Bah. Their almost forcing us to buy factions.. -.-

This isn't the right rant. I'm pissed because I'm buying factions and I'm getting a hunk of skills that I already have. That's what's got MY stuff in a bunch.

So you have to buy it keep up with the handful of new skills, but buying it is almost useless because of the mirrored skills, unless you want to just fill your bar up with skills that mirror each other (ie. faction-only and prophecies-only interrupts) I still think it's neccesary in the idea of balance. And many of your skills are going to be new ones.

Plus I believe we will find that having two of the same skill will in itself will present interesting possiblities.

And truth be told, it's gonna be hard to keep up with the meta-game anyway. With a new release every six months (I still don't see how they're gonna deliever that one.) it's going to be really hard to keep up with the flow of the game. It'll get to the point where you will never be able to take all of your characters through the game (in PvE) and PvP will be changing so much that it will be impossible for casual players to keep current. They aren't necesarily nerfing existing tactics or builds. Anet said they would work at keeping things balanced. So it'll just be a matter of using existing skills to solve new problems (which appeals to this Engineering Major, as that is the premise of engineering!) I'm sure at some point I'll stop buying the new chapters...I'll even venture to say that factions will probally be the last. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy what I have, and work on something new from something old. I think you made several good points and I'd like to expand on one in particular. The fact that they are shooting for such a quick release for all follow ups, six months is insane I say more like eight to ten but we'll see how good their coders and testers are,means that nerfs won't really need to be made as often as you would think. the fact that the game and skill sets constantly change means that just because you don't have the new stuff you can't still compete. In fact it might give you a slight edge. Everyone likes to focus on better, faster and new. Give it time and people will forget about some of those hella useful Prophecies skills. The metagame is it's own nerf in and of itself. I mean sure expect some nerfs in the six month interim period but honestly I wouldn't look for too many.