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[GW2]We're all waiting very, very patiently for class reveals. *twitch*
Posts
Define garbage skills.
You want elites? I'll go with Warrior. How about Battle Rage. You're better off bringing a decent attack elite, since adrenaline charges fast enough for it to be useless. Cleave? Eviscerate wants a word with you. Earth Shaker? Even PvP guys where snares are useful didn't find a use for it. Bulls Charge? Bring Bulls Strike and save your elite slot. Skull Crack? Reduce the ridiculous adrenaline cost and we might have something. Primal Rage? Just bring Frenzy and use the elite for something better. Shove? Bring Shock. Magehunters Smash? Devastating Blow is still better.
This is the problem with an enormous skill pool. They need to make a lot of skills with every expansion, but the limited set of effects means that new skills will be better at doing their job than previous skills, or previous skills will be better, so the majority end up being not worth taking. Smaller skill pool means they can focus their attention on all of the skills, rather than the few that are causing problems, after which new skills make problems after a balance patch because there's so many.
edit - I know it can be fun to mess around with junk skills to try to make a humorous build. We ran an all beast master build through Heroes Ascent a few times that tended to irritate the crap out of opposing teams because they spent the whole game with 40 second skill recharges thanks to 6x distracting shot and 6x disrupting bite. Still doesn't mean what we were running wasn't garbage, and they would be better off without that sort of thing so they can concentrate on the rest of the game.
How will this effect PvP and/or PvE, and how will these things carry over has yet to be seen, but I have faith that they are keeping this in mind. There's still a danger of people discovering OP skill combos and working out profession and weapon builds to support those combos and that becoming prevalent and nerf worthy, but you can't have choice without that possibility.
All good, we all want GW2 to be awesome for everyone.
You make good points, i'm just commenting and speculating.
Overly simplistic skills might not really be an issue if they implement the whole "wall of fire = flaming projectiles" type thing, added onto the "you can use a barstool as a fucking weapon" thing. The possibilities really are endless if this new combat system is done right, and once we see some beta love and gameplay videos involving said things, then we can really start dissecting this and seeing if it holds up the hype.
It's going to be awesome.
But since they say they're also moving towards allowing people to play solo effectively, removing preparations really hinders rangers usefulness, since using apply poison or barbed arrows with a shortbow is a great way to spread conditions through a group of enemies. I can't see firing an arrow already lit by something like Kindle Arrows becoming MORE ON FIRE! by flying through a fire wall. But then, applying kindle arrow and firing through a static field could yield multiple damage types... ah, potential.
I suspect the solution to adding variety to solo play is that instead of relying on skills, you'd be working with the natural environment, or using enemies' skills against them. So that giant lobs a boulder at you and it shatters when it hits the ground: awesome, attach a shard to your arrow to inflict bleeding. That necromancer just inflicted a disease on you: no problem, just spit into your quiver and inflict it right back.
Oh god that would be so awesome.
Fixed.
"lfg need spit roasters for [instance known for its disease-spreading enemies vulnerable to fire]"
Goodbye "link GS and achievement biatch", hello "Come nuke some dudes with us, and bring your boulder"!
You wish. I wish. But that won't happen, because people suck.
On another note, I'm going to play a golemancer! I hope it's anything like FFXI's Puppetmaster or Summoner jobs.
Any speculation on what the next professions they'll reveal will be? And how they will fit into their new system of skillsets and combinable abilities?
Why is the Elementalist boring? Cliche a bit, maybe, seeing as it's a Shaman/Mage hybrid, sort of, but how can throwing boulders and firewalls at people be boring?
I am super evil online so that I can be super good offline.
Man, big chunks of rock are boring and I got a firewall on my computer.
Just two examples of what they can do. ArenaNet needs to start releasing more info so I can cite my argument damnit!
Watch this if you haven't already. Even if they aren't your cup of tea, they are still cool if for no other reason then because they can buff other people's abilities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq2zc4wUhJc
If it was a well armored melee guy who calls upon the elements to deal magical damage and whatnot, that'd be mildly interesting. But this is just a regular, normal mage. Boring.
My guess is that the next profession will either be Warrior, which we have heard about already a little, or a brand new class which was not in GW1.
Steam (Ansatz) || Planetside 2 - Vanu (Ansatz) || GW2 Officer (Ansatz.6498)
These are the same people that came up with a scythe weilding psychopath that communes with the gods, a Spear weilder that shouts in order to gain morale/energy, a Blind spiritulist that communes with dead spirits in order to smite or heal.
And a ROBOT.
They'll be fine.
Article on the Dynamic Event system:
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/
Plus some new screens:
Steam (Ansatz) || Planetside 2 - Vanu (Ansatz) || GW2 Officer (Ansatz.6498)
Also, that thing about the dynamic event system has raised my hopes ridiculously high.
To sum it up for those who don't go to the website: They want to do away with (or at least lessen the role of) the traditional quest system that has the player talk to a quest giver, read a block of text, and get a quest objective. They use the example of 'instead of someone telling you that a dragon is attacking, you'll actually see a dragon coming down on you blowing up buildings.'
Another example they have is how quests lie to the players, when they say 'badguys are attacking.' so you have to kill 10 badguys, who are usually just standing around in the spawn area of that mob type. In GW2, if a farmer tells you ogres are attacking, they will come and smash down his house if you don't stop them.
A lot of MMO players put down GW for being instanced and lacking the "player interaction" you get in a traditional MMO. And here GW2 is going to make the "player interaction" in a typical MMO look pathetic with a persistent world filled with elaborate events and full support for ad-hoc grouping.
Steam (Ansatz) || Planetside 2 - Vanu (Ansatz) || GW2 Officer (Ansatz.6498)
This right here made me jizz in my pants.
I'd describe myself as an explorer in MMOs, but there's really no incentive to do so. I can't count the number of times I've managed to explore what looks like a hidden back pack, through a forest, up a mountain into a really cool looking area and found a cool creature or thing there only to be struck with the realization that 'I don't have the quest for this area yet.' It takes some of the mystery out of the game.
With this, if I explore my way to that hidden area and interact with whever I find there, it could start off a chain of events that effects the whole area. Or at least, it will be a unique experience for having found the place.
The PQ's in WAR didn't have any kind of effect in the world if you failed them or initiated them though, they were very isolated and ultimately felt kind of pointless.
Here's hoping GW2 does a 'Blizzard' and takes WAR's concept and refines it into perfection.
e. To amend, when I say experience 'any of that' I'm talking about their supposed plungers of the world, and that stuff, not the PQs.
The problem with PQs was if no one was there, you couldn't finish them. So if you fell behind the initial wave of the greatest number of players, so much of the content was effectively locked out to you. From the sounds of it, GW2's will scale to the number of people there.
That is why I shied away from WoW and was tantalized by Aion, the real world isn't binary black and white and it feels weird to play a game with only two active factions. The thought of a third one coming in and helping the black crush white and then turn on black makes me smile.
Actually, thats what everyone does in Mount and Blade, we help the bandits win (while "accidentally" shooting them in the back of the head), then we turn on them and recruit their prisoners to our cause.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/guild-wars-2-dynamic-events-interview?page=1
http://pc.ign.com/articles/108/1089082p1.html
with both Heroes of Telara and GW2 focusing so much on dynamic events and all. I think it's a good direction to be going in
God damn. Three weeks ago, I didn't give a shit about this game, but now it sounds genuinely awesome.
/head explodes