Combat Issues with PvP

[plazsma]

Foremost, let me begin by saying that I love GW2's attempts to revolutionize and improve MMO's. It it definitely a step in the right direction, and there are so many things that GW2 does so well.

Unfortunately, for me combat is not one of them. The combat feels clunky at best. Generally, i'll walk into a fight and just start mashing buttons. Sure, I'll save certain abilities to close gaps and play more defensive if I have to, but for the most part I just use whatever ability is off cooldown.

I don't have much problem with this button-mashing style because I feel as if it has more to do with my lack of experience with GW2 than the actual game itself. However, what I really dislike about the combat in GW2 is the need for a hyper-sense of awareness. In order to be really good, you need to be able to react to your opponents abilities. But between the game's 8 classes and countless weapon combinations this becomes a daunting challenge for any player. It is simply too hard to be able to remember and react to that many different animations to be able to play intelligently. Then, combine this with the many other players you encounter at once in PvP and that task becomes that much more difficult. Therefore, in the end I'm forced back into a button-smashing style of gameplay that I don't want to play.

P.S. The Asura are probably my favorite race of any game and I've only played them for a few hours.

[Lillpapps]

I play a guardian and I dont find it clunky or that I mash buttons. With sword / board and scepter / focus I have two auto attacks, one gap closer, one burst dmg attack, two aoes, two defensive cds, one immobilize and one dmg / condition removal / heal. As you can see I have only 5 abilties that are dmg attacks. And thats with two different weapon sets. During combat I have to keep in mind which set I will need to kill an opponent so I cant just switch back and forth spamming those attacks either. I also have 3 virtues that I have to keep track of and those are absolutely not spammable.

The awareness is just a matter of experience. The game isnt even released yet so ofcourse your knowledge of the game is very limited. When you have faced an elementalist 500 times in pvp then you will probably know exactly what he is doing at all times.