Guild Chat - Episode 93

Guild Chat - Episode 93

Title

Build and Equipment Templates Preview

Host

Rubi Bayer

Guests

Clayton Kisko
Amy Giannetti

Date

October 1, 2019

Official video

YouTube

Previous

92

Next

94

The following is an unofficial, player-written transcript of the episode. The accuracy of this transcription has not been verified by ArenaNet.

The 93rd episode of Guild Chat aired on October 1, 2019. Rubi and her guests head in-game to introduce players to the upcoming Build and Equipment Templates.

Summary

Introductions

• Clayton Kisko needs no introduction, apparently.
• Amy Giannetti is a member of the team who worked on the tech that enabled Templates to function.
• This content is still in development as of this episode's airing and may be subject to change prior to release.

Build templates

• Build templates are accessed via the Build tab in the Hero panel.
• Builds can be saved on an account-wide and per-character basis. There are multiple save slots for both, with Account Build Storage displayed vertically on the left and character Build Templates displayed horizontally at the top.
• Build templates may be pinged in chat. Clicking on the chat link brings up an "Inspect" window that allows other players to view and save the build.
• Characters may not load builds belonging to professions other than their own, but they do have the ability to save builds for other professions to the account storage.
• Builds containing skills or traits that the character has not yet unlocked may be loaded, but the locked features will remain unavailable until they are unlocked.
• Right-clicking on a saved build brings up a menu with the following options: Store Active Build Template, Copy Build Template, Paste Guild Template, Inspect, Rename, Delete.
• Each character will have three personal slots automatically unlocked, with a further three purchasable from the Gem store, similar to how bag slots are unlocked. Accounts will have three account storage slots automatically unlocked, with more (up to a total of around 24) also purchasable from the Gem store. The pricing is still being determined, but three extra account slots will be available for free for one month following release.
• Builds can be copied to clipboard, allowing them to be pasted into chat or anywhere outside the game client.
• Build templates may be used by characters at any level. Builds are constructed in exactly the same manner as traits and skills are currently selected.
• Account builds may be filtered by profession. There is also a search bar.
• Ranger builds can save pets, and revenant builds can save the order the three utility skills were arranged in.

Equipment templates

• Equipment templates are accessed via the Equipment tab in the Hero panel. Each character has two personal slots automatically unlocked, with a further four purchasable on the Gem store. There are no account storage slots for equipment.
• Items can be saved to more than one tab. Items saved to multiple tabs will have a link icon in the corner, and will be removed from the inventory.^{[verification requested]}
• HLegendary gear can have different runes, sigils, and infusions saved to them in different tabs and they will automatically swap these upgrades when switching between tabs. Gear whose upgrades cannot be removed for free do not have this feature.
• Right-clicking on a tab brings up a menu with the following options: Copy Equipment Template, Paste Equipment Template, Rename, Unequip All Items.
• Equipment templates cannot be loaded if the gear is incompatible with your current build.
• Each template can store up to 60 unique items.
• Right-click on an item and select "Unequip from All Equipment Templates" to return it to your inventory. If the item has different upgrades saved to it in different tabs, the upgrades equipped in currently-unselected templates will be returned to the inventory, whereas the upgrades from the currently-selected template will remain equipped to the item.
• Attempting to unequip gear with a full inventory will send that gear to the overflow panel, where it will remain until space is cleared from the inventory.
• Ensuring that upgrades were not lost when changing equipment templates was tricky, as upgrades are (mechanically speaking) deleted upon being slotted to gear and re-created when unslotted.

Answering player questions

• When can you swap and what does it do to your cooldowns? — Builds can be swapped roughly every half-second while out of combat in PvE. Builds cannot be swapped at all in PvP. The nature of swapping in WvW is still being refined, but players will be unable to swap outside of safe areas. Skill cooldowns will carry over when swapped—for example, an elite slot with 200 seconds remaining on the cooldown will continue to have 200 seconds remaining when swapped to a new build with a different elite.
• Does switching to different templates require different hotkeys? — There is one key binding for each build tab and one for each equipment tab. There are plans to make this more sophisticated in future, including the ability to pair a build and set of equipment to a single key.
• Do we have to buy equipment templates to quickly switch to, or can I load up some link and use the equipment from my bags? — You can opt out of using templates and store items in your inventory if you prefer.
• Will skin templates also be included? — Templates cannot save different skins for a single item, though this is something the devs would like to look at in future.
• If equipment is on another character, does it automatically transfer if both have it in their equipment template? — No. Equipment cannot be on more than one character at the same time, so one item cannot be saved to two different characters' templates at the same time.
• What happens if I load a build template that requires equipment I don't have? — Equipment templates are separate from build templates and cannot be shared with other players, as they save your specific items.
• Will the game understand where I saved my infusion? Will it remove infusions from legendary item 1 in the template and move them to another legendary item in another template? — Yes? Upgrades can be slotted to different items in different templates, so long as the item can have its upgrades removed for free.
• Can character-bound build template tabs interact with account-bound storage? — Account Build Storage is separate from character-based Build Templates. Loading a template from the account storage and then making changes to it on a character will not automatically change the template stored to the account.
• Do I need to move ascended gear to inventory from my bank manually each time before using equipment templates? — No. Gear added to templates are now stored in a character-based inventory pool, internally named the "Armory".^{[verification requested]}
• [Unintelligible question] — Account Build Storage slots are purchased three at a time.^{[verification requested]}
• Can the three initial character build template slots all be slotted with builds for a single game mode, or do they have to be one for PvE, one for WvW, and one for PvP? — The three initial tabs will be pre-populated with each of your current three game mode builds, but you don't have to keep them this way. Any of them can be used for any game mode.
• Will it still be possible to change skills, traits and equipment manually if we want to? For example, will I need two nearly-identical builds if I want to quickly equip a speed boost skill? — Changing skills, traits and equipment on the fly will still work the way they currently do; you don't have to save a whole template and then load it just for every little change.
• How long has this been in development? — About two years in total. The coding started being written last April.
• How many test cases did QA have to run for this? — ?? ^{[verification requested]} Changing maps often clears up any issues.

