For the next Guest Editorial here on the ‘Hub, we have another submission from community member Sylvinstar. This time around, he does a bit of nontraditional build theory-crafting. Rather than drilling down into any one Guild Wars 2 profession or build in particular, he discusses some of the behind-the-scenes decision making that goes into worthwhile character builds.
Couch Time for Class Building Junkies
By Sylvinstar
While playing around with the Guild Wars 2 skill tool the other day, I had one of those ‘light-bulb moments’ (that’s epiphany for those of us what like fancy wurds). I came to the realization that, whether I am playing Horizons with its wide open multiclass system, Guild Wars 1 with its slightly more limited multi-classing, World of Warcraft with its more linear tree system, or RIFT and its hybrid tree system, I generally approach the building of my characters’ abilities/traits/skills in almost the same way. After coming to this realization, my terribly analytical brain flooded me with questions like, “what about the rest of the MMO community, do their approaches remain similar from game to game? What approaches do they use and why?”
Before I get into the way I approach class building, I’d like to quickly address something that I feel drives the initial, core decisions I make regarding class selection. What might that be? I am glad you asked.
And the most important thing is…
Once I have decided to play an MMO, I begin eagerly ‘opening up’ each class archetype like a greedy child at Christmas to see what goodness is inside. While I generally stay away from straight-up damage casters, (the only thing I get excited about ‘nuking’ is a chicken patty), I can be lured to archetypes I normally don’t play by one thing: utility.
*Cue golden lights and trumpets*
I am a sucker for utility.
What I value most in a profession is its degree of flexibility, its ability to provide opportunities and respond to needs in a variety of situations. I think part of this is due to the way my personality is wired. Put in a sports context: I don’t know why, but I’ve always gotten more satisfaction from being a part of the assist, verses being the one that actually scored the point.
The Druid class in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, with its reasonable damage, crowd control, buffs, healing, and pet is a prime example of the class archetype I prefer. I rarely turned heads with my damage in Vanguard, but when a pull went bad, I often managed to DoT mobs, throw out timely heals when the main healer got agro, and drop roots down on adds. I rarely made the finishing blow in an encounter, but I often helped the encounter go more smoothly, pulling many pick-up dungeon groups out of a variety of bad situations.
Generally, it is my preference for utility that will help me make a choice for what archetype and class I’d like to play in a new MMO. Once I’ve picked the archetype for my ‘main’ in any MMO, I’ve only just begun the process; my character still needs a ‘build’.
Building it bigger, faster, stronger – sort of
Creating a class build from any archetype, even a class from an archetype that is typically played in a DPS role, can be rewarding for me if the game allows for variations within the class. RIFT and Guild Wars 1 are good examples of MMOs that handle class building in a way that allows even historically DPS centric classes many different viable and interesting builds.
After picking a class, it is most important to me to try to build that class – through whatever skill or ability system the particular game allows - in a way that I know will keep me interested in playing it for a long time. As an example, let’s take the thief/rogue class. In most games this archetype favors high damage builds, whether burst or DPS, to the exclusion of all other build types for that class. Even when playing a DPS class such as this, it doesn’t matter to me if the damage numbers don’t crunch out to be optimal DPS.
I made and played a stun-lock rogue in World of Warcraft from launch day on, before that build type even earned its moniker. I understand what motivates damage junkies – the quest to pump out optimum damage has its own siren call, but there’s nothing more boring to me than 80 levels of spamming fireball, or repeatedly mashing keys 1-6 in a rogue’s DPS build skill rotation.
I don’t care that I lose 2% efficiency by dropping one skill in favor of another. What matters to me is what I can do with the class. While I also understand some players get a kick out of playing a similar build to most others, and seeing if they can play it more skillfully, I tend to get more fun out of building a character to play in unusual or atypical ways. In short, I enjoy building a character that defies accepted build conventions while still remaining functionally sound for my gameplay style. Now, on to the details…
I realized that I typically start by giving the different types of skills in my chosen class an overview. Most MMO’s with tree based skill systems make it easy to see what build types are available up front. If I am playing a strict, tree-based character build system, I will often look to the tree that has the most utility abilities thrown in with damage. If the MMO is like Horizons, RIFT, EverQuest 2, or Guild Wars 2, where abilities from different branches (or abilities from totally different archetypes in Horizons’ case) can be combined to make a build, this process takes much longer. But therein lies the fun.
