Guild Wars 2

Orpheal.8263:

The only way how ANet could improve the basics around the weapon skill system is, by adding basicalyl multiple “weapon skill sets”

if anet would make every single weapon skill changeable, then the weapon skill system would make absolutely no sense at all, because then we would have nothing different else, than what we had in GW1, where players could decided their skill bars by 100% self for every single skill slot.

So the best thing Anet can do is implementing “Battle Styles” for all other classes, except the Elementalist and the Engineer and add for the Elementalist more Element Attunements and for the Engineer just more Tools similar to the Flamethrower.

A Warrior for example could change then between 3 Battle Styles.
“Gladiator”, “Mercenary” and "Legionnaire for example, which would change the weapon skill sets among the used weapons.
So a Sword/Shield Warrior fighting with the Gladiator-Style would have different Weapon Skills, than a Sword/Shield Warrior fighting in the Mercenary-Style.

Same thing would work with the other classes.
For Elementalist would it be good to add:

Light Attunement and Shadow Attunement so that we could have also Light Elementalists and Shadow Elementalists, which could be quite seriously something totally different compared to Guardians and Necromancers, because they would be clear from those holy/unholy aspects those two classes have and be in regard of the two elements be more “neutral” in their gameplay design/skill design.

I for myself would love to play my Elementalist as a kind of “Light Mage” attacking enemies with various light magic spells

This idea doesn’t change the fact that you can’t change your skills to your liking. Besides , why should they do something like this when it’s simpler to just implement new weapons into the game which you can even change in battle?
It’s just a complicated version of that.

And why shouldn’t it make sense to change the weaspon skills? Does it say anywhere that actually weapons are the primary source of magic? Or that no one is going to change his weapon in combat when you have the same option of skill types but expanded on the way how they work?
Example: Slot 2 – Skill1: dmg + 3 second bleeding / Skill 2 : dmg + 6 seconds bleeding when target is moving etc….
Now you choose which you prefer but it shouldn’t change the weapon style…
Why shouldn’t I change the weapon then , when the other is based on support or aoe dmg and so on…

The restriction of weapon skills is the biggest issue I had with this game since the betas.
Skill progression is one of the major motivations in rpg’s for me and utilities come with too big CD’s to be useful in proper situations. So I’d agree with anything that gives us more freedom with our weapon skills , even a skill tree or specific runes.

The OP already gave a solid and balance friendly solution , which could be implemented immediately and wouldn’t brake anything.

Or how about…
Class Name: Mystic/Moon Knight
Class Type: Heavy
Weapons of choice: Lance , Sword , Greatsword , Shield, Mace .
Abilitiy: This class should be a melee fighter with arcane/nature magic skills.
The specialty of this class is that it has one Mana/Power gauge wich starts at 100% and cannot be filled during battle what means that you have to use your F1-F5 skills carefully in order to be effective in the long term. It should be a risky class to play but very effective if played patiently. You can spam all skills instantly if you want but then you`ll be out of Mana/Power. However the F skills should be very powerful like aoe fear or dmg spells, combo fields (maybe they should all be channeled) while consuming a great amount of Mana.
Furthermore , in order to be different from the guardian , the Mystic/Moon Knight should have both melee and ranged spells as weapon skills to both attack with the weapon and cast spells from afar.
The F skills thing may be unoriginal , but all in all it would be an interesting class to play.

Class Name: Dragon Knight/Shifter
Class Type: Heavy
Weapons of choice: Lance , Sword , Greatsword , Shield .
Abilitiy: Able to shift into 2 Dragons with filling two different bars for each of them.
First bar; Rage: Increases with the players attacks while being able to shift into a Black/Destruction Dragon when this gauge is full.
2 bar; Pain: Increases with damage taken while being able to shift into a White/Support Dragon when this gauge is full.
When shifting into a dragon form , the player may remain in this state as long as he wants , however when shifting back into the original form , the gauge becomes empty again.
In dragon shape , the player will be granted 6-7 skills with no usage of utility/healing skills but being able to survive long enough without them increasing the player’s base lp by 30% (or 20-25% whatever).
Additionally , some utilities can only be used while both rage/pain gauges are full while in non dragon form to give some balance and reward players for not permanent shaping into or remaining in dragon form , the skills should however have adequate cooldowns.

