Guild Wars 2 Release Attribute System for PAX East

Over the development of Guild Wars 2, the attribute system has evolved over many different courses. The first set of attributes was very stereotypical for the fantasy game.

• Strength—increased melee attack damage.
• Agility—increase ranged attack damage.
• Intelligence—increased magic attack damage.
• Vitality—increased health; increased defense against melee attacks.
• Perception—increased critical strike chance for melee and ranged attacks; increased defense against ranged attacks.
• Willpower—increased critical strike chance for magic attacks; increased defense against magic attacks.

This brought along it's own set of problems. The interface for Hero attributes was very confusing to look at, and made it hard to determine what skills and spells had their damage buffed by what attribute, so they changed it.

• Strength—increased melee attack damage.
• Agility—increase ranged attack damage.
• Intelligence—increased magic attack damage.
• Vitality—increased health.
• Perception—increased critical strike chance.
• Willpower—increased energy.

However, this brought about problems with choosing weapons. Basically, no matter what you chose, it would limit your weapon options greatly. A warrior couldn't carry a sword and a bow, and be good with both of them, even though that's a fairly common combination to want on your person.

Finally, the dev team came up with an attribute system they were happy with.

• Power—increased attack damage.
• Precision—increased critical strike chance.
• Vitality—increased health.
• Toughness—increased defense/armor.

Using this set of attributes, it didn't limit weapon choice, but it also simplified the UI and made it much easier to discern what attribute translated into what you wanted, whether that be damage or health or what have you.

I find this a great move for the better, although it's going to make it difficult to discern between individual players, I feel. The simplification also takes away some of the customization. I suppose most of the individualization of characters will come from the weapon they use, though, since the weapons are what will decide skills for the characters.

In either case, PAX East starts in just 18 hours! I'm not going, but I'm looking forward to all the game news that will be coming out of this.