Basic Combat Mechanics Get Explained For Guild Wars 2

[JohnnyV]

Eric Flannum, lead design for Guild Wars 2 explains some of the basic gameplay (combat) components of the upcoming game. He details the Skill System, and this is the post where the controversial Ten-Slot Skill Bar was announced.

Hi! I'm Eric Flannum, the lead designer for Guild Wars 2. Over the next few months, we'll be telling you about the professions, races, lore, and game systems of Guild Wars 2, as well as talking about our design philosophy and thoughts about the game. First up: combat!



We've got a lot of amazing things planned for combat in Guild Wars 2, and I'll try to cover as many of them as possible before wearing out my welcome. Let's start with the basics.

One of our priorities in developing Guild Wars 2 has been to make the simple act of moving around and interacting with the world an enjoyable experience for our players. We often refer to this as introducing "joy of movement" into the game. This means being able to jump and swim freely, but it also translates directly into combat.

To reinforce the importance of movement in the game, we want your character's position in combat to really matter. You'll see a lot of attacks in Guild Wars 2 that encourage and reward tactical player movement and positioning.

The Skill System

Much like in Guild Wars, the skill bar in Guild Wars 2 is limited to a set number of skills. Like a collectible card game, we provide the player with a wide variety of choices and allow them to pick and choose skills to create a build that best suits their particular play style. For example, one Guild Wars 2 warrior might decide to build his character around gradual damage which causes his opponents to bleed out, while another may choose to knock his opponents down, controlling their movement with slow, large attacks. Both warriors can choose to equip the skills that matter most to them. It is also very important to us that our skill system be simple to use, leaving the screen as clean and unintimidating as possible. All of this combines to give us a skill bar and skill system that's a bit different than what you'd typically find in an MMO.

The Ten-Slot Skill Bar

The first five skills on the skill bar are not slotted directly by the player; instead they are determined by the player's choice of weapon and profession. Because of this, we can ensure that each weapon is balanced with a fun combination of skills. For example, a warrior wielding a mace and shield would get access to strong but slow damage skills like Obliterate, as well as powerful defensive skills such as Block and Shield Bash. A warrior wielding a greatsword would have access to a lot of movement-oriented skills like Rush, and area-of-effect skills like 100 Blades. In each case, the warrior's first five skills are determined by what he's holding in his hands. Weapon skills also take profession into account, so a warrior wielding a sword will have different skills than a different sword-wielding profession.

To provide additional variety to the mix, most professions can have two different weapon sets equipped and can very quickly and easily swap between the sets. For example, a warrior might keep a longbow or rifle for engaging foes at a distance, and then switch to a hammer when that enemy gets close.

We've talked about the first five skills being determined by weapon and profession. What about the second five? These skills are all chosen by the player from a pool of skills determined by both profession and race. To slot a skill, a player simply clicks on a skill slot and it will bring up a list of skills that can be put into that slot. One of these slots is dedicated to healing skills that replenish the health of the character and his allies, while another slot is dedicated to elite skills that trigger visually spectacular and powerful effects. No matter what type of skill is involved, it's important that we give the player a diverse set of tools to choose from so that he can create a build that he'll enjoy playing.

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[Venn]

I'm kinda concerned that "everyone has a heal". I know why they don't have dedicated healers, and actually applaud the concept, but I'll just have to see the healing system in effect to place final judgment.

I suppose it's a necessary sacrifice so groups don't have to do the "LFM healers!" dance.

[Mrfoot]

^^^^^ i think over all they NEED Dedicated Healers i think if they do add Dedicated Healers it might make pvp abit more Even and it will make Pve be all most like a grp/raid Thing you have a Healer Not a Necro With Healing moves lol. but yes yes i will have to see the Healing System.

[Chase_Payne]

I'm terrified of this idea, from what I just read it seems like we are forced to use 5 skills (ether underpowered or boring) on top of a dedicated healing slot, and an elite slot.

So what it really sounds like is that we have 4 customizable slots, rather then the 8 we have in guildwars, on top of no dual professions.

[JohnnyV]

I was worried about this too, until I read their Warrior reveal and saw how many different weapon types there could be. And that they're all interchangeable. So, in effect you have potentially more skills to use in a fight depending on how much you change weapons during a fight.

So, if I use a gun, sword, axe all in one fight I'll have skills available to me based on those weapon switches I wouldn't have in the current Guild Wars setup. I think as they expand more on what different weapons are available for each profession, their setup won't seem as restrictive.

[SR. BACALAO]

I dig the weapon-based skill set. I was tired of telling guildies that their build sucks because they don't have any basic skills that go together.

This eliminates completely broken (poor) skill sets. No matter what you do. You will have a few core skills that will get you by.

5 slots for customization, and 5 slots based on gear, thats enough for me.

