Telegraphs or: How Anet Should Learn to Love the Warrior and Implement These to Other Classes

One reason why I fell in love with the warrior's combat is because so many of the skills are physical. Not only does this make him fun to play but it gives fairness to a class by means of telegraphing many of his moves. This is especially true of his melee abilities, and it made me respect the skill of other melee focused warriors when we fought. Being able to have a split second to dodge always allowed for the skillful warriors to show how good they were. It also makes it easier to admit defeat as there are less cheap tricks and more opportunities to see both your own, and other warrior's abilities.

But when we venture into other classes, telegraphs become a whole different thing. I never know when to time a dodge when a thief shadowsteps, or when essentially instant-cast teleports come into play. There's no telegraph to notify me of what's to come.

And here's where my view and Anet's clearly clash: I don't believe in un-telegraphed instant-cast teleports or abilities. This doesn't kill the game for me (I still play it regardless and have fun), but it does make me think why Anet wouldn't balance these other classes accordingly.

I know the first thing people will say is that telegraphs for every class would become unbalanced, but that's only if we're looking at it at face value. If Anet really dedicated their time to implementing telegraphed abilities, such as telegraphed teleports, while balancing out the rest of their kits accordingly I think the gameplay overall would benefit. And with the double weapon system and weapon-based abilities, I can't shake this idea that this game had the warrior in the forefront of their minds when they developed this combat system. Maybe I'm completely wrong on that, it's impossible to know. But what I do know is that for all the crazy yelling and yelping people have done for calling out the warrior as being "OP", he has always been highly telegraphed. And that's to be applauded. Just please put this design focus into other classes Anet.

Teleports shouldn't be telegraphed and it is fine that some classes have these skills (mainly thief/mesmer). You actually need those teleports for those classes to work. Imagine a thief charging at you like warrior gs 5. You would just dodge and melt the face off those glassy builds.

A lot of other skills should have a better telegraph as you propose. Fighting another warrior as a warrior was always the most fun for me. Those fights feel just right with a lot of chances to properly dodge attacks and also bait dodges from your enemy.

Hard hitting skills need more telegraphs and a clearer animation.

@gmmg9210 I totally agree dude . The design of the warrior is an honest one. I wish more classes had the same design.

Other classes do have hard hitting but telegraphed attack, like ele churning earth + lighting flash combo got a huge wind up. Especially weaver 1 shot build is extremely powerful. But you can time your attack to interrupt churning earth and stop the chain.

Deadly combo got a telegraphed windup is always welcome though.

@illenos.5134 said:Teleports shouldn't be telegraphed and it is fine that some classes have these skills (mainly thief/mesmer). You actually need those teleports for those classes to work. Imagine a thief charging at you like warrior gs 5. You would just dodge and melt the face off those glassy builds.

A lot of other skills should have a better telegraph as you propose. Fighting another warrior as a warrior was always the most fun for me. Those fights feel just right with a lot of chances to properly dodge attacks and also bait dodges from your enemy.

Hard hitting skills need more telegraphs and a clearer animation.

You're right it would be ridiculous if you simply telegraphed the thief's teleport with no additional balancing in place. But what I'm saying is that if they balanced the classes around the telegraph, say like a small portal to cue you in that he/she is using it, and the ability became stronger also, I think it would allow for more fun and diverse combat.

I would argue that Thieves don't actually telegraph much, but are second guessed more then anything else. I say this, because Stealth effectively destroys Telegraphs.... a fact made painfully clear with the Deadeye...... a spec capable of permasteath, and capable of delivering a 1 shot attack, with only a half second visual telegraph. The Mark is an "Announcement" of their presence, but the thieves aren't required to act upon it.... and thats what makes the mechanic so damning for the target.
You can't respond to an action if you can't see where its coming from, or when it will strike. All you can do is stay alert, gauge your vulnerability, try to guess when a Deadeye will try to act on it, and preemptively fire a defense to counter it. You're literally baiting them into an attack to try and foul it, and catch them before they can restealth (where they retake the advantage). Outside of that, you're only hope is to catch a sign of their stealth refreshing, and reveal them on top of it.... but most theives are smart enough to position far away enough to make cleaves difficult.

Even Daredevil is capable of 70% stealth uptime; but at least that window is big enough to know if they are in a position to attack or not. They're also not capable of 1 shotting you in most situations, and have to commit to an assault because of Reveal exposing them. It gives you the opportunity to fight back, even if the opening strike is hard to see coming.

i remember core war, gs/lb no auto stab mirror build duel was the most fun/intense and easy to spectate and understand duel in game.and d/p or s/d thieves are the most boring ones, their mirror duels look flashy at first, but behind the flashiness it's only stealth spam or evade spam, gets boring fast

that's why i can never like thief even tho it's my second most played class, now i started to main holosmith, not as fun as gs/lb war, but as close. spellbreaker is fun too, but i wanted a new main