Transcription

Answering player questions (36:34)

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hi Tyria and happy Tuesday
I'm your host Ruby we have Gil chat
today on a special day because we are
going to show you how to build templates
hello I'm sorry I'm doing it too
how templates work and so Clayton is
with me as what's up stood always what's
that parent to teach us how to use
templates is Amy Amy why don't you
introduce yourself and talked about what
you worked on for these all right so my
name's Amy Giannetti I'm on the was on
the gameplay programming team and for
the last yeah for the last while I've
been working on building gear templates
trying to get the underlying tech just
to play well with what we wanted it to
do because let's be honest it wasn't
capable of doing it before yeah you guys
you have worked extremely hard it's
finally in a place where it's not ready
to go out what is it isn't a place where
Amy can run me and Clayton through and
show us exactly how everything works
what to do how to use them and that'll
help you guys learn - yeah oh you're
here oh thank you
I'm one of a couple of people that's
right you're one of the few heroes but
you're a pretty big hero yeah all right
alright so let's get started where do
you want what do you want us to do first
to show us how this works well it's okay
would you which are you more interested
in the build or equipment let's start
with builds alright so let's go to the
build tab in our hero panel then all
right you had a hero panel which did not
work for me because I'm on the wrong
monitor so there are two big changes to
this panel that will be going out once
built and gear templates are turn on on
live and that is across the top of the
right hand side here you will see there
are now tabs across the top and these
are these are the tabs that contain the
build templates for word
this character so on this top sorry real
quick you get to this just like you did
with your builds before yep yeah this
bill says the second tab under your hero
panel okay sorry go ahead
no problem so yes across top we have the
tabs that will contain your build
templates for this character so on this
tab I have a cell based build and on the
left hand side we have a new section
called build storage and this stores
builds across your entire account so as
you see here I have some a chronal
monster build hollow smith build a druid
build I love these aren't yeah yeah with
that it's just you know you can mouse
over them get a quick preview of what
they look like but it's really just
meant to be at an at-a-glance get an
idea what kind of thing it is what kind
of skills and spec lines it's got in it
but the ones on the left here are not
necessarily the ones that you have
active on yeah a character at this time
right and these two thieves on the left
your key whites so like right now I'm on
a necro but I got this awesome build
from click yeah so if I try to use this
on my necromancer yeah build template is
incompatible with my profession but if I
switch later to a guardian then I can go
ahead and bring that up yeah so if I for
example on on this character one of this
goes tab to at the moment it's got
nothing in it because this is a brand
new character but instead I had this
druid build saved for later have I been
saying I wasn't drew the entire time I
think it was a seoul-based anyway it's
okay
now I can click on what was in my build
storage here and it will take it out of
my build storage and put it on my second
tab and now I'm ready to go with a
single click yeah and what it's over
writing is just what you happen to have
equipped right now yeah so it works the
same way as does right now if you go and
change a skill on your skill bar right
now your current build template
remembers that
so it's you're gonna continue playing as
you always did all right all right so
how do we okay clean house the saying
this is cool it's awesome yeah I really
like it so I why don't we talk a little
bit about how we stole this bill from
Clayton because technically what we were
doing sugary foods out in the hall
there's in the kitchen right there's
some that right and it's ready it's
fresh out of the oven all right but
sometimes okay with sharing their pit so
then what do you do what if I want to
share my power Ming and master build
with you okay well there's a couple of
different ways to do it
use way is to treat to treat these tabs
or these entries in bill storage as
though they were an item you can shift
click to get edit into into your chat
and send it although I guess we've got
that covered
maybe I should oh yeah no wait to say it
still and that will come up in chat as
you saw there I'm just gonna send this
again I'm saying mouse over it remember
that one time we said that this was not
this might be part of that some bugs
um and then from that chat link you can
what I will do here I'll click on your
reaper bill that you stopped across and
when I click on it oh that's a bit to
say whatever one is that it looks like a
gorgeous bill oh just great for
open-handed no weapon Friday when you
inspect window so you can inspect a bill
from any profession one of the things
that I hope I called out well enough the
tabs across the top of your bill panel
they can only contain builds that match
your characters profession so but you
can inspect a build for any profession
so that you can determine whether or not
it's even worth saving into your your
account wide build storage
so from here you can actually although
the little tooltip preview that we're
looking up before just shows the icons
here you can actually mouse over them
get the full details of what the skill
does any additional conditions that
it'll apply as though you were looking
at it in your bill panel so that's the
inspect 100 and from there you can copy
it again you can store it into you bill
storage which I'll do here there we go
now I've got a Reaper build stored your
or repurpose forward for your neck or
later from a micro lab alright so let's
see if you so I have a chronic man sir
Phillip right now and it will warn you I
feel like most people are going to be
aware that hey I'm not currently a
necromancer or where I'm not currently
whatever I'm inserted we save people
from themselves as much as we possibly
can the other thing that that will warn
you is if there are elements of the
