Guild Wars 2

It would be nice if there won’t be any “choose class option” in the character creation screen. It might be a bit tricky to implement now because of the cutscenes in the prologue, but not impossible to do it.

The idea is this:

You create a character with a biography and when you are in the world, the fist guy that you need to talk to in the tutorial will offer you a choice of all available weapons from which you will be able to choose any you like.

You will learn the skills for that weapon

Later when finding weapon merchants you can buy any weapon you like and equip it. Also, you could equip any weapon that drops from the foes.
Later when you, reach the level to unlock utility skills, you will need to go to the class trainers and choose one of them. This class will be permanent on your character and it will alter the possibility of equipping all weapons.

A-net would sell in gem store a “unlock new class for the character” option before you are able to change it in-game in the same way as you are able to change your crafting professions at any time for a fee.
This option will make you have 2 permanent classes on a character that can’t be changed except through Class trainer NPC. For acquiring a new permanent class on your character, you will need to buy another “unlock new class for the character”

Anet can also sell “unlock all classes for character pack” for a more convenient play

This will give your playstyle a goal and an option for acquiring all utility skills in the game and give a better reason for acquiring skill points after lvl 80.
Having 5 character slots in the the account, one for each race, together with the unlock professions pack, will not fill up the screen with character icons and will also give the possibility of playing different classes without the need of re-roling a new character.

Ok, but how we solve the storyline re-playability if the character is already lvl 80 and has no meaning of re-making it just for a new storyline?
The answer is simple:
After finishing the current storyline, the character will be given an option to talk to an NPC to reset its storyline. This will open a dialog box with the same options he had in character creation and he can chose a different biography.
The reason for it would be: the character has lost consciousness and now he is trying to remember what was his past. This can be done through a cutscene which makes the character dizzy and loose conscious.
Re-playing a different storyline will help you gain levels and in this way skill points for new skills, but you will have the advantage of better gear. Of course the downleveling will be active so you will have a challenge in all missions but it will save the hassle of leveling for the recommended level

To make it more clear: you ccan unlock all classes for your character from the lvl 1 and you can change between them at any time, BUT you WON’T be able to reset your biography or storyline until you finish it.

NOTE:
Players who won’t buy the “class unlock for the character” will NOT have the option to reset the storyline.
The Class Changer NPC in the game will NOT give the “class unlock for the character” option unless the player has purchased it from the cash shop

This idea WILL SOLVE these issues:

1) Starting weapons choice
2) More meaning for gaining skill points after lvl 80
3) having all types or armors and weapons on one character but play more character types.
4) Storyline re-playability without forcing it on who doesn’t want.
5) Map completed and unlocked on multiple character types
6) Playing dungeons with any class without doing all the leveling /story process again.
7) Character bound items or account bound items (costumes) will be available for multiple classes on the same character

This idea WILL NOT ELIMINATE:

1) The possibility of rolling new characters from the start with all the things to unlock / level/ complete
2) The need of buying new character slots because buying a “new class for the character” would cost more than buying a new character slot (1300 gems)

Any thoughts on this suggestion, guys?

A number of questions, if you’d be so kind:

1) What professions skills would be learnt on the weapon if they haven’t got an initial profession?

2) Would the skills be available for both professions, or would only one be active at a time and you’d need to switch them?

It’d take way too much work to implement such a feature (being at least 2yrs) so I don’t think we should consider this, I know it sounds cool and everything but let that be another game perhaps? Things would have to change too much… this at least is my opinion.

it would break the current system and have no real benefit aside from being able to choose which weapon to start with, and there are tons of easier options to fix that particular choice.

TheDaiBish.9735:

A number of questions, if you’d be so kind:

1) What professions skills would be learnt on the weapon if they haven’t got an initial profession?

2) Would the skills be available for both professions, or would only one be active at a time and you’d need to switch them?

1) That’s a good question. I have no valid answer for it as yet so we can skip the idea till the Class Changer NPC comes into the scenery. From there things can go easier.
)if I find a valid solution for it, i will post it)
2) No, skills won’t be available for both/all classes at the same time. You will need to go to the Class Changer NPC to change it which will not let you switch in the battle or anywhere in the world.

Rfreak.6591:

It’d take way too much work to implement such a feature (being at least 2yrs) so I don’t think we should consider this, I know it sounds cool and everything but let that be another game perhaps? Things would have to change too much… this at least is my opinion.

It won’t take to much to implement. Basically instead or making a new character you have the same character but a different profession. Once you change your profession, lets say form elementalist to warrior , your armors and weapons wont be equipable anymore so you will need to have elementalist specific weapons and armors

BrunoBRS.5178:

it would break the current system and have no real benefit aside from being able to choose which weapon to start with, and there are tons of easier options to fix that particular choice.

