ammy/Trait/Weapons/Rune/Sigils
2. Templates that have some versatility in PVE (Ability to save traits only)
3. New Wardrobe feature completely unrelated to templates; Change to a saved look for the price of 3 Transmutation stone.

PVE templates are untenable and unnecessary.
Sharing PVE builds could just as easily be supplanted by sharing PVP builds; Yes the stats are on the amulet, but big deal?

Currently, the navigation through equipment, wardrobe and dyes is kinda messy and confusing. Navigation through Tabs could do wonders there. As for builds, I really wish we could have some easy way to switch between custom trait builds since we can trait and re-trait at any moment (out of combat that is).

Evan Lesh.3295:

Roe.3679:

Start small, man. Basic template it still better than no template.

Why not discuss the best possible system? Scheduling and phasing feature releases is our deal :P Plus, there’s no way we can avoid remaking the entire feature later unless we are good about scoping all possibilities.

true, however the more time you spend thinking over priorities, and planning what to add upon “release” the longer it will take to be released. A basic system being released ASAP, then evolved over time give you, as a developer, more time to polish the system, weed out bugs, glitches, errors or whatever, not to mention, you will get valuable feedback.

It is better to start small and build large, then start large and redecorate every few months.

Pyriall.5027:

I respect you Evan and all the employees that work with you, but the fact of the matter is this; the things that you want to do and the things that you do end up doing are miles apart. Time is not in your favor and your updates are too infrequent to keep people invested in the game.

So they shouldn’t try to improve their game because people might potentially quit?

People are going to quit, quitting an mmo is part of playing an mmo. This feature is not PvP only, it actually benefits PvE and WvW more since they are more players in those game modes.

If you want to quit do it and if you want a parade make a post talking about all your accomplishments and how awesome you are.

Darnis.4056:

PVE templates are untenable and unnecessary.

Huh? I change builds in PvE (and by extension WvW) far more often than I do in sPvP.

YES PLEASE!

That would be incredibly awesome.

I don’t really care about the cosmetic things be included but having all in your first list in it would be so useful and a massive quality of life change!

Evan Lesh.3295:

We absolutely want to make build templates. They could work similar to GW1, but there are more components to a build now. Using the old string-code method may prove to be unwieldy.

Things that must be in a template:

• Weapons
• Sigils
• Rune
• Amulet
• Skills
• Traits

What could be in a template:

• Skins
• Dyes
• Outfit
• Finisher

Things to consider:

• Sharing (chat links? codes? urls?)
• Viewing (seeing some else’s vs. seeing your own)
• Saving (notepad vs. local vs. account vs. web)
• Building (one spot in UI vs. multiple spots)
• Websites (third-party sites should work with in-game)
• APIs (Could expose an API to third-parties)
• PvP vs PvE vs WvW (each mode requires different configuration options)

How would you like to see any/all of these work?

Evan Lesh.3295:

Things to consider:

• Viewing (seeing some else’s vs. seeing your own)

I would love to be able to see other peoples traits, dyes, armor, weapons, utility, etc. I’d like to just be able to right-click their name and see exactly what kind of setup they have. It would also be cool to be able to go to the GW2 website and search a players name and check that way also. If I could take it a step further and say I wish I was able to spectate people in PvE much like you can in PvP. For example, have only 5 people be able to participate in the dungeon, but have no limit on the number of people who can spectate that dungeon.

Ok, this is how I’d do it. A templace would consist of:

- All gear equipped (armor, weapons, accesories and so on, including whatever runes/sigil/jewels they have socketed), including aquatic weapons and breather. Only the gathering tools would be left out, because whoever doesn’t have one of the unlimited ones will be changing them constantly anyway. It should also include whatever setting each weapon has selected, so if you have one (or more) legendary weapons, you can use different stat combos on each template. Note that that would mean that if you want two templates with full berserker sets but different runes socketed, you’d need two berserker sets and socket each with the different runes (doing it like that to keep it simple). Also, this way skins wouldn’t need to be saved with the templates because they’re tied to the gear.
- Traits setup, and skills (healing, utility, elite).
- Dyes used. I’d prefer to save them in the template because someone might want to use the same gear across different templates but still color them differently, for example, an elementalist using two templates, one fire oriented the other water oriented, would want to color its gear with red tones when using fire, and blue when using water, even if it’s just for a visual indication of which template he has active.
- Visibility of each slot that has visibility toggle (back, gloves, shoulders and helmet… and any that is added in the future)
- Outfit (dyes saved in the template)

I’d leave out finishers since it’s not really something you’d keep changing constantly.

The way it would work is to add a templates tab to the hero window. On it there would be a list of saved templates, a “save” and a “use” button (more buttons later). Templates saving and switching would be unlocked at level 80 (just like weapon swap is unlocked at level 7), players should be able to switch templates at anytime out of combat with a hotkey as long as there are no skills on cooldown, at switch a global cooldown of 5 secs is activated on all skills (this is to prevent increasing too much server load by people spamming the template switch button).

Initially I’d give 2 free PvE/WvW templates to everyone, with character or account wide unlocking of extra template tabs for a gem. If you have more than 2 templates, they would have checkboxes that would allow you to pick wich 2 you’ll use for template switching. You should be able to use any template (regardless of whether it’s set to be one of the swap ones or not) from the templates window, but only two with the swap hotkey. When it comes to sPvP, I’d probably allow unlimited (or at least more) saved templates, but I haven’t really PvPed much to know how good or bad would balance be affected if you allow/disallow template swapping during a PvP match (things like people switching to full burst damage when attacking a capture point then swapping to a bunker template once enemies are killed).

