Guild Wars 2 Combat Articles: Part 1: Skills

[Enagan]

So Arena-net is now releasing various amounts of info for GW2 and they have just release skill related info!
(See this Topic for The Design Manifesto, an overview of the info to be released: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.191320-Guild-Wars-2-Design-Manifesto )


So here's the mashup: (Original Article here: http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/part-one/ )

One of our priorities in developing Guild Wars 2 has been to make the simple act of moving around and interacting with the world an enjoyable experience for our players. We often refer to this as introducing "joy of movement" into the game. This means being able to jump and swim freely, but it also translates directly into combat.

To reinforce the importance of movement in the game, we want your character's position in combat to really matter. You'll see a lot of attacks in Guild Wars 2 that encourage and reward tactical player movement and positioning.

Spoiler: Illustrative comic strip

To illustrate what I'm talking about, I was watching two of our game designers--Jon and Isaiah--play the other day. Jon is using his shield to deflect the fire breath of a drake, when Isaiah hits the drake from behind with a skill called Devastating Hammer, launching it into the air. The drake is sent flying over Jon's head, who immediately turns and uses a skill called Savage Leap to impale and finish the drake right as it hits the ground. This was a very cool looking (and effective!) sequence of events that flowed very naturally from how combat in Guild Wars 2 works.

Much like in Guild Wars, the skill bar in Guild Wars 2 is limited to a set number of skills. Like a collectible card game, we provide the player with a wide variety of choices and allow them to pick and choose skills to create a build that best suits their particular play style. For example, one Guild Wars 2 warrior might decide to build his character around gradual damage which causes his opponents to bleed out, while another may choose to knock his opponents down, controlling their movement with slow, large attacks. Both warriors can choose to equip the skills that matter most to them. It is also very important to us that our skill system be simple to use, leaving the screen as clean and unintimidating as possible. All of this combines to give us a skill bar and skill system that's a bit different than what you'd typically find in an MMO.

The first five skills on the skill bar are not slotted directly by the player; instead they are determined by the player's choice of weapon and profession. Because of this, we can ensure that each weapon is balanced with a fun combination of skills. For example, a warrior wielding a mace and shield would get access to strong but slow damage skills like Obliterate, as well as powerful defensive skills such as Block and Shield Bash. A warrior wielding a greatsword would have access to a lot of movement-oriented skills like Rush, and area-of-effect skills like 100 Blades. In each case, the warrior's first five skills are determined by what he's holding in his hands. Weapon skills also take profession into account, so a warrior wielding a sword will have different skills than a different sword-wielding profession.

To provide additional variety to the mix, most professions can have two different weapon sets equipped and can very quickly and easily swap between the sets. For example, a warrior might keep a longbow or rifle for engaging foes at a distance, and then switch to a hammer when that enemy gets close.

We've talked about the first five skills being determined by weapon and profession. What about the second five? These skills are all chosen by the player from a pool of skills determined by both profession and race. To slot a skill, a player simply clicks on a skill slot and it will bring up a list of skills that can be put into that slot. One of these slots is dedicated to healing skills that replenish the health of the character and his allies, while another slot is dedicated to elite skills that trigger visually spectacular and powerful effects. No matter what type of skill is involved, it's important that we give the player a diverse set of tools to choose from so that he can create a build that he'll enjoy playing.

Spoiler: Second Illustrative comic strip

http://www.guildwars2.com/global/includes/images/en/healthcare-thumb.jpg

Elite skills are designed to be infrequently-used, ultra-powerful skills that have a dramatic impact on the game. An Elementalist can call upon the power of the wind to shapeshift into a tornado that knocks enemies around and inflicts heavy damage, while a warrior might choose to harness the power of Destruction, to make all of his blows inflict area-of-effect damage.

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And that's it, tomorrow we're getting info on: Weapons, Professions and Races

 

[Robby Foxfur]

this sounds awesome I am once again excited to play guild wars 2

 

[Korten12]

*looks down*

crap I gotta change now... This just keeps sounding better and better and the elemental page has skill videos!

 

[mexicola]

This game just can't come out soon enough for me.

 

[TheRocketeer]

This seems really cool. I got a good amount of play out of the first Guild Wars, and this one is shaping up to look even better.

By the way, might this be better suited to the User Reviews forum? Kind of hard to place, really.

 

[mexicola]

This seems really cool. I got a good amount of play out of the first Guild Wars, and this one is shaping up to look even better.

By the way, might this be better suited to the User Reviews forum? Kind of hard to place, really.

Well it's copy-pasted from GW2 website so it can't be this user's review (unless he's Eric Flannum ;P).

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

Wow that would be cool if it actually ever came out and since we should have been playing the beta two years ago I sincerely doubt its on anything near the horizon.

Wait... half the skills are pretty much going to be the same as anyone else of our class. Wow that takes a lot of the fun out of it.

 

[TheRocketeer]

Well it's copy-pasted from GW2 website so it can't be this user's review (unless he's Eric Flannum ;P).

Well, maybe he is Eric Flannum, and he's posing as an Escapist user to dangle his company's product before our noses! Did you think of that?!

TELL US THE TRUTH, YOU CORPORATE WEASEL!

