- You get character-bound build templates with utility skills, specs, and traits, which you can swap on the fly. You get three for free and can buy more.
- Then you get character-bound equipment templates to store armor, weapons, and upgrades. This part of the system lets you store gear outside of your normal inventory and customize legendary gear different ways per template. You get two of these for free and can buy more.
- Then you get an account-wide build storage so you can share builds between your other toons. It’s not unlimited, though; you get three spaces for free, plus another three will be free in the cash shop for a month, and then you can buy quite a few more.
- Finally, you’ll also be able to share builds by exporting and importing build codes (similar to Guild Wars).
As players have noted, this overview of the system doesn’t really sound any different from the last overview, so it’s not entirely clear which feedback from the playerbase was taken into account.
ArenaNet’s Stephane Lo Presti also reiterates the studio’s position on third-party programs – essentially, that the company won’t endorse or declare safe any such program, but nobody will be penalized for using them unless they do so in violation of the game’s TOS and code of conduct. While the word ArcDPS – that’s the player-made build template tool folks have used before now – isn’t actually uttered, it does kinda sound like ArenaNet is obliquely referring to it here, though it still isn’t clear whether altering the DLLs to continue using it for build templates will be considered a violation of the rules.
Meanwhile, ahead of next week’s update, ArenaNet has also reminded everyone that PvP League Season 19 will likewise kick off on the 29th and run through December 23rd.
“Balance is important to the entire game. In the past, we’ve split skill changes between the three core game modes: PvP, PvE, and WvW. Previously, skills designers oversaw all balance changes with sign-off from designers working on competitive content. PvE balance will remain in the hands of skills designers, but PvP and WvW balance will now be handled by competitive designers. This will give our competitive-focused team members a bit more control over how players interact with their content, and it will allow the skills designers to focus on PvE balance and other Systems work.”
