Make Secondary masteries truly second

[XXY]

I am opposed to this idea for mainly the same reasons as Matseb.

[Poet of the Fall]

I am opposed to this idea for mainly the same reasons as Matseb.

Do I get that right that you and Matseb want a game where you have experienced everything rather sooner than later? I'd much more like a game where possibilities are so great in number that I don't hit the have-done-everything-wall anytime soon. You haven't tried every possibly class combination? You haven't done everything that can be done in the game? So what? That's a good thing! A reason to play some more. As soon as you've seen everything... there's nothing left to discover and experience and the game becomes inevitably stale.

[XXY]

Do I get that right that you and Matseb want a game where you have experienced everything rather sooner than later? I'd much more like a game where possibilities are so great in number that I don't hit the have-done-everything-wall anytime soon. You haven't tried every possibly class combination? You haven't done everything that can be done in the game? So what? That's a good thing! A reason to play some more. As soon as you've seen everything... there's nothing left to discover and experience and the game becomes inevitably stale.

Great, I was writing a post for 10 minutes when my browser crashed -.-'
Anyway, heres the crude reply:

This secondary mastery system would be INCREDIBLY IRRITATING.
For example, you choose Warfare as primary, and defense as Secondary, and you ran off slaying beast. But then in the middle of the game you find out that you prefer a skill from Defense over any Warfare skill but u can't unlock it because its a secondary mastery, so you have to re-run the whole game. Or even worse, you would like to have skills that are only available in the masteries when they are primary. Sacrificing a skill over another is sometimes very unpleasant.

I'm all for diversity and discovering new stuff and features, but there is a thing as too much. Instead I would prefer more masteries too chose from, like 10 or 15, or primary masteries which can't be chosen as secondary and secondary masteries which can't be chosen as primary.

[ASYLUM101]

I think it would be more beneficial to have complimentary skills for each corresponding mastery. Like, if you choose defense as your main mastery, the second mastery could be like, warfare(overused examples) which would have a secondary complimentary skill to your defense mastery, something that would provide an edge. Rather than making it completely secondary and useless like some of you are interpreting this as, it makes it so that certain combinations will unlock special trees. So the warfare/defense mix will unlock the Bloodthirsty Conqueror, while defense/warfare will unlock the Tactical Conqueror, something like that. Those 2 would be like a completely separate tree from Defense and Warfare, and have their own skills(probably mostly passive) to benefit BOTH trees, while the other two trees are fully functional.

I see this as no annoyance, this would kick major ***. If you think this is annoying, there's something wrong. MOAR CHOICE = LONGER GAME = LESS MONEY FOR ME TO WASTE ON OTHER GAMES, WTF?

[XXY]

I can't say its a stupid idea, I'll prob like whatever the devs do, but I already had such a huge problem choosing a class in TQ I can't imagine choosing one from such a high variety of choices in GD

[Matseb2611]

I definitely agree with what XXY said. Disabling a player from getting some skills is a cheap way to have diversity. If you want diversity, you might as well have more masteries to choose from. I just can see myself getting annoyed. I know I will be forced to try the same class twice, because I'd want to know how this class will work with a different top tier. It'd be annoying.

Besides, didn't Medierra say that there'll be a choice of third mini masteries included too? Or did I see that in a dream?

[ASYLUM101]

Medierra said something about a third mastery when he was involved in Black Legion.(not that he abandoned it...)

[medierra]

I have to say, I'm not too hot on this idea...

I think the intention is good and in theory I like it but in practice, I don't think it will play out well for different types of players. This is one of those features where I think the downside for one group of players outweighs the possible upside for the other.

I think this sort of thing would work better if you had specific secondary skill-sets where you didn't have to also worry about what order you chose things in or possibly suffer a feeling of regret down the road. I think there is already enough of this.

There are also balancing implications to keep in mind and some of the proposed implementations would certainly add complication. For example, without access to their high-level modifiers, many skill types would become obsolete in the late game.

[eisprinzessin]

Just came up with another weird idea for this brainstorming thread: let us choose regularly from individual skill trees instead of giving us 2 whole masteries early in the game.

[Hikari]

Ok, an idea that might work better:
Certain skills in each mastery could have a set of possible extra effects based on the other masteries, and skills in you first pick get the appropriate bonus depending on your second pick. In other words, instead of restricting the second mastery, the first is improved slightly based on what the second does.
So, say you took defence first. Then the shield bash skills might get a bonus to weapon damage if warfare was your second pick, or a small amount of elemental damage if storm was second, or gain a small amount piercing from rogue or hunting, and so on.
This would also mean that the order you pick in doesn't really change what you can do, it's just a matter of details. I suppose the downside could be that it doesn't really change what you can do, so there may not be a whole lot of point to doing it at all. I can see it being a lot of effort to come up with all the extra abilities which may be better spent just making the skills do something themselves. It's just another idea that I thought was interesting enough to throw into the pot.