ArenaNet:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/Combat influenced by player actions and circumstance

Combat influenced by player actions and circumstance (Discussion)
Circumstance and movement do affect Guild Wars 1 somewhat; for instance, higher elevation increases damage from a Ranger's bow, while tar slows players down; and moving around unpredictably can cause shots to miss, or mitigate area-of-effect spells. However, there are some ways environmental effects and player movement could become a much more significant factor for Guild Wars 2; by tying into the skills themselves.

As far as environment is concerned, some examples:
 * Fire spells and effects could be drastically amplified when the target is in (flammable) oil or tar.
 * Firing downwind, your arrows travel faster and hit for more damage than firing upwind.
 * Knockdown skills are more effective on rough or unsteady ground than, say, on a road.
 * Traps are more easily concealed in some areas than others.
 * Spells that rely on weather - such as calling lightning bolts, for instance - don't work under cover or underground.
 * You can run faster downhill than uphill.

And for player actions/movement:
 * Running away from an enemy makes it easier for them to hit you with arrows. Retreating or advancing with your shield at the ready makes it quite difficult (assuming you have a shield!).
 * The power - and armor penetration - of melee weapon attacks depends how you use it. A power attack, or head chop, might become more powerful if you're charging toward them faster (e.g. downhill as above!), or if you're jumping toward them from a ledge above. Enemies that dive-bomb you might inflict devastating damage if they can connect.
 * It is possible to dodge some attacks - such as the above - by sidestepping, or backing out of the way of a swing etc. Obviously you'd want to be careful that a player couldn't dodge everything - perhaps by implementing "dodge" as a skill and giving it a cooldown so that the dodged attacks had to be chosen carefully. But there are many ways such an issue could be addressed.
 * Perhaps shields could be used for outright blocking attacks as opposed to simply adding armor. To deal with a proficient shield-using target you might need to rethink your strategy - find an attack that bypasses the shield, attack with two people at once, or get one of your casters to deal with them, for instance.
 * Skill chains are used to improve these modifiers. A warrior might use a "Leap" skill to jump high in the air, followed by a "Power Attack" with his axe to give a devastating blow to the target beneath him. An assassin might shadow-step behind their enemy to an unprotected angle. Another warrior might use "sprint" followed by "shield bash" to knock something flat on the ground, interrupting it and leaving it vulnerable to attack.

There are many other ways things like this could be used, but hopefully that gets the idea across.


 * Why this is a good idea
 * Adds more depth to combat.
 * Increases the advantage of a skilled player; those who don't just know what skills to take, but how to use them well, will get more benefit from them.
 * Allows further latitude for strategy; you could play on an opposing team's weaknesses by drawing the fight to somewhere their skills don't work as well, for instance.


 * Why it may not work out
 * Makes the game harder to learn, obviously.
 * Some effects, such as dodging, will amplify the effects of lag/latency (similarly to interrupting in GW1).
 * Will take more effort to play, possibly even for "easy" areas. While some people might like this, some might not.
 * Complicates a functional system, could complicate it to the point that most people lose track of the bigger battle, turning the game into a long series of 1v1 skirmishes. Would also be very hard to program.
 * In some cases lag would be a serious problem. For instance timing an attack while jumping down on someone, fun, but by the time it gets 'registered' by the server, you may already be on the ground. Same for positioning or advanced blocking.