It’s an idea that I came up with after reading this thread and I have more. Think it could work out.
Otherwise I would like to see a real summoner class , druid/shaman love nature , monk timemage/chronomancer (hard to implement with mesmer already having time manipulating skills)

Personally I think they should put their emphasis on new skills and variations rather than gear grind. Definately going the wrong direction with Ascended Gear , they should be listening to the old Gw 1 players not to the former WOW’lers

Sounds good.
Had something similar in mind like monsters dropping special traits for skills and everyone had 3-4 branches where you could further improve a skill by spending skill points gained from levels.

But I think the skill points thing is too boring , make them unlocked through using certain skills X times with a far longer procedure than unlocking weapon skills. Although it would be grindy it would fit the mechanics.

Because every change needs balancing and there needs to be a major reason why anet should go into it. If we take the idea with variants not being stronger than the normal skill , then it would balance out itself because no change would’ve been made that makes one class superior to another. The power of the skill doesn’t change so there won’t be people whining about one skill being op etc…
On the other hand we can do what you say but I think anet would adore the simplified solution more.

Yes I know what you mean but keep in mind that no matter how stronger the variants are than the original , it means more work for anet regarding balancing. So why would they even risk to make these changes when the outcome is a more unbalanced game?
I welcome and like your idea and would love if anet considers something like this to be implemented , but we have to be realistic. People always come with great ideas but we don’t even know if those threads are being read by the devs , sadly. There was a thread about the same issue with a guy creating a complete new skill system with new skills for each slot you could choose from , now it vanished like it has never existed before.

The communication between anet and us players is grose , it’s like they only reply to things already planned. If some of the devs reads this please reply , just that we know we are not writing in vain.

Great idea , but i think 4 variants for every skill would be too much , anet will never do that. If reduced to weapon skills only maybe , otherwise 2 would be enough.
They could start with 2 variants for each weapon skill and expand on that in the future.
I disagree that they should be stronger than the normal skills , then we would have an unbalanced mess of classes and that should be the most important aspect to be considered with such ideas.

It is simply because you as a player are forced to a premade skill bar. You cannot change the skills all the way to lv 80 wich gets very boring , in fact there is no skill progression besides the utilities that all have big cooldowns and most of them are just passives.
Another reason is that there are some skills you don’t prefer but take a skill slot unnecessarily and you cannot switch between 10 weapons to pick them mid combat.
In addition it would open more build variations but in no means should we get back to the Holy Trinity. It should just improve on the current system as said before.

Props @LanceHavenbay
I did have the same idea with weapon skills and more build customization through them while not harming the current system. I can’t believe you actually put my mind into effect , very well done.
By the way I think the necro needs some more channeling spells

I would love any of those ideas to be implemented as long as they give more freedom and specialization to weapons skills. Giving certain skills different effects/traits while on the other hand decreasing dmg or range etc. would be the right way for balancing sake.
I think this game also misses some unique spells with penalties and requirements , this could be achieved with skill traits. I mean the preconditions are there as many skills of different classes don’t differ at all.
May be they should make spells drop from bosses or champion mobs, even traits.

The current system may be interesting for players that are new to the genre , but too shallow for us old rpg gamers. There needs to be a balance which currently is not given even via traits. On the other hand there is so much potential if they decide to further improve on it.

Being the only major problem I have with GW 2 , it would be very sad and dissapointing if the weapon skills remain like that. I see many players complaining about this weapon skill limitation and hope that Anet is willing to solve this issue.
One solution would be that , it has alredy been posted somewhere in this forum , higher level weapons give different skills even if they’re from the same origin. Let’s say a lv 40 dagger gives the same skills but slightly changed , longer condition duration on some skills , more damage on others , additional effects etc. The better the weapon , the better the skills could be one possibilty but would be hard to balance.
Another option would be weapon skill challenges. I’ve never played GW1 but heard that something similar has already been there and it would fit into the GW2 world as well. There would be no need for 1000’s of skills but 1-2 per weapon is enough for me.
As an example , let everyone learn a mimic spell by completing an event or dungeon , after that you’re given the chance to learn weapon bounded spells from champion mobs/bosses and assign them to your skill bar ( like blue magic fromm ff).

An alternative to all that would be skill traits like posted above , that change single skills , give them new effects etc. to make combat more interesting and players less predictable.
See there are many ways to handle it , some require more work than others but what’s most important is it should not change the whole combat mechanics. I really hope something is going to happen in this regard.