Add a small indicator for gear that is used in a template (much like the rarity border). For example, 2 glowing dots could be added to the icons of each piece of gear, a blue one would indicate it’s used in one of the current templates, a red one would indicate it’s used in a template not currently selected as one of the alternate ones (since gear could be shared, one could have both dots at the same time). Mouseover text for each gear should indicate in which templates it’s used (if any), and a warning dialog should be added if you try to vendor, TP or recycle a piece of gear that is used in any template. If you do any of those, the tab becomes empty on each of the templates that used it.

As for sharing, I’d give two options, depending on the API. First option (the best one, I’d think), you would have a second checkbox next to each template that would say “publish”. Also an “import template” option that would let you input the name of a player/account and browse which templates they have published, all in-game. The API should also be updated to be able to create websites where you can browse those templates and maybe even send them to your character directly from there (I’d guess we’d need the OAauth2 API or similar finished and released for that). Second option would be that anytime you export an API you’d get a text string that you could paste on a website using a templates API.

One thing, though… I’d keep the shared portion of the templates limited to traits and skills, mainly because it would probably be a bit of a programming mess to try to make it keep up with all the possible names a piece of gear can have while keeping the same stat combinations. It should be easy to add a text field where you could enter a bried description of the template that could say things like “use full berserker” “works best with celestial and X runes” and so on. Also keeping gear out of it would allow text strings to be short enough to be shared.

Just some ideas of how I’d do it..

I wouldn’t consider skins/dyes templates as important as gear/traits/skills templates, but if you really want to make a good job out of it, those would in fact be rather welcome. And it would probably be better to have them independent from each other in the UI.

Having multiple UI templates is what I’d really like to see, including a spot just for sigils and possibly runes (much like in pvp) rather than the current system where they are bind to a weapon or piece of armor. This way, you can avoid the current problem with stacking sigils when going in and out of water and even change your weapons template while still losing the stacks if you are downed/zone out/unequip stacking sigil.

Weapons templates could also solve the current inventory problem when people change from 2-handed weapons to 1-handed.

Evan Lesh.3295:

You are all recognizing the problem with PvP templates versus PvE templates:

PvP builds can be constructed regardless of what items you own. The templates can even save weapon type and give you a free level 1 item if you don’t have a weapon in your inventory already because PvP has normalized attributes.

PvE/WvW builds must include actual items. This mean sharing non-PvP builds becomes very complicated. Either you simply can’t do it, or templates save out exact items for reapplication AND save out item type/level/rarity/prefix/suffix/etc for sharing.

Another aspect you guys are hitting on is the need for template ‘chunks’. This means templates are not an all-or-nothing application, but can be pieced together from various parts. For instance, you could have an ‘appearance’ template that consists only of wardrobe skins, dyes, and a finisher that you can apply and save separately from a ‘functional’ template that may contain skills, traits, and amulet.

This is quite an intricate detail, but you may even want to leave individual skill/trait slot empty in a template you’re sharing like a wildcard.

…copy WoW, easiest thing to suggest. Someone smarter than all of us has already found an answer to the question.

on PvP builds: the system is there. all it needs is a method to save it and share it.

on PvE/WvW builds: perhaps instead of binding the armor/weapon/sigils/etc to the build, the template system takes note of it for visualization purposes only? i mean, at the end of the day, it’s not like you can bind armor to a build without overhauling the whole inventory and banking system (otherwise people would make random builds to save space, or builds wouldn’t be accessible/usable unless you had the exact same items).

in other words, make the gear on a PvE/WvW build template a commentary that gets created when you save the build, a la the gw2skills.net editor. you can see what the build creator would recommend you use with the build, but you can “apply” that build without it changing your equipment at all.

I guess the problem really is how do you make an all encompassing system for PVP and PVE?

The answer is you can’t there will have to be two systems as long as you want an economy in this game.

PVE build require 15~ slots of inventory to be swapped out.

PVP builds Do not require actual items, or only some items like weapons are carried in the inventory. (But can be supplanted and skins can be selected for weapons to be used at all times)

What this means is that PVP builds and PVE builds already have to use different systems..

One thing you can do is make pvp builds free, and make PVE builds a paid service, 800 gems a pop, BUT for these gems you get free storage of one set of gear. Sounds like a win win to me.

The feature to storing more then one set of gear is already in game (or it used to be with pvp/pve armor/weapon split) so less coding; just plug in and collect $$$$

Evan Lesh.3295:

Things that must be in a template:

• Weapons
• Sigils
• Rune
• Amulet
• Skills
• Traits

These are ofc absolutely necessary, no brainer here

Evan Lesh.3295:

What could be in a template:

• Skins
• Dyes
• Outfit
• Finisher

These would be very useful for a completely different reason than ones above. For some player BUILD is more important, for others it’s STYLE. For most it’s BOTH.

