Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[Underskilled]

Racial abilities go in your elite skill slot, which puts then in the 10 minute cooldown ballpark.

Also, you can choose between a race or class elite skill.

10 minute cooldown, makes it sound like though skills are pretty damn strong. Hopefully PvP isn't balanced around "who has their elite skill up first".

[Snakez]

Racial abilities go in your elite skill slot, which puts then in the 10 minute cooldown ballpark.

Also, you can choose between a race or class elite skill.

It is actually 12 minutes

[Mothhive]

Have they said anything about the different races having certain inherent starting stats, or are they all going to be exactly the same to allow people to play whatever race they want without feeling like they have to min/max?

[Skyve]

Have they said anything about the different races having certain inherent starting stats, or are they all going to be exactly the same to allow people to play whatever race they want without feeling like they have to min/max?

Just my guess, but:
There probably are no real "starting stats", since all stats are determined by the attributes you select for levelups (power, precision and those).

[Valeron]

I'm sure everyone will start off with the same amount of base stats.

[zombiemike168]

yea they did say all races will start as equals. no one race will have inherently higher stats so you can just play whatever you want.

[Deleted]

10 minute cooldown, makes it sound like though skills are pretty damn strong. Hopefully PvP isn't balanced around "who has their elite skill up first".

I found this:

“In PvP, it creates a mind duel. Who is going to throw it first?” Cartwright said he knew a lot of people were worried about the person using elites first wins, but that’s really not how it plays out. Surprisingly, it’s the opposite. “Whoever throws it first, loses.” If an opponent throws an elite first, and a player can trick the opponent in to using it improperly, it’s game over. If players get to an engagement, and three opponents pop their elites, the players now have power because they still have the aces up their sleeves. The player can now push the battle in ways where the opponents, who are recharging their elites, couldn’t.

[Kakuzo]

I found this:

The elite skills are supposed too change the fight into your favor. Atleast if I remember correctly, so that statement is true :P

[Verazh]

Thats an interesting concept. Yet Im worried 10(and I hear someone mentioning 12) minutes is just slightly over the top. 5-7 mins wouldI imagine) work out better.

[PalliesThrowStuff]

yea they did say all races will start as equals. no one race will have inherently higher stats so you can just play whatever you want.

I remember reading somewhere that one of the interesting thing about racial skills is that they're designed to replace abilities that are very similar to those of a given class. There's a wide variety for each race, the idea being that you may want grenades for use on a non-engineer, so you could be a Charr Necromancer who happens to have grenades, but a Charr Engineer wouldn't have any use for them, because the default engineer grenades are slightly better.

It's their new way of handling the "two classes" system from Guild Wars 1.

I'm looking forward to seeing what fun combinations can be made if that's their approach.

[Kakuzo]

Thats an interesting concept. Yet Im worried 10(and I hear someone mentioning 12) minutes is just slightly over the top. 5-7 mins wouldI imagine) work out better.

I have to agree with you, but the game isn't based around 1v1 anyways, it's based around 5v5 mainly. An that would mean even if you use yours you got 4more that might come in handy.
Hardf to say overall since the game isn't out yet tho

[Snakez]

Thats an interesting concept. Yet Im worried 10(and I hear someone mentioning 12) minutes is just slightly over the top. 5-7 mins wouldI imagine) work out better.

12 minutes is fine because they are too powerful. Would be a pain if it was just 5min

[PalliesThrowStuff]

Isn't that largely because most modern MMOs have mechanics that actively discourage community, and therefore need an artificial motivator to keep people engaged?



It's basically a question of extrinsic motivation (playing for a reward, a goal, competition & bragging rights, etc.) vs. intrinsic motivation (playing because it's fun, interesting, adrenaline-pumping, cathartic, etc.). A good game should have both.

Personally, I feel that the balance has skewed way too far towards extrinsic motivators, and GW2 seems to be bringing things back in line by focusing a little less on gear. Of course, my first "MMO" experiences were shaped by a MUD with no gear progression at all, so your mileage may vary.

I do think there must be endgame stuff that hasn't been announced yet. A-Net is pushing the "we're different!" thing pretty hard, but they're also keenly aware of what people expect. For example they added the "scout" system for players who are more comfortable with a to-do list than with exploring.

Very well put, you sound like one of my professors when I was taking the game design courses in college.

The truth of the matter is that WoW focuses too much on "e-peen", and people are going to have a harder time jumping ship without something else to get that same sensation of showing how great they are.

I hope, personally, that this is provisioned by 'builds' of character, the variety is so staggering as to what you can construct, there will always be standout builds that are coveted and hard to deny the usefulness of, like Sword/Shield Warriors who clone WoW's warrior archetype.

But other alternatives that people dont play often are still balanced and viable, and your ability to construct something useful, and more importantly, construct a team of you and your friends whose abilities mesh particularly well together to make a dangerous team. That's where I want to see epeen flexing, your abilities, and the way you use them, combined with your team, and the way they use THEIR builds, shows off more than your gear or your rating would.

I just hope it doesn't go the way of Arena, where less than half of the available specs (Granted, to WoW's 31 talent specs, Guild Wars will have a number well over 200, with certain characters being able to switch between specs on the fly) are even functional in the battlefield, and only one or two given combinations of characters are going to be competitors.

[Mothhive]

Not a fan of TotalBiscuit myself, but just saw this video fo him talking about the Holy Trinity, GW2 and the future of MMOs, and he's got a pretty interesting opinion about it. (skip to 13:22 for the relevant part, although the start about consoles, PCs and their communities is pretty interesting too).

[Kakuzo]

Not a fan of TotalBiscuit myself, but just saw this video fo him talking about the Holy Trinity, GW2 and the future of MMOs, and he's got a pretty interesting opinion about it. (skip to 13:22 for the relevant part, although the start about consoles, PCs and their communities is pretty interesting too).

Yupp he hit the nail on the head on that one.
And if I don't get into the BETA I would love to see some of his reviews on GW2

[Lefuu]

GW2 on E3?

[Blznsmri]

GW2 on E3?

Nope. PAX.

[zombiemike168]

http://www.arena.net/blog/arenanets-tradeshow-summer

for those who dont know

[Mothhive]

Qoute from Arenanet on why they don't do E3

E3 – First, let’s get one of the most-asked questions out of the way. We are NOT going to be on the floor at E3. We really have mixed feelings about E3. On the one hand it can be a great centralized way to meet press and retailers. On the other hand, it’s anti-fan. As the marketing guy, if I’m going to spend a boatload of money on a booth, videos, props, etc., I want to be able to share it with the folks who’ll geek-out on it the most – the fans! IMO, E3 could steal a page from gamescom, which is a combination of a civilized business/industry area and a showy exhibit hall that’s open to consumers. If they did that, E3 would be a no-brainer in my book.

While it sucks we have to wait a bit longer to get a flood of new info, I can't say I disagree with what they're saying.

[ErrantBlood]

That still didn't stop them from being the most played race in Wow, so I guess it helps to have something to entice people to play the other races.

That's because Humans are one of the first races in the game and a lot of the big lore characters come from them. Plus, I imagine quite a few players are xenophobic. I just don't want Guild Wars 2 to fall prey to that same racial imbalance.