Healing And Death In An MMO

Guild Wars 2 has been steadily releasing new information, and a lot of it takes some contemplation. Take this explanation of how healing and death will work in the game.

After falling down, you enter 'downed mode.' A second chance, if you will, using only four skills, to take down an enemy and reenter the fray. If that doesn't work, everyone around you has the chance to revive you--all classes being capable of such (though, if I recall, the first game also had a resurrection signet all classes received). However, it appears there will be different skills that can achieve the same effect, some very class-specific. They give the example of a warrior using "I Will Avenge You," whereby an enemy can be downed and then the downed player revives.

What if you do die?

Release from your form and choose the waypoint at which you reappear. Also, less of a penalty than the first Guild Wars exacted. As they state:

Players who have recently been downed several times will take longer to revive each time. If no one revives you, you can spend a small amount of gold to come back at a waypoint. It's as simple as that, and why not? Why should we debuff you, take away experience, or make you run around for five minutes as a ghost instead of letting you actually play the game? We couldn't think of a reason. Well, we did actually think of a reason--it just wasn't a good one. Death penalties make death in-game a more tense experience. It just isn't fun. We want to get you back into the action (fun) as quickly as possible. Defeat is the penalty; we don't have to penalize you a second time.

With all this also comes the second large change: no dedicated healing class. Every class has their own healing skill, and there exist some 'heal other' skills, but the latter are not as powerful. The idea is that all the cool moments in a game come from teamwork, so offer more skills that allow collaboration and cooperation, rather than reacting to what's happening on screen. Healing is a reaction to what's happening, whereas they wish players to be more proactive and involved in what's occurring on screen.

The second reason would be that any person who has played an MMO or team-based RPG and waited on that perfect team set up knows what waiting for a specific class can do to your fun. Rather than sitting around waiting to play, they just want players to... play?

We keep hearing other MMO developers espousing the "holy trinity" of DPS/ heal/tank with such reverence, as if this is the most entertaining combat they have ever played. Frankly, we don't like sitting around spamming "looking for healer" to global chat. That feels an awful lot like preparing to have fun instead of having fun.

Instead of the traditional trinity, every Guild Wars 2 profession is self reliant--not only can they all help each other by reviving in combat, but all professions have ways to build their characters differently to make them more versatile for group play.

Therefore, instead of having dedicated classes, each class can switch skills to focus on three attributes: damage, support, and control. The first two being self-explanatory, but the third being what we commonly attribute to tanks--controlling the battlefield. Here an example is given that stun can be used to stop a fleeing enemy or help an ally (though it is not wholly explained how it would).

Therefore, in some ways they have not rid themselves of the basic building blocks surrounding the system of DPS/Healer/Tank, but have instead shifted the focus so that everyone can mix their own representation of it. I do wonder how many will automatically fly into the comfort of their predetermined roles, and how many will seek to mix things up as much as possible. The goal reads that they wanted to be sure everyone could be self-reliant, whether solo or in a group, but being in a group allowed for greater versatility.

Color me intrigued to see how it all plays.