Evan Lesh.3295:

Things to consider:

• Sharing (chat links? codes? urls?)
• Viewing (seeing some else’s vs. seeing your own)
• Saving (notepad vs. local vs. account vs. web)
• Building (one spot in UI vs. multiple spots)
• Websites (third-party sites should work with in-game)
• APIs (Could expose an API to third-parties)
• PvP vs PvE vs WvW (each mode requires different configuration options)

One incredibly important feature should be LOADING templates on your character. To do so, the system should automatically try to equip armor, weapons, skills, traits the best it can, depending on what you have in your inventory and unlocked, and warn the player on what it “failed”.
For example, if a player tries to load a template that uses a Tormented Berserker Staff with Fire and Accuracy Sigils, the system should automatically check for which items are available, starting with stats, sigil, quality and skin for last.

It’s also very important to VIEW templates SHARED by other players, SAVE them (ingame if possible, on hd otherwise). Less important is to BUILD templates ingame, but would still be nice.

Here is my suggestions on this:
– Templates do need to be split – traits/skills/gear/skins/finisher/tittle
- You should be able to activate the whole template or part of it
- New tab on hero panel to pick templates. each template expands on those categories mentioned above
- each tab on hero pannel (skills, gear, tittle, gear, etc) get 2 extra options – “pick from template” and “save to template” to change templates (or make new ones)

Tittle should be included on the template, just like finisher and skins. Its another visual identity that complements the character.

Evan Lesh.3295:

We absolutely want to make build templates. They could work similar to GW1, but there are more components to a build now. Using the old string-code method may prove to be unwieldy.

Things that must be in a template:

• Weapons
• Sigils
• Rune
• Amulet
• Skills
• Traits

What could be in a template:

• Skins
• Dyes
• Outfit
• Finisher

Things to consider:

• Sharing (chat links? codes? urls?)
• Viewing (seeing some else’s vs. seeing your own)
• Saving (notepad vs. local vs. account vs. web)
• Building (one spot in UI vs. multiple spots)
• Websites (third-party sites should work with in-game)
• APIs (Could expose an API to third-parties)
• PvP vs PvE vs WvW (each mode requires different configuration options)

How would you like to see any/all of these work?

#EvanLesh2016

Evan Lesh.3295:

We absolutely want to make build templates. They could work similar to GW1, but there are more components to a build now. Using the old string-code method may prove to be unwieldy.

Things that must be in a template:

• Weapons
• Sigils
• Rune
• Amulet
• Skills
• Traits

This right here would provide such an immense quality of life improvement. I know you want to scope it all out, but just having something simple like this that’s share-able would be amazing. Roll something like that out and it would satiate the masses for months on end.

Don’t want any of your coulds, just the musts.

Oh, and don’t forget about the pets.

Evan Lesh.3295:

You are all recognizing the problem with PvP templates versus PvE templates:

PvE/WvW builds must include actual items. This mean sharing non-PvP builds becomes very complicated. Either you simply can’t do it, or templates save out exact items for reapplication AND save out item type/level/rarity/prefix/suffix/etc for sharing.

A downside that needs to be considered is that templates could lead to too much micro-management. For example, PvE dungeons have bosses where each one of them behaves differently. If templates are made available they need to be easily accessible and transparent so it doesn’t become a choir to change builds each time.

I would really like to see some form of inventory management included with a templates feature. I doubt we would get to put weapons into a template and get them out of our inventory, BUT maybe we could reserve slots or bags in our inventory for gear that is ‘templated’ so we can switch from one handed weapons to two handed weapons WITHOUT the off hand ending up at the top of your inventory with all the other ‘loot’ that has yet to be sold/salvaged.

Maybe we need a new type of bag that reserves slots for ‘gear’ and once there it has to be manually removed, and NOTHING drops into it either if your other bags overflow.

Evan Lesh.3295:

locoman.1974:

Add a small indicator for gear that is used in a template (much like the rarity border).

Would be very helpful if templates used actual gear.

Darnis.4056:

I guess the problem really is how do you make an all encompassing system for PVP and PVE?

The answer is you can’t there will have to be two systems as long as you want an economy in this game.

Skill and trait templates could absolutely be shared. They would just be two compatible components in the larger template system with other non-compatible parts.

The problem is making the feature approachable and easy to use when there could be SO many potential parts.

Even though I think that a global solution between fame modes is the right solution reality is that it wouldn’t be worth the cost/time.

It’s better to just start with a trait and slot skills template for all game modes then from there start to diverge.

Ironically PvP is the easier template to implement in GW2, which wasn’t the case in GW1. So do PvP templates after the lightweight trait slot template is implemented.

For template loading in PvE/WvW maybe you could do a search for matching prefix items and if they aren’t found in the players inventory then create a free low rarity item that can’t be salvaged or destroyed or upgraded or forged.

For PvE/WvW I wouldn’t do too much about sigils/runes except for check inventory and prioritize equipping those as opposed to other prefix weapons that Match.

We absolutely want to make build templates. They could work similar to GW1, but there are more components to a build now. Using the old string-code method may prove to be unwieldy.

Things that must be in a template:

• Weapons
• Sigils
• Rune
• Amulet
• Skills
• Traits

This work in PvP some Template to change fast in PvP.
Good think is Template for PvE, this change Skills + Traits.

Things to consider:

• Sharing (chat links? codes? urls?)
• Viewing (seeing some else’s vs. seeing your own)
• Saving (notepad vs. local vs. account vs. web)
• Building (one spot in UI vs. multiple spots)
• Websites (third-party sites should work with in-game)
• APIs (Could expose an API to third-parties)
• PvP vs PvE vs WvW (each mode requires different configuration options)

Share template code (yes different color, like GW1)
Yes some notepad ingame to store items, templates, locations or recipes.
Oooohh cool Website like Guild Wars Armory???
Can check mail from game in the forum account.

