Are people actually going to use build templates?

[Erasculio.2914]

In the original Guild Wars, we had build templates: they allowed us to save a build (skills on the skill bar, attribute point distribution and secondary profession), and load it with just a few clicks. Notice how it didn't save the build's items.

Some players have been asking for a similar feature in GW2 for quite some time now.

The thing is, are people really going to use something like that in GW2?

Considering that:

• The original Guild Wars used to incentive people to change their builds, even within a game mode. In GW2, there really isn't such kind of incentive.
• I often see people talking about their characters as defined by their elite specialization, not their profession. For example, "I have a Reaper", not "I have a Necromancer". I have also often seen people in game who never change from their elite specialization - someone who only plays a Dragonhunter (and never switches back to Guardian or to Firebrand), someone who only plays a Reaper, and so on.
• It also doesn't look like most people change their builds all the time. For example, when sampling the forum population, not many people changed their builds that often.
• The original Guild Wars had a very small focus on items. Notice how the build templates didn't change the characters' equipment; gear had so little importance that it was ignored by the templates. Meanwhile, GW2 has a very strong focus on itemization...
• ...And getting ascended gear is easy enough that most players can easily have a few items, but time consuming enough that I doubt most players have one full set, much less more than one. Considering how, between using an ascended weapon or an exotic weapon, often players would prefer the ascended one, I wonder how much this influences people into not changing their builds (for example, someone who has an ascended sword and an exotic mace could most of the time choose to play with the sword, and thus not change his build often).
• Not to mention how huge changes - going from Power to Condition Damage, for example - would ideally be followed by a complete change in almost all equipment. I can't help but wonder how many players actually bother to have multiple sets of armor and accessories to deal with this.

IMO, build templates aren't something for the majority of players. I know ArenaNet is working on them, but it feels a bit like wasted effort - if a significant number of players just run around using basically the same build all the time, while having only gear for a single build, and see their specialization as their "real" profession, what's the point of build templates?

[fixit.7189]

i dunno about everyone else but i have always wanted build templates in gw2. /shrug

[mindcircus.1506]

The absolute best QOL increase this company could give me is Build Templates.Won't speak for everyone but I sure will.

Your "wasted effort" is my "six months of guaranteed gem purchases".

[Erasculio.2914]

@"mindcircus.1506" said:Your "wasted effort" is my "six months of guaranteed gem purchases".I would use them ALL the time too.

It just sounds like you and me are the infinitely small minority.

[Kattenpootjes.4291]

Would depend on what the build templates offer, if it's quick and easy armor skin or outfit change without transmuting every single piece then sure I'd love it, if it's just some dumb stat change then meh, into the garbage it goes. I've done 7 years without, those last few years shouldn't matter much either.

[Westenev.5289]

As a person who has several sets of ascended armour in my inventory at any given time to fit my group's comp (Boon/Heal Support, Condi or Power) Build Templates would be a great time saver if it could requip armour/weapons/trinkets with a single button push. Also, it would be great for my main (thief) if I could use build templates to swap between combat-traits and stealth-skip-traits easier.

That being said, I also have characters that build templates wouldn't affect (ie. I don't need to change their traits/equipment) - so I don't think it's unreasonable to think people who play similar builds would find this feature useless. Just don't assume unreleased content is useless based only on your own experiences.

[Tiviana.2650]

I will use the kitten out of them, i swap frequently. Its something i miss being able to save a build and swap to it when i need too

[Ototo.3214]

I most definitely will. I use a different build depending on if it's open world, a raid, WvW, etc. I don't want a full heal druid in open world, it would take me 300 years to kill a moa. There are also quite a few variants I'd like to play more, like switching between my DH build that I like a lot in open world to maybe trying a condition build as Firebrand or something. If I could switch the build at the click of a button (without the need of a 3rd party program. I'm aware of those build templates.) I'd be very happy. The only reason you see me sticking to my DH is because it's too much of a pain in the butt to swap all my gear, make sure it swapped correctly, open up the trait window, try to remember what the traits were, then do it all again when I want to play DH again.

