It's been two days but I can still give some feedback on this topic.
There are aspects here in the basis of the philosophy I want to contrast with what has come from before. At least that I've felt. The difference between slow-paced and fast-paced. What was unfamiliar that is now familiar and what was once familiar is gone. The inclusion of more skills to press and more buttons to activate certain actions. The action economy is very high because of so many actions one can take in a short amount of time, but it is not intuitive and takes hundreds of hours to become better proficient. In GW2 this means a second weapon (or other), kits/conjures, and traits. They can be accessed fast but not on demand and there's no way of knowing their availability to be used again. Alacrity provides assurance to this and is among the reasons it's a powerful boon without actually knowing if a skill is ready to be used again. For GW1, one had access to everything. The player can see their own skills and cooldowns and that of their party. He/She could see when a skill is available and activate it on a whim or to queue. These are two different games of course but it matters in the way of accessibility to activate skills and understanding in the depth of playing while already being quick in pacing.
Everyone sucked when GW2 first came out and seemingly around the middle of season 1 and into HoT players got better. It didn't matter when you started because the inclusion of the grave accent key, the functions, the function 5 key, and the special action key raised the player skill floor up by a lot. So much so that to truly be fast-paced one has to either re-keybind or acquire additional hardware and re-keybind. Those keys are not easy to reach and actively hinders gameplay when missing and hitting a key adjacent and doesn't do what you wanted it to do. I remember the terms of service changes where the one input needs to equate to one action yet here it seems to have regressed if one wants to be fast-paced. I myself have my special action key set to left shift+E. Two inputs for one action. Others have mapped left shift+anything easy to reach on the left side of the keyboard. I've even acquired a mouse with additional buttons to make this mapping easier. Above all of this, clicking (and dragging) is inefficient for Your vision of building a fluid and fast-paced combat experience because that is already being taken up be visional acquisition. All those people from steam more or less had to go through this and You're too deep to change. This is one of the skill ceilings and it must be considered because it is an imitation of fast-paced and not actually fast-paced.
I will talk of the location of boons and conditions. Yet another difference between GW1 and GW2. For GW1 these enchantments are literal skills and the visual indication is of it largely inflating and deflating to a standard size. The UI was also more robust. What GW2 has and currently implements is a less robust UI with comparably smaller icons that all look the same in periphery. This compromises Your combat depth. These boons and conditions aren't literal skills but they still matter. They matter more then the consumables and other bar icons too. Allow for increase in size of artwork of the boons and conditions only, maybe location too, and this will be more inline with what I've considered for your combat depth philosophy. The raids training arena has even sectioned them so. Offensive, defensive, utility. Maybe even a different shade of yellow for each and better popup effect then what is currently running.
I will talk of after-combat reports. This is currently only implemented in sPvp and event that is not wholly reliable except for immediately before death. The compromises Your "allows players to express their mastery of mechanics" as to even be able to get to mastery of mechanics one has to fail at it. Or at least imitate something else. The most obvious location is raids/strikes/fractals. Unsure of sPvp and WvW because those involve players only and aren't static. Add a device to handle single combat data collection and be able to review what one has done when successful. A list of damage done, total duration, duration of boons, duration of conditions, time idle, time dead, whatever. This report will actively reflect mastery of mechanics moreso then almost anything else in the game currently. It'll show up for others as well.
My last two points will be on combat itself. On the topic of skill indicators and names. Really this an addition to the Play and Counterplay portion of Your philosophy. A huge difference between GW1 and GW2 yet again but coming from the same place. With the inclusion of quickness this becomes hard. There is very little in the way of know the attack name and indicator aside from a look at the combat log. Currently, there is an unbordered yellow brush stroke that fills up on skill activation. With quickness it's near instant. If You want to allow players an increase in opportunity in mastering combat and expression in their mastery of mechanics then perhaps You'll allow expansion of this skill bar and skill name aspect. I am wholly taking from GW1 in this aspect and since these are different game I'm unsure what would happen but if I was allowed to see the small name of my activating skill under the skill activation bar, and more importantly of my targeted opponents, it would be a significant change in pursuit of mechanics mastery. Mesmerway
Yet again I will harken to the difference between GW1 and GW2. The difference is staggering as they are different games. One could anything with the consideration of secondary classes. Currently for GW2, and for all of time, the skill options are vastly limited to only primary class capabilities and traits. I have seen major skills and balance changes and have also missed minor ones. It's my job but it is Yours and I will say that to me, utilities and some attack skills have become less of a utility and less of an attack skill. I wish the paradigm of this balance was different but You're too deep to change without significant overhaul. What I'd suggest if you want more options in skills and balance is to follow through with Your power budget philosophy and do the same thing for weapon skills that the game came out for with utilities. Allow the swapping of certain weapon skills with another weapon skill. A tradeoff in a limited way of course. Allocate the all damage sources to weapon skills (and conditions), and all utilities (boons) to utilities. Damage, boons, and conditions have been spread E V E R Y W H E R E. Perhaps it might not be a bad practice relocate these aspects in more appropriate areas in Your pursuit of categorizing the listing philosophy roles. Or not, it's not my job. Just a suggestion.
A majority of what I've discussed relates to the goals of the skills and balance philosophy and can even be argued to not be relevant as it deals with other systems but I am saying otherwise. It sucks that class weight is meaningless now and health pool size is either a benefit or simply a flaw for a class that needs to be covered for elsewhere. Anyway, I am ignorant in topics like these but that's just my current perspective. Good luck following through with Your newly stated philosophy.
