GW Skillbar: How well did it work

The 8-Skill system is the best system ever.

I see some very compelling arguments for 8 skills. Although I remember the time when you didn't know what was out there, what you were up against. There were no Wikis, no TS/Vent, nothing to really inform you of how best to prepare, except the experience of failure.

I always wanted just one more slot for that extra skill. I thought that either having the ability to load backup skills on the fly, or at least 10 skill slots would have been better. I do agree that having a finite amount and having to do some build planning is what makes GW stand out for me.

If I could just have that one more slot! (oh, and unlimited free storage and an ingame auction house, and a magic pony, and ...)

I like the 8-skill system. It makes other interesting things possible, such as elite skills and varied combinations of primary and secondary classes.

I like the 8-skill setup. 9-10 might have been my preference, but it's a good system overall. What I am looking forwards to in GW2 is the more limited selection of skills. Notably, I recall hearing that the skills themselves vary in functionality depending on the situation. I don't know how they're going to implement that, but tweaking skill functionality on the fly sounds exciting. It'll also help reduce the extreme redundancy in certain skill fields... i.e. healing prayers.

This one heals an ally!
This one heals an ally for more, but for more energy!
This one heals an ally for more, but with reduced range!
This one heals an ally for more, but gets interrupted easily!

And so forth. It gets silly. Those could all be put into one skill with modifiable stats.

I also hope GW2 does away with some of these ridiculous farming builds. Things like Shadow Form essentially put the player in a bubble. They're playing with themselves, not against the game anymore. Soloing should be possible, but in a way that rewards a player's skill, not their ability to remember when to hit 1, 2, and 3.

i think 8 skills is wicked. there's so much thought and creativity that people put into builds, whether its 1 man, 4man, 8man, pvp or pve.

There still will be towns and such in GW2. Just because the areas are now persistent doesn't mean that Anet is abandoning the 8-skill system.
They can easily create some sort of feature that will differentiate between combat zones, and towns.

And the 8-skill system made you plan things out. Instead of just taking people, you had to think about what you were bringing and how they were setup. Especially for elite areas.

Can't say it any better.

8 is a good number. It's enough for combos, but limited to force compression/choosiness. It worked great.

You remember all the times you said 'Damn, if only I had one more skill slot.'

Yeah, that's what made it so good.

Do you know what is nice about this thread? For once we all pretty much agree that something did work right. It's nice to see we can from time to time that can happen.

EDIT: It's kind of funny that the thread stopped here. It's like people are saying OMG, WTF we agree on something , what I am I going to do?

I love the 8-skill bar. It meant I actually had to think about what skills I needed to bring instead of just spamming a variety of skills.

Just for interested people, it's because skills were supposed to rings worn on the fingers. Thats 8 skills (thumbs don't count).

Probably says that on wiki somewhere.

It's the second best feature to this game, other than no monthly fee.

- As evidenced by the fact that no one PUGs and PUGs suck. Who the **** even bothers to change their skillbar every time someone random has different idea what he wants to play? Think what the skill system in this game is trying to accomplish. Think alternatives to get to that goal. Then think if the skill system really works or not.

Wonder why the most popular team builds are those where every character has nearly identical skillbar (Ursan, Shadow Form, spikers...)

8 is a fine number of skills. The only problem (in pvp) comes when skills are imbalanced and the presence of one skill can win or lose you the match.

The GW skill bar is what made GW great, coming up with build synergies and team synergies was a lot of the interest for me and many others. If all skills were available all the time it would be no where near as a fun, deep, and skillful game.

Having an 8 skill bar goes both ways. With only 8 skills to bring, you need to plan your build carefully, but when you do finally have it ready, you're left with a very simple combat situation. You only have 8 skills to pick from, and it's not hard to know when to use which one.

Having all your skills available at all times requires no planning at all, but the "skill" part comes in knowing when to use which skills.

Each format has its own cons and pros, and neither is really superior to the other in terms of rewarding player skill.

This is one of the reasons GW is superior to other activated-skill games (such as MMOs). Loads of options for a given effect.

- I wish RPGs would develop to direction of FPS's. One click to prime the grenade or meteor, choose location with mouse, hold button down for power and launch by releasing. Judgment is required on every step and the game can develop coordination. Instead we have one skill for flare, one for meteor, one for bit bigger flare, but everything is mutually exclusive and works by clicking that 1 button on your keyboard... and it always hits. Yawn.

Disagree. The deepth of skills was the meat of the game. Collecting them was enjoyable for pve and implementing them is great fun for pvp. However the balance issue is another story...