And yes plis build templates.

For PvE
I think having separate templates would be workable.

When on the equipment tab you would see a drop down with all the equipment templates you have. You can load up a template in the preview and, if you don’t have a piece of equipment, it would appear with a red line through it in the appropriate section. You could still “Apply” that template, but that section of gear would not be equipped. It would be left naked, allowing you to drop in something that you do have and save this adapted configuration as a new template.

The “naked” approach would apply if any part of the equipment doesn’t match. If the template calls for a beserker glove with a Superior Rune of Leetness, and you only had a major rune, then it would get the red line and not be equipped. Same would apply to trinkets.

Trait templates could appear as a drop down on the upper left of the traits window. Skills could be their own template and would only cover the utilities, or could be part of the traits.

The stickiest question is what to do with weapons. It would make the most sense to have it be part of the equipment, but that makes this a bloated template. It could be part of skills, along with the rest of the skill bar, but then you are left with the preview problem if you don’t have some of the templated weapons. Furthermore, would a single weapon template cover both land and aquatic? Both primary and secondary? It would also need to be flexible enough to handle elementalists who don’t have weapon swaps.

The templates themselves could be saved as codes into one or multiple text files. Multiple files might work best, allowing the file names to reflect the template name given by the user. This is similar to the GW1 scheme which worked well. You would simply pull up the appropriate screen (equipment/traits/skills) and click a save button. You would be prompted for a template name and it would be saved to your folder on you local machine.

Since PvP has a separate structure already, you could have complete gear/traits/skills templates that cover everything. After all, in PvP you can’t split runes. You could still apply these templates to a PvE character, provided you had everything required, but you could only build these “all around” templates within the Mists.

This is just spit-balling here. I am sure there are lots of things I am not considering, but this looks like a decent strawman.

Taking into consideration all the features that can be saved is great to think about when creating the interface but how about not complicating your life and focusing on 2 pieces or areas.

The functional piece (the actual build components to create the build pve/pvp) – this takes into accounts all the attributes settings for pvp and pve in one global area, taking a snapshot of your gear (not style specific but item specific) as well as a snapshot of your pvp selections with a distinction on your pve and pvp traits)

The aesthetic piece (skins dyes etc)- this seperate piece allows saving of skins dyes and wardrobe changes you would like to make and takes into account the transmutation charges needed to make the modification regardless of what gear your wearing.

I don’t see how the permutations needed for a build to be linked would not be possible this way.

Evan Lesh.3295:

We absolutely want to make build templates. They could work similar to GW1, but there are more components to a build now. Using the old string-code method may prove to be unwieldy.

Things that must be in a template:

• Weapons
• Sigils
• Rune
• Amulet
• Skills
• Traits

What could be in a template:

• Skins
• Dyes
• Outfit
• Finisher

Things to consider:

• Sharing (chat links? codes? urls?)
• Viewing (seeing some else’s vs. seeing your own)
• Saving (notepad vs. local vs. account vs. web)
• Building (one spot in UI vs. multiple spots)
• Websites (third-party sites should work with in-game)
• APIs (Could expose an API to third-parties)
• PvP vs PvE vs WvW (each mode requires different configuration options)

How would you like to see any/all of these work?

something you didn’t mention
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Sailor-Moon-Transformation/first#post4087524

Sailor Moon like transformations when out of combat to a premade different set of armor and weapons for different purposes Just like Final Fantasy X-2 dress spheres, Kill la Kill, and *Fairytail*’s Erza.

Separate templates for Equipment and Traits. Active skills are not part of either template since they can be changed easily.

Allow us to have several equipment sets and name them.

Each equipment set/trait set may produce a text link for people to copy/paste, but that can be implemented at a later time.

I would like a keybind that allows for quick cycling through buildsets, or at least easier to access than going to the equipment screen (h → equipment).

I think you need to step back and take a look at what players will be more than happy with.

All we really need would be an option to load pre-set traits. Everything else can be swapped very quickly.
If you just allow us to save 5 trait builds and a way to name them then everyone will be happy. (Per character – shld be saved on account and not on local pc)

If you go above and beyond where we can share/link your traits then that will be an extra cherry on the top but that is not something that will add too much more value to this feature.
So lets start with the basic, im sure that will make players quite happy.

I think it would be best to make several tabs with each their own template part.
You get the possibility to look at all the saved templates you have and change them if needed.

Tab 1 – Weapon skills
Choose the weapon type that you want to choose the skills set from.

Tab 2 – Traits
Basically the trait window.

