Guild Wars 2

I really like alot of things about Guild Wars 2.
I believe it managed to successfully stand out amidst the concept of MMO.
I particularly like the style of the world, art and UI.
I like the semi-targetless system and dodge.

Still, alot of it feels unpolished, but I won’t get into details here.
Instead, I want to voice my concerns on ANet’s current design philosophy, comparing to their claims in the Guild Wars 2 Manifesto Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BPhT-KI1E

Everything ANet said in the Manifesto was spot on what I wanted to see in an MMO, but they seem to have gone the opposite direction on some of it.
a) “Guild Wars 2 takes everything you love about Guild Wars 1, and puts it into a persistent world.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BPhT-KI1E#t=0m48s
I greatly disagree here. Apart from the World, Lore and Nomenclature of various game systems and mechanics, most of GW1 is gone – let this sink in for a moment.

GW1 was greatly renowned for its extreme customizability and freedom.

You could effectively build your equipment exactly the way you wanted, by salvaging or crafting the bonuses and skins you want and then combining them into your dream item.
You could play around with builds anytime.
There was no gear treadmill and no one missed it.
There were only 20 levels, that were more Tutorial than progression.
The whole game world was meaningful and worth exploring, since skins and skills were hidden in the furthest corners.
There was very little randomness in combat – randomness often added dynamism to your “rotation”.
There was no trash loot – everything was either useful for crafting, or for collectors.
Your superiority over someone else was mostly defined by your skill and strategy, not gear.
GW2 threw away alot of great, solid concepts from GW1 to – apparently – meet halfway with popular MMO standards.

b) “In most games, you go out, and you have really fun tasks – occasionally – that you need to do, and the rest of the game is this boring grind to get to the fun stuff. I swung a sword, I swung a sword again, hey, I swung it again, that’s great. We just don’t want players to grind in GW2.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BPhT-KI1E#t=1m26s
Isn’t that exactly what we do when we get to max level?
We repeat the same content endlessly for the sake of obtaining certain items.
In fact, isn’t the Magic Find stat proof that you intend players to grind?

c) “As a structure, the MMO has lost its ability to make the player feel like a hero. Everybody around you is doing the same thing you’re doing, the boss you just killed respawns 10 minutes later. It doesn’t care that I’m there.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BPhT-KI1E#t=1m46s
Isn’t this precicely what happens throughout the whole game?
The same enemy, boss or event repeating every 5-20 minutes?
The process of retaking or defending a point should take longer, last longer and be alot more worthwhile.

Furthermore, the personal story makes you feel like something of a hero for a little while, but in the end the true Hero is Trehearne.
He’s the one who does everything worth mentioning, and then just tells you “he couldn’t have done it without you.”
I didn’t feel like a hero at all in the last half of the personal story.
—-

I think the game has a great potential and I hope ANet keeps up at full steam.

I think it would be cool if we could do more than Dodge with the Endurance.
Dodge uses up 50% Endurance, gives you mobility and lets you avoid everything and anything.

Furthermore, the game is too much of a Kitefest, at the moment.
Something to reward player skill, without requiring constant moving, would improve the game just for that.

Suggestion #1 – Parry
Command: Press only V while standing still (no directions pressed)
Effect: A stationary “Dodge” wich costs less Endurance but also has several restrictions. Essentially, you block with your Weapon(s).
Lasts up to 2 seconds.

Pros (comparing to Dodge):

• Lower Cost
  -> 40% Endurance by default
  -> 30% Endurance if you are wielding a Shield
• Lasts longer (2 seconds)
• Can be cancelled into movement and/or any action/skill

Cons (comparing to Dodge):

• You must stand still while parrying
• Only works against attacks from the front
• Only works against AoE if its center is in front of you
• Certain weapons might be less effective for Parry
  - Gun = -10% damage Parried (per Gun)
  - Rifle = -20% damage Parried
  - Harpoon Gun = -20% damage Parried
  - Short Bow = -15% damage Parried
  - Long Bow = -20% damage Parried
  - Staff = -15% damage Parried
  - Trident = -15% damage Parried
  - Scepter = -10% damage Parried
  - Focus = -5% damage Parried
  - Warhorn = -5% damage Parried
• Some weapons might be less effective vs Spell/Physical (inspired by MaXi.3642).
  - Weapons such as Staff and Scepter might be less effective vs Physical.
  - Weapons such as Swords might be less effective vs Spell.
• Rewards timing (inspired by MithranArkanere.8957)
  - After the first 0.75 seconds, effect weakens by 5% every 0.25 seconds
  - Prevents 100% damage on the first 0.74 seconds
  - Prevents 95% damage between 0.75 s and 0.99 s
  - Prevents 90% damage between 1.00 and 1.24 s
  - Prevents 85% damage between 1.25 and 1.49 s
  - Prevents 80% damage between 1.50 and 1.74 s
  - Prevents 75% damage between 1.75 and 1.99 s

