Please share where my thoughts don’t jibe with yours, if the spirit moves you.
Background:
The majority of my games have been as an elementalist, 1247 out of 1348. I’m rank 31. I do not have any illusions about my class preference or rank meaning anything about my insight. It’s only context.
I have not played in any tournaments, so I will not, nor can I, speak to gameplay in a voice-com coordinated setting. I am eager to meet people and play in this setting. Unfortunately, it has not happened yet, for one or another reason. (Hey! PM me if you like.
I’m willing to transfer.)
What’s not fun:
- Accidental success. Namely, Auto-facing and skills that hone. It’s only mildly irritating when your opponent takes advantage of this. What’s boring is when it benefits me.
- when burst is not telegraphed
- limited visibility of teammate health bars. It currently requires cone of vision, mouseover, or targetting.
- the feeling that a few core mechanics interfere with positional awareness. In particular:
- I find that reduced speed strafing forces more involved camera work, which makes it easier to get blind-sided. The look-behind keybinding often does not ameliorate this, because incline of the terrain is reversed in relation to the camera, which requires more camera correction.
I understand why this was done; developers want players to move forward and be aggressive, not kite to success. However, I believe it to hinder positional awareness. - when the about-face keybinding turns the camera. There’s a way to prevent it, but it’s unreliable. Ideally, this wouldn’t happen when the camera is free.
- limited zoom out and camera collision. I know zoom out has already been increased once, but I still blame a lot of blind-siding on this.
- when combat feels like one minute blitz chess.
- being in downstate: unless it’s a close team fight, I will not deny the stomp in a pick-up game. I’d rather get back into the action. This changes in coordinated games, of course.
What’s fun:
- Clutch plays. This could be anything like interrupting heals, dodging burst, reflecting heavy damage, teleport stomping rogues or mesmers, haste ressing, etc. The variety here is testament to fundamentally good design.
- Aimed shots and predicting player movement. For example, landing Firegrab, Pistol Whip, or a max hit Phoenix, especially without an immobilize or snare.
- When combat feels like 15 minute blitz chess (the duration isn’t meant literally).
- the free camera and reduction of camera inertia, hooray! (good for positional awareness)
- denying stomp denial (lol). Stability stomping is the most obvious. Blind, reflection (against warriors and engineers), teleport, and short duration invulnerability stomping is more impressive and more fun. I separated this from clutch plays to point out that downed state can provide for fun gameplay. Haste or stability ressing also falls into this category.
- visual game play, hooray. Not always having to squint at buff and debuff icons is a major improvement over other MMO’s
- not having to target in melee range, hooray
What would, or will be be fun:
- more aimed abilities. For instance, heartseeker would be fun if it was aimed like burning speed.
- the ladder, hooray
- more visual feedback for some buffs and debuffs. Stability should be very obvious. Something like the flame animation for rangers Rampage As One is very clear, and should be present whenever anyone gets this powerful buff. Retaliation is another buff that could use a more obvious visual effect
- a downed state suicide option (button #5, baby), would give more time in the action during pug stomps.
- while it would be nice to see different game types, it’s probably unwise to do currently, because the active PvP population is too thin.
Nominally – and this is sometimes the perspective of marketing – a competitive game is one that hold competitions. In reality, games that reward skillful execution are what we expect in a competitive scene, and that should include pick up games.
All in all, I’m really excited for and – perhaps this will sound strange – proud of ArenaNet for taking risks and going into some uncharted territory. The above are my thoughts on small changes that might encourage more aware and skillful play, which is good and healthy for the game over the long haul.
Peace.