Tab 3 – Armor, Weapons, Sigils & Runes
You get to choose the set type for the armor, so 12 slots will have their own type chosen.
Armor example:
- slot 1(helm): Berserker | Rune slot: Rune of Grenth
- slot 2(shoulders): Zealot | Rune slot: Rune of Dwayna
- slot 3(armor): Soldier | Rune slot: Rune of Balthazar
- slot 4(leggings): Rampage | Rune slot: Rune of Balthazar
- slot 5(gloves): Berserker | Rune slot: Rune of Balthazar
- slot 6(boots): Soldier | Rune slot: Rune of Balthazar
- slot 7(ring): Berserker | Rune slot: Rune of Divinity
- slot 8(ring): Dire | Rune slot: Rune of Grenth
- slot 9(backpiece): Berserker | Rune slot: Rune of Grenth
- slot 10(accesory): Berserker | Rune slot: Rune of Dwayna
- slot 11(accesory): Soldier | Rune slot: Rune of Grenth
- slot 12(amulet): Berserker | Rune slot: Rune of Divinity

And you can choose 4 weapon types maximum and 2 minimum for the build.
Weapons example:
- slot 1(greatsword): Berserker | Sigil slot: Sigil of Air | Sigil slot: Sigil of Agony
- slot 2(greatsword): -
- slot 3(sword): Soldier | Sigil slot: Sigil of Agony
- slot 4(focus): Rampage | Sigil slot: Sigil of Blood

The most important essence of the templates is to show you which skills and traits you need. These should be auto loaded when the template is activated.

But because the armor can differentiate a lot and as you might not have the armor it might be wiser to make this part of the template as a reminder for the person. The settings on Tab 3 should not be loaded automatically. It should just show you what you need for this build.

Evan Lesh.3295:

We absolutely want to make build templates. They could work similar to GW1, but there are more components to a build now. Using the old string-code method may prove to be unwieldy.

Why not make it exactly like gw1? It was actually quite awesome. You could make a link option, where you could say load this equipment with that traits and that utilities. And if you don’t have a link activated – e.g. only equip + traits – it coppies your current skills.

I’d also appreciate the same functions as in PvP – the build options – in PvE and WvW. You could make all Stat combos for Equip/sigils/Runes (ofc. you’d need 6 runes to unlock t6) etc. unlock able (ofc. soulbound). Like that it would be better combined with a save/load function. Because anything else would cause quite a mess (e.g. if you change main and offhand through a 1 handed weapon).

In my opinion it wouldn’t even need a “representative” (an actual item) of your equipment, a simple drop down (and ofc load) function would be quite nice and save a lot of time^^.

It would also be a possibility to have Buttons – like the GW1 weapon swap – where you could save your 3 favorite builds ( A gem item with + 1 slot would be really obvious at this place cause when I look at the +1 crafting licens I think you start running out of ideas xD) and load them as soon as you’re ooc.

I won’t touch on sPvP (due to the nature of how gear works there it would obviously need to use a different system) since WvW/PvE are my main game modes, but here is how I’d like to see it work.

It would be split into two different systems, one for traits, and one for gear.

The traits system would work similar to as what you’d expect from GW1, your selected traits would form a special “string-code” that can be easily copied to your friend or saved so you can load different trait setups whenever you wish, this would be a far superior option to what we have currently.

The reason why I would only have traits, and not gear tied to this code is because of the sheer complexity that comes in when including gear sets. If I want to share my build with a friend, with a trait-only code he can get the specific traits at the click of a button, however chances are he’s not going to have the same exotic gear available, even is he has the same stats it might be from a difference source so it’s not the same “item” in game terms. Runes and sigils add in to this problem even more.

Instead, gear would be saved seperately into loadouts, these aren’t shareable and are just part of the character interface, you would be allowed to save your current gear loadout as a preset (WoW is a great example of this idea in action), and then this preset can be swapped to at the click of a button as long as all the items are available to equip in your inventory.

If some of the items are not present, an informative message could be displayed telling the user that some parts (maybe even which parts) are missing.

This would save a huge amount of time when swapping gear, you’d be able to quickly swap entire armor sets at the click of a button rather than manually doing it yourself. There could even be special customisable hotkeys added to swap between sets (think of in GW1 being able to quickly swap weapons with F1/F2/F3/F4)

Clearly, these systems are only applicable for PvE/WvW, as with the PvP build interface you could easily use codes to transfer the entire build (stats and everything) in one go.

There’s also room for potential expansion in future to allow people to save/load certain dye setups and such. That said, I imagine quite a lot of players would be happier to have the basics in as soon as possible rather than delayed due to trying to cover every possible aspect immediately.

I think the optional items can be left out of the template, the skins, dyes, outfits and finishers. If people want skin/dye/outfit templates I’d say it would be better if it were seperated from the build templates.
Maybe pets could be saved in the build too.

Sharing by chat links would make sharing them very easy and on-the-fly. I would absolutely use it. I guess many people would like third party integration by an API.

One thing that bothered me about the local nature of GW1 templates was that I lost all my templates a few times by switching PC’s. It may be best for us scatterbrained people to have them stored by account.

I would personally like it better if everything about the build and templates would be kept to one spot in the UI. Also too much clicking would annoy people, as it happens now with the equipment/wardrobe/dyes tabs.

And maybe an option to tick whether it’s WvW, PvP or PvE when saving a build, allowing multiple items to be ticked at once?
Or a system where you can switch between the modes, allowing you to see the level 80 values for that mode. Depending on the mode you’re in when saving, it will be saved as such.

As a PvE player, I hope this will make it to the PvE world as well.

PvE templates should not leave out the equipment, because equipment is essential in a build. If a player does actually own a required armor, rune or weapon, the template should load this. If the player does not, the currently equipped thing should stay.

To ease the attribute and rune hell in PvE, consider unlocking attribute and rune combinations in armor and weapon instead of the requirement to have an extra armor for every attribute combination and rune. An unlock should be as expensive as buying a new amor/rune.

