Curse

Abdul · Jun 28, 2006, 04:57 AM // 04:57

Lately there has been a bit of concern regarding 'gimmick' builds, and the difficulties of designing a build that is able to counter all the different gimmicks you could meet on the ladder. A few ideas have been suggested, that involve the swapping of skills during/between matches, to allow for more counter strategies within the match, and reduce the luck element involved in trying to guess what build your opponents will play and hoping you brought the right counter. Here is my own variation of that idea, that attempts to keep the skill swapping process dynamic, without compromising the pre-match build designing part of the game.

Along with the usual 8 skills that a player can choose before a match, there is also a sidebar with room for 2 skills. These are the only 10 skills you can bring into a single match. At any one time, a player can only use the 8 skills on the main bar, the skills on the sidebar are unusable until they are swapped in.

At any time during the match except when dead or already in the middle of a swap, the player may choose to swap a skill on the sidebar with one of the skills on the main bar. This action has no cast time and cannot be interrupted, but takes 90 seconds before the skill swap takes effect. During this time, the two skills being swapped are disabled. The player can attack, move and use other skills as normal during the swap. When the minute is up, the old skill is placed in the sidebar and the new skill becomes usable.

Moving any enchantment spell to the sidebar, removes all instances of the enchantment that the player cast from the match. Any effects that would normally be triggered by the enchantment ending (eg. watchful spirit) do not trigger. This similarly applies for minions, spirits, pets.

The 90 second swap delay helps to prevent any abuse from swapping out recharging/diverted skills, and prevents players from swapping in a healing spell, using it, then swapping it out again. Swapping out a used res sig is only a minor advantage for a team that has no chance of morale boost, and keeping a res sig on the sidebar means you have to wait the 90 seconds before you can use it.

As you cannot change attribute points within a match, this prevents a massive change in builds mid game, eg. ranger spike -> thumpers, and most likely the sidebar will be filled with skills that are designed to counter a very specific build, on the chance you run into it on the ladder.

This system would only really hurt extreme gimmick builds that can be countered easily with one or two skills. For other builds it reduces the luck involved when trying to fit counter skills onto a build. The limitations this system places, means build designing and in-game tactics will still be more important than purely switching skills.

Also, while this is idea benefits PvP the most, I think it would work well in PvE as well, if only to store cap sigs.

Thom · Jun 28, 2006, 04:59 AM // 04:59

Why not balance skills involved in exploited builds?

Byron · Jun 28, 2006, 05:15 AM // 05:15

While it would no doubt fix gimmicks, it would also completely shift the metagame and likely make matches between balanced builds incredibly long and tedious. With such a skill-swapping ability, a team could bring everything they needed against every common build, which would mean GvGs would become long, tiresome battles of attrition. Gimmicks, while annoying, shift the ever-flowing metagame until they no longer work; and if the math is wrong, anet will fix it.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea - I just think builds need to evolve instead of the game itself.

Wasteland Squidget · Jun 28, 2006, 06:34 AM // 06:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thom

Why not balance skills involved in exploited builds?

I don't think most gimmick builds work because they're using unbalanced skills. The skills involved in builds like fast-cast air spike or IWAY are pretty balanced in and of themselves. The problem is that the specific combo of skills allows uncoordinated players to win over coordinated players. It's comparitively much easier to run a fast-cast air spike than it is to stop one unless the opposing team is carrying a lot of counters. Gimmick builds are builds that allow a team to dominate based on their build rather than because they have any real skill at the game. If the players on both sides have a rough idea what they're doing, gimmick build matches are almost decided before the gates open. You're either carrying the right counters to deal with the gimmick or you aren't. The problem is, it's nearly impossible to counter every gimmick and still be decent at anything else.

Midmatch skill-swapping essentially prevents you from bringing in a build that is countered by the other team carrying a certain skill rather than the other team knowing how to play Guild Wars. This decreases build diversity, but increases the game's reliance on player skill. Overall, I'd love to see some form of mid-match skill swapping, though I don' think it's likely at this stage of the game.

TheOneMephisto · Jun 28, 2006, 06:36 PM // 18:36

How about making it so that once you swap a skill out you can't swap it back in?

Aug · Jun 28, 2006, 08:14 PM // 20:14

The sideboard should definitely be a one-time thing. You shouldn't be allowed to swap skills repeatedly.

I don't see how this would be anything but a plus. Balanced vs Balanced build fights will not be altered much at all, and Balanced builds will be able to contend with a much larger array of "gimmicks" than currently is possible.