For those who didn't like the way skills work

[DrakeWurrum]

I want to ask a question, and try to foster some discussion on this matter. You see, the most common complaint I hear is "All you get is one attack move, then some controlling crap, then something to stay alive, etc etc" and basically go on to say that you're frustrated with how your main source of damage is the #1 attack skill.

In other words, what you're saying is... you want every single skill to just be focused on dealing damage? O_o

[Malthurius]

I think this is just an issue of being used to the way WoW works. They want to push more buttons because they believe that to be more interest and less boring. At least that's the only excuse I can see. The skills on your bar aren't meant to be kept off cooldown, they're meant to be situational, and some can't get their head around that.

[Xothic]

But therein lies ze problem, if you have four situational abilities and one main damaging abilities, all you are doing for most of the time is spamming that one ability until the option comes around where one of the other four would fit. Spamming that one ability, which is more than likely also your auto attack, would get pretty bloody boring.

I am assuming this is aleviated when you unlock the other 4 or 5 skill slots though, didnt get that far.

[DrakeWurrum]

But therein lies ze problem, if you have four situational abilities and one main damaging abilities, all you are doing for most of the time is spamming that one ability until the option comes around where one of the other four would fit. Spamming that one ability, which is more than likely also your auto attack, would get pretty bloody boring.

I am assuming this is aleviated when you unlock the other 4 or 5 skill slots though, didnt get that far.

But is having a damage "rotation" really all that interesting?

The combat in GW2 isn't really focused on pewpewing with buttons, but on positioning properly and controlling the flow of combat.

[Malthurius]

Playing some PvP, where all your skills are unlocked, I can say it gets more interesting then. In sPvP you find yourself rarely just spamming 1, because there is always a situation to be defensive or support yourself. Right now in the lower levels I dare say the game is a bit easy on the player, not forcing those situations that require the other 4 weapon skills. It was much more brutal BWE1 I feel.

[Fencers]

But therein lies ze problem, if you have four situational abilities and one main damaging abilities, all you are doing for most of the time is spamming that one ability until the option comes around where one of the other four would fit. Spamming that one ability, which is more than likely also your auto attack, would get pretty bloody boring.

This is true but varies on the weapon. Some weapons are just defense/control/support focused. If a player wanted to um, not do that they simply need to find another weapon set or profession even.

For example, a Warrior just wanting raw damage might want dual axes or great sword. Where another Warrior may want mace+shield [defense] or 2h hammer [control].

[Jaxsz]

Weapon swapping makes this far less common, and the utility spells are often related to damage too - ie, for Guardians you can make all 3 utility spells into weapon summons that do some badass damage. I personally really enjoy the combat

[fletchdwb]

I think this is just an issue of being used to the way WoW works. They want to push more buttons because they believe that to be more interest and less boring. At least that's the only excuse I can see. The skills on your bar aren't meant to be kept off cooldown, they're meant to be situational, and some can't get their head around that.

WOW had WAAAAAAY too much skill bloat. You could remove half the abilities of every class and still have too many. Vanillia wasnt too too bad but TBC, WOTLK, CAT they just kept adding and adding.

I look forward to GW2s cleaned up bars.

[Larynx]

I found sPvP to never suffer from this problem. Leveling, I did. It was mostly #1 spam and movement, at least versus normal mobs.

But yeah, in PvP this is literally a non-issue. No problems with "spammy" or "boring" combat. I didn't really think the low level PvE was boring either since, y'know, if I just stood and mashed buttons I'd die. Fighting a veteran, for example, I would chain together my dazes and knockdowns (in total I had 5) whenever my dodge or heal was down. Between those I'd be using the other abilities, which applies conditions. All together, it was almost a very seamless style of combat. Normal mobs I rarely ever did anything besides circle strafe though.

[Lilly32]

WOW had WAAAAAAY too much skill bloat. You could remove half the abilities of every class and still have too many. Vanillia wasnt too too bad but TBC, WOTLK, CAT they just kept adding and adding.

I look forward to GW2s cleaned up bars.