For example, let me unlock both berserker stats and valkyrie stats on my exotic or ascended armor and let me choose freely between them. Let me apply more than one rune in my armor. Don’t destroy the previous rune, unlock the runes on this armor piece I applied to this armor piece instead. Then, the template can load the corresponding attribute combination and rune into the PvE armor if it was unlocked on that armor previously.

I would use templates like this:

- to have a repository of builds I like and use and to be able to switch between them
- to be able to develop builds and keep the development stages, so I am able to get back to an earlier stage
- to have a repository of builds I got from somewhere and I want to try them out when I have the time for it
- to give builds to other players who are asking for one
- to have a suitable build ready for special situations, e.g. in dungeons

I want to post builds to the game chat and to forums, and I want to import builds from these sources into my repository or directly into my charakter.

I want the repository at home on my disk, because there I have full control over the organization of the builds. It would also enable tools to use this repository directly, for example player-made team builders that are not web-based (there were good ones for GW1).
This would also enable players to share not only single builds but also whole build catalogs. Just zip your repository and send it via email or forum attach.

I attach a screenshot of my GW1 repository to give an idea how I organized my builds.

First off, Make it not only limited to PvP a lot of PvE players swap builds like crazy and this funtion would make it a lot easier.

I love the way that we could have everything at the click of a button, as far as the things to consider: all are really a good choice. but we need secondary professions, its what I miss most from the “mechanics” in GW1

I would like it to be so when i go into wvw i can open my hero panel, go to build and in there have 2 types of builds. WvW and PvE. Within these i would like multiple options with editable build name to where when i create on or use one, it will store my gear and traits in there to instantly swap out when not in combat. This would be like bag slots but specific to builds and be able to have multiple with names sort of like an multiplayer FPS with class selection.

It would be helpfull to if websites could create a link for builds which you input in game and that build creates its self as a new build option to save having to type it all in.

As the dev team considers this for use in PvP and WvW, certain server logic needs to be present in order for the system to not be abused for an individual to gain an unreasonable advantage.

Consider the following:
If an individual were in WvW (or PvP for that matter), would it only require they be out of combat to switch to another saved build? Consider a glass thief fighting a warrior, the thief need only to exit combat to switch to a completely different build (a regen/evade build). This would be an unfair advantage.

The argument against this may be that currently traits can be changed out of combat as well, but the issue here with this new proposition is the speed at which an individual could completely change their build.

Possible Solutions:

WvW:

• The whole build can only be swapped while under the effects of Determind (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Determined)
• Build can only swapped after X seconds of being out of combat, i.e. 60 seconds OOC before swapping an entire saved build.

PvP:

• Buff added to spawn area similar to wvw, behaves as mentioned above. (This could add the possibility of an invulnerable individual ranging enemies just beneath/outside the spawn area. The buff could be applied in such a way that damage can neither be taken nor applied.
• There is always the option to only allow a complete build swap while in the pvp lobby, but this might be inconvenient in some instances. This may be the best option though, as the first pvp option also encourages the “AFK at spawn” appearance.

In my opinion this feature should be, and seems to be, more of a convenience and game play quality enhancement rather than an opportunity for abuse.

Great idea though, I run several builds depending on the task and it’s awful having to remember them or write them down xD.

Been writing this having read only Evan’s first post on the topic. Amused that I hit a lot of the others comments without realizing it. Here is my dream template system.

Issue 1: Storage of templates

• GW1 method- Local storage. Reduces storage of data on ANet servers. Local files can be uploaded and shared with friends offline. Downsides: Computer malfunctions may cause template data to be unreachable. Gamers with multiple computers will need to take extra steps to sync template folders regularly.
• Account based templates: Every build stored on the players account. No need to sync build data between multiple computers. Suggest the ability to export/import build files so they can be shared with allies via forums and build websites. Downsides: If no local copies can be generated or uploaded, sharing builds would be done on a 1-by-1 basis. Possible limitation to the number of templates saved due to storage concerns. If changes are made to the formatting of templates at a later date, that is a lot of data to process at once.

Issue 2: Data to store
At minimum, Traits, healing, utility and elite skills should be saved. No one will really question that as far as I know. What else determines a build? Weapon sets 1 & 2, Armor, Trinkets, Sigils, Runes.
I suggest Weapons, Armor and Trinkets can be saved in PvE and SPvP can include the Sigils and Runes.

Issue 3: Storage in concept
Structured PvP is primed and ready for the template system. Nearly every aspect of it is freely available, the only issue would be the equipped weapon sets. Amulet, Rune, Sigils, Armor, Traits and skills are all easily covered here. The only issue is handling of weapons. All that matters for SPvP is that they have that type of weapon in inventory. More on how to handle this below.

PvE and WvW use the same equipment, and this is where it gets complicated. Every player at 80 will have traits available. Likely all their skills as well. Items however will not carry over from one player to the next.

My suggestion for equipment is to make it as generic as possible. When creating a build, detect the currently equipped items and classify them. “Berserker Headwear”, “Berserker Chest”, “Valkirie Boots”, “Soldiers Accessory 1” “Clerics Staff”, “Rabid Sword”, “Rabid Shield” for examples.
When loading the template, it should locate the strongest item in the player inventory that matches. Only looking at soul-bound/account-bound items, find the strongest item for each slot. (So an exotic Berserker sword and an ascended berserker sword are in inventory, the ascended one is pulled for the build.) If no matching item exists, present a warning but do not prevent the template from being applied.

