Do skills have cooldowns?

[rhinomatic]

Also keep in mind that the longest CDs aren't that long compared to other games. I think the longest I remember seeing on an average ability was 40 seconds. Most were between 6 and 15 seconds.

Some of the more extreme elite skills have CDs over a minute long, but those are so situational that you don't really have to worry about the CD. There aren't really any long CDs you want to use every time they're available to maximize DPS, and there aren't CDs of varying lengths you need to watch and use when they're all available.

[barackopala]

It's not THAT hard to do. Do you play LoL or HoN? It's kinda the same thing.

---------- Post added 2012-07-31 at 10:56 PM ----------


How is it silly?

It's a great way to force you to use spells intelligently, rather than just spamming them willy nilly. There's tons of classes in WoW that have cooldowns restricting the usage of their skills, and I'm not just talking Enhance Shaman.

Shh, CDR riven is way too strong, they'll never nottice!

But yeah, as stated, the cooldowns exist for you to use it on key moments, to use your resources when you REALLY need them, not spamming them like the good:
-Arcane Blast x4
-Arcane Missiles
*Arcane Barrage when running*

[Keldrath]

I'm sure it is manageable. For me, cooldowns lead to a style of play I don't enjoy. It sounds like they've done a lot to improve combat spontaneity. But for me, cooldowns take away spontaneity and make a game less fun.

Obviously, millions of people that play GW1 and WoW are fine with them.

Cooldowns add another layer of depth and skill to the game.

Simply if you use your 10 second cooldown ability right now, but then need to cancel it early because of a dodge, you didn't use it effectively and say you didn't need it right now but a couple seconds later you really need it, but you don't have it because you wasted it earlier.

It forces you to be more intelligent with your skill use and gets away from the standard mash buttons style of play.

most of your main 1-5 skills either have really short cooldowns, like 5-10 seconds, the last two get up to like 20 maybe even 25, not sure about 25 though, thought i might have seen one. It's different for each type of weapon you have and what profession you are playing but those times are general rules.

I'm not really sure why you are against this type of system, which kind of system would you prefer? The options are pretty much just this, or one where you have no cooldown and can spam endlessly, or one with resource management which has the downside of having a lot of downtime where you can't really do anything, which isn't fun for anyone. With this system no matter how long the fight lasts you can always feel like you are doing something and being effective, rather than feeling useless for certain periods in the fight.

Also this encourages you to use all of your abilities depending on the situation, vs only using the one most effective ability until you run out of resource.

[Guilegamesh]

Cooldowns in GW2 are different from WoW's (assuming that is what you are familiar with) in that, besides the elite, they are not significantly stronger than your main ability. They usually are one or two AoEs and abilities that apply debuffs/buffs/snares and other affects that mitigate damage recieved and increase the damage you put out.

They can be used with other abilities and utility abilities to do things like put out huge burst like the Warrior's Bull's Charge -> Frenzy -> Hundred Blades combo.

[Jalek]

To me it just seemed like I was spamming my 1 key (or leaving it on autofire) a lot and not that interesting. I'm still going to try the game as it's cheap with no subscription, but I think combat was the weakest part of the game.

[Colonelbiscuit]

To me it just seemed like I was spamming my 1 key (or leaving it on autofire) a lot and not that interesting. I'm still going to try the game as it's cheap with no subscription, but I think combat was the weakest part of the game.

you have much to learn Grasshopper

[Keldrath]

To me it just seemed like I was spamming my 1 key (or leaving it on autofire) a lot and not that interesting. I'm still going to try the game as it's cheap with no subscription, but I think combat was the weakest part of the game.

I can't imagine you did much outside of the starter pve zones if that was your experience O.o

Starter pve zones are supposed to be easy for a reason. They were made even easier with this last bwe than the previous ones because people were finding them too hard to get to learn their classes and abilities and were getting frustrated rather than having fun. Good games scale it up as you progress.

[sync]

Thanks for all the info. I'll try the GW2 trial when it becomes available so I can see how the cooldowns are different than WoW.

[Lusitan]

GW2 sounds like a great game but I can't stand managing cooldowns. I guess I'll wait for GW3.

tell me what MMORPG you playing that doesnt have CD's on skills, im rather intrigued now

[sync]

tell me what MMORPG you playing that doesnt have CD's on skills, im rather intrigued now

I'm not playing any MMO.