build that you don't have yet trained if
it uses an elite spec but you haven't
purchased yet or that comes with you
know a purchase that you haven't made
yet you can still take that build and
put it on you and have it there so that
when you do eventually unlock it it will
automatically apply it to you ok so if
you try to load up this build and you
don't necessarily have all of those
things unlock does it just fill them
what it can and there isn't what it can
the regular gaps is what you do have the
rest will display there they'll be
grayed out or have a lock icon depending
on whether it's because it's untrained
or it's just you're too low level to use
it so it'll be grayed out it'll but you
can see what's coming so an example that
on my screen right now okay I switched
from my like Guardian vanilla to my
firebrand
so when I'm in firebrand I have access
to axe right because that's what that
elite spec does and then when I switch
switch over to my Guardian vanilla or do
you like that oh just grab me a drink no
I'm not fall for that again and then
when I switch through the Guardian which
would mean to say I don't have access to
axe anymore the axe which really neat is
it stays equipped I just I can't use it
so that like protects against like I
guess what I have slotted in my build
not getting broken or having a resource
No
gonna kick the items in your equipment
template ah it's really awesome so yeah
the other thing you can obviously rename
your builds however you want which I
have like a premade build that we
alright so what happens if I decide I
feel really bad about stealing Clayton's
build and I just want to take it out of
my template because he's not moving past
this anytime soon
well by clicking on any of those entries
or any of the tabs brings up more
options for you there and one of those
is to deleted I will not oh I'm attached
to this build now I have no guardian on
this particular client but you know I'm
keeping it anyway just in case
I feel like now at this point we should
emphasise that this does not actually
take the build away from Clayton yes so
we're starting it out with I've unlocked
a couple extra but we're starting you
out with three and three three and three
well no three and two I'm sorry three
and two oh sorry yeah three builds cabs
are the ones up at the top and it'll be
three build storage tabs yes
automatically unlocked and another three
you can grab from the gem store yeah
those will be those will be free for a
month we're still we're still working on
the fine tuning of what those are gonna
cost they're gonna be aligned with other
storage options that we already have
like bag slots and fake slots and that
kind of thing but we are still
fine-tuning that the other three that
you can unlock for free that amy was
mentioning those will be free for a full
month after you after we released these
so you have plenty of time to get in
there and get those free ones that makes
sense because like the what this allows
you to do for the equipment stuff is
like it takes it out of your inventory
so we're clearing what would seem to be
a ton of inventory space for me which is
really awesome it's so disorienting that
you I'm sorry no it's okay it's we're in
a very small area but yeah and so Amy
you were saying that the three tabs up
top
these are character specific
yes so each character will have their
own specific three yes they will and on
on day one they'll be pre-populated with
your PVE pvp and weber builds because
right now on live you have three bills
already right um so those are the three
that we will be using to populate those
three two ups and the six on the Left
which includes the three free ones those
will be account those will be an account
wide yes so you can put jebra ones you
want them there cool and yes other thing
so you're asking about copying something
we forgot to mention was you can also
just right-click on the tab and there's
the option to copy it that will actually
put it in your clipboard so that you can
just troll the e to paste it into an
integer at or outside of your game
client and similarly if you were to copy
a link that is off the appropriate
formats from a website you can now come
and paste it directly into one of your
bill tabs or into your library sorry
build storage it so me internally that
I'm trying to yeah if you get using if
you get a little bit muddled on which is
which you just hover these are your
build templates down here your account
build storage so this is what's
account-wide yes here on this side
curette is that is helpful all right so
do you want to talk about how to set one
up in the first place once if you're
starting from scratch you don't have
anything to copy from and you've got a
new character because these can be used
starting I mean you don't have to be you
don't have to have a legendary equipment
you don't have to be max level you can
start using these right out of the gate
with a new character a new game
certainly can't yes so Ruby once you
give it a shot there your third tab
looks like it's completely empty and
never been used before pad and this
seemed like C on your skill bar at the
bottom you've got no skills no the
flashing is making me insane so well
let's fix it all right
it just same as you would now just equip
skills
whichever skills I think make it good or
not good build just like throwing
whatever in there well make sure you
change build template
three name - garbage build I I will okay
I absolutely 100% will all right we're
gonna be spite this is fantastic I'm
gonna make people are just like bleeding
out the ears right now mallet is a dick
all right so we're just gonna go all the
way across the top this is like when
you're rushing to finish a test you're
just like cccc yeah all right so I have
everything filled in the best build ever
for necro yeah it's fantastic with the
racial skill - yeah because why not all
right so I've got this terrible build
what do I do now now you can run around
and have fun where I lead and now I
leave in shame okay but I want to save
this as garbage build okay well it's
right next to the name there is a rename
oh yeah don't think let's do this I have
room okay oh you want to save it to your
account you want okay yeah so if you've
got an empty slot there at least you're
just clicking on it we'll take it from
the tab and put it into your build
storage all right okay this is a garbage
