Energy and Skill Recharge in GW2

Per Corrie's request!

As you may know, energy potions are coming to GW2. Energy will be a long-term resource, to be managed over the course of many battles. A potion will restore "large" amounts of energy, and have a cool down after usage. This is to combat the problem of energy management in an open, persistent world with dynamic combat and huge battles.

Also on-topic, skill recharges. It's known that we will have a dedicated slot for an elite skill. Elite skills in GW2 are incredibly powerful and now are looking like you won't be using them very often. It was observed in one video that an elite skill had a skill recharge of, I'm not making this up, 720 seconds. Yes, for you math-lovers, that's 12 minutes!

So, where do we stand on energy and it's usage? Do you like it? Are you worried the game will be too "easy" or just not as fun? What will the new mesmer look like?

In addition to that, are excessively long recharges on skills a bad thing? Do you like less powerful skills you can use more often, or do you like that skill which will save you at the right time, even if it can only be used 5 times in an hour?

I certainly hope that the elites won't all have 12 minute recharge times. That would be annoying. As Fox can attest, I prefer my skills either in the 'on when I want them' or 'persistent duration so I can ignore them' sort of thing. If the thing has a 12 minute recharge, it better either have one hell of an effect, or one hell of a duration or I'll be more inclined to just ignoring it.

From what I saw, energy does recharge, but it's a gradual process. This, I don't mind. Since you can pick which personal skills you want, you can opt to use low-cost skills so you don't risk running out as much, which I'm fine with. Potions are an optional consumable, you can choose to not buy any, or you can use them sparingly, and to some extent, it makes sense 'in setting' with the Asura running around that potions for recovering magical might can come into play. So it doesn't break the setting for me.

Yeah, I just prefer to actually be able to use a skill on my bar more often.

There was a really good suggestion by someone who offered a "tiered" approach. The idea being that when you first use your elite skill, it's effect is at maximum and begins the 720 second recharge. However, it will recharge in tiers, meaning after two minutes, you will be able to use it again at reduced power. After another two minutes it will power-up again and so on. So what it does is allow you to choose how to play, either conserve its power or apply it more often to still get some benefit.

Orian wrote:

Yeah, I just prefer to actually be able to use a skill on my bar more often.

There was a really good suggestion by someone who offered a "tiered" approach. The idea being that when you first use your elite skill, it's effect is at maximum and begins the 720 second recharge. However, it will recharge in tiers, meaning after two minutes, you will be able to use it again at reduced power. After another two minutes it will power-up again and so on. So what it does is allow you to choose how to play, either conserve its power or apply it more often to still get some benefit.

You just described how adrenal skills work for the warrior, if I'm not mistaken.

Whoa, 12 minutes?

I can see that as not being a horrible thing. I don't know what video that's from, but let's say for a minute that it's a summon/animate skill.

Quote :

Animate Blood Golem 15e | 4 sec. cast | 720 sec. cooldown
Elite Spell. Exploit nearest corpse or downed body to animate a level 3...25...50 Blood Golem. The Blood Golem lives for 10 minutes or until slain in combat and has a downed state. You can have only one Blood Golem at a time.

That wouldn't be too bad. You'd be without your really powerful golem for 2 minutes, but that's not so bad really.

I can also see it being useful for environment effects that can be moved, like (maybe) a well that can move to the corpse you're nearest.


Re: energy potions
I'm excited to see how it will work and I hope it's not a needs-to-be-spammed thing like in other games. *cough*Flyff*cough*
But at the same time, magic comes from the character's "gifts" (ie: necromancy, fire attunement, etc.), not from some fizzy blue drink.

Ok, I'm back on the fence again.

I agree Corrie, I've always felt that energy was more of a gauge of your spirit or soul power, and such. If it was exhausted, it's like you just ran a 5k while taking a final exam. There's not enough Jolt or Red Bull in the world that can just immediately bring you ready for more.

Looking at the necro elite, that's one that might actually work, since it's a summon. However, the problem arises when your super minion gets killed after two minutes. Watching the ranger demo I posted earlier, you can see the ranger was fine, able to dodge and pick/choose battles. The pet? It died. Several times. That's a sign that your big honkin' Blood Golem could suffer the same fate, quite easily, being without any skills or abilities that a pet would have.

I don't know, it's just a horrible idea, IMO, to even consider elites as this "nuke button" that takes an eternity to recharge. 10% of your bar shouldn't be unavailable for such a long time, it's just not right to me.

I'm dubious about 12 minute reload times as well, but I'm willing to give it a 'wait and see'. It really depends on what the skill is and what it does.

There's another elite, I think from the elementalist, that lets you put a character in a tornado that flies around the battlefield. It looks awesome, but, you only get to do that five times per hour. That's pretty tough to swallow.