Combat in GW

The creator compared it more to CS than a typical mmo. He says the more skilled you are at combat the better you'll be, instead of it relying on lvl.

So.. how do you gain skill at combat? Is it like diablo? Click and it attacks? Or like WoW, click and watch the fight.

Or.. is it more like one key is attack, one key is another attack, one is block. Can someone explain?

It's like CS in the aspect that there is action involved. You CAN dodge arrows and some spells (just like you can dodge bullets in CS). However, you can click to attack (can also use the keyboar)d, but then you use your hotbar (or keys 1-8 resepctively) to perform special actions, stances, spells, etc.

I think you've misinterpreted player skill as a stat.

SKILL in combat can be interpreted as simply as this: TACTICS and TEAMWORK.

What about timing and decision making?

That's part of Tactics and Teamwork.

Well, you can only use 8 of your skills at any one time... the way you set up your skills and the way you use them are up to you. You hardly sit back and watch... there is always a lot going on... there are many different ways to attack and defend... lvl only has little to do with it... if someone knows how to use their character they can take down higher lvl characters that have better weapons... hmm.. not sure if that helps at all... lol

Then what about ingenuity?

-Click and attack

key off your skill set you are gonna use, if well set up will have mana to start right up again, or choose another skill that is there for damage you've taken, to heal or remove hexes, etc. key off your set again. At least that's how I been doing it so far. Ranger/nec

The whole time you are attacking unless spell/skill animation is occuring.

Best I can describe to try to answer question.

Hope it helps.

Here are the facts as I understand them:

1) level DOES very much effect damage so the first assumption is that everyone is level 20 when they fight. If you are lower level, you'll be at a serious disadvantage. However, since level 20 can be gotten fasters in GW, that is less of a "limit" (unless you like a long PvE leveling curve in which case this can be viewed as a disadvantage). In any of these games, a capped character is roughly equal in power to another capped character so this is actually not really unique to GW.

2) equipment also DOES make a very large difference in GW. Again, the assumption is that getting top level equipment is easier in GW, which again, is not necessarily true depending on if you enjoy the process of getting access to rare equipment and spending the time to do so.

3) unlike most other competitive RPG combat systems, there is a limit to the number of skills you can use, of those skills you actually have, in a given combat session. So, yes, there is skill in choosing which skills to bring along that could only be true in other games if you agreed with friends to only use X number of skills e.g. it is not enforced as it is in GW.

4) all of these games require tactics and teamwork in combat so saying that GW is the only game that has this is simply untrue. What is true is that since a) the NUMBER of players on each TEAM tends to be equal in GW, b) the LEVEL of the players in combat tend to be equal in GW, and c) while the EQUIPMENT might be slightly better or worse it will usually be similar in GW, therefore in GW the FOCUS is on the skill and tactics because the other factors tend to be non-factors due to them being cancelled out.

So, to make a long story short, how does GWs PvP compare to something like DAoCs? If you took two teams of 8 equal level and equally equipped players in DAoC and told them they each could use no more than 8 skills each and put them in an arena to fight then that pretty much tells you what GW PvP is like.

This might seem like a small advantage, but it is pretty large in reality. In other games, it usually comes down to level, the number of players on each side, and equipment so much so that tactics and teamwork rarely get a chance to shine.

The ironic part is how absurdly obvious this is. If you put me in a tennis court with Anna Kournikova I'll guarantee you that it would be very unchallenging for both of us and a terrible bore to watch. Same goes for pitting Anna against both of the Williams sisters.

It is nearly axiomatic of competitive games that the number of players and approximate skill of players on each side much be close to equal in order to have a "good" game. How it took so long to realize the obvious in these on-line RPG games is beyond me.

I meant your personal twitch skills.

Click enemy and it starts attacking. Click the skills on your skill bar to use them.

The hard part is assembling a decent skill bar that will win you battles and then using it propperly and in coordination with your teammates. It's not like counterstrike where the one with the fastest finger (and aimbot) wins... However, it is possibly to dodge some projectile attacks by running back and forth irratically.