[StephenCash]

I think the the idea of switching weapons and getting 5 new skills is pretty sweet. But really with the heal and elite you only get to choose 3 skills. Thats kinda gay. One of my favorite things in guild wars was making and trying new builds out. Not to mention that in pvp all you have to do is know what moves people do with what weapons and you know half of there skill bar. Its going to dumb the game down insanely i think. I like the idea of no main heal though. All of guild wars classes had some sort of heal anyways. I think that you should be able to choose what 5 skills you have for the weapons you use. Like maybe have a list of skills that you choose just for that weapon instead of the same 5. Then everyone wont have the same moves, you can still have customization and then you can still swap out weapons whenever and get new skills. Plus just think of how repititive its going to be with the same 5 skills every time you use that certain weapon. Its not even going to be fun after awhile. I probablly didnt explain that exactly how I was picture it in my mind but its just a though.

[Psyklone]

I just re-read this and the skills section of the wiki, and it seems to say (and you all have seemed to take is as) that there are only 2, 3 or 5 skills per weapon, depending on where you equip them.
Sadly, until now I thought your weapon choice gave you different weapon based skill CHOICES.
So instead of getting a standard 5 skills for every warrior holding a bow, they could choose 5 from a larger (albiet not exactly huge) range of skills. But this doesn't look to be the case.

Im with StephenCash 110%. ANet says they don't want you to swing a sword over and over again, and yet we will be. So what if they call the spammable attack "Devastating Blow" or some crap. Its still autoattack. Hell we can even make it out default autoattack.
Very lame

[Centaur]

Well, your partly right. Yes, you can only choose 3 utility skills, as the 5 weapon skills are determined by your weapon combination. But first, do keep in mind that you can bring a second set of weapons, and you can switch weapons in the middle of a fight, to get access to a set of 5 completely different skills.

Second, don't forget about traits. Even for people who have the same weapons, so the same weapon skills, the skills will work differently, because of the traits they applied. One person may have chosen to increase the damage of the weapon, and do fire damage, while another may have chosen to increase the length of bleeding on his weapon skill, increase the chance to interrupt the target, and/or increase the chance of a critical. The combination of traits you apply, means people will never be able to predict exactly how your weapon skills are going to work.
And second, unlike in GW1, where you could just stand still and spam your skills, movement in combat is crucial. So even if you know exactly what skills and traits someone has, and think you are prepared to counter them, if the other person is skilled enough in dodging, moving out of the way and in managing to hit you instead, you're still going to lose. As this movement is such an important part of combat in GW2, I don't think you have to worry that 'everybody will have the same moves'.

Personally, I believe the dynamics this system creates will be great fun, and it allows for enough customization to not create hundreds of people all with the exact same moves.

[Psyklone]

You've covered the PvP aspect Cent, but what about PvE?
Still gonna be hitting the mob over and over with 1-3 skills. I'm guessing the other 2 will be a combination of AoE orjust not suitable/needed in the current situation (or you won't care to use it. Why block if it won't kill you and you can heal up afterwards?).

Also you may be mistaken about the 5 new skills thing. I'm thinking that each 1h weapon gives you these 3 skills for being in your main hand, and these 2 for offhand. So no matter what you have with it, this weapon (and the other one) skills will always be the same.
E.g. Perhaps you have an awesome 1h mace (Amace), and another ok 1h mace (Bmace). You play dual maces, but you'll alt set of weapons swaps out Bmace for a shield to give you some more survivability (and so you only have to keep 2 types of weapons up to date!). Your first 3 skills will never change. And even if you had an axe in your main hand, the skills from your shield and Bmace would also always be the same.
It becomes less about the weapon, and more about which skills you want. And while I totally see that this is what they wanted to achieve (changing tactics etc to fit the situation), part of me hates that I won't want a better weapon because the associated skills are too situational, or not applicable, or just aren't as good as another weapon type.
For instance, dual daggers as a elementalist (I don't know which dagger tho) gives you a hit and roll attack that creates a wall of flame as you roll. In a bigger group where you probably won't have aggro, or an event like the shatterer where he doesn't move, it loses a lot of value. But you can't swap to a staff cause you aren't a packmule of weapons and/or your staff was outdated LONG ago. Theres a bit of speculation about weapon availability, but you get the idea.

Also you'll optimise your traits for grinding (don't say there won't be grinding, I know there won't be per se, but you can think of killing 1 mob as grinding on its smallest scale, and there are dynamic events which are mostly killing things). So you'll trait 1 skill lower armor rating or something, and open with that. Then you'll spam an attack like crazy. Then do a burst or charge skill to finish it off.
And it'll be exactly the same no matter how many times you do it. And look exactly the same every time.

Perhaps I'm still too ingrained into the 'spec' mentality. On the plus side this does indeed eliminate people choosing inferior skill selections.
However changing weapons would be pretty hard. Sure its a push of a button, but I very much doubt it'll have the same stats on it. Will a poorer weapon combo with awesome weapons be better than a great combo with not so awesome ones?
Theory craft that!

Finally, some traits kind of a give in. Like +20% crit for axes.