How exactly is this game skill based?

ok so how is this game skill based instead of item/level based?


If you were to take out all the buffed items and big level differences of all the leading mmo's whould those be skill based to? just like guild wars...


also is this a hack and slash game? such as diablo. is it point to swing your weapon?



also are there any Homemade PvP videos out there?

Take out all the buffed items and big level differences of all the leading MMOs and you have Guild Wars. THAT'S why it's skill based. And no, there's FAR more to it than Hack and slash.

Each profession has about 75 skills. Every character can have a primary and secondary profession. As you level up you get points you spend towards increasing the effectiveness of the skills.

For example. An elementalist have Fire/earth/water/air magic, and can spend points towards one or several to make their skills/spells more powerful.

Guildwars is really about tactics rather than loot and level. Since you have so many skills you can apply different ways to beat your opponents.

Different weapon types, over 50 or more skills, unlockables side stuff, and 2 profession choices. These things are all to you to choose. The better stuff you equip (skills, armor, weaps and side stuff for'em), the better chance you'll get in winning a pvp tournament and/or match. Yes, there is only 20 levels, but after that you still do earn skill points to build you character even stronger.

Ok... more than just a few stats, I'll give you a little PvP example.
Just so you know, i play what i call a balanced Necromancer/Mesmer.
There's a Warrior/monk charging tward me in the arena... Me ,being a caster, can't last too long against him once he gets into melee range (if he's at full strength). Now lets say this guy is a newbie, he rushes right at me. I cast Energy burn (he loses some mana and a decent amount of HP), he's still not quite at me as i cast Energy Tap (draining the remaining mana in his bar). Now he reaches me and starts sliceing and diceing me with his sword. Now i cast empathy (now when he swings at me, he gets hurt too). At this point i'm at about 70-80% health and so is my enemy.... so now i cast Siphon life (he slowly loses HP as i slowly gain HP), now he's slowly falling behind me in HP. I top it all off with a Vampiric Gaze (I steal a set amount of HP from him and place it in my HP bar). Now this all happened very fast, i never stoped casting till after i had cast Vamp Gaze, probably 20 seconds or so. Unless he does something amazing at this point he's dead.
Now, lets say this guy was a good player: I cast Energy burn, but he had used his sprint skill to get to me faster, so he gets to me as i am casting Energy Tap. Now this time when i start to cast empathy he uses Savage Slash and that not only stops my casting but it does much more damage too (because i was casting). Now i'm nervous... if i play my cards just right, maybe I'll be able to stop him from killing me long enough for one of my team mates to come to my rescue, if not he kills me and moves on to attack my now out numbered group.
From long to short I have seen and killed many a bad player, and a few good ones. It's pretty easy to tell, once battle begins, who's experianced and patiant, and who's blindly rushing and button pushing.

I'm not sure what you mean about hack and slash. Guild Wars *is* a combat game, if you take combat out of the game there is just about nothing left. You can only take 8 skills with you in combat, choosing which 8 is very important. The skills are very different, choosing which of the 8 to apply in the situation is very important. You are playing in teams with up to 8 characters, composing the team is very important.

Adjusting the tactics to your opponents and coordinating it with your team are possible the most impartant skill of all.

Items and levels are less important.

You can dodge arrows and fireballs, so fps-skills are not entirely without use.

It's skill-based when a level 3 and a level 2 can take out a level 6.

Once you get into PvP and realise how intricately everything is balanced, then you notice where skills come into play.

I'm a newbie to PvP in Guild Wars, but I've played in PvP environments in many other games, and none compare to Guild Wars in terms of excitement and skill.

In other games there is always the FOTM (flavour of the month). One class that will dominate all other classes. Everyone chooses the FOTM, most people who PvP in these games are even forced to choose the FOTM simply to survive.

However, in Guild Wars, I've noticed that no matter what type of character I choose, no matter what type of spells I use, and no matter what type of equipment I select, there will always be people I dominate and people who dominate me. The key is in spotting those people and picking your fights appropriately, and relying on members of your team to use the same skills when you're in trouble.

[QUOTE=bits]
also is this a hack and slash game? such as diablo. is it point to swing your weapon?
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yes, the PVE is just hack and slash. if u are looking for a thinking man's game, that requires group coordination, a plan, and actual decision making during battle...forget it. u are funneled along pathways u often cant deviate from, u have a very limited choice of routes to take, and no matter how uncoordinated or uncooperative your group is, u really aren’t challenged much at all. they have idiot proofed the pve for sure. and..its sad. cuz, all the other factors of a great game are here in GW.

id say that ive completed 90% of the missions in the first try with groups that almost always had zero tactical communication/coordination and spent zero seconds pausing to catch their breath, let alone think about any situation. (this is what he means by hack and slash)

The Ashes quest was one of the few to actually make players stop and take a breath in the never-ending sprint that is Guild Wars.


the PVP, i dont know.

There are many different skill combonations you can try. For my mes/nec I have my spell shutdown build(backfire,powerspike etc) My hex attack(soul barbs empathy,nefacious parasite) I can also go for dmg, life sucking, energy sucking builds. The trick from what I heard is balancing your skills with your team's skill in pvp to truely get an awesome combonation

Not to mention that me/n can completely destroy my w/mo character in PvP, haha.