So its alot like WoWs combat. Click enemy, watch them do melee attacks on their own, then click the spells you want to use and they are performed. Only in here you dont have 20 spells to use.

Not what I expected.. but still I cant wait till I get it on wednesday. I preordered it at GameStop today

its better than it sounds, u need teamwork, and u need to work well together if u wanna win, because there are no uber strong level 200 guys that can kill u in a hit.

example, i use 2 skills all the time shielding hands and healing hands, one reduces damage done to me, and one heals me for x hp every time i get hit
(example: I get hit for one dmg and am healed for 8) this is very good for a tank, whilst doing this an elementalist and mesmer are working together, one nuking the things surrounding me, one slowly sapping their life away.

thats the way i work, its honestly more skill oriented as opposed to by lets say, diablo 2, where if you have the right stuff u can just annihilate everything, this requires teamwork, skill, tactics, and last but not least, a computer in which to play on.lol duh

I still cant wait for it. Got my pre reserved copy waiting for me on wednesday. 2 DAYS AWAY!

Is this GFX card good enuf?

Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 AGP (128mb DDR)

My cousin is playing on one and he is fine, but it depends a lot on your other hardware. Just to give you an idea; he's running a P4 2.4Ghz FSB: 400 Mhz and 512mb RAM. I think he plays with medium settings and even mentioned that he tried higher settings and did not get any lag.

It looks great at 1280*1024 on my FX 5700 256MB, and runs fine on the GeForce 420 go in my laptop so I'd say you'll be fine.

yep. except you have access to 150 skills (per character) and can only use 8 of them.

My comp specs are

2.0Ghz
256MB
and like I said the gfx card is a GeForce FX 5200 AGP (128mb DDR)

Also, all I got is 56k cuz no dial up is available in my area. Will I be fine?

ps: 1 more day!!

56k IS dial up

Watch it some people take offense when you talk about their twitches.

LOL

I read above that it said you click on the enemy and it starts attack melees on its own. Soo.

It does like a simple little attack like for a ranger shoot a arrow?

Basically, the combat is similar to WoW's, but limited in the number of skills, about 10x faster-paced, and requires a lot more thought and strategy rather than levels, equipment, and numbers. It definately comes across a lot better once you've played it than it sounds on paper. I've never really enjoyed PvP in other games, and it took some convincing for me to try it in GW, but since my first or second time playing, I've been addicted

When you start attacking someone, you do normal attacks- a warrior will run up to the person and start swinging their sword/axe/hammer, a ranger will shoot their bow, and casters will attack with their wands/staffs. These attacks do fairly small damage- pretty much what is listed on the weapon when attacking a caster, and far less when attacking warriors or rangers. Considering wands do maybe 20 damage per hit, swords and axes a bit more, bows and hammers doing more, but with slower attack speeds, it will take a long time to kill someone with just your attacks- one healer could keep up with all of your team focus-firing one person if you don't use skills. Basically, normal attacks are just something for your character to do between skills or while recovering energy, or in the case of warriors, something to do to build up adrenaline to use your skills. Attacking with your normal attack is better than standing still, but it won't make a huge difference in the battle unless you're using a lot of skills to buff up your attack damage.

I made a typo, I ment there is no broadband in my area. Anyone know if my comps will do fine? read my last post to see comp specs.

Does the 8 spells you can use include passive spells? Or is there no passive spells in GW?

Any learned skill is included on your skill bar... Although I am not 100% sure what you mean by passive - If you mean things like Mantras and Stances then yes, their on your bar - if you mean something else, then I don't know

Another aspect of gameplay is your characters positioning and movement.. Once you start getting past the basics of gameplay you can really delve into some neat advanced stuff.. Sausaletus Rex posted some really, really neat stuff recently, I had been starting to discover some of this on my own, but it was great to see it all explained in detail in one place. Thread here