What's your style? Guild Wars 2 game designer elaborates on the combat system

@Greyjoy couldnt agree more friend, couldnt agree more

@Greyjoy Ya TERA says hello to those mechanics they have bragged about for quite some time now.

@Greyjoy

I see sphincter muscles quivering over at Blizz HQ when their retentive development hubris gets a look at this.

Not to mention...and my favorites:

"That is why we want to eliminate things that we felt were burdens on the game such as:

•Group LF Healer/Tank…
•Party wipes when you lose the wrong person.
•Watching the interface instead of the world.
•Playing with people because you have to, not because you want to.
•Being stuck in the same combat patterns over and over again."

@Jade Effect
I disagree. There is a responsibility for the support person to be intelligent in where he places his AoE's -- but there's also a responsibility for the recipient to be intelligent about not leaving that area unless absolutely necessary.

"Where was my heal?"
"Right back there where you left it."

It'll only take most people one or two times going through that before they wise up and start playing smarter.

Remember also that there's a synergy here. If the person tossing down the heal wants the other player's protection, he can't stray too far away. It's up to both parties to play smarter.

I think there will be a bit of a learning curve. Some people will hate it and go back to (you get the picture). But I also have a hunch that once someone has made the jump to this system they'll start feeling that other game's are kind of shallow on the combat side.

@Jade Effect

"The typical Guild Wars player is simply too intent on running after mobs to see anything beyond their tunnel vision. "

Everyone also has a healing skill slot, so that guy running off to a degree is self reliance and NO ONE is responsible for healing him or anyone else. The onus is on each individual player to stay alive and contribute and frankly - that's awesome!

@Jade Effect
If the average PSU player could grasp "Move out of range of Resta and you'd better be ready to pop Trimates," I don't think it'll be that big of a deal. Players will adjust to what's expected of them based on the game's design, and while there will always be idiots, eventually "Stand on the circle of good stuff/dodge when stuff tries to hit you or you'd better be ready to use your healing skill" will become the accepted mindset. In GW1, it's acceptable to run after stuff and ignore positioning for beneficial effects because there's a dedicated healing class and it's their responsibility to keep their teammates alive. Without that safety net there, people are going to -have- to be more aware.

@Jade Effect
To clarify: in GW1, when that guy goes running out of range of your buffs or heals, he can still scream at the monk for not somehow sensing that he was in danger and teleporting over through sheer will to save him from himself. In GW2, there's no one with a direct heal to scream at. That guy who just ran off after the mobs is entirely on his own, and if he doesn't want to spend a lot of time getting to know various patches of floor intimately, he's going to learn to stay in range of the buffs or take care of himself.

@Holgranth

Lol! :)

@Holgranth I think more people are simply excited that A-Net is putting the effort to deviate from the norm. For too long, we MMO fans have been playing rehashes of the same game.

@Holgranth

Well, you're the first person to use the word "revolutionary" on this comment thread, so I'm not sure it's the fans who are the ones overhyping it.

@Holgranth During that decade of bitter experience, ArenaNet brought us Guild Wars. A game that was no less 'revolutionary' than Guild Wars 2 looks to be and managed to make it all work beautifully. As such, past experience has only told us that ArenaNet is capable of delivering on ridiculous promises.

That doesn't mean they actually will manage to pull it all off this time around, but I think they've earned the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it's certainly the most promising and innovative upcoming MMORPG, so it's nice to see these interesting features explained and to discuss whether such things will actually work in practice.