Before GW2 most people would have said targeting was an essential part of an MMORPG.

If people think cooldowns are better than other methods of preventing skill spamming that is fine. I play lots of games where you can't spam skills and none of them use cooldowns. I've never heard anyone say they wish those games had cooldowns.

[Delias]

I'm not playing any MMO.

Before GW2 most people would have said targeting was an essential part of an MMORPG.

If people think cooldowns are better than other methods of preventing skill spamming that is fine. I play lots of games where you can't spam skills and none of them use cooldowns. I've never heard anyone say they wish those games had cooldowns.

(Psst, you very much still target in GW2.)

[Malthurius]

(Psst, you very much still target in GW2.)

Yeah, but you don't have to, the only use of target is for abilities that charge your target or if you're lazy enough not to aim. I found the game actually plays better without a target half the time, because it turns auto face off, which I find more annoying than helpful honestly.

[sync]

(Psst, you very much still target in GW2.)

Yeah, you target in every game that has combat. But I think you know what I meant.

[Delias]

Yeah, but you don't have to, the only use of target is for abilities that charge your target or if you're lazy enough not to aim. I found the game actually plays better without a target half the time, because it turns auto face off, which I find more annoying than helpful honestly.

How much time did you put into ranged professions in PvP? I didn't try turning targeting off, but if there is no constant auto-target for ranged attacks not targeting sounds like it would be the new keyboard turning. There's a reason skill shots are called skill shots as oppose to "Geez, these are so much easier than targeting. Wish I could do this in every game."

---------- Post added 2012-08-01 at 09:12 AM ----------

Yeah, you target in every game that has combat. But I think you know what I meant.

No, I specifically mean that you have to highlight you enemy if you want to efficiently use skills. Unless you plan on playing a strictly melee spec and only using melee skills and no charges, good luck with never targeting anything.

[DrakeWurrum]

If people think cooldowns are better than other methods of preventing skill spamming that is fine. I play lots of games where you can't spam skills and none of them use cooldowns. I've never heard anyone say they wish those games had cooldowns.

I can't think of a more skill-based method. Resource management wouldn't really have a place in GW2 (outside of initiative and adrenaline and i guess life force), for one thing. For another, resources always boil down to skills always being usable, and being restricted by cooldowns anyways. (Warrior adrenaline builds so fast that you don't pay attention to it, and end up waiting on the Burst Skill cooldown. Death Shroud also has a CD, but I ain't played Necro much)


Also: In WoW, I actually did very little targeting, since I had macros built-in to my skills to automatically target the nearest enemy on my skills, unless I already had a target.
That's really my one beef with GW2, the fact that target changing can so easily happen by accident - especially problematic for a Scepter Mesmer who is trying to build up illusions.

[MrSerious]

GW2 sounds like a great game but I can't stand managing cooldowns. I guess I'll wait for GW3.

lol! what games do you play that don't have cooldowns?

MOBA games have cooldowns, all MMO's have cooldowns, even certain FPS games have cooldowns of a sort (reloading, recharging defibs like in BF3, deploying tripods)

Since most of your other posts are in the WoW forums I'm thinking you're just another troll, I guess you play that game but hate it too?

---------- Post added 2012-08-02 at 03:16 AM ----------

I'm not playing any MMO.

All your posts in the WoW forums says otherwise.

[sync]

No, I specifically mean that you have to highlight you enemy if you want to efficiently use skills. Unless you plan on playing a strictly melee spec and only using melee skills and no charges, good luck with never targeting anything.

OK. That was actually my initial understanding of GW2. Then I saw a video yesterday that gave me a different impression.

[DrakeWurrum]

I think in BWE3, you could uncheck auto-targeting in options so that you were forced to actually aim skills.

[sync]

Since most of your other posts are in the WoW forums I'm thinking you're just another troll, I guess you play that game but hate it too?

---------- Post added 2012-08-02 at 03:16 AM ----------



All your posts in the WoW forums says otherwise.

Another option, instead of thinking I'm a troll, is to think I played WoW and stopped because I didn't enjoy it. Check out the date of my last WoW post.

[Delias]

I think in BWE3, you could uncheck auto-targeting in options so that you were forced to actually aim skills.

You can also unplug your mouse and play with only your keyboard. Doesn't make it an option.