Wait what? Pretty much every class in WoW except locks can boil their rotation down to 4-6 abilities. If you wanna see skill bloat go play SW:ToR. Some classes use 20-25.

[Larynx]

Wait what? Pretty much every class in WoW except locks can boil their rotation down to 4-6 abilities. If you wanna see skill bloat go play SW:ToR. Some classes use 20-25.

As a hunter, I had 60 keybinds.

[DrakeWurrum]

Wait what? Pretty much every class in WoW except locks can boil their rotation down to 4-6 abilities. If you wanna see skill bloat go play SW:ToR. Some classes use 20-25.

That's the point. They only need about 5-10 of their spells in WoW, but have closer to 50 total in their spellbook. I think I counted once, and Warlock and Shaman had the most, but I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly.

[Xothic]

As a hunter, I had 60 keybinds.

O_o

Maybe its just because I was a durpadin, but how?

[Loaf Lord]

O_o

Maybe its just because I was a durpadin, but how?

Hunters got a lot of pet macros.

[Larynx]

O_o

Maybe its just because I was a durpadin, but how?

Mostly inflated due to macros.

[Wynnyelle]

I always had waaaay too many keybinds in WoW and other MMOs like it, so I'm really thankful for the significant decrease in the amount of keybinds I had to remember and execute. To me, it's more like a MOBA or ARTS in that I don't have any kind of rotation (which really isn't all that interesting to me. Pushing buttons in the right order doesn't make a game any more fun) and that I use my skills when I need to use them (outside of my main damager). I like the system quite a lot. I'd rather have a small set of skills that have one of everything that I need rather than many families of similar abilities cluttering up my screen.

[DrakeWurrum]

I always had waaaay too many keybinds in WoW and other MMOs like it, so I'm really thankful for the significant decrease in the amount of keybinds I had to remember and execute. To me, it's more like a MOBA or ARTS in that I don't have any kind of rotation (which really isn't all that interesting to me. Pushing buttons in the right order doesn't make a game any more fun) and that I use my skills when I need to use them (outside of my main damager). I like the system quite a lot. I'd rather have a small set of skills that have one of everything that I need rather than many families of similar abilities cluttering up my screen.

I feel the exact same way. I've been playing this game like I'm playing LoL from a different perspective, than like an MMORPG.

[Tychus]

I like the game overall, but I am a bit underwhelmed by the skill system. It seems so... uninvolved.

Half the time, it seems all that happens is circle strafing a mob while autoattacking, which is a bit dull (but good for watching Youtube). Tap a utility once in a while. Weapon swapping requires a keypress and a GCD, so it's not terribly fluid; not to mention frequently unnecessary (autoattack with weapon a vs autoattack with weapon b). They really could've used more things like procs, builders+consumers, etc. to keep things relatively engaging.

That said, a few weapon/profs I tried seemed to have an actual extra dps button or two (not positive, probably requires theorycrafting), though they were still just cd-based from what I saw.

[Fencers]

I do wish we could reorganize the action bar. It's all fine and dandy that Anet decided warrior MH sword should have a charge. But hard binding it to the 2 key position kinda screws me up. If I could just slide that skill over 2 spaces...

Also no import/export per character bindings or macros is pretty frustrating.

[Lucky_]

It's worth noting is that there is a damage rotation for almost every class. It's obviously weapon and utility skill dependent, but it exists.

For example, BWE3 I was (well, still will in the morning probably) playing staff elementalist in AC for three runs, and rotation pretty much became clear. Start in Air, Sylvari racial turret> Ult elemental > [5 > Fire > 2 > 3 > 5 > 2 > Water > 5 > 3 > 4 > 2 > Earth > 5 > 4 > 2 > Air > 2] > [5 ...

My other two utility skills were mist form and glyph of renewal. Used utility as needed obviously, and you can drop heal skills from rotation or add utility like air 4 if needed. But that was my general rotation in about 80% of dungeon encounters with utility and additional defense like earth 3 woven in as needed. You can for example use fire 4 before shifting to water to draw fire line in front of your missile shooters to add burning arrows, but in most cases that's just not worth the time it takes, because there's enough combo fields in your rotation regardless.