Once I have a grasp of what is available, I think about what I would like to do with the class within the confines of what the game allows. In a way it is like searching for a theme or a main idea for my class. Do I want my character to be a master of control and debuffs, or do I want them to be a mixture of group friendly buffs and a little damage?
Sometimes I am heavily influenced by a line of abilities that provide unique and or situational benefits. If I feel their benefits outweigh their lack of efficiency in damage (if I am playing a DPS archetype) I will include those abilities in my character build. I often picture myself playing in-game with the abilities, and thinking of situations where I might use them. I’ll often weigh ability’s cooldowns against its power, or how much it could affect battles, either through control, damage, or benefit to the group. Once I settle on the first few abilities it gets easier. From there, I look for abilities that have synergies with the ones I’ve already chosen, either with the intent of strengthening the strong points of my build, or with the intent of shoring up some weaknesses that any of my previous choices may have left me.
A quick D&D comparison would be creating a Paladin that had a low Charisma stat, but very high intelligence. For most campaigns this would create a bit of a challenge as my Paladin would not be at optimum levels in some of his typical core roles, but it would allow my Paladin to do be more versatile and useful in ways that he normally wouldn’t. For instance, allowing him the ability to use magic rods due to his high intelligence (house-ruled in of course).
Bringing this analogy back full circle, depending on the MMO and its build systems, this approach to building classes has varying rates of success.
I would argue that a key component to long term gamer loyalty in future MMOs will be the ability of that game’s character build system to offer a multitude of viable builds within any and all of its available class archetypes. I haven’t been 100% sold on all of the ability choices for all the classes I have tried in Guild Wars 2, but I feel that the system currently in place has the potential to give players many viable character builds within each archetype.
But enough about me and my approach to character builds. My questions for you, the Guild Wars 2 community, are:
1) What do you value in your favorite class archetypes and why?
2) What is your approach when creating builds for a given class?
Comments
Good post.
To answer your questions:
1) What I value most in my favorite archetypes is flexibility. It's quite funny because for the longest time possible I wasn't aware how MUCH I really wanted my class to be flexible. I played both a rogue and shaman in WoW for a long time. And even though theoretically I loved the rogue in all aspects (lore / RP / Abilities / stealth); for some reason when push came to shove the shaman grabbed me from start till end.
Eventually I came to the realization that it was the flexibility that made me love the class so much. I would play enhancement (something like melee for those unknown with WoW) until I got a bit tired of it and would then switch to elemental (caster dps), and the next day I might be Restoration (healer). I loved this flexibility not only from a personal side (doing the same thing over and over gets dull rather fast for me), but also from a social side. If my guild needed a healer, i was there. If my guild needed the extra melee, I was the go to guy again.
This is also why in GW2 I hope to enjoy the necromancer, not only because I like it's lore and its style. But also because I think it is the profession with some of the most flexibility. Minionmancer / Conditionmancer / Straight up damage / Death Shroud survivability.
Then again; I have the habit to play through several classes until I find the style that I like.
2) Generally when I make builds I work from a general concept and then evaluate traits. I'm a hardcore theorycrafter. I am, sometimes to my own regret, a real min/maxer; going for traits that would enhance my abilities over the ones that would give me fun aspects.
I kinda hope I will go a bit more casual in GW2, and I think the trait system as GW2 is setting it up will more easily allow me to pick up the fun stuff without sacrificing much (if anything at all).
I like solo characters with tight skill synergy, like the Rit/N Minion Bomber. Sure, other classes might be able to put out the DPS, but AOE DOTs should not be discounted, either. In GW2, I'm gonna roll a Condition-heavy Necromancer, maybe bleeds, maybe not. Try to DPS one of us when you're crippled, blind, weak, and afraid.
