Feedback:User/Silverdawn/Spectacular Items

I would like to propose a new gear philosophy for Guild Wars 2: Spectacular items. Spectacular items are so named because their enhancements produce exciting, highly visual effects upon activation. They are an alternative to the much more boring, traditional discreet items, such as your generic +25 STR axe. I chose the name discreet items because their enhancements are hidden without a user interface and do not make them feel different to use. A +25 STR axe looks and feels like a normal axe, just with higher damage. There just isn't anything exciting about it.

Most spectacular items have a small chance to activate whenever a linked skill is used, although some items have other triggers. A skill that is linked to a weapon is a dynamic skill that appears on your bar because you equipped that weapon. So, if a sword and shield are equipped, skills 1-3 will be linked to the sword and 4-5 to the shield. If a greatsword is equipped, all 5 skills will be linked to it. When I say a skill is used through an item, I mean the player is using a linked skill.

Here's what I have in mind
Lightning Strike Weapon: a weapon of this type has its business end surrounded by an aura of crackling electricity. Physical damage dealt by this weapon is converted to lightning damage. Each time a linked skill is used, there is a small chance the weapon will call down a lightning strike for additional lightning damage against the foe targetted by that linked skill.

Thunderclap Weapon: each linked skill used with the weapon has a small chance to cause a thunderclap centered on target foe, doing minor AoE damage and knockback accompanied by a rumbling and a vibrating disturbance in the air. The disturbance looks like the animation for the GW1 elementalist skill Unsteady Ground.

Flurry Weapon: each time a linked skill is used, there is a small chance a second, super-quick generic attack will be made against the same target.

Vortex weapon: each time a linked area of effect skill is used, there is a chance it will pull enemies within the AoE a little bit closer to the center once on casting.

Chain Lightning Weapon: a weapon of this type has its business end surrounded by a subtle aura of small, electric arcs that will occasionally jump some portion of the length of the weapon. It has a small chance to deal lightning damage to a foe targetted by a linked skill, which then jumps to up to 2 foes close to the original target.

Masterwork weapon: an exceptionally well-made weapon that gleams brightly and adds just a little more damage to every attack than a regular weapon. This isn't a spectacular weapon, but it's good to have a couple simple vanilla weapons, too (for those folks who don't want to see their foes occasionally combust).

Forceful Weapon: every linked skill has a chance to knock the target enemy back. There is a meatier sound (akin to critical hit) and the screen shakes for both the player and target when this happens.

Icy weapon: this weapon has a business end with a blue sheen. It forms icicles when held still, which disappear into sparkling ice particles that trail after the weapon when moved. It converts physical damage dealt to cold damage and has a small chance each time a linked skill is used of assaulting the target foe with ice spikes for additional cold damage.

Freezing weapon: the business end of this weapon seems half-frozen with white ice crystals. Every skill used through it has a small chance of chilling the target foe for a short amount of time.

Repelling Offhand: this offhand is surrounded by an aura of faint blue light that is somewhat reminiscent of a force field. Whenever a skill is used through this offhand item, there is a small chance it will push away close by enemies with a flickering distortion and a sharp feedback noise.

Efficient offhand: this item releases small flares of energy which loop back to the item, creating an effect reminiscent of an infinity symbol. Every time a skill is used through this offhand there is a chance that it will reclaim a portion of the energy used by that skill, shown visually by the item pulsing with blue light and streamers of blue energy returning from the effect to the character, who briefly flickers with a dim blue aura as the energy is recycled.

Hobbleguard Shield: every time crippled would be applied to the character, there is a small chance that the character will briefly be surrounded by a whirlwind of feathers and the sound of flapping wings and crippled will not be applied to the character.

Firebastion Shield: provides an armor bonus against fire damage. Has a subtle red flickering flames animation across the its face, but it is not opaque enough to cover up the shield detail. When the character takes fire damage, the shield lights up with a corona of fire.

Seeking Shield: has a very small chance to block incoming damage, but not the secondary effects of the attacks (conditions, etc.). When this happens, the wielder quickly assumes a blocking position, the sharp ring of steel on steel pierces the air and just as quickly, the wielder continues with whatever he was doing (which is not interrupted).

Salving Shield: each time a character suffers burning, that burning's duration is reduced by some percentage. This shield pulses with a soft green glow while the character is burning.

