Just found a clip of it from the 2010 Gamescom demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5wBI...ailpage#t=413s
Agreed. I actually played the recent demo (did not even realise they were coming, but OMGBBQZSAUCE I was excited... waited about 2 hours) and will confirm all your beliefs. You cannot, I REPEAT, cannot cast and ability and dodge at the same time. Due to it being beta, you can swing your insta-cast abilities while dodging (like a guardian swinging his mace and dodging at the same time), but a Dev there indicated to me that they will change it so that any type of rolling will not allow you to cast as well as interrupt any cast you are doing (for instantaneous reactions... which is a wonderful idea).
So... if this is TLR... -_-
1) No you cannot cast and doge at same time
2) The most recent beta had some casting while dodging because insta-cast abilities (like swinging your sword) still haven't been written into that code yet, but they will be
3) Rolling will CANCEL you current casting automatically for instantaneous reactions to dodging
---------- Post added 2011-10-06 at 01:31 PM ----------
But back to the OP...
There is a video flowing about of two beta teams that were chosen randomly at the convention doing a dungeon. one of them has 3 thief's and 2 hunters, the other has all elementalists. They both finish at almost the same time, but they each have different tactics for the bosses and mobs... If that answers your question
Everyone heals (every now and then the elementalist would go water and place healing wells on the ground or on themselves), everyone DPS's (the thief's would stab the boss then retreat, while hunters would lay traps in the path and distract with their pets), everyone can "tank" (one elementalist went earth form and it was sickkkkkkening)
That's fine you can't. I don't really get why you can't, but it's fine. I mean dual-actions, no, but mid-roll after dodging, I thought would be possible. Or at least on the way down after a jump, or if you're falling from an altitude. I guess as long as it's fluid it won't matter too much; the casting and fighting, that is.
There's probably elements of designs they looked at and said if casting and jumping/dodging were possible at once, it would make things too easy/trivial. Makes sense I guess, sort of?
Well rolling around casting requires you to make no decisions. If you hav eto do one or the other than it brings player skill into it alot more, as they want it to be.
You have to choose weather to cast, or dodge. Having both eliminates choice for players, in an action get where what you do matters, you should have choice.
Couldn't it just be rolling/dodging and casting are of the same element, and it just depletes that element faster? Like ok, you can either cast a spell and it takes x mana, or cast while dodging and it takes 2x mana. I'd think it would add more choices, as in when to use certain spells and how effectively you can gauge a situation. Obviousy, if they're seperate, it's less convincing. As per jumping, I don't see why that would/should cancel a spell. But, if they feel it's for the best, I won't question it too much anymore.
I think dodging and casting is op but i think there should be a spell that lets you cast and move i think this would help casters alot all together im excited for the dynamic action, it will be a new experience for me and that excites me.
The weird part about this is that guild wars (1) was probably the only game that really got "tank healer dps" trinity to work in PVP. In Guild vs Guild (8v8) matches you had a classic setup of front line that could soak damage and survive for a while without heals (usually warriors due to their armor), caster/ranger "midline" which was where damage dealers and utility classes in the game fit and backline consisting of 2 healers/supporters. Flag carrier was usually a mix of midline and support/healer, filling whatever role was missing at that point of the game/comp.
Quite strange that they're giving that up after actually getting it to work. Even WoW never got there, in PvP warriors are forced to be extremely fragile or do no damage. In GW, front line warrior could do very nasty damage if he got to harass enemy midline or backline unhindered without having to give up most of survivability for it.
PvE-wise this will cause serious tears. Many people LIKE having their fixed, rigid role and rotation. That allows them to focus on other things like fight mechanics and it's notable how this affects players in WoW - for example current blood death knights aren't really worse then other tanks if played perfectly, but the difficulty of playing it well makes it much, much harder to play it well in an encounter that demands attention to things other then your rotation and damage taken.
The result isn't that everyone loves to play death knights as tanks for challenge, but that people reroll because they feel it being too punishing. I suspect many people will feel the same thing about having to do so many things at once in GW2.
Almost all spells even those with a cast time can be cast on the move. There are only a few that arnt because they dont make sence to be cast on the move, most of these fall into a channled spell type catagory. A good example would be the Warrior's shield block ability. you press and hold the button to hunker down behind the shield and block an attack. Would be a bit silly to still be moveing around when your crouched behind a shield. Those channled skills all work by you hold the button to perform said ability for X number of seconds or untill you release the key.
Who is John Galt?