Guild Wars 2 Interview

Guild Wars 2 Hub is offering a two-part interview (first and second) on the the traits and professions of the upcoming Guild Wars sequel with designer Jon Peters. Here’s a couple of excerpts on traits tiering and PvP balance:

Lewis B: Why do you think there is resistance to your changes to traits and the tiering of them?

Jon: Anytime you change something that you have already shown, there will be people who liked what they had and resist that change. This is just a universal truth. There is also currently a misconception that Guild Wars 2 lacks character customization compared to the original Guild Wars. This is expected as we intentionally reduced the number of options for each choice in order to make each system easier to understand; however, we countered this by creating more choices and more interaction between those choices.

This creates more depth, but less complexity. As players dig deeper, they will find a system with more choice one that still takes time to master, but one that will actually help more people reach that level of mastery. Of course it may frustrate people who are coming from a game they already have mastered, namely the original Guild Wars, but this is a new game after all.

Lewis B: There were originally all manner of suggestions that traits would bring about a (soft trinity) with several proposed builds suggesting primarily healer elementalists or healer guardians. Though sound in theory, and whilst more support builds are possible, I found that the games mechanics and playstyle still override any such builds (you can’t just sit and heal others, for example). What are your opinions on these builds and their wider impact on Guild Wars 2? Do you think people, now that they’ve got their hands on it, haven’t necessarily gravitated toward such heavily focused builds?

Jon: I don’t think this system is ever going to allow a full-on (soft trinity) because we made a number of decisions that directly counter it from the small set of boons and conditions to everyone having a self heal. That being said, the point of the builds is to help define areas where your character can feel they have a sense of specialization, which I do believe is accomplished within the limits of the system.

There is a massive difference between the Bull’s Charge, Frenzy, Hundred Blades warrior we saw a lot of people using this last beta weekend and a Tactics warrior with healing shouts; however, we still build a system where the purity of purpose in professions lies more in their playstyle than in their roles.

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Lewis B: How do you feel the balance of the PvP is shaping up, now that significant pools of players have played the game? From my perspective, I’ve found that the guardian at times feels too important to be without in structured PvP and WvW. Its skill set, being so supportive, is just too valuable to not have one by your side. Is that something you’re trying to address and/or avoid?

Jon: The balance of the game right now is basically at what I call the 80% rule. Things are basically okay, but there are a ton of things that just don’t feel right the more you play. We have done the groundwork of establishing what we feel is a good baseline for balance, but now we begin the (second 80%) of actually making sure things adhere to that baseline. Some of that work has begun for the next beta weekend, but not all of it will be completed.

Lewis B: Still with the guardian, many people I’ve played alongside believe they are (overpowered) how do you even begin to approach and combat such statements? A guardian can certainly survive for very long periods of time.

Jon: There are a few aspects of every profession that are currently wildly overpowered. If you look around on YouTube, you can see examples of mesmer, engineer, ranger, warrior, elementalist, thief, necromancer, and yes, guardian, being overpowered. It is now our job to bring those things into balance with the rest of the game.