Less skills, but customizable?

[Wintermist]

I've been thinking about this for quite some time and I really think there are too many skills given to us. They clutter the toolbars and we don't use all of them anyway.

 

How about instead you have less of them, but as you level up you can customize certain skills instead of being given a whole new skills.

 

It would be less of us to manage, but we could get the same job done while still having many ways to use the skills depending on how we customized the actual skills.

 

Like this maybe; A Cleansing skill that removes 1 negative ability, you level up and can customize it, it can now remove 2 negatives, or still remove one but also heal slightly, and so on and so on.

 

Not all skills, but certain signature skills could be done this way.

[Drakkenfeur]

I've been thinking about this for quite some time and I really think there are too many skills given to us. They clutter the toolbars and we don't use all of them anyway.

 

How about instead you have less of them, but as you level up you can customize certain skills instead of being given a whole new skills.

 

It would be less of us to manage, but we could get the same job done while still having many ways to use the skills depending on how we customized the actual skills.

 

Like this maybe; A Cleansing skill that removes 1 negative ability, you level up and can customize it, it can now remove 2 negatives, or still remove one but also heal slightly, and so on and so on.

 

Not all skills, but certain signature skills could be done this way.

 

/signed

 

Waaaay too much skill clutter, even as sub, I personally don't want to utilize 6 bloody tool bars to have access to all my skill set. 4 skills that all have the same effects essentially. Perhaps even for specialization/advanced classes more baseline skills are replaced with stronger advanced class versions and skill tree/path options?

 

Considering after all, like the OP said, we only use at most 6 abilities in most class rotations not including cooldowns.

[Muljo_Stpho]

I've thrown an idea out there in a couple different topics that it seems like they might as well finish the automation of leveling by creating leveling paths for class and advanced class (just like the discipline path) but while they're doing that they ought to also:

 

* add more utility points and add some flexibility to utility selection, even if it has to be balanced to still resemble current utilities functionally (7 points in class path, 7 points in advanced path, 7 points in discipline path, all utilities can have up to 3 points invested into them, functional perk of each utility is reserved for the 3rd point, 1st and 2nd points are just worth minor stat boosts, 9 points spent in tier 1 to start spending in tier 2, 15 points in tiers 1+2 to start spending in tier 3, and if they want to; 2 more points can be made available somewhere without making it possible to get the full benefit of an 8th utility)

 

* add in places in all leveling paths where parallel choices are offered (like the top tier GSF ship component upgrades, 2 different passives but you choose which one is active) - note that this could be a mechanism to implement your suggestion (add dot to an ability vs add area dmg to an ability, for example)

[MelodyofLegends]

Signed!

 

this would be an excellent addition!

 

though may I suggest that the abilities visuals change based on the selected customization?

 

example a customised force lightning modified to oh add a DOT debuff to the foe could be slightly brighter with additional streaks of lightning making it a wider beam thingy.

 

or if a different option is chosen say a tiny regen health/force effect then it could be a different color and the lightning sleeker! (nerf to the damage may be needed for that option though...)

 

the potential variation (especially in pvp) is exciting!

[leonlotus]

Customizable Skills, means a true SKILLTREE.

It was like this, pre 3.0

Not only you personalized your chacarater to fit your gameplay style, but it also made the game less predictable. Which meaned less stalemates in WZs.

 

But they dont need to remove any skils, for gods sake.

Edited January 10, 2016 by leonlotus

[Muljo_Stpho]

A tree would have connected and branching paths. As in ability 1 must be trained before abilities 2 or 3 can be trained, ability 2 must be trained before ability 4 can be trained, ability 3 must be trained before ability 5 can be trained, ability 4 must be trained before abilities 6 or 7 can be trained, etc.

 

The old "trees" would be more accurately described as pools. And in that paradigm each advanced class had pool A, pool B, and pool C (which the developers explained in the shift to discipline paths that they had always conceptualized A, B, and C as separate entities despite the ability to fill points into them all at the same time) and there were different levels in each pool that required a certain number of points filled into anything below them to be able to start filling in anything at that level.

