Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
But too many makes it hard to remember what's what.
So the potential to have fewer skills, and a more refined and reduced combat bar is still a likely scenario. Which is a welcomed changed from the current state of MMOs, with all the ability clutter and add-ons plague the genre.
But anyways if you want a great example then go check out DnD Neverwinter. Their system is similiar but with half the active skills you can use at one time.
You need skills for different cc, few for breaking them, block, damage skills and mobility.
I hope they separate dmg skills from cc.
I prefer having about 10 abilities on the action bar, plus the associated augments and the weapon abilities.
Feels closer to tabletop D&D, where at least half the classes had a limited set of abilities that had to be prepared that day. Kinda like we can only use the tools we've chosen to carry outside of our backpacks and there's no time to go rummaging through the backpack once an encounter begins.
Guild Wars 1 was the best skill system ever! You pick 8 skills from a list of 150 skills. Thats was amazing and there where over 500 effective builds that are working. In Guild Wars 2 you have 2 builds which working -.-
So please put as many skills you can
Player should decide which skill matters and which skill not.
There are exactly the same number of BUILDS in both scenarios (assuming people always fill their bars). In scenario 1 each build has 1 skill not included and in scenario 2 each build has 1 skill included resulting in 100 different builds in each.
It might be easier for you to see a simple example.
There are 4 skills to choose from {a, b, c, d}.
Each build is a subset of the 4 skills.
Build B(a, a) is the same as B(a) and B(a, b) is the same as B(b, a).
Scenario 1:
Skill bar size = 1
All the possible builds are:
B(a)
B(b)
B(c)
B(d)
4 possible builds.
Scenario 2:
Skill bar size = 3
All the possible builds are:
B(a, b, c)
B(a, b, d)
B(a, c, d)
B(b, c, d)
4 possible builds.
As you can see, there are the same number of builds in both scenarios and that number is equal to 4 choose 1 and 4 choose 3. Hint.... the formula @Uao was talking about.
If you had bothered to read Uao's posts you would know that the greatest number of possible builds occurs when you choose exactly half of the total skills available, as demonstrated in scenario 3.
Scenario 3:
Skill bar size = 2
All the possible builds are:
B(a, b)
B(a, c)
B(a, d)
B(b, c)
B(b, d)
B(c, d)
6 possible builds.
Now, if skill a is a dominant skill, all viable builds would contain a. This would reduce the number of builds in scenario 1 to 1; B(a). The number of builds in scenario 2 to 3; B(a, b, c), B(a, b, d) and B(a, c, d). And the number of builds in scenario 3 to 3; B(a, b), B(a, c) and B(a, d). These numbers are equal to 3 choose 2, 3 choose 1 and 3 choose 0 respectively. Each dominant skill reduces the number of skills available to choose from by 1 and the number of bar slots to set by 1.
If skill a is a useless skill then no viable builds would contain a. This would reduce the number of builds to 3, 3 and 1, respectively. Each useless skill reduces the number of skills available to choose from by 1.
A skill is viable if it is neither dominant nor useless.
There are the greatest number of viable builds when the number of bar slots is equal to half the number of viable skills.
If IS release more skills in updates then they should add more bar slots equal to half the number of new viable skills if they want as many viable builds as possible.
Unlikely that two players will have the exact same build without intentionally copying each other or some cookie-cutter build.
No need to add more bar slots when the devs implement new abilities and augments.