Before I begin, please understand that this is not a rant.
I love GW2, and I want it to succeed.
I may come off as over-critical, but I’m just being objective.
If you disagree at all, that’s fine, just be constructive about it.
The way Anet described/displayed the combat when it was still in alpha had me floored.
I resent tab-targeting & GW2’s action-oriented combat looked so very promising.
When I experienced it first-hand, I wasn’t let down. The controls were slick and the combat was lively.
However, I realized that in retrospect, I definitely got way too excited.
I recommend watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQPVoVaPOQU
TL;DW: It’s a 12 minute video going over the rationale behind MMO combat restrictions and limitations.
Now, GW2 has jumped many hurdles regarding constraints in MMO combat. When it comes to GW2 combat, Words like “smooth” and “responsive” come to mind. However, as it stands, GW2’s combat feels like a prototype for something that could be much better. It feels unfinished. Half-complete. The combat is desperately missing something. Attacks are all lacking impact. Enemies exhibit almost no physical reaction from damage. Some will do an ignorable twitch on hit and that’s it. Attacks don’t feel like they have any real weight to them. You just see the enemy’s health go down and/or they gain a condition. It might as well be tab-targeting combat.
From what I’ve experienced, the main 4 mechanics of combat are damage, boons, conditions and crowd control. This really disappoints the whole action-combat aspect because dodging & positioning aren’t on that list. They don’t need to be in GW2’s case. Bosses can just be zerged to death while cheap gimmicks take place to draw out the battle. For example: The Fire-Shaman. Zerg him down with constant stuns/conditions/damage until he summons the fire elemental. Kill the minions until it’s gone and zerg him again. It’s the same with the Risen Priestess of Lyssa. Zerg her while she teleports all over the place, turn around when she uses corrupted gaze. Make sure all 3 outer seals stay captured so you can continue to zerg her. There are seldom any real anti-zerg mechanics on bosses. As I said, there are only cheap gimmicks that break up zerging and prolong the battle.
Anet’s heart was in the right place when they got rid of the holy trinity. Waiting around for a specific role is something many will not miss. However, the way they went about removing the holy trinity introduced a whole new problem: You did not matter (unless you’re a guardian for dungeons). Back when I used to play WoW, I was invaluable for having a maxed priest. My guild would often wait around for me to get home from school just so they could get the raid going. I also play a priest in TERA, and I’ll often bring party members back from the brink of death in an instant. It feels good knowing that you matter – that you’re required for a group to succeed. In GW2, since every class has a bit of every role integrated in their skillset, you’re not needed. In large-scale meta-events, it makes virtually no difference whether you’re present or not. You’re just a foot soldier – a number. This also really hinders teamwork compared to the holy trinity. in GW2 it’s every man for themselves, but with the holy trinity, all roles interact in such a way that they need each other to succeed which encourages unity and teamwork. In GW2 it’s just about having the right number.
