Skill based vs Gear based MMOs
Sorry for the text entry (well there are some screenshots but those are visual aids) but this is something I wanted to do, which is compare a skill based MMO to a gear based one (and by skill based I mean one where the skills you select matter, not one where how good you are matters) since I recently renewed my subscription to FFXIV. So I prefer skill based MMOs of which Guild Wars 1 is the only one I've played (since most seem obssessed with gear) but I have played a few gear based ones (GW2 is some bastardised hybrid of the two and doesn't pull it off) so I'll be comparing GW1 to FFXIV. So first off the skill bars:
Guild Wars Skill bar:
As you can see my Guild Wars skill bar (for my assassin) is fairly compact with only eight skills, which is the max allowed, and anyone who's familiar with Guild Wars (especially the assassin) will be able to nearly instantly tell what the build's all about but I'll walk you through the skills (with links.)
Skill 1 - Critical Eye, a skill that increases the likelihood of getting a critical hit. It fits with Skills 7 and 8 in the overall build.
Skill 2 - Golden Fox Strike, First of the damage dealing skills, it's what's known as a lead attack and has to be used for skills 3 and 4 to become available.
Skill 3 - Wild Strike, This is the second damage dealing skill, known as an Off-Hand attack, requires skill 2 to be used and enables the use of skill 4.
Skill 4 - Death Blossom, Final damage dealing skill, known as a Dual Attack, requires skill 3 to be used before it (for this build and most others, more on that later) is an AOE attack and does the most damage out of the three damage dealing skills.
Skill 5 - Death's Charge, Shadow Step skill (effectively teleportation) allows my Assassin to get close to the target since he is a melee type character. Also one of two self healing skills.
Skill 6 - Shadow Refuge, The main healing skill, rarely needs to be used unless against magic users.
Skill 7 - Way of the Assassin, The elite skill for this build (you can only have one elite skill) and stacks with Skill 1.
Skill 8 - Critical Defense, The main defensive skill of the build and what allows my assassin to act as an off tank.
So that's the skills for that build, I've provided links to their wiki pages so you can see what they do and just provided a succinct description of how they work in the build. Yes I do need some gear to max out this build's effectiveness but it's more of an addon rather than the bee all and end all of my character, if I want to change builds it's as easy as swapping one or two armour pieces. This build is based almost entirely around Critical Strikes but lets say I wanted one based around Dagger Mastery and want to spam Death Blossom using Moebius Strike it's as easy as swapping out my elite skills and switching up two armour pieces and reallocating some stat points (most of which can be done automatically when you switch builds, provided they're saved) and the overall build stays the same. If I wanted to change the entire build to take advantage of Shadow Form I'd again only have to change 2 armour pieces but I'd need to change out more skills and realocate my stats into Shadow Arts which again can be done automatically if you have the build saved. The whole system is incredibly user friendly and can be surprisingly in depth, the only RNG element to it are the weapons and runes (if you don't want to buy runes from other players) and even then it's incredibly minor.
Now compare that skill bar to this one from FFXIV:
That's my Dragoon's skills and I honestly haven't got a clue as to what's going on with them most of the time. I know skills 1 to 3 can be used in that order to deal damage and I know that skill 5 on the second hotbar is required for skills 6 to 8 on that same hotbar to become usable but for the most part the skills all do the same thing which is deal damage (as Dragoon is a DPS class) witht eh exceptions of 5 and 7 on the 1st hotbar and 1 and 5 on the second. There's no way I can turn my Dragoon into an off tank if I wanted to since those skills are the only ones you're given and that's that, the true difference between my Dragoon and someone elses is the gear she's equipped with but both Dragoons will do the exact same thing and use the exact same skills. Don't get me wrong I love playing Dragoon (and Rogue and Samurai) but there's not as much build variety when you compare it to Guild Wars, as you can see I've not gone through my skills explaining my choices because I have 24 skill slots and only 21 skills (9, 0 and - on the second hotbvar are utility skills) and every Dragoon has the exact same skill selection and will use the exact same ones, there's no point having two Dragoons in a party as they'll both do the exact same thing whereas in Guild Wars I can have two (or more) Assassins in a party as they can all do different things.
Sorry if this seems more like me waxing lyrical about my assassin but don't get me wrong I do really love my Dragoon in FFXIV it's just that I dislike the gear based nature of the game which (in my opinion) stifles build creativity.
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