Issue 4: Sharing
Your build templates should be shareable, unless this is deemed too close to a gear-check of sorts. I’d rather not have every dungeon group demand I show my template before beginning. This is up to Anet to decide, I just see a potential danger involved. Since we can already ping armor and skills, I suppose this is just extending that feature. If sharable, pinging to chat with a custom name would be ideal. Then a small window similar to what is used in the current PvP build UI is loaded when clicked. It would be nice if you could mail your build as well, for people too busy to look at it then-and-there.

Issue 5: User Experience (Flow of use)
5.a Saving an existing build.

1. Player opens the Template UI (Presumably part of the Hero Panel, its own tab added to the main list.)
2. All their current settings are populated into the Template UI. Items are shown as well as something saying what each item is classified as, per my suggestion for items in Issue 3.
3. The user may edit all the given fields. Set all the armor to a set they do not have, allowing for theory crafting. Change the skills and traits around without modifying their ‘live’ build.
4. Two text fields exist. One is required and is a custom name field, used to display the build name in the template list. The other is a comment section, which can be used to briefly describe the use of the build, what food is suggested, whatever.
5. Furthermore, there is a series of check-boxes. In SPvP, two are available: Hot-Join and Tournament. At minimum one of these must be selected. In PvE, the SPvP options are greyed out, and the options ‘PvE’, ‘WvW’, ‘Dungeon’, ‘Fractals’ are available. At least one must be selected. These check boxes can then be used to filter out builds in your list.

Cont. next post.

5.b Finding a Saved Template

1. Player opens the Template UI and focuses on the list of saved templates. All the builds for their current class are sorted to the top. Any templates not for their class are visible but greyed out. Templates for other classes can have their full details viewed, but of course cannot be loaded. Ctrl/alt clicking on a template in the list will ping it to chat. Allowing an Engineer to quickly ping an Elementalist or Thief build to an ally.
   User chooses any filters they want, unchecking fractals and WvW to quickly find their Dungeon builds. Typing into a search bar narrows the results further. Clicking the template, the details are loaded into the Template UI.
2. Warning icons are displayed next to the second weapon set and one utility skill! The player does not have a Soldier’s Hammer, so the template tells him so. (Put any other type of Hammer they own into the slot, or maybe allow a choice of replacement or simply leave that weapon set as it is set.) He does not have a certain skill either but maybe give the option to unlock the skill from this very screen? There should be detection for unused trait points, empty major slots and locked major traits as well. For owners of legendary weapons (and future equipment?) say the build wants a Carrion Scepter but your Legendary scepter is Soldier’s right now. When the UI is looking for a Scepter it will pull in the legendary one and note that when you apply the template, it will automatically swap the legendary stats for you.

5.c Loading a Saved Template

1. Having found a template and dealt with / ignored any displayed warnings, the user is ready to apply the template to their live build. They have one more choice to make before selecting that ‘Apply Template’ button. Each core section of the template UI should be able to be toggled on/off. So Traits / Skills / Equipment can be loaded all at once or individually. The user can uncheck Skills and Equipment, so that ONLY traits get modified for example. This gives us greater control over how much or how little our build is changed.

5.d Sharing a template
As said before if pinging is something we get, clicking on the pinged build loads a smaller PvP Build UI to show all the details. Buttons for certain actions should be available, such as Apply, Save, and Open Template.

• Apply just takes the build from the Build UI and changes your settings to match it.
• Save lets you quickly shove the template into your own list.
• Open Template brings up the main Template UI page and loads all the settings as if you had selected a saved template.

Issue 6: Other questions answered

• Viewing templates: This should be at the will of the player owning the build. -Never- should a user be able to right click on you and select a View Build option. The user must willingly display their build. I can understand why this is available in SPvP spectator mode, but it should be no where else.
• I do not think that the template screen should replace the equipment/skills/traits screens. The Traits screen should be moved up a level so you can get straight to it from pressing H. Instead of [H]->Skills & Traits->Traits, we have [H]->Traits. (This should be true for Equipment as well, give Wardrobe & Dyes their own tab, please.)
• API: An API that allows for reading and creation of templates while offline would be great. Websites that sport build creation software could link into it and be up-to-date minutes after a balance patch.
• Items that could be in templates: Skins, Dyes & Outfits should have their own template system not linked to the stats in any way. It would really stink to need to swap builds several times a day and eating through transmutation charges because you reskinned every time you swapped. Finishers don’t need to be in a template but if it were, it belongs with the Dyes and Outfits.
• Ideally, PvP and PvE templates could be interchangable, but these two worlds, while very much closer than they use to be, still differ significantly enough for it to be overly troublesome.

I hope people enjoyed my thoughts, Thanks for reading.

It would be Really cool if we could have 5 or 6 custom “load-outs” we could customize and name them like in COD for example. I could simply open my Hero UI and click the Loadout tab, select “Dungeon Runnner” and POOF! my Ele has her dunge stuff on and trait-ed. Then after my run, we wanna hit some WvW so I click “Double Dags” and BAAM! I am set! plus you could always sell more custom slots for gems and make them achievement rewards or whatever. Oh god I love everyone’s Suggestions. YAY!!!!!!!

I would like the ability to change my traits on the fly whenever I am out of combat. 1 key press, done.

Like weapon sets in Gw1, rather than having to manually re-equip, we could simply press f1-f4 to have a different weapon. Bam-Bam-Bam!