The elite specs also scream to me for you to play your class in many different ways, but without build templates you can't easily do that. The lack of people swapping builds seems like more of a symptoms caused by lack of build templates rather than people not wanting to switch builds.

[Tarlonniel.6534]

I'd use one on my tempest, at the very least, for switching between my healing and general open world builds. If the template swapped weapons along with skills, it'd be even better.

And if it were easier to switch between builds, I might experiment a bit more with alternate builds on my other characters.

[Sylvari.2953]

I have 1 custom build/gear set per character so I definitely won't use it but I know MANY people will.

[Za Shaloc.3908]

Speaking for myself, I have like 10 different builds I switch between on my Rev and am constantly experimenting. I will absolutely 100% use build templates, most likely multiple times a day. Legendary armor was the best investment I have ever made in this game, and I would love it to be able to swap builds without the clunky stat-swapping that exists now.

[Obtena.7952]

I'm going to use them and I'm willing to pay to get access to them. I have several classes that I have 3-4 builds each and I like to use them all depending on the situation. Getting build templates will literally change the way I play the game.

[Airdive.2613]

Yeah, I think people don't change their build often because there are no build templates.Even with the same equipment, you would be able to quickly fine-tune your build depending on the situation (certain maps, activities, etc). It would also be a great improvement to underwater content, quickly (or better yet, automatically) switching your traits to the ones actually useful underwater.I can see some downsides as well, like those player-imposed ("meta build-switching or kick!"; not really a GW2 problem, though) or even worse roaming/dueling imbalance in WvW (though I don't know if people are already using third-party extensions to instantly change their builds for them).

[Rico.6873]

Yes and I would love using them!

[Memoranda.9386]

It would make switching between straight DPS and Support builds much more convenient for me, so yes, I would love it.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

tl;dr I can't disagree more strongly with the OP. I think the advantages (and disadvantages) of shareable build templates & loadouts is roughly the same in both games. It appeals to roughly the same people. And it will be an enormous QoL change for those interested and open doors of opportunity to some people who feel stuck in builds/gear now.

---

@"Erasculio.2914" said:

• The original Guild Wars used to incentive people to change their builds, even within a game mode. In GW2, there really isn't such kind of incentive.I must have played a different version of GW1. I don't feel any different incentive to swap builds. In both games, people who like to experiment will build swap; in both games, people who don't stick to the same build.

• I often see people talking about their characters as defined by their elite specialization, not their profession. For example, "I have a Reaper", not "I have a Necromancer". I have also often seen people in game who never change from their elite specialization - someone who only plays a Dragonhunter (and never switches back to Guardian or to Firebrand), someone who only plays a Reaper, and so on.And? I don't see how that's relevant one way or the other.

• It also doesn't look like most people change their builds all the time. For example, when sampling the forum population, not many people changed their builds that often.Did you run that survey for GW1 players? I don't think you'd get different results.

• The original Guild Wars had a very small focus on items. Notice how the build templates didn't change the characters' equipment; gear had so little importance that it was ignored by the templates. Meanwhile, GW2 has a very strong focus on itemization...The original GW1 has a huge focus on items. The stat+ items especially, as well as +energy and the HP+50 runes. Getting 20/20 for your caster, or +5 energy and so on.

• ...And getting ascended gear is easy enough that most players can easily have a few items, but time consuming enough that I doubt most players have one full set, much less more than one. Considering how, between using an ascended weapon or an exotic weapon, often players would prefer the ascended one, I wonder how much this influences people into not changing their builds (for example, someone who has an ascended sword and an exotic mace could most of the time choose to play with the sword, and thus not change his build often).Exotic gear is fine for everything except high-tier fractals.