build nope I keep clicking instead of
right-clicking so yeah right click I'm
gonna rename this nice tada but you also
want to or can rename the top one as
well on the tab so if you are someone
that wants to have a lot of bills in
your build story yeah and you've got a
lot of them there and it's giant list we
do have ways for you to to filter and
sort through them so you can filter to
just a particular perfection that you're
interested in looking for so if I just
want to see all the Mesmer bills that
I've got I can just filter to that or I
can sort them I can group them by
profession or alphabetically on what
I've named them or just search by text
name sir sir sir
all right so yeah if you do have a ton
of builds we are going to save you from
endless scrolling and
hold on guys but almost ready I'll be
right there yeah where did I put it
where did I put it I can't remember yeah
so yeah I think that is the majority of
builds as a ranger here something just
worth pointing out it does remember the
pets that I have selected your
inseminate for revenant legends it
remembers the legends as well as for
your inactive legend what order you put
the skills in those to be in any order
you want it's always the same three
skills but they can be in any order and
so it remembers watch order you've put
them in okay awesome all right so we
have a one question has a question the
max is that the max amount of account
storages that I will have for my account
inside here do we know that shows the
maximum that you can purchase right now
okay cool do you know that number or shy
discount because after a certain amount
it's going to get scary and think we'll
start getting code scary yeah I think
right now I think the number is 24 yeah
okay awesome okay speaking of questions
we have a whole bunch from the forums
right here do you want to start
answering the he's well we've only
covered half the system okay so should
we come watch you okay
yeah we can do that in whatever order
you want let's go with the other half
before because I might answer some of
them as we go okay all right hit me
all right so equipment templates are
surprisingly in the equipment tab of the
urinal so even within the equipment it's
the first tab again called equipment and
again we have tabs across the top of the
right-hand side that contain your
equipment templates for your character
now I've only set up one of my character
here but somebody to build templates to
swap to a new one you just click on this
on the next tab and well I haven't put
anything in this anything so we need
either so but in your second time
you can start equipping some items into
the second tab and they don't have to be
the same yeah they can be you can reuse
some of the items that you had used in
the first tab but you could also use
different ones you use different weapons
different equipment and dyes carryover
which is really awesome I'm realizing I
forgot to dye my character I was focused
on getting ready and yeah yeah so my my
firebrand has a bunch of condition based
gear that kinda stuff right and then my
Dragon Hunter has a bunch of Berserker
I'm just cool your dragon Hunter has
much beserker uh-huh fantastic yeah and
then yeah different dice so yeah let's
take a look at yours yeah so we got a
nice away uniform here of course I tried
to do the colors for that my favorite
football team and then I switch it up
for the other one here I'll be blue and
yeah and all the aquatic stuff and the
accessories change as well yeah so
similarly to again the middle templates
if you mouse over the tabs you can get a
little preview of what it looks like
yeah what its gonna look like the change
in stats that you're going to be seeing
from the items so as you can see here my
first tab is going to be giving me more
toughness healing power and condition
damage but less power precision and
ferocity then might then my currently
equipped one and in it it has a staff
and a longbow instead of the current one
which has a great sword in short oh yeah
the other thing it will remember is
which runes you will placed in items if
they can be freely swapped out like in
this case I've got a set of legendary
gear and I have reused it here you tell
it's being you tell is reused in another
tab
by this little link icon that's here on
the top left and then in each one I can
go and use different ruins in this set
and or I can reuse the six rooms of air
that I had used in tab 1 this entire one
I'd use six rooms of error I could reuse
those they're sitting in this in this
link to our memory pool that too so that
I could reuse them but I've decided to
use my apparent that makes and matched
ogre not quite sure how which one did I
miss anyone no apparently I missed a lot
more than I thought now I have six rooms
the ogre so if I go back now to the tab
one I should see six rooms of the over
sitting now as linked items and yeah so
I can reuse those again another tab if I
want to do same thing works for
infusions as well okay so if you have
this you have this base set of armor and
you want to have several different
configurations with it you can use that
and just swap back and forth between
them pretty quickly yeah like in this
first tab I believe my equipment I just
what did I customize to I think they
were all apothecaries yes but in this
tab they were all Zurcher yes I made
them all all berserkers so same piece of
equipment has different stats could have
different infusions different runes
sigils so long as so long as the item
can freely pop that upgrade without you
know costing you anything so this also
applies to legendary runes and sigils as
well they can be freely popped out of an
item so they can be reused in another
item in another tab okay
awesome and these are per character yes
okay because
items are stored in your character's
equipment in your characters like
equipment pool and that character is an
entry in the database and we load one of
those at a time so we don't have all
your characters loaded all at once we
can't access all of their equipment at
once okay that's good to know why all
right what else
I'm drawing right now it's it's a lot
right all right so your character starts
with - yes her character's you know on
live you only have one so you're getting
two now that's awesome with the ability
to get more yes yeah any other questions
for me how about you Clayton
