I’ve read several threads recently where people have discussed what profession they feel is the most difficult to play and most challenging to master. What keeps crossing my mind during this topic is the insistence on determining a professions skill ceiling. Should we really be defining professions by how difficult they are to play?
It was originally thought that the order of profession reveals was based on difficulty or learning curve, with the most complicated being last and the easiest or the most accessible being first.
Having only played the Elementalist for the first time recently, it surprised me as to how much skill was necessary to manage your attunements and skills well. As the first profession to be revealed, I don’t believe anyone would doubt that the Elementalist has a reasonably straight forward play style. The complexity arises through the micromanagement and timing of your attunement swapping but also remembering all your weapon skills and their current cooldowns. I would imagine however that once you’ve learned such skills, their eventual use simply becomes second nature and the profession returns to being a traditional spell caster.
In contrast to the idea that 'reveal' directly relates to difficulty, several ArenaNet developers (specifically Isiah Cartwright) went on record, unsurprisingly, to say that some professions turned out to be harder to master than expected than originally expected;
“The mesmer is the most difficult to play, but the necromancer is probably the most challenging to master”.
While this quote remains very subjective and is based entirely on personal opinion, it did cause me to raise an eyebrow. How do we go about determining what profession is actually difficult to play or master? Are we judging a professions difficulty by the number of skills it has to juggle or the finer nuances, such as the management of pets or resources?
I don’t entirely agree with Isiah for several reasons. Firstly, I’m not entirely sure there is any way of determining what profession is the hardest to master as this is entirely determined by the user. Inevitably, some may find one profession of great ease to play and others will feel it is incredibly complicated.
Secondly, in my experience of many MMOGs, players naturally gravitate towards a profession that allows them to be challenged, but remain comfortable in their personal ability and preferred play style. This will naturally distort any perspective they have on what is difficult and what isn’t.
Were we all to be of an even skill level, I don’t believe any profession in Guild Wars 2 would have a higher mastery than another. I’m of the opinion that that all professions share the same or incredibly similar difficulty levels when played from level 1, but some have just have an easier entry level of understanding; difficulty is then only determined by your previous exposure to the genre and similar professions. All professions are inevitably born of the same stock and the principals surrounding all professions are the same.
From all of this, I consider that difficulty and mastery are nothing more than perception; perception that is built upon your personal exposure to a profession in the present (and historically) supported by your experience of similar or current games mechanics.
What are your thoughts on profession difficulty and mastering them?
Comments
Completely agree with your second point.
I have always gravitated to Assassin/Rogue/StabbyStabby classes, but have decided to roll Engineer for GW2 because I have always desired a class of that aesthetic. Talk about a culture shock! I always assumed it would be a difficult transition, and while my complete lack of alt character (and thus varied playstyle) history probably doesn't help either, it's a rather weird experience for someone who has played MMO's for so long to at times be confused like a "noob".
Luckily, one of the things that attracts me so much to Guild Wars 2 is it's difference to other MMO's, and I think that's further enhanced for me by starting fresh when it comes to playstyle and combat knowledge.
While I do think that quote is a bit of simplifying things, I understand what [I think] they mean. How one profession can be/feel really complex in the beginning/for a not-so experienced player.
Say for example that one profession relies heavily on clones for survivability. You need to know when and how to dish out clones that would soak up damage, while another profession relies on pure high health pool and armor to survive. In that light one profession would be more complex than the other. GW2 has no such one dimensional profession though, outside of perhaps a pure survivability when taking damage point. There are more things to playing a profession well than just surviving I think. That about the "play" part of the quote.
As for the mastery part, I completely agree that it is very difficult to decide and probably totally pointless. If we are not talking about "the profession that will allow a god-good player to pwn anyone" at least. That is a really pointless discussion some are having.
I think a really good player can be really good with any profession (shown by you yourself really). There are, as you say, probably a class that best suits a certain persons play style and thus that will probably be the one that he masters first, as he will likely spend most time with it.
Mastery has more levels to it than just beating other players. Its about playing to the strengths of your class as well. Some forget that. Who is the greater master, the one playing an Ele killing tons of players/monsters, or the one that kills less and heals more/Use cc more to hold of players from tagging a control point?
That is what I mean by the quote being too simplified. He would need to explain what the Necro needs to master, what situations we are talking about and so on. But ultimately I agree with your conclusion. It is pointless, as it is so based on who you, as a player, are. A "bad" player wont be "master" of any profession, whereas a "great" player will be very good with most of them.
Semper Dius
Whoa, you're writing almost faster than I read
EDIT: ..the same goes to the people on the comments section as well. When I started writing this there were no other comments
/EDIT
I don't think we can really say which profession actually is the most difficult. It depends too much on the player. Some might find the mobile play style of a thief very challenging while others might be having trouble with managing Life Force properly.
Some professions are more straight forward to use , but when it comes to comparing mesmer's illusions and thief's stealth there's no right answer.
I think the best we can do is get a general idea. No list saying "Okay, this is the most difficult profession and that is the easiest" is ever going to be accurate.
Are you a guardian? Let me introduce you to my Flesh Golem, he's getting a bit hungry.
When I first started playing MMO's I was told by a friend, "Always make a Warrior as your first character." I always like the concept of a spell slinging wizard, but he was right. I would always end up getting rid of my wizard and build a warrior. Why? Cause a warrior can take a beating and beat back, where a wizard just kept dying. The way to get to learn the game and how to work it was to start with a Warrior.
What I most like about GW1 is that this isn't true. It didn't matter if I played a Warrior or an Elementalist. Both were equal in their ability to play and survive.
I believe it is Anets goal that all professions be equal in their ability to play and master. Only playstyle will determine which profession you choose and how you choose to play that profession.
So no. I do not believe it SHOULD be possible to say A is harder to learn to play and B is harder to master. All of these professions have benefits and all have drawbacks. Each has their own speciality to playstyle and a player can learn to play any character if they can learn its playstyle. It all depends on the player.
Galen
Galen
I agree with the above comments. I suppose the only thing I have to add is I believe the mechanics of each Profession will expose bad gamers. Button mashing is only going to get you so far in this game. Most of the players will be fine and there will definitely be those that excel, but the bad will really stand out.
*walks to the front of the line*
Opps. Standing out :)
Galen
Galen
This is either forgotten, or not seen by other players very often. They only realize it after a few sessions with a good 'team' oriented player. When they group with this player things just seem to go smoother. I ran into this a lot in early Vanguard with my druid. People in pick-up groups rarely saw or complimented the totality of what I did, because beyond the damage I was doing (which was often hidden itself due to being DoT's) I was rooting adds from the rear, and saving the dedicated healer's butt with my backup heals. I played healer, damager, and CC in most fights.
It's just easier to see dps or spike damage, so most players have their damage blinders on.
Adding to the above. I have often had fun playing the martyr in structured PvP by tying up 2-3 people for a half minute or more on a map, thus allowing my teammates to take other points. It wasn't about killing - if I wanted that at that time, I wouldn't bate 3 people, I'd run and find a better target. If you look at the time left, and the score, sometimes you need to change up what you are doing (obviously). The fact that some people allow themselves to get caught up in the blood frenzy of a 'guaranteed' kill shows that they haven't 'mastered' the game yet, as it can cost them the game. Usually DPS'rs are the easiest to sucker this way compared to other classes (although I have already seen some distressingly good thieves showing great situational awareness in certain youtube vids
).
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