• Not to mention how huge changes - going from Power to Condition Damage, for example - would ideally be followed by a complete change in almost all equipment. I can't help but wonder how many players actually bother to have multiple sets of armor and accessories to deal with this.I suspect far, far more would bother if swapping gear wasn't such a bother. i.e. if we had build load outs

IMO, build templates aren't something for the majority of players. I know ArenaNet is working on them, but it feels a bit like wasted effort - if a significant number of players just run around using basically the same build all the time, while having only gear for a single build, and see their specialization as their "real" profession, what's the point of build templates?

I think you missed the window to recommend otherwise.

[Thorstienn.1642]

I want and would use them more than any other QoL feature (followed by character keybinds).Most of the points you raise of people not switching, are probably because templates aren't in the game; changing back and forth between reaper and scourge is annoying without saved templates.

[NanoEliteSixSixSix.8935]

It depends on how good of a job they do with them, at least for me personally. At the very least I think they should effect things like traits and skills and such like in theboriginal GW. If they go for broke and have it do your gear and all thevstuff that entails like the system Diablo 3 has in place? Even better.

[Iozeph.5617]

Engineer player here. Why in hell would anybody want or need a build template when for the last five years they've been aggressively doing everything to ruin the trait trees so that there's only one worthwhile trait per tier(if that)? Seriously. Builds aren't that hard to do anymore because the majority of our traits are straight rubbish. Even more so after the glorious abortion they're calling a 'balance' update.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

It depends for me as well. If the functionality offers changes in gear as well as traits, then I will use them. If it is only traits, the incentive to do so will be much less.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

It is probably more common than you think. Aside from saving PVP builds, if you play the game long enough you'll eventually get enough gold to buy a second set. Each class has two or three viable builds that require different gear sets (power, condi, support). Unless a person decides they're going to make a new character for every build they make, then they're going to have multiple builds.

[Goettel.4389]

Yes I would.

[maddoctor.2738]

@"Erasculio.2914" said:

• The original Guild Wars used to incentive people to change their builds, even within a game mode. In GW2, there really isn't such kind of incentive.

Yes because in GW2 you have incentive to change your build during a run, unlike GW1 where you couldn't change your build mid-run and had to have it completely done before you start. Maybe open world farmers won't change their builds (but there are moments where it makes sense to change there too) but it will be amazing for anyone running instanced content.

• I often see people talking about their characters as defined by their elite specialization, not their profession. For example, "I have a Reaper", not "I have a Necromancer". I have also often seen people in game who never change from their elite specialization - someone who only plays a Dragonhunter (and never switches back to Guardian or to Firebrand), someone who only plays a Reaper, and so on.

That's because we have no build templates and changing between elite specs is a pain. Swapping from Dragonhunter to Firebrand, Druid to Soulbeast, Chronomancer to Mirage are all ways to change your role completely but it takes time and effort to do so, therefore few see the point in doing so.

• It also doesn't look like most people change their builds all the time. For example, when sampling the forum population, not many people changed their builds that often.

Again, that's because changing builds is a pain.

• The original Guild Wars had a very small focus on items. Notice how the build templates didn't change the characters' equipment; gear had so little importance that it was ignored by the templates. Meanwhile, GW2 has a very strong focus on itemization...

What are you talking about? Guild Wars 1 has two separate build template options, one for your skills and traits and one for items. Equipment is very important in Guild Wars 1, it is so important in fact that it uses a separate system. Which you either didn't notice or forgot about.

[Ashantara.8731]

@Erasculio.2914 said:IMO, build templates aren't something for the majority of players.

I believe you are wrong. People use only one build most of the time simply because they can't be bothered to manually change everything each time they feel like playing a different build, so they stick to one. As soon as build templates become available, people will be more prone to use different builds when they feel like it.

[arielwind.8921]

Build template is convenient. But I honestry disagree to develop in GW2.It might not majority, but some people buying gem for character slot, and farming gears for alternate build. Those gem should be income for Anet and in game economy gets more active state.