Suggestion #2 – Sprint (idea by MithranArkanere.8957)
Command: Hold C while running
Cost: Probably 30% initial Endurance cost, then 15% every second (since you gain 5% Endurance per second, it takes 7 seconds to spend 100% Endurance).
Effect: Spend Endurance to run at X% bonus speed (stacks with Swiftness).
Cons:

• Can’t attack while Sprinting (idea by BrunoBRS.5178)

Suggestion #3 – Tumble
Command: Press V when you are Launched, Knocked back or Knocked down to roll and get back on your feet.
Reduces fall damage by 50% if used up to 1 second before landing.
Cost: 50% Endurance

Suggestion #4 – Downed Roll/Parry
Ability to use Dodge and Parry while downed.

• You travel less distance with Downed Roll.
• You prevent less damage (around 25% less) with Downed Parry
  - If Parry prevents 100%, this prevents 75%.

Suggestion #5 – Faster Endurance Recovery while Still

• After standing still for 1 second, your Endurance should start recovering faster (50% faster or so).
• Moving breaks the Bonus
• Actions only break the Bonus if they move you (Leap, Teleport, etc).
  Since Parry doesn’t move you, it may not need a lower Endurance cost.
• This would discourage the constant “running in circles while casting” tactics wich, in my opinion, are getting really old and boring, and also give some unfair advantages to ranged builds.
  I rather have a little more reactive gameplay.

Ideas are welcome.

Disclaimer: Yes, I’m suggesting something similar to Diablo 3 Skills, but in GW2 the results would be 10x better.

Would be nice if skills had a couple of variants that you must unlock by spending Skill Points.

• You can only use 1 Variant at a time.
• Each and every Skill has 2-4 Variants, including Weapon, Healing, Utility and Elite Skills
• The number of Variants can be different for each skill. Some might have 2, others 3, others 4 (inspired by Sacros.7418).
• You can only unlock Skill Variants after unlocking all the default Weapon, Healing, Utility and Elite Skills for that Profession
• Each Variant becomes available for unlock only after defeating certain monsters scattered throughout the game World
• Each Skill Variant costs 1 Skill Point – even Elite Skill Variants.
• Skill Variants won’t need unique character animations, but would have different VFX.
• Variants could be small improvements over the default skills, instead of equivalent with bonuses and penalties, functioning as “diagonal” progression.

Example Skill Variants:
Guardian Greatsword – Skill #2 – Whirling Wrath

• Unmodified – Current effects
• Version 1 – Unable to move, but damage is increased by X%.
• Version 2 – Unable to move, but area is increased.
• Version 3 – Deal less damage, but apply Burning with each hit.
• Version 4 – Instead of spinning multiple times over 3/4 s to deal damage, you spin once over 1/4 s to create a whirlwind that will perform the attack for you, dealing the normal damage over the usual 3/4 s.
  The whirlwind moves in the same direction and with the same speed you did while creating it.
  The downside is the extra 1/4 s startup delay to create the whirlwind.
  The upside is the ability to use skills immediately after creating the whirlwind.
  So you reduce the activation time from 3/4 to 1/4, but it takes 1/4 longer to start dealing damage, and has limited movement.

This would let you focus on Condition build with Greatsword (Variant 3), go for better mobility/agility (Variant 4), sacrifice mobility for raw damage (Variant 1) or sacrifice mobility for improved AoE capability (Variant 2).

Healing Skills – Warrior’s Healing Surge
Grants 10 Adrenaline and Heals more based on your Stage of Adrenaline

• No variant – default effect
• Variant #1 – Build more Adrenaline but less base healing
• Variant #2 – Give less Adrenaline but more healing per Stage of Adrenaline
• Variant #3 – Can’t move while activating but grant Fury (X s) at the end.
• Variant #4 – Heal 1 condition per Stage of Adrenaline instead of extra healing.

Utility Skills – Ranger’s Lightning Reflexes
Evade back with a crack of lightning, dealing damage and gaining vigor.

• No variant – current effect
• Variant #1 – No Vigor but more damage.
• Variant #2 – Evade forward instead of backward.
• Variant #3 – More vigor but less damage.
• Variant #4 – Causes weakness on nearby enemies instead of granting Vigor.

