Well that, and then you need to find/craft the same exact weapons with the correct enchantments...

Exactly...

Yes, 5 is too low. But as many have already said, this decision was heavily influenced by the fact that console controllers will be the choice for many players.

I not only find it very limiting, I also find it funny how the focus in combat oriented game has turned from skill in skill usage into skill in skill management. What we do before the fight is almost more important then what we do while we're fighting.

I am enjoying not having to do the many button dance.

And funnily enough I find it quite awesome that you need to think ahead.

I find it very refreshing that you cannot necessarily counter everything that you will meet.

i actually rather like it - adds alot of strategic thinking how to combine skills. and you know - the weapon swap gives another 5 skills... i think this is whats gonna give me long term satisfaction. leveling different weps / armors / skills and experimenting with different loadouts...

apart from that, immersion is much greater than with other mmo's... i rather have only 5 skills + ultimate, than a cluttered UI that takes 40% of the screen.

I understand how you find it refreshing, but that's due to this being something new.

How long will this last, when you suddenly start noticing that your combat skill (what and how you act in combat) is actually not so important as the skill in putting and arranging your skills in your slots? I like how this adds a new dimension, I don't like how important it has become at the expense of combat itself.

Let me put it this way;

I will probably never touch another non-action combat MMO ever again.

I ran in to my first issue with the 5 skills over this beta to decide what to do. im working on a battle mage with 2 summons. you have to keep the summons on your bar for them to stay up. this reduces my selection to 3 slots per weapon switch. I have to choose between bound armor and the heavy armor active option that lasts 8 seconds. same amount of time as my thundering form:) it will become even more of an issue when i get some of the other skills.

I particulary like this makes you think. makes you plan ahead. in case you wanted to know i will be using bound armor with the 2 summons alot of lower magik pool but it means i can stack more magik with out hitting softcap:)

as another item about this issue. since your class does not determinal if you are going to be a Healer or a Tank or a DPS. they had to limit so you cant do all at once very easily. It can be done but not as easy

like eve online.. you have to race.. class.. then powers.. then weapons.. its all about team play.. you can care bear it up.. just don't expect null space (pvp) to be user friendly .. you have to have gangs of 10+... better find a group fast.. april is coming..

That's nice to hear.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I think you might just be in a phase of excitement over getting something new and different. I could experience that same feeling this weekend, myself. I am worried how it will affect the play and especially, combat, over time. Will this refreshment still overrule the lack of excitement in combat after you've done countless of hours and hundreds of fights?

This, for me, is its main appeal. I prefer strategy over skill (Not that I lack the latter, mind you.). It almost reminds me of the buffs in Lineage 2 - I used to tell people that choosing what buffs to wear, was half the strategy of the game (Since buffs were capped, and made such a huge difference.). I liked how it eked out some strategy, from a class system that otherwise had little to offer in that regard.

I do agree with your points about resource pools, though. Also, I've been pretty vocal in other threads, about my disgust for the soft caps. But this largely comes from the fact that I love having to rely on strategy more than just skill, and the overcharge system highly limits your options.

It's for this very reason that I like MMO's more than FPS'.

Also, I see the capability to swap abilities between fights, to be a way for skill/strategy to be utilized, as well. Most people probably won't do it, whereas I will.

To accommodate the limited functionality of the controller, pure and simple. If you keep the same weapon for the second bar you would have a total of 12 skills against it. Normally this would be 1-10, -, =, on a keyboard. (or however you key bound them).

I'm hoping an add on arrives that does allow an extended skill bar if you are using the same weapon for both first and second choices. No doubt people would complain that I would be pressing one less key than them to access all available skills - unless of course I was in their group

They need to make it so you can save your action bar and switch between builds out of combat.

There was a time in MMOs that you had to choose what skills to use and not use due to limited space on your hotbar or had to memorize your spells before you could use them. It kept players thinking about their decisions as they leveled and it made players think about their choices before a fight. This is a throwback to that type of gameplay where choice matters. It will also promote a multitude of builds with different weapons and armor pieces and move people away from the cookie cutter specs that have invaded MMO's in the past 10 years, or at least We hope it does.

I expect this functionality to be delegated to an add on.

No... It's literally perfect right now.

It requires strategy. Ya know... Thinking. Scary I know.

Just reading the topic title. I am sure glad there is such a limited skill selection. Diablo 3 has also taken this path, and I very much find that creating my own small maybe somewhat unique build. Having a few more skill slots would have taken any real need for me to choose away. 2 sets of 5, with 2 ultimates, is great in my opinion!

You Know what I liked the Favorites in Skyrim. you could quick set them to 1-8 which made it great. now with a shout being another button it 9. shouts are replaved by ultimates and well the keys reduced to 5. but they also act differently. I rather miss skyrim and oblivion and morrowind. this, just based on the action buttons, doenst feel like elder scrolls to me.

ps. anyone play champions at any point? they had a scheme that mixed the two. BUT why cant there be on the fly selections and two selections per hand? where are my spells? why cant i have to choose between spells and two full hands of weapon? is that not strategy? does that not add to decisions for an rpg? skyim online would be awesome.

I'm all for strategy. I'm just saying having 7 slots instead of 5 would have actually made a large difference for me.

There's no need for hyperboles like 'I'm sure glad this game doesn't allow 40 shortcuts' or whatever, as far as I can see neither I nor anybody who agreed with me on the topic suggested something like that.

At the very least they could introduce a feature to save your skill sets and then recall them using a simple menu instead of having to manually repick every skill every time. It is just inconvenient and I imagine it only caters to a small minority. Most won't probably

I would love to see one simple change to weapon swap -- remove it.

What I mean is, remove the necessity to activate the weapon swap. Instead, just give us a bar with 10 skill and 2 ultimate slots and allow us to place skills for two weapons on the bar. I know this is a huge change, but I think it would help make more diverse builds.

I'll jump on this, too.

I find that 5 skills plus one or two ultimates limits me. 1) It interferes with experimenting with the pool of skills I currently have because i have to step away from the environment to navigate a clunky interface to swap in a new or different skill, 2) it limits me from choosing new skills as I level up (for much the same reason as #1), 3) it limits my freedom and relegates me to a one-dimensional form of gameplay when dealing with mobs.

I've played many other games (MMOs) and have always enjoyed the freedom that comes with the ability to customize my interface; especially so with setting up my skill bars. It's always interesting to see a different implementation, but it'd be good if it could be more customizable.

I've heard this several times.

My answer is this:

Just because we had a wide range of skills available at any one time - doesn't mean we used them all at once in a double handed keyboard pounding. When there are more skills available at any one time you have to make sure you choose the right one to counter the multiple actions that your opponents could do. Try playing Aion and you will soon find out what happens when you pick the wrong skill.

Having more skills on your bar means that your opponent - or opponents - also have them.

As for this reduced skill set format - All that will happen now is the same as any other mmo - sooner or later a cookie cutter spec will appear for each class and people will look to that. The outcome? Your selection decisions will be made for you, with people criticizing if a player turns up in a group not using these. Then you will just be left with the must have 5+1 & 5+1 build. Significantly less thinking, not more.

Yep, this is where you get it wrong. Less skills, more choices, more diversity. There is also a LOT of skill lines to choose from. If people will start prefering the same skills only it means they are just stupid and unimaginative. Some will do, pity them.