Guild Wars 2 developer talks combat attributes and iteration

I'm very happy about this.

Some people are inevitably going to say that it's a step toward dumbing down the game, but I think it strikes a good balance between giving players choices and adding so much variation that it makes it very hard to figure out what's actually good unless you're the type that likes to play with a spreadsheet and calculator at hand. Between this and traits it looks like there's a lot of space for customization without much bloat.

I am not the spreadsheet and calculator type. I'm sure there'll be plenty here for those people to play with, but I'm mostly just relieved that this game might actually not devolve into Contradictory Opinions Online.

I always enjoyed theorycrafting in WoW, but it started to get real stupid before they removed Armor Pen and it was very restrictive. Either you did it one way or you were doing it wrong.

I very much like the mentality they're taking here and facilitating player experimentation. I loved playing crazy builds in Diablo II and I've been waiting for a game to bring back that sort of creativity for a long time.

I am not a big fan of customizing my character's stats. This makes it possible to mess up your character, causing a stat reset to be necessary.

Simple is probably better. I am glad ArenaNet is working this all out before release.

I must say that this is the first piece of info on GW2 that I really do NOT like (bar the poor voiceacting, that I can live with though).
One of the huge advantages to GW1 in my opinion was that gear was not a limiter for whether or not you could log on and have fun with your friends. Max stat gear was easy to obtain and I still had a lot of incentive to farm for new armor cos I wanted a specific skin.
Here's me hoping that Anet doesn't turn GW2 into a gear treadmill like WoW, my biggest caveat with WoW.........
Please Anet, pretty please :(

While I like the idea of simplified stats on a character, I worry about having an increased armor option (Toughness) without a stat to reduce magic damage taken as well. Unless, of course, armor will mitigate magic damage as well. They seemed to account for it in their previous iteration, but now dropped it and I'm curious as to why. If we can't have the option to mitigate magic damage received, you'll see a lot more overpowered magic builds in PvP. Especially if any armor class has access to the Toughness stat as well. Now, if magic resistance is rolled into Toughness, then I'm totally on board. I always hated trying to balance armor & resistance on a defensive class/build as two separate item stats.

On the other hand, if they're trying to build a game without tanks or healers, why introduce a strictly defensive stat in the first place? As a player who prefers playing healer classes, why can't I keep the stat that boosts my mana pool so I can endlessly spam heals without worrying about damage output?

Pretty much dumbing it down for the masses but in all honesty it seems like the best way to do this.

I miss the days of letting us allocate our own stats to build the type of character we want. Giving us stats just because we leveled is just cookie cutting your character and becomes boring seeing the same type of char. It also makes PVP 100x better letting you decide your stats not knowing what type of person you are fighting. I was never gonna play GW2, but with more and more info coming out about gear and the stats I am beginning to change my mind.

not really too much a dumb down compare to the original gw's skill points system. I think most players would like to the skill bar building for the combinatorial fun. though not wishing for a gear-centric system like wow is, there should be more inventive to get new armourother than just the looks

I wish they'd get rid of the character attributes altogether. It always bugs me when the effectiveness of your own abilities depend on things that are invisible to you, especially in pvp. GW1 was very good here, each profession has its base armor value but beyond that, you can be confident that your abilities will do what their description says they do with no additional mitigation stats trolling you.

Though they simplified it greatly, might be ok. But i don't know, traits seem enough.

I'm interested in seeing how this all plays out come release. I've always enjoyed the theorycrafting side of MMOs but there are times when I'd like to just look at a stat and say, "yep, that will absolutely be a better item" rather than breaking out the slide rule to determine if a +wisdom of 4 was better or worse than just a straight +10 to spell power.

Ultimately I'll agree with some of the other comments that I don't want to see things devolve into "do you have 540 of stat x? No? Then you can't tank for us". In WoW (BC and Wrath) hitting this or that magic number had become my only goal so that I'd be uncrittable and thus allowed to tank.

Things like having fun became secondary to hitting those magic stats.

I hope we can still respec with ease as in gw1. Loving the new stat and attribute system. Also enjoy reading the evolution of it.

Everyone seems intent to call this approach "dumbing it down". Why can't anyone see it for what it REALLY is?

"Funning it up".

Yes..I said it.