no I think that's covers it yeah you
rename it just like the other ones all
right oh right yes of course right-click
on the tabs and you can unequip all
items like really quickly if you wanted
just like nuke it scorched earth style I
hate just build do it that's cool a grip
also a note if it's not compatible with
what I currently have it will tell you
yeah it's not used with my current build
yes oh I think there's probably
something that is fine and bugs that's
why it's not released yet
yes no it's it's actually kind of
important to mention that there are
still a lot of little things that you
guys are earning so it will be ready and
not wonky for you on the 29th I really
want it to be the 29th I'm ready to
start playing yeah yeah I mean it's been
a long time coming we've been playing
with the melot's
internally and had them there for so
long and then I go and play and they're
not there and right we just had this the
hard way we had a little bit of this
about an hour ago when we thought we had
something and hold on that's not ready
we're still working on we're still
working on it
um yes and so the other thing worth
noting is any of these items with link
icon on them are not taking up any space
in your inventory anymore
you can see even though this I have the
staff and I can use it again it's
it's not taking up any space in my
inventory so getting back some inventory
space but if you want to get that back
it's now on that character so if you
want to get it back to use on another
character you can right-click on it and
unequip it from all equipment templates
that's 18 I was just counting because I
was curious that's 18 slots plus any
amount of runes and sigils that you also
think yep oh it's yeah if you're curious
about the math yeah yeah each equipment
templates consist or now it's assuming
we had a future-proof this so we had to
assume that everything one day would
become legendary and could store so
could really pop items so assuming
everything was legendary it stores 60
unique items oh wow okay per tab per tab
for charity yes potential inventory
space if each one if someone wanted to
create a really weird random build that
had different runes for every item in
different situation was different I
don't know why you'd ever want to create
such a build but the code has to handle
it so we had to make it handle it so now
as a designer and content open world I
can create tons of events that require
you to pick up all the things and put
them in your inventory because I could
just no rubies giving me that now don't
you okay you're right that's a bad idea
I won't do that
[Laughter]
before I forget though if you want to
get that item back like I said it's
because it's tied to your character and
it's your characters equipment it's not
in your inventory if you want to get it
back to give to another character there
is a right-click option on the item to
unequip it from all of them now here's a
fun thing for you if this helm I have
this helm here it has a superior brand
of ogre in it and in here it has this a
spirit ruin of air what happens with I
try to on equip remove unequipped this
helm from all of my time what runes do I
get back I'm so excited to find out
tell us Amy well this is a pretty simple
situation by unequip it I'm going to get
well a warning just to let me know that
hey this is used in other and other
templates and it might result in other
other items getting unequipped such as
that other rune so yeah I do get you
both back the helm with the rune of
error in it because that is what I had
when I unequipped it and although it's
hard to see because it's stacked I got
another room if the ogre back as well so
I've got five instead of four so you're
not losing anything no you're not losing
anything but what if you only had one
rune of air in the first tab and you
used it in the shoulders and the other
one in another tab that other equipment
tab still needs to keep that item and
needs to hold on to that one rune of air
so you wouldn't get it back you would
have gotten your ogre rune back from the
other tab because the helm was no longer
using it right but if if this first tab
had only had one rune of air in it and
the second tab had reused that in a
different piece while that tab still
needs it so we can't give it back to you
and these are all of the fun education
all of the things that you because on
one hand it is it is fantastic and I
like knowing that you set this up so you
can use this right out of the gate from
level 1 and you're infinitely
complicated level 1 build is a level 2
all the way up to full legendaries
everything across the board because
that's a nice all-encompassing solution
but then you have all of these tiny
little edge cases there's so many cases
and upgrades or a nightmare I like to
figure them out yeah
sorry everyone question what happens if
I don't have any inventory space does it
do the thing where it's like can you get
your stuff back your stuff back should
go to your bum ok and then you can't
touch your inventory until you clear it
out right what are you doing with a full
inventory please you're hurting yes yeah
ok so yeah it doesn't just vanish into
the ether that's good it hangs out your
overflow until you have space yeah
you should be really clearing out your
bags come on okay all right so what else
that's the other I don't know yeah the
other thing that comes to mind there
were two headaches really for us in this
and one was a quick one was upgrades
trying to make sure that we didn't we
didn't lose track of them because the
moment they get put into an item they
get destroyed and when you pop it back
out it gets recreated we went and we had
to make sure that a we didn't lose any
players items that was really important
and B that we didn't duplicate any items
because that was the story in economy
so there were a lot of inventory changes
and that's very scary code that that
mostly we were not allowed to touch so
yeah once we start touching player
inventory and we start touching your
things that gets that gets a little
terrifying yeah so yeah we've tried to
be as careful as we possibly can and
written numerous like also some
automated tests to try and make sure
that things that everything's good and
yeah it's been a long time coming that
was the main head ache for equipment
templates and builds that was that was
