Guild Wars 2

Just read the future of WvW blog, and was thinking about it and had some idea, and also wondered about alot of the suggestions I have already seen on the forums (and have been here for a long time) regarding ways to balance zerging, or commander features etc.

But why not fuse some of these features? Devon even said that the time it takes to get world ranks enough to make a difference in terms of bonuses is large.

Idea: Combine world rank points and roles together to make an actual cohesive feature that doesn’t take ages to grind into?

Suggestion:
When you reach Level (either 5 or 10) in World XP, you are then given an option to “Choose your role”

These roles would be more of less the types of roles you would expect (scout, seige master, etc.) but have pre-determined attributes attached to them, making them actually balanced across the board for all players.

And what I mean by this is that when you choose a role at lvl5/10 you automatically get the bonuses that would normally be wide spread across a lot of WvW xp points, but it would also automatically limit you from bonuses from other roles.

To be clear, this suggestion would completely throw out the current WXP upgrades, and refund all players points, and instead replace it with the roles with pre-defined statistics.

(REMEMBER: Theses are just examples! not to be taken overly serious!)

Scout:
- 10% increased movement speed outside of combat
- You deal 10% more damage to guards, and take 10% less damage from guards
- Capturing a supply camp gives 20 seconds of swiftness
- You deal 10% more damage to Supply Dolyaks and gain 5 supply on Dolyak kill.
- Setting Anti-Stealth and Supply traps takes 1/2 the time.
- Killing an enemy players grants 1 supply
- Supply Camp upgrades cost less

Siege Master:
- 10% reduction on incoming siege damage, 10% increased damage from your siege.
- Placing siege weapons now starts the build process at 30%
- Increased range on Siege weapons
- Increases Siege armor by 20% while using.
- Catapults and Trebuchets now leave a combo field on their point of impact (1.Caltrops / 2.Fire Field)
- You take 15% more damage while using Siege

Engineer:
- Repair speed increased by 50%
- Build Speed increased by 25%
- Supply carrying amount increased to 20
- Able to repair field Siege
- Gains 200 toughness while repairing
- Uses less supply when repairing walls and gates.
- Uses more supply when building Siege
- Deals 5% less damage to players, 25% less damage while using Siege.

So you hit level 5 (or 10) and then you choose: Engineer / Scout / Siege Master

Choosing the option will take 5 (or 10) of your WXP points.

Every 10 levels AFTER, you are then able to re-define your role (choose another and replace it) which takes another 10 WXP points each time.

And possibly there can also be ranks of these roles. Improving that stats slightly with each upgrade.

Engineer: Repair speed would be 15% at first rank, 20% at second rank, 25% at third. Each rank up also costs 10 WXP points, and changing roles would reduce your prior role to Rank 1 again.

This allows players who actually want to specialize (and not swap roles constantly) to have a bit of progression towards their next role improvement. But changing roles would reduce it to rank 1.

Wow, no reaction at all? Did I make the wall of text too intimidating or something? How can you fight in the mists if something like this scares you!

It is a cool idea. A-net may want people to be able to earn every last point though so that the ‘grind’ never ends.

Some neat ideas here certainly, and it would add some nuance to forming parties. That said I’m not sure tweaking damage against players would go over so well.

For repairing field siege, while I’ve always thought it would be a neat addition to the game, it would likely unbalance matters further in favor of zergs. In the same way that always having 5 men to spare for every revive, having soldiers to repair siege would make it very difficult to remove siege by attrition. Of course, this might encourage more use of ballistae/cata/treb in an anti siege role rather than the current meta of “when in doubt, arrow cart.”

These roles might also lead to further angst with randoms, as even the current model means that players without siege ranks are chastised for utilizing siege they aren’t spec’d for. It’s always painful to see a position lost when your extended range could have made a difference.

I have mixed feeling about all of this, asymmetry adds some new strategy in group composition but it further discourages the drop in/out nature of pick up groups. Not saying getting people to be more organized isn’t desirable, but I feel Anet wouldn’t like the idea of needing to grind before you can experience all the different roles you can fulfill in wvw. Although, to be fair, the wxp system as a whole is flirting with it.

arKRazor.8654:

Some neat ideas here certainly, and it would add some nuance to forming parties. That said I’m not sure tweaking damage against players would go over so well.

For repairing field siege, while I’ve always thought it would be a neat addition to the game, it would likely unbalance matters further in favor of zergs. In the same way that always having 5 men to spare for every revive, having soldiers to repair siege would make it very difficult to remove siege by attrition. Of course, this might encourage more use of ballistae/cata/treb in an anti siege role rather than the current meta of “when in doubt, arrow cart.”

These roles might also lead to further angst with randoms, as even the current model means that players without siege ranks are chastised for utilizing siege they aren’t spec’d for. It’s always painful to see a position lost when your extended range could have made a difference.

I have mixed feeling about all of this, asymmetry adds some new strategy in group composition but it further discourages the drop in/out nature of pick up groups. Not saying getting people to be more organized isn’t desirable, but I feel Anet wouldn’t like the idea of needing to grind before you can experience all the different roles you can fulfill in wvw. Although, to be fair, the wxp system as a whole is flirting with it.

True, and good points. That is why I tried adding the player damage reductions to certain roles, so that you could not simply have a lot of them and become an “immovable object” of sorts. Having all engineers would have great siege benefits, but their mid-field and close range fighting capabilities is the counter to the role.

Also the reason the scout exists is for the randoms who cannot coordinate in groups or tend to be the “lone wolf” they can still contribute to another teams strategy, while aiding their entire server with their actions (if they actually play the objective)

The values would definitely need to be tweaked, as these are just examples, not set in stone.

And of course other roles could be utilized as well, such as more basic roles such as Skirmisher (player vs player field fighter), and Combat Medic (direct player support roles? i know….trinity booo, but it would work)

Doesn’t sound very exciting,you can just spend the points you get from wexp in any line youvwant and “make” your own role anyway.
Plus,Arenanet seem to dislike setting “roles” their philosophy is to allow ever lasting freedom to choose your own role, which may always change, and your idea goes very much against that principle.

MightyMe.1356:

Doesn’t sound very exciting,you can just spend the points you get from wexp in any line youvwant and “make” your own role anyway.
Plus,Arenanet seem to dislike setting “roles” their philosophy is to allow ever lasting freedom to choose your own role, which may always change, and your idea goes very much against that principle.

Their principle is a good one, but their attempt to manifest those ideas into actual in-game features has been poor to say the least.

The current system doesn’t really define any roles, and the shear amount of time it takes to even get remotely close to creating your own role, is staggering….and almost unreachable.

If it is done properly, this would give players more freedom than their current model…which you currently cant reset, takes insane amounts of time, and offers very little in actual substance.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” -Leonardo da Vinci

Giving the players simple tools, allows THEM to create complexity. The way they are approaching it right now…is backwards, giving players more complex variables, and creating nothing from it.