Variations
What I wrote above is merely a small sample of all the possible spectacular items. More items can easily be created by simply changing the damage type and flavor of the elemental items (example: lightning strike weapon and icy weapon). Even within the same element there can be multiple variations (example: lightning strike weapon and chain lightning weapon). The same is true for items that deal with conditions (Salving Shield could have easily been a Coagulating Shield that reduced the duration of bleeding). There can be weapons that have a chance to grant short-lived boons or inflict short-lived conditions. Most of them are scalable by level; others need no scaling at all.

Balance
Ideally, all max spectacular items should be precisely as powerful as any other spectacular item in the hands of anyone trained to use them (if it's on the list of items for your profession). The activation chance should be proportional to the desirability of the effect and the duration. So, if there's a combustion sword that might set the enemy on fire and a venomous sword that poisons folks, the combustion sword might set people on fire for a shorter amount of time, considering that burning deals more damage than poison. However, the combustion sword should do less overall damage or have a slightly shorter activation chance because burning also deals the same amount of damage in a shorter amount of time, making it more desirable because of its damage compression. In the end, the choice between burning and poison should come down to which one is more the character's style, not which one is more useful.

Weapons generally have a chance to activate on the targetted enemy only, even if multiple enemies are affected around the targetted enemy. However, it might be the case that some classes have an AoE skill linked to the weapon that doesn't target an enemy, making the weapon less useful in that character's hands. Worse, that skill might have a longer than average recharge to make up for its AoE capabilities. A possible simple solution might be to give the weapon the chance to activate on random foes in the AoE at the time of casting, but it would probably be better to give the weapon an algorythm that took recharge time and AoE-ness into account to make sure other classes don't get a power advantage from items.

Caveat
The chance to trigger should not be scaled up in most cases. The more it triggers, the less epic it is each time it triggers. In the worst-case scenario, the player might suffer from awesomeness fatigue.

Advantages of Spectacular Items over Discreet Items

 * o Players are reminded how awesome their reward is every time they see the item activate.
 * o Doesn't need traditional attributes.
 * o Shines in a flat system.
 * o The benefit is accessible by every class.
 * o The benefit is accessible by both melee and ranged roles.
 * o Discourages a character's effectiveness becoming dependent on high level gear/less gear grind.
 * o Players can choose which weapon is more awesome rather than which is mathematically better.
 * o Each spectacular item has a distinct feel.

Advantages of Discreet Items over Spectacular Items

 * o Discreet items scale better by level (drawback: your system has to include levels).
 * o Easy to create staggering numbers of different Discreet items (drawback: they all feel the same)

Ideal Environment
I would like to see spectacular weapons implemented in a system with no levels or attributes. With no levels and no auto attack, weapons will no longer need a base damage rating. Equipping a weapon gives you skills for that weapon, so damage for weapon attacks is better set by skills. This baseline character build is enhanced and customized through the use of pre-balanced traits, which are chosen by the player based on preference. If this is designed correctly, no two sword-and-shield warriors should feel or play the same, but each should be very close in overall effectiveness (and that is before choosing utility skills).

The difference in overall power between a standard "white" weapon and a "perfect" weapon should never be more than just an advantage. All perfect weapons should be balanced so each is as powerful as any other perfect weapon without taking PvE area or metagame into consideration. Secondary weapon characteristics (ie, discreet bonuses) would also not be necessary on weapon sets because they both dilute the emphasis on player skill and add nothing to the feel of the character.

It would be best for the in-game economy if not all weapons are perfect. Although a weapon with a perfect mod (or even a mod or any quality) is not necessary, people will naturally want to acquire them anyway. If this is done right, every weapon will be usable and people will choose their weapons based on personal preference rather than necessity.

Some people might call this system simple. It is, on the surface, but it allows for powerful customization and plenty of nuance while making things easier to understand, use and balance. The purposes behind it are simple and resonate with the Guild wars market:


 * o The ultimate deciding factor in any battle should be player skill, not time spent playing.
 * o Good balance should be strived for to promote freedom of choice in character customization.
 * o The game should be easy to learn but difficult to master.
 * o Combat should be a visually stunning, visceral experience.

Clunky, outdated mechanics and unnecessary statistics are eliminated, leaving a cleaner user interface and plenty of room for more innovative, flavorful, organic systems. Personally, I would call that elegant.

Disagree?
Many of my arguments were omitted because not only did they fall outside the scope of this suggestion, but they are also written down in detail elsewhere. If you are intrigued (or opposed) enough, I encourage you to read them. I welcome all comments.

Why Traditional Attributes Suck

Why Levels Suck

--Silverdawn 09:29, 5 February 2011 (UTC)