revenants they were just they've just
mean a pain revenue that's caused
complications for a lot of differences
we love them but they're just come with
that the caveat here on that yeah yeah
just yeah they way they they swap
legends and then they have different
skills and the way the skills are laid
out is very different but they've had a
little heads had to have had a lot of
special casings put on them so and yeah
so rare evidence you got all the love
you got extra love so much okay so let's
do and look at these sure okay so I'm
actually very interested in this first
one I'd like to know when you can swap
it how often and what it does to your
cooldown I think they meeting skills
cooldown because I can see okay I'll
just hop out of this build and come back
and it's magically new again mmm well
it's basically it's changing your skills
the same way you would change your skill
so when you swap to and you
build it's as though you went and
changed the skill yourself which you now
can do with your skills on cooldown
which we added without a year ago now
kind of in preparation for this so you
can change I believe right now the the
number we're using is the same as a
weapon small which is about a half a
second and when you can do it as long as
you're anytime you should again be able
to change your skills which would be out
of combat of course and the main
limitations will be like in a PvP match
you can't you can't change your build in
a PvP match so you can't change your
your template in you can't swap to a new
tab in the PvP match we also we've added
a buff for designers to give them the
control of when you can can't change
build the idea being now this is just an
example I'm not sure what the final
implementation will be but for wolf you
can only change an equipment tab in in
the key but someone once you've left the
keep you can't change a tab you can't
change which tab is your active tab you
can still go in and change the skills in
a tab so long as you're out of combat
but you can't run around the corner
drunk out of combats quickly change to
your bill and then come back around the
corner and now your enemies have no idea
that you've got a completely different
setup okay but that's still being
implemented you said I'm not sure what
the final design will be but now we
wanted to allow to make sure that that
kind of a thing wouldn't happen gosh I
don't want you you pop out surprising
skirt sense when you ran away as a
Reaper
yes exactly okay so to be super clear
and I just I'm just like looking at my
my wonderful hounds about those are
skill has a 240 second cooldown so I use
it I pop that skill I have like 200
seconds left on my cooldown I pop out of
this bill pop back I believe that if I
remember correctly because it has been a
while since such visits out the cooldown
carries carries over onto the new skill
that gets equipped it's not magically
renewed like okay now I can use it again
and suddenly my 240 second cooldown
becomes a 30 mm equals s right now let's
see okay
I will let me remove this alright so pop
that now here oh this is something we
forgot okay nobody that's good oh yes
so the cooldown has carried over I'm
scared you'll have it's a different
skill even on your elite skill there is
still oh yeah that is but it's so that's
carrying over that giant cooldown
alright so something which I only forgot
me keep mines oh yeah
keyboards cheese I have a little
questionnaire down anta you had a
question loaded question while amy
setting up yeah well it's about key
binds so I was just curious we have a
question here that says does does
switching equipment and build or traits
require separate hotkeys it does right
now yes we are hoping to create a system
that allows you to kind of setup choose
one build one a set of equipment and and
like maybe a twitch game-mode you want
it to default with it like this is these
are plans to the future but for now the
implementation is there is one key bind
for build and one key bind
one for each build tab and one key line
for each equipment tab okay so set it up
as you would any other key binds well
it's gonna be my second build tab and
this is gonna be my second equipment tab
now I just use those key binds I am
quickly changing between my two builds
which I believe are very very similar
although one is the Druids and the other
nice is this whole beast okay
alright I'm glad you remembered that yes
me too
very good all right all right so what
wasn't it next year can you keep behind
equipment templates yes a rather hey
good question
or rather can you key bind both skill
templates and equipment templates
together too
switch to both with one key so yes not
right now
okay we do hope to do this to make it so
that you can but not right now okay see
so do we have to buy equipment templates
to quickly switch to or can I load up
some link and use the equipment for my
bags yes totally if you don't want to
use the system and keep the items in
your bags you can totally do that
okay we'll skin templates also be
included with this well different
equipment have a different look or will
the skins and guys save on the equipment
with the template we sort of answered
part of that so right now the skin that
is going to be displayed as the skin on
the item that you have equipped so if
you change the skin on the item yes it's
going to display a different skin what
this isn't is a wardrobe template hmm
again something you love really really
laugh I'd love to make a pin but it
that's down the road there are many
design engineering and also like
economic questions like what happens to
to transportation charges if we decide
to do this so there's still a lot of
open questions there that need to be
answered before we can commit to
anything like that that's fair
alright if equipment is on another
character does it automatically transfer
if both have it in their equipment
template well hopefully we did answer
this earlier equipment can't be on
multiple characters at the same time
it's if it's equipped to you it's on if
it's done one character it's in that
characters database entry and the other
character is in another database entry
so alright we sort of answered this one
too if we're trying someone else's build
and we don't have the stat related
equipment what's the default an open
slot or elastic wit item or something
else so there's a little bit of