 

Anyway, you know that they aren't going to revert back to the old pool system, and you know why.

 

Also, a true tree structured system could be a good idea but I really doubt that we can expect another major overhaul on that scale again. If it happens it would be after disciplines have had a good long run.

 

So with that in mind, what a topic like this is trying to suggest with ideas like the parallel choices embedded within the discipline path (and other leveling paths if the future of the game holds such an automation of leveling up) is to work within the framework of the concept that the developers intended for both the old system and the new system to add mechanisms for a controlled level of variation within the set paths. The developers still get their self-contained packages to deal with for whatever they're doing to try to set the right balance for all of the different specs. We get some flexibility to decide how our character grows within the definition of that spec by making decisions between comparable alternatives that alter the functionality of an ability in different ways.

 

With or without the addition of such choices though, I do still hope that there can be some consideration made by the devs to add new discipline paths. Take some inspiration from a few of the old hybrid builds for some of them, perhaps? But many of them could attempt to do something completely new with a class, like trying to envision a healer spec for a sentinel/marauder* or trying to envision a tank spec for a sniper/gunslinger or trying to envision a spec for trooper/hunter that uses some sort of stealth.**

 

* (It would be weird, I know. They'd probably have to do something like play up the idea of the heal effects generated by bleeds by that one cooldown ability. But of course they'd be a bit stronger and the passives found in that new discipline would add such effects to a bunch of their attacks (until it can be sufficient to sustain a group well enough for most trash pulls at least) and the abilities in it would provide a few abilities to fill in for their more direct healing needs.)

 

** (Even if just something temporary like the sentinel/marauder force camo... Maybe the spec changes stealth scan into stealth field and the probes are temporarily generating a space within which you're in stealth? Actually, that could be a neat idea just in general, with or without limiting it to a specific spec. Then that ability would actually have a use in PVE settings.)

[leonlotus]

Well, anything to make a real character building would be welcome.

They changed the tree, or "pool", got rid of the Hybrids, put Power/Crit/Surge in the same mods... its now so simple, that its boring.

[Roccobb]

I would love the ability to customize a lot more about my character when I level, similar to how single player games allow you.

 

So Every level, you get 5 points. You can spend all 5 points to make X skill a lot sronger, or spread it between 2-3 abilities. If a skill gets over a certain level, start increasing the CD. So if I want to make my AOE deal a lot of damage, that's fine, but put it on a minute cooldown. If you spend too many points on too few abilities, then no matter how you work on your rotation, you may have some time with no attacks at all.

 

Or, you could level abilities out equally. Have them on shorter CD's, but less powerful. I can see that with my knight, while my ranged would be more powerful with longer CD. If I want my healer to have really powerful heals, but little to no attacks, then in PVP, I have to be around others instead of fighting one on one. He may never kill me, but I could never kill him either.

 

I have wanted something like this in every MMO I have played. I don't like my character being exactly like yours. New players now even all look the same since they took out all the gear. So we gear the same. We have the same abilities. Our companions are the same. Everything about my character is just like yours, except you chose the girl with bigger *globes* when you created your character. (Edit: seriously, b00-s is filtered?)

 

Second edit: OK, so some more thoughts. My Sith Inq AOE in PVP currently brings similar geared people down about 10% health. Of course, it is ridiculous how I have absolutely no CD, but anyways. So if I want to really improve that AOE, to where it deals 50% damage of similar geared PVP, give it a 3 minute CD. That way, yes, I hurt you. But if I spent so many points improving that one skill, I chose a lot less points improving other skills, so I have less skills that can finish you off.

Edited January 11, 2016 by Roccobb

[ALaggyGrunt]

The way the skill bar is right now, there's another hardware barrier between you and serious endgame content: A keyboard or mouse with a few extra buttons is a very nice thing to have. On many classes (concentration sent, I'm looking at you), you kind of have to remap the whole left half of your keyboard to get at your rotation + a few utilities within an instant's reach, and a few to your mouse.

 

Cutting it down to 10 or so skills would be a very nice thing, and/or just slowing down combat so mousing after things isn't a serious issue.

 

The hard part is making such a skill tree not be totally broken.