Want to play Grenadier engineer? Press f1. BAM!
Don’t want to wait to switch to a Flamethrower setup? No problem! Press f2. BAM!
Not enough DPS? How about Bombs? Go out of combat, press f3. BAM!

Instant trait switching could add so much convenience to dungeon running…

Evan Lesh.3295:

You are all recognizing the problem with PvP templates versus PvE templates:

PvP builds can be constructed regardless of what items you own. The templates can even save weapon type and give you a free level 1 item if you don’t have a weapon in your inventory already because PvP has normalized attributes.

PvE/WvW builds must include actual items. This mean sharing non-PvP builds becomes very complicated. Either you simply can’t do it, or templates save out exact items for reapplication AND save out item type/level/rarity/prefix/suffix/etc for sharing.

Another aspect you guys are hitting on is the need for template ‘chunks’. This means templates are not an all-or-nothing application, but can be pieced together from various parts. For instance, you could have an ‘appearance’ template that consists only of wardrobe skins, dyes, and a finisher that you can apply and save separately from a ‘functional’ template that may contain skills, traits, and amulet.

This is quite an intricate detail, but you may even want to leave individual skill/trait slot empty in a template you’re sharing like a wildcard.

The problem with PvE is items needs to be inside your bags if you wanna switch to them. It’s probably not feasible to include items in templates for PvE just because of this.

Either you check for those items when you’re switching to saved template or not include items at all in templates.

Traits & skill bar would be a good ‘chunk’ for PvE template purposes, outside of that will probably be too messy to deal with because of the nature of gear in PvE.

I would like it like this ^^ Example with Photoshopped attachment.

EDIT:
I noticed just now that this was supposed to be for PvP… ^^ But this approach would be pretty similar for PvP in my opinion and also PvE possible this way.

So, let me explain how this would work:

• Signet Zerker (B1) would be the name of the build.
• to the bottom right of the name, is a rename sign. You can rename the build there.
• Clicking Save Build will save the build I guess.

• To the right of the Name, would be the ingame linking. Similar to the Armor linking for example. You hover over the sign and Shift + Click. It will then be in the chatbox with the name "Signet Zerker (B1). If you hover over it ingame, you can Righclick: Load if you have the same class. If you are not of the same class, It will only allow to Rightclick: Prieview and thus preview the build in a similar panel more or less, imitating another class. If you load it, It will load it into the “new” Slot and thus load everything but the name.

• The Equipment slots can be filled with either armor from your inventory, or directly be loaded from posted armor (Rightclick: Load as with a full build, but only load the armor piece into the build. Only if you share the same Armor Type.)
• If you use a build, only equipment that actually is in your inventory will be wielded upon using a build. The other slots will not change (That way, if you already wear the armor, you also keep wearing it.)

• Builds Loaded from other people do have different Item IDs for every item (even if you have the nearly same item). This way it is obvious you can’t use the same equipment as theirs (So upon loading, your armor wont change). However, you can still hover over it with the mouse in the build. This way you can reslot it, once you got the armor yourself and just preview it until then. This way you can also kind of make yourself “Dream Builds” that you can work towards.

• The same goes for Trinkets and weapons.
• If a colour is Loaded that you do not own, it still will show the right color in the build. However, if you try to load it, every dye you do not own will be replaced with a generic standard dye. (maybe even random? Would be fun to see what you get xDD) (Same as above. You can work towards that color combination then.
• Trait is more or less Obvious I guess
• The panel below allows you to click on other builds that then get displayed. The Zerker build will then move down into the panel and look like the Full Zerker for example in the list.
• There is always 1 “NEW” on the list. If you save a build on that slot, it will give you another slot (Or you could make 4 general and buyable with gems I guess)

So lets look at this a bit from requirements engineering perspective.
Implementing the Chatcode for the builds can be really annoying. Either the Chatcode wields every single ID in the background, or you would make a really big bunch of new IDs just for the builds. It should be manageable to do this with IDs in the Background that just display the name as the actual String.

Now the Equipment slots. Interestingly on implementing level a mixture between the normal Equiment part and the Preview. You can click on the slot and fill it with an armor piece you have in your inventory. (it will still be in the inventory) Or you can Load them into the panel from the Chat (similar to preview, but into this panel instead) The IDs inside the slots will be saved upon saving the build. This way, if you hover over it, it will display the item of which the ID is in the slot. (This goes for all Equipment pieces)

The Dyes will be the hardest part I think. The easy way would be to say, if you do not have the dye, it will load a generic dye into the panel. However, it would be alot cooler if you actually could load dyes into the panel, that you do not own, but if you load the build, the dyes will be replaced on the armor itself and not inside the build. That would be alot of crosschecks and so on. So I guess easier approach would be upon loading, even though it is less interesting ^^

The traits are pretty strait forward I think. This isn’t even Class specific per se. You can generate a String based on how much you trait in there and on which Trait numbers you get. For example the picture would be
3640711510500000000350000000000
3///6/4/05/11//5/1/05/00//0/0/00/00//3/5/00/00/0/0/00/00
First digit for Class. Example Ranger = 3
(05 (or 11 or 00), because Master and Grandmaster traits could be X-XIII and thereby 10-13)
Then it wouldn’t have to be loaded Class specifically and would then just translate it into your class after loading the string.

Rest is more or less similar. I would like to see it implemented converging to a style like this. It has great visibility and is actually easier than most other approaches.