confusion in this question if you're
trying out someone else's build yes if
you don't have all of the skills or
traits trained yet it will have it on
you kind of grayed out you won't get the
effects of that trait obviously or be
able to use that skill but it will be
there so you can see what's
but you're heading towards also
something we don't have I don't have a
character here prepped for this but if
it's a low-level character and it has
that skill there and you can click on it
and it'll take you to this training
wheel so that you can spend your points
to train on so you know which training
wheel to start spending points on to get
that skill or a trade unlocked
oh good so that's that's kind of helpful
and will guide you there yes but we
don't have chat links for equipment
templates because these are during your
actual items they aren't a choice from a
table of skills they are their their
actual loot that dropped that became a
real item for you okay and other people
don't have that item that's that's fair
all right so we answered this one to
build templates include Ranger pets and
revenant legend they do Ranger is happy
yay let's see will the game understand
where I saved my infusion will it remove
infusions from legendary item one
equipment template to place them into
another legendary item in another
equipment template there's a lot I think
the answers if I understand the question
correctly is yes and hopefully we showed
that you can reuse your upgrades which
is your runes the schedules and your
infusions if again if they can freely
pop out of the item you can reuse them
in another tab and along with all of the
engineering headache that came with it
to make sure we didn't lose track of
them or orphan them in this in this new
armory
pool are you okay for a while let's see
how did character bound build template
tabs interact with account bound build
storage
well they don't necessarily at all it's
come there completely separates storage
locations and you can take from one into
the other you can take from from the
character tab you can put it into the
build storage or you can take from bill
storage and put it into a tab but they
are separated if you make a chain if if
you
what's in this tab one into into your
build storage and start making changes
to what is in the tab it does not update
what's in your library what's in your
build storage so once you put in your
build storage its store it there it's
remember it unless you want you go and
change
go and change it yourself you know
override it with a new build it's it's
gonna stay the way you remembered it
okay perfect
see where we are I would like to know if
I need to move ascended gear to
inventory to inventory from my bank
manually each time before using
equipment templates
well the inventory that the bank don't
really factor in the equation anymore
once they're equipped into equipment tab
they're going to go into this new
inventory pool that we called the armory
internally um and they will get stored
in there and you can reuse them there in
multiple tabs so the your inventory bank
don't really factor in and that much
anymore okay except that you get some
free slots yes get them back for more
loops yeah and I like Lutz meet you I
believe I do so are the character
real-time like awesome three packs yeah
they're not intended no I don't believe
you have to purchase three of the tabs
at this at a time it's just the account
build storage that are three at a time I
don't see the pre-made PvP and wellwe
build templates that are per character
can you make that just for PvE instead
of those game so as I mentioned before
when it's go sly if you'll have your
three build tabs and they will be
pre-populated with your PVE pvp and
webelo builds but you don't have to use
them for that you can you you can make
all three of them PvE builds if you want
to if you don't play if you don't play
those games modes or you can leave it as
it is and have one set aside for each
game mode
so you can use any of them in any game
mode they are not you're not tied to the
first one can only be used in PvE or the
second one can only be used in PvP you
can use them anywhere you want these are
for you to use however you need alright
will it still be possible to change
skills traits and equipment manually if
we want to for example I often swap a
spirit for signet of the hunt on my
ranger if I need the speed boost
somewhere I can't use mounts will I need
to have two almost identical build
templates to do that or can I just
change the skill like I do now you just
change the skill like you do now that
will change like we said it's the system
mirrors very much what you do wrong live
right now if you change that skill right
now it changes what's on your skill bar
you don't your you don't go into your
building and I'll make a bunch of
changes hit apply and then have those
changes on you when you make a change in
your bill panel its applied to you right
now and it'll be the same going forward
I'm changing like I'm changing my skill
palette right here and looking
simultaneously at my build template and
it's just auto updating yeah just cool
okay so here's a fun one how long has
this been in development in total in
total okay so the slime for this started
back thing was like Mass November I
wanted to say maybe with byron oh yes
huge shout out to byron yeah yeah byron
say last november no sorry for ya two
years ago almost yeah and there is a lot
of back and forth trying to trying to
catch at least in the design phase even
with these edge cases that we've since
brought up and there are many many more
that I'm sure we'll dive into at a later
time so not until the following April so
last April did engineering work really
start kicking off and well our koto
ships so build simply code is kind of me
slowly eking out so last April I run
quietly in the background just doing its
things doing thing a lot of it and like
a lot of the messaging have been turned
off but the logic of Oh
you changed a skill I better take note
of that this is since been listening and
being working away in the background
it's some and we'd set up some some
tests to run through every character
make sure that everyone on live right
now has a valid build because see how
things you can't do this we can you can
create a chat link right you can go and
try and create a bad build out of that
like literally a malicious build