 

[gigastrike]

I'm not sure about the skill bar. Yes, I have more skills than before, but half of them are determined entirely by your weapon. Maybe this only applies to weapon-based classes, but I'd like a little more freedom.

Overall, this reveals a lot; it even confirmed racial skills!

This seems really cool. I got a good amount of play out of the first Guild Wars, and this one is shaping up to look even better.

By the way, might this be better suited to the User Reviews forum? Kind of hard to place, really.

How can you review a game that hasn't even entered beta testing?

 

[Hurray Forums]

I don't particularly care for the change to the skill bar, a huge part of the appeal of Guild Wars for me is the ridiculous customization available. 10 skill slots sounds good until you realize 5 will be decided for you, 1 is a heal, and 1 will probably be a rez. So, three skills that you get complete freedom on in Guild Wars 2, down from seven in Guild Wars 1 (assuming you carried a rez which most builds do).

The racial skills thing also seems like a bad idea to me. I honestly think races should be purely cosmetic. It just adds another large degree of difficulty to balancing as you have to worry about balancing classes AND races instead of just classes. It also means that some people will end up not playing the race they want to simply because they want to maximize their character's potential, and some racial skills will end up being better than others no matter how they balance it.

 

[Rewold]

The elementalist skill videos really impressed me. Using Static field and yelling: "I'm so stunning" made me lol.

 

[-IT-]

I don't particularly care for the change to the skill bar, a huge part of the appeal of Guild Wars for me is the ridiculous customization available. 10 skill slots sounds good until you realize 5 will be decided for you, 1 is a heal, and 1 will probably be a rez. So, three skills that you get complete freedom on in Guild Wars 2, down from seven in Guild Wars 1 (assuming you carried a rez which most builds do).

Perhaps you can still choose the weapon skills you want to use (for example pick your 5 sword skills out a pool of 50 skills). The game deciding what skills you'll have to use indeed looks like a step back from the original.

 

[pha kin su pah]

this sounds atrocious, the weapons determine 5 slots on your skill bar?, while PvP and PvE are a whole lot different, bringing broken PvP builds into PvE and going through it that way was a whole lot of fun, but pre determined skill bars? this reminds me of all the PvE's that complained about my bars, when i could blow through it alot faster with the henchmen, i bet everybody still thinks that elementals are the damage dealers in guild wars.

I don't particularly care for the change to the skill bar, a huge part of the appeal of Guild Wars for me is the ridiculous customization available. 10 skill slots sounds good until you realize 5 will be decided for you, 1 is a heal, and 1 will probably be a rez. So, three skills that you get complete freedom on in Guild Wars 2, down from seven in Guild Wars 1 (assuming you carried a rez which most builds do).

Perhaps you can still choose the weapon skills you want to use (for example pick your 5 sword skills out a pool of 50 skills). The game deciding what skills you'll have to use indeed looks like a step back from the original.

I really hope so.

 

[Akirai]

FUCK YEAH. Guild Wars 1 is my favourite PC game of all time and the only MMO(ish) worth playing. Water Trident returning ensures I'll roll an Elementalist eventually. I wonder though, anybody else notice the Ele was on dry earth while using Churning, in a puddle while Trident and in a downpour while using Static? Weather and location affecting skill efficiency maybe?

As for the rest of the released information: they were planning on reducing the number of skills you could pick, so decreasing the number of open slots is a logical choice. The number of unique builds remains equal. Having several slots fixed is also a good way to ensure that all players have a useful build, even when PuGging. Frankly this wasn't the case in GW1. Not sure I agree with the changes (especially the healing slot) but they're not autoterrible.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

Looking forward to it! Hope to hear some more information on it soon.

 

[Enagan]

this sounds atrocious, the weapons determine 5 slots on your skill bar?, while PvP and PvE are a whole lot different, bringing broken PvP builds into PvE and going through it that way was a whole lot of fun, but pre determined skill bars? this reminds me of all the PvE's that complained about my bars, when i could blow through it alot faster with the henchmen, i bet everybody still thinks that elementals are the damage dealers in guild wars.

I don't particularly care for the change to the skill bar, a huge part of the appeal of Guild Wars for me is the ridiculous customization available. 10 skill slots sounds good until you realize 5 will be decided for you, 1 is a heal, and 1 will probably be a rez. So, three skills that you get complete freedom on in Guild Wars 2, down from seven in Guild Wars 1 (assuming you carried a rez which most builds do).

Perhaps you can still choose the weapon skills you want to use (for example pick your 5 sword skills out a pool of 50 skills). The game deciding what skills you'll have to use indeed looks like a step back from the original.

I really hope so.

My Guess is the crafting system will have a say in this.
Kind of like, when you craft a weapon you get to choose wich skills it will have, but it's just a guess nothing confirmed.

Well it's copy-pasted from GW2 website so it can't be this user's review (unless he's Eric Flannum ;P).

Well, maybe he is Eric Flannum, and he's posing as an Escapist user to dangle his company's product before our noses! Did you think of that?!

TELL US THE TRUTH, YOU CORPORATE WEASEL!

I wish I WAS him! If I was I would probably be Playing alpha GW2 now