1) VALUE IN CLASS? Much Like Nyth, I like the flexibility in my character choice. For me this manifested in my Alt-a-holic status. I usually spend my time in Solo PvE, and have always like that style, but for characters, I think my true preference is more a matter of Flash! I like the sparkly spells and awesome animations. In EQ2 I loved my Monk, the way he would flip and spin and kick and punch....it was a ton of fun watching him go. In WoW I kind of liked the Hunter, mostly cause he could have a pet to help him, and also I loved using a gun keep my distance, but then I got the Burning Crusades expansion and found my true love. Paladin! Blood Elf and Draene were my favorite races, but the Paladin had all kinds of flashes and shimmers, and if you've ever seen a Draene wielding a Polearm in battle...well, its a thing of beauty.
So basically, above and beyond flexibility, I want a character with really great animations to their actions that keeps me interesting in watching what they do, perhaps even more than what they actually do. To me, this doesn't really have much to do with anything for GW2, since all the classes have this, and it doesn't really seem to have much of anything to do with what I play, or how I develope the build. Unless I missed the point of the question, which is possible, or it must may not apply to me.
2) APPROACH TO BUILD CREATION: First thing I do is read through the skills within each line/tree/what-have-you. I'm not looking for the specifics of the available skills, but rather of the general idea, looking for some kind of unifying theme that I might like, such as noticing that with a Ranger, Marksmanship focuses on Long Range, Skirmishing focues on Mid Range and Wilderness Survival focuses on Melee Range weapons, thus helping to focus a build based on what weapon selection I find most interesting. Once I get an idea of what each line of options focuses on, I decide what I like as a Prime, a secondary and Tertiary. That doesn't mean I will break my points down to three areas, but it lets me focus my priorities and gives me the option of expanding it at any time.
Galen
Galen
That was a good read. Although my main focus is different, I feel the same way about a lot of what was said. So, to answer your questions:
1) What do you value in your favorite class archetypes and why?
The most enjoyable aspect of combat in any MMO, is to get in close and deal lots of damage. So for me damage is my primary goal for my main. That said, I do enjoy trying to build my own unique style into it. I have never searched for or used FotM builds in any game I have played, and much prefer to create a build that suits my play style, that is effective and different from the norm. In Guild Wars 1 I would spend hours trying to find that slightly quirky build that I could call my own.
My secondary focus is that of survivability. Which, when building primarily for damage, is an elusive beast in most cases. I know full well that I will never be able to build against every situation AND have good damage output, but I did create some very effective builds in GW1 that allowed me to be good at both damage and survivability. But it took me years of getting to know the profession inside out and lots of practice to get the right combination of skills to achieve this. I am sure that I can achieve this in GW2, but I first need to choose the preferred profession before embarking on my building quest.
For my main, I am only concerned with two things: Can they deal good damage? And can they deal that damage effectively in melee combat? (As that is my preferred range). After lots of theory crafting with build tools and play testing in the recent BWE and Stress Test I have finally decided on the Thief as my main profession. Now all I need to do is start the quest for that personalized build.
2) What is your approach when creating builds for a given class?
As my primary goal is damage, I first look for weapon skills that will output decent amounts of it. Then I look for utility and trait combinations that compliment my weapon skills. For the utility skills, I try to add in some very important control options, such as immobilize and/or chill, and some support skills such as weakness and/or vulnerability. For traits I try to build things more in favor of damage output and (in the case of the Thief) initiative management (the more ini, the more damage). On the survivability side, I have chosen a heal that removes movement controlling effects, so that I can escape if needed, and added a couple of traits to help keep me alive a little longer.
If I was to break down my build into percentages, it would be as follows: 50% damage, 35% control and support and 15% survival. In a lot of MMO's, having a small survival percentage may not be very effective, but as GW2's combat is strongly governed by player skill, I can afford to put less attention into this area than I would normally in other games.
A note on flexibility.
I'd just like to finish by saying that, although my main will be built primarily for damage, I do understand and enjoy the role flexibility plays. I also try to choose a profession that can build with flexibility in mind if needed. The nice thing about GW2 is, that all professions are able to build this way. So if you want a Thief build that is flexible or a Guardian build that deals a lot of damage, then you have that option available to you. As well as creating my own ultimate damage build, I will also have a lot of fun creating highly flexible and support oriented Thief builds. Also, the Thief will not be my only character. I intend to create a character for each profession and create many interesting and unique builds for each.
I know, I have my work cut out for me. But it's all good fun and it's part of the game for me :). Happy building everyone.
Order of the Ono & Semper Dius