obviously so there was a ton of
validation we had to write to try and
catch all of the bad cases of like
having skills from multiple races or to
elite specs and all of these things that
shouldn't be possible and I've forgotten
where I was going with that for a long
time right yeah we were testing all of
the live characters and I think I'll
leave it to Paul to catch to say some of
the things that we found but yeah there
were a couple of characters that helped
us to really make really nailed it down
that the builds that everybody has in
live right now we're fine and that
they're good so and it's taking us a
long time to write this validation to
try and wrangle the system that didn't
want to just stop people from hurting
themselves as well for creating bills
that have two different ratios or
multiple elite specs that then and the
system is just going to go nope you have
nothing like we don't want you to shoot
yourself in the foot yes so there's been
a lot of just trying to tighten things
up and make sure that everything works
well and I think yeah that was build and
gear when mr. Kiir it was beginning also
to the beginning of this year that we
really kicked things off on the gear
side because we we did built built a
first and then the gear and that was so
it was kind of a pretty as it was easy
but also difficult at the same time
because your weapon skills are part of
your build there's no there's no dodging
that but the skills and traits those are
things you can freely change there's no
cost to that but the whether or not you
of shortbow that's Kona costume
potentially cost your character some
money or and if you want to just quickly
change to a great storage well maybe you
don't have a great sword so the line
kind of has to be drawn there between
the two systems of one uses items and
the other uses freely choose a book
right which is why also the build
templates system here will work in PvP
just fine so yep so you can you can
still use them people yes so you can
definitely still use the build templates
in pvp pvp the equipment is its whole as
a whole other beast because it doesn't
really use items it uses your equipped
weapons but your amulet i think i mean
lets it roll and your ruins they again
they are more similar to like a choice
as opposed to an actual item so it was a
again another system that has to be
written another system that it's gonna
have to require all of this validation
all this QA time and so triggered we get
three quarters three cores what we got
out and again everyone to try it out
enjoy what we've been yeah let you go
ahead and let you guys have this so yeah
it's been a long time coming yeah you
guys have put in so much work so shout
out yes
shout out to my room but also shout out
to you and T'Pol and and danke and Kai
games the list just goes on so here's a
related question how many test cases did
QA have to run for this was there even a
number like does that I don't have the
exact number that'll be Peter who also
there's been a lot of like testing uh
like I said this is me in development
for a long time so a lot of it was kind
of testing a long way as you started
changing things Peter would you know
every every couple weeks go in test it
some more catch some more bugs for us
and we'd start fixing as we went but you
know eventually things start ramping up
and we need like a lot of people throw
another problem and that was a lot more
recently I don't have the exact number
Peter will have that but it's basically
it's been going almost from day one
we've been doing a little bit of testing
but it really ramped up at the end
I like I like the commentary here
because it was so - it looks
mind-bogglingly complicated and bugs
could be scary imagine if your gear has
suddenly became unreached and
unreachable when you deleted a template
and that's that's one of the things -
you're trying so hard not to hurt
people's gear not to mess up people's
things
people's inventory yeah and we do have
the case or code written that should
should catch if an item happens the ends
of state where it's stuck in this new
armory but nothing's but no template is
using it anymore
that will run and validate that
everything that's in this armory should
be there and if it's not kicks it back
to your inventory
I believe it runs on map load so if
you're seeing any issues try a map load
because that batch should clear it up
okay so we tried to put in as many
safety nets as we possibly could all the
way down shouldn't be something you see
in the first place but God forbid it is
it's there it's gonna be okay this is
really scary scary you guys you guys
worked so hard it's looking really
really good but you guys you did hear
that if something seems wonky if you're
missing something
switch maps see if that helps so
remember that for 28 days all right
anything else that you want to mention
before we wrap up it's gonna be okay
yeah this is so scary I know I just be
such a long time coming I'm so excited
where everyone's it right out I've been
this year when we first kind of turn it
on internally to kind of show it off to
some people always literally like a me
y'all are like the whole team everyone
involved is super talented crazy
intelligent like yeah this is gonna be
fun yeah
kudos to all of you for how far you've
come and the next 28 days are going to
be epic yeah and the best honestly best
of luck to everyone still like ironing
out the last of the bugs yes the world
of we're on the run that one stretch now
yeah thank you
I know you're tired alright well thank
you so much for walking us through this
and showing us how all stuff works
so and congrats in advance alright and I
hope this was helpful for all of you and
you kind of know how this going to work
and how you compare and what's coming we
have a whole lot of work to do in the
upcoming weeks but we are looking
forward to the 29th right yeah all right
thank you guys I will let you two get
back to work I will let you two you all
get back to your day I am I am one of
the two I should say the three of us yes
we will let you all get back to your day
thanks for spending some time with us
and we will see you next time bye
[Music]
you
[Music]
you
you

External links

• Guild Chat Episode 93 - Build and Equipment Templates Preview, Guild Wars 2 official YouTube channel

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