New PvE-Only Skills: Huh?

Gaile Grey posted a tidbit about the Sunspear and Lightbringer skills, which were supposed to be released with Hard Mode, in another thread. (Seriously, Gaile, any more information? A sneak peak at just one skill?)

However, Gaile said something about those skills which made absolutely no sense...

Er...what? What exactly is Gaile saying?

Is she implying that the PvE-only skills will be so good, that all players will use those skills instead normal skills, and thus allow normal skills to be balanced for PvP?

If so, that doesn't make sense either. That would be PvE affecting PvP. And that'll lead to a long list of flames. I thought ArenaNet was trying to avoid that.

I suppose if we knew the skills, we could understand their impact more, because if mishandled, the skills could end PvE balance as we know it currently. If the skills were necessary in Hard Mode, groups would require R10 Sunspear and such. And, of course, if the skills were that important, it would promote the purchase of Nightfall...and ArenaNet likes money.

No, shes saying that there will be PVE only skills that the urgency and necessity for PVP balance wont affect these skills. so no matter how broken they might be, it wont affect PVP and PVE can go nuts with them.

The portion you're referring to is, I'm assuming, the selection that's supposed to be bolded, correct? I was just a little confused at first...

As to your point: I agree. I'm a little concerned about this, I'm suprised I didn't notice it earlier.

Way too little information, in my opinion. They could be skills that just won't work in a PvP setting but will in a PvE setting...but I can't imagine anything like that at the moment.

Want more info, please.

They'll probably be balanced by only effecting certain groups. Like LB gaze is a pretty damn good skill for 5 energy, but its balanced by the fact that its useless unless you're fighting margo's and torments, etc.

Maybe most will only hit kournans, and some will only hit insects or beasts etc. Kinda like the bounties.

I think it will be something like you cannot start a PvP match of any sort with one of those skills on your bar

The skills will be SO IMBA, that PvErs won't care if Anet make good balance decisions (like Soul Reaping, etc etc), and PvP will get better balance without constant crying from PvErs who can't win GW without imba skills.

Speculation about speculation about some off-hand remark made by Gaile for the loss. If you think Gaile thinks forever about everything she says and every possible way it COULD be taken, you are wrong.

That's already known (try equipping LB Gaze or Sunspear res signet in a PvP outpost), but isn't relevant. Gaile specifically mentioned that it would affect PvP balance, which is awkward.

If Gaile hadn't thought it was relevant, she wouldn't have posted it. Gaile made one thing certain: PvE will affect PvP. And I want to see how, and why.

I dunno, to me it seems like it would be a step toward lessening the connection between PvE/PvP. It wouldn't be changing PvP for the sake of PvE; rather, it would provide certain PvE skills that couldn't be affected by PvP. It allows more skills to be balanced with PvP in mind, while PvE players can still have some powerful skills that are completely free of being nerfed due to PvP exploitation.

Also, I kinda doubt groups would require Sunspear/Lightbringer ranks, even if the skills are powerful. I don't think Anet would design skills that would make a rank 10 player significantly more useful than a lower-ranked player. I'm guessing these skills will be modeled somewhat after Sunspear Rebirth Sig and LB's Gaze -- they're affected by your rank, but the bulk of their effectiveness is fairly independent of rank.

But that's just my interpretation. Like you said, it would help a lot if we knew more specifics of the skills. I think Anet wants to keep the details as a surprise, though.

You've made a whole thread because Gaile said something we all knew already? PvE-only skills don't have to be balanced, and that makes things easier when balancing skills for PvP. Now all you guru people might not bitch and moan about every skill update. >.>

If you're getting this worked up over Sunspear/Lightbringer skills, what are you going to do about the PvE-only skills for GW:EN?

It seems like they are really trying to bridge this gap between PVP and PVE. The introduction of tomes is a really obvious notion also. Being able to unlock skills in PVE, and be able to buy them or use them with a tome. I think they are trying to balance the gap, more than work on PVE or PVP alone.

No it wouldn't because it's virtually impossible to get a group of real people to play together for any hard mode mission. Due to the immense lack of players interested in playing in hard mode, they would always be happy to have a decent human player to party with.

Although on the other hand, because of how very easy it is to get R10 Sunspear, chances are anyone with less than R10 Sunspear is not worth taking anyhow. Since Heroes would be a better choice for those slots anyhow due to the lack of skills the under R10 Sunspear player has on that character.

What are you wishing they'd do instead, Zinger? Make the Sunspear skills suck? That would be horrible, the skills should be overpowered for PVE since all of the enemies in Hard Mode are way overpowered.

Wasn't it you Zinger who said you wanted those same skills to "make you a God for 30 seconds."?

They're finally giving the PvE gamers just a taste of what they've always wanted. I think it's a good thing, but it's way late... like storage increases.
Too many good PvE Skills have been butchered because they didn't seperate them from the beginning, and that makes the new pve ONLY skills (unfortunately) disappointing without having even been released yet.

I would really love to see the new PvE Only skills as they would make the hard mode maybe a little bit easier for doing solo with henchies. It is atm in many regions impossible with heros/henchies balling in area dmg like no tomorrow.

So pls Devs.. dont forget about these skills

I believe that these are skills that wouldn't work in PvP. Skills like, "You gain attention of all monsters around you", or, "Target ally loses all attention", or, "Disarm target trap", or, "Locate all traps in a circle with diameter x".

Man, getting a taunt would be so nice. They could do it too, what with how Otyugh's Cry used to work.

I think the question goes something like this:
How much longer do we have to wait before these new PvE only skills come in? Please don’t say, "we will get them out when EotN comes out."

Yeah, they mentioned these skills would tie in with Hard Mode and r10 Sunspear.
It's been what, 3 weeks? since Hard Mode was released and they haven't said anything.

It's quite simple:
Post-nerf PvE poster: "ZOMG, they nerfed my build, it's useless in PvE now."
Post-nerf PvP poster: "QQ, it's balanced for/more useable PvP now."
Post-nerf PvE poster: "Well, yeah, but what about PvE? We use those skills as well."
Post-nerf PvP poster: "What are you complaining about? Use Sunspear God Mode build, you have PvE only skills for a reason."
Post-nerf PvE poster: "But I don't want to use it, it makes PvE too simple because they're horribly overpowered."
Post-nerf PvP poster: "PvE was easy anyway"
etc...

Basically, they're "nerf PvE skills and get out of jail free" cards.
which can be interpreted as (at least I have first time I read it) "focus solely on balancing skills with PvP in mind".

If I'm right, interesting times coming up...

But we get then when EotN comes out. So why to say they come sooner?