Guild Wars 2

IndigoSundown.5419:

What the OP is talking about is a system within which stats are equally balanced (more or less) across all characters.

Hmm, unless I’ve missed something that should be rather obvious in my logic (it happens from time to time), I don’t believe that it the case. At least, no more than it is now.

The main concept is to simply move defensive stats/boon/etc. to armor, and move offensive stats/boons/etc. to weapons.

My current armor adds Vitality, Toughness, and Condition Damage to my build.
My current weapons also add Vitality, Toughness, and Condition Damage to my build.

I’m merely suggesting a system that, as a general rule, stats like Vitality and Toughness should only be associated with armor, and stats like Condition Damage and Power be associated with only weapons. Basically, just reorganizing stats to associate them with their more logical equipment.

As in an example above, I mentioned having a helmet that grants immunity to blinding. To me, that is more logical than having boots that grant an immunity to blinding, because the helmet protects the eyes, not the feet. Boots would be more logical to grant swiftness.

Again, unless I’m mistaken, it wouldn’t create parity any more than the current system. It would simply change the choices. Instead of choosing armor that makes you do more damage, your choice in armor would determine your mobility and survivability. Instead of choosing weapons that allow you to absorb more damage, your weapon choices would determine your damage output (directly, critically, or conditionally) and active defenses (blocking, parrying, or glancing).

If it did change the fundamental choices of character builds, I suppose it would be in the following way. Armor choices would vary between slow/passive/direct defense and fast/active/conditional defense. Weapon choices would vary between strong/direct/aggressive offense and weaker/conditional/sustainable (defensive) offense.

I can make all of those choices now, but in order to do so, I may have to change my entire gear selection to be most effective at whatever I choose because the stats are distributed throughout ALL equipment. In the system I’m suggesting, I would only need to change either my armor (defensive) OR my weapons (offensive), but not both, in order to change my play style to another extreme.

The different professions should always be different. I don’t believe this new system would do anything to change that. It would only change the equipment pieces you choose in order to reach the builds available now. They may be slightly different is all, but just as varied.

Maugetarr.6823:

Have it drop smokescreen. It will protect you, won’t reveal you, and can be leap/blast finished.

I like this ^

Moving on to more extreme ideas…

(Change)
Last Refuge:
Blinding powder at 20% health threshold.
Reveal does not apply when less than 25% health threshold

(Replace)
Essence of Shadow:
Reveal decreases duration as health decreases.
< 75% health: Reveal lasts 2 seconds
< 50% health: Reveal lasts 1 second
< 25% health: Reveal is immediate with no duration

You could add another tier with 10% being having no Reveal duration. Or changing them to 33% and 66%, etc. That depending on how they want to implement it with pvp compared to the others.

The concept being that a thief becomes closer to becoming a “shade/shadow” as he nears death. While it can be a powerful tool for a thief to stay at low health, it is also an extreme risk. Shadow’s Rejuvenation can also make this more balanced due to the passive healing nature while in stealth, making it difficult for a thief to stay at such a low level of health for an extended duration.

But yeah… just thinking out loud here :-P

Azure The Heartless.3261:

It sounds ~alright~ in theory, but even at face value allowing the armor set to help determine stats would allow greater variation in build development, instead of reducing it to a set of four skills on your skill bar.

Ah, that actually made my curiosity grow. What do people see as important for a game such as this? Build variety or balance? Or both? I suppose there really isn’t a “correct” answer, but more of a personal preference.

Balance is important for competition, though trying to reach it can mean simplifying and streamlining to leave very little choices in build variety.

Build variety offers greater freedom, but at the risk of losing balance. It can also lead to extremely strong build and/or extremely weak builds. But it does allow the player the freedom to choose.

I suppose to take my previous examples further, I could use the following, and compare it to the type of builds we have today (random round numbers used, not to be equated with the current levels)…

Build A
Head: 250 Vitality
Shoulders: 250 Toughness
Chest: 500 Toughness
Hands: Regeneration
Legs: 200 Toughness, 200 Vitality
Feet: 250 Toughness, -10% Condition Duration on you

Build B
Head: Immune to Blind
Shoulders: -20% Condition Duration on you
Chest: Immune to Stun
Hands: 20% chance to cause an incoming strike to do half damage
Legs: Immune to Immobilization
Feet: Swiftness

Build C
No armor equipped. This results in maximum allowed movement speed and infinite endurance (unless a condition is applied that disrupts endurance).

Not that any of those examples would be ideal, but I do like the idea of having specialty pieces of equipment that apply boons or immunities themselves. I suppose that’s because my favorite game is Morrowind, and I judge all other RPG’s by it.

I’d also be interested in the idea of equipment having virtues accompanied by vices. Such as a helmet that allows only the user to see stealthed enemies, but at the cost of something terrible such as blinding lasting for the full timer instead of a missing a single strike… or even taking damage when blinded.

If you’ve played Morrowind, you’ll probably remember the Boots of Blinding Speed. Boots that gave you 300% maximum speed, but completely blinded you when you used them. Items like this would mean not only greater build variety, but you would also have to choose to accept the vices or to counter them using other equipment (ie: an amulet that granted immunity to blinding), sacrificing valuable equipment slots.

I don’t know. I just like dreaming of the possibilities! :-)

I’m still a newbie here… maybe 2 months old. I’m just curious why the system isn’t really based more heavily on making armor the primary source for defensive stats/boons and weapons for offensive stats/conditions/boons.

I’ve gone full dire for a condition damage build. But that’s both weapons and armor. Maybe it is an MMO formula that I’m not familiar with (never had much experience), but is my logic flawed for thinking a viable system would be something like the following?

Armor: Defensive
Defense
Toughness
Vitality
Defensive/Mobility Boon Duration (Stability, Resistance, Swiftness, etc.)

Weapons: Offensive
Damage
Power
Precision
Ferocity
Condition Damage/Duration
Offensive Boon Duration (Might)

I understand that there would need to be balancing within each of the two if that were the case. All offensive stats would come from one or two pieces of equipment instead of 14 + food. All of the defensive stats would come from 6 instead of 14 + food. That would leave trinkets and food to cover specialty things… perhaps overlapping the boon/condition intensity/duration.

Perhaps each piece of armor would grant only one stat, but at a high amount? Or two stats with lower amounts? Or even boons themselves at the cost of stats. For example:

Helmet A : 500 Toughness
Helmet B : 250 Toughness, 250 Vitality
Helmet C : 200 Toughness, 200 Vitality, % -10 Condition Duration on you
Helmet D : 100 Toughness, Swiftness
Helmet E : Stability

There could be the exceptions, of course. Like a shield granting higher defense and blocking, a sword parrying (glancing), a dagger more mobility. Or specialized armor that grants might at the cost of defensive stats… or even the option to go without a piece of armor to grant higher speed and endurance regeneration. But again, these examples are the exceptions to the rule.

Basically, the idea would be to make armor specialize in defense and/or mobility, and weapons in offense and damage.

I guess what I’m really wondering is why my armor increases the damage my attacks do… or why my weapons allow me to take more damage. I completely understand that weapons can be used defensively to an extent, but if armor affects offense at all, shouldn’t it hinder it instead of boost it?

It’s certainly not a complaint about the current system. I’m just throwing the idea out there to see what others think.