Elite Skills – Elementalist’s Glyph of Elementals
Summon an elemental based on your attunement.
- Fire Elemental: Deals damage.
- Ice Elemental: Deals damage and heals.
- Air Elemental: Deals damage and stuns.
- Earth Elemental: Deals damage and is hard to kill.
Duration: 60 s
Range: 1,200

• No Variant – current effect
• Variant #1 – Reduce duration but cause Elementals to apply an effect on hit:
  - Fire – Burning (1 s)
  - Ice – Chill (1 s)
  - Air – Bleeding (X s)
  - Earth – Weakness (1 s)
• Variant #2 – Reduce duration but increase damage dealt by Elementalist while Elemental is alive.
• Variant #3 – Reduce duration but gain a Command for each Elemental.
• Variant #4 – Increase duration but can’t move while activating skill.

By opening up more builds for each weapon, the game becomes richer.

Please keep it constructive.

Currently, the Damage Conditions that stack intensity have a cap (25), wich makes large scale battles penalize players that like condition builds.

A single player that focuses on 1 type of condition can easily get up to 10-15 stacks of a single condition by himself on an enemy. That’s about half the limit (25).

Increasing the cap to 50 or 100 just strains the server without really fixing the problem.

So I think the Condition mechanics should be changed for Damage Conditions that stack Intensity.

Current Mechanics

1. Each stack of boon/condition is monitored individually, both in power and duration.
   Example:
   - You apply a 20 damage over 5 seconds bleed.
   - It does 4 damage per second
   - 3 seconds later (3×4=12 damage done), 8 damage and 2 seconds remain.
   - At this point you apply another 20 damage over 5 seconds bleed.
   - Since each stack’s damage and duration are tracked individually, this is the damage you see per second:
   Time = Damage
   Second 1 = 4 –
   Second 2 = 4 –
   Second 3 = 4 –
   Second 4 = 4 4
   Second 5 = 4 4
   Second 6 = – 4
   Second 7 = – 4
   Second 8 = – 4
   Both stacks deal damage simultaneously during the 4th and 5th seconds, at wich point the first stack falls, and leaves the second stack dealing damage on the 6th, 7th and 8th seconds.
2. There is a maximum number of stacks, wich is understandable and probably has something to do with server performance.
3. A player can own more than one stack, wich penalizes other players.
   This includes poisons and burning.
   Several players applying poison or burning are penalizing each other because the effect doesn’t stack, only increases duration, and it simply gets overriden by the player with the best condition damage.
4. Effects that Cure 1 Condition remove all stacks of 1 condition.

Suggested Mechanics

1. Each stack is still monitored individually
2. There is still a maximum number of stacks per condition (can stay 25).
3. Each player owns 1 stack per condition, wich makes it fair for everyone when there happen to be multiple condition builds
   This includes Burning and Poison, making several players applying Burning and Poison no longer penalize each other.
   However, each player’s stack of Burning and Poison only gets extended in duration, and it can only be extended by its owner.
   The poison’s 33% Heal Reduction does not stack.
4. Effects that Cure 1 Condition would remove X stacks of 1 condition.
5. When applying a new Bleed, Confusion or Regeneration effect (damage conditions that stack intensity, or regeneration), it simply adds the new effect’s damage/healing to the old effect’s remaining damage/healing, and the new duration is a percentage of the new effect’s duration plus a percentage of the old effect’s remaining duration.
   These percentages are based on the weight of each effect’s damage comparing to the combined total.
   If the old effect’s remaining damage is 40% of the combined damage, then 40% of the old effect’s remaining duration is added to 60% of the new effect’s duration.
   The goal is making it so that the resulting damage and duration after the effect is updated has the adequate change in damage per second.
   Example:
   - You apply a 20 damage over 5 seconds bleed.
   - It does 4 damage per second
   - 3 seconds later (3×4=12 damage done), 8 damage and 2 seconds remain.
   - At this point you apply another 20 damage over 5 seconds bleed.
   - It will add the remaining 8 damage to the new 20 = 28.
   - Since 8 is 35% of 28 and 20 is 65% of 28, it will add 35% of 2 seconds to 65% of 5 seconds = 3.95 seconds.
   EDIT: 8 is actually ~28,6% of 28 and 20 is actually 71,4% of 28. The result is actually ~4,14s.

Why?
If it simply added the durations, you’d lose Damage per Second everytime you applied a new effect.
If it simply used the the new duration, you’d gain Damage per Second by applying a shorter duration effect.
Neither of these would be fair.