There is more than the benefit you mentioned. I have listed them above. Maybe they are not important for you, but if you read the forum threads you will see people asking for a 2nd class or a class change or even a different order armor for their character. So there are benefits from it, but they are not get in the way of those who doesn’t want to take advantage of them

^ actually you’re wrong, they would get in the way. you’d have to play a generic class during your early levels, then at a certain arbitrary level you’d learn a new class (remember? same weapons on different classes have different skills), and all the mechanics you should know by now from your class you have yet to learn.

tell me, how would that work with someone aiming to become a dagger elementalist? how would your generic introductory class handle daggers? like thieves? like eles? like necros?

what about element attunements, which essentially give 12-20 skills for each equipped weapon, shatters, steal, pets your ranger could be picking but can’t because he hasn’t leveled the boring “you can’t have fun yet” class? the death shroud skills that you have to unlock like normal weapon skills?

what about the healing skill? what about your armor type? would we use light, medium, heavy?

what happened to “learn your class by playing it”? now you get a boring newbie class you have to play until you can have fun the way you want, and whatever time you spent as that class is completely pointless because no weapon skills carry over, no healing skills, no utilities, no gear, nothing.

what about the years of content being put aside to develop this new system that’s completely different from GW2’s and is essentially a redesign?

oh, and let’s not even bring up the balance issue of having an almighty class that can wield all weapons.

I’ve played other games that had a Novice (or equivalent) starter class and you didn’t get to specialize til lv10 or so. I have to say those games have the longest tutorials, slowest start, and boring intros.

That isn’t to say this can’t work, it just needs to be very carefully planned out. In the mean time, i like the character creation as is for the most part.

I do wish they would explain some things like Charisma/Dignity/Ferocity, and offer a weapon choice, done similarly to how we choose between helmets and shoulder guards.

Maybe give 3 options to pick from, a short blip about their style and what it says about your character’s personality to use this weapon instead of that one, or maybe a history blip on how you came by getting that weapon. (heirloom, taken from an attacker, forged by a friend as a gift, etc…)

Stron Magnesson.8017:

I’ve played other games that had a Novice (or equivalent) starter class and you didn’t get to specialize til lv10 or so. I have to say those games have the longest tutorials, slowest start, and boring intros.

That isn’t to say this can’t work, it just needs to be very carefully planned out. In the mean time, i like the character creation as is for the most part.

it’s also important to notice that games that have a novice class actually ship like that, rather than having one class system, and then throwing it away in favor of another one.

BrunoBRS.5178:

tell me, how would that work with someone aiming to become a dagger elementalist? how would your generic introductory class handle daggers? like thieves? like eles? like necros?

You have given the answer yourself. I will just need to rephrase it:

The starter NPC in the tutorial which will give you the weapon choices will have them named as you said: Elemntalist Water dagger, Thrief Dagger, Warrior long sword, Guardian long sord

This will have a different efect on a new player depending on how careful it reads this information: Some can understand that an Elementalist Fire Dagger shoots fire or he can understand that this dagger is for the Elementalist class.
Either way, the player will learn the specific skills for that weapon and the specific attunment.
Also, the player can take as many starter weapons he can fit in inventory, so he can try the Elementalist Fire Dagger or Elementalist Earth Dagger. or Even Thief Dagger

After the tutorial, in the open world, the Town’s Weapon/Armor NPC Merchants and the starter zone’s similar NPCs will have a new tab asociated to their window called “starter gear”. In this tab, players will find all weapons for all professions and attainments and equip them and unlock their skills.
Like the trait system which won’t automatically unlock on your character, the class will not be unlocked on you automatically. So you can stay without a class in starter zone until you have unlocked all the skills for all weapons for all classes

This will also solve the already exiting problem of deleting starter gear and not being able to buy it from anywhere. Deleting a thief starter hood or guardian puldrons loose them forever.

Ok, this has been solved about what and how the weapon skills will be learned differently.

But how can we manage this with the dropped weapons?

Expl:
A foe drops a dagger. you can equip it but a window will pop up and say" Equip this weapon as an Elementalist? / Equip this weapon as a Thief? "

Now Let’s get to armors.
How do we equip them before choosing a class?

Well, this wont be a problem, just an esthetic compromise. As gear stats are varied they wont be equipped by players if they don’t have better ones. So characters will be able to equip any class armor if they have the required level for it and not bother about the looks. This will make us see an character dressed up in a chain armor and shooting fire magic from its hands using a Staff.

This can be pretty fun. It will bring back the good memories from GW1 when you often saw warriors using staffs in starter zones. You already knew they were new players. They used whatever weapon give them better power. Well, they had a second class too for that, but still, hey could equip all the exiting weapons.

I think this pretty much covers all the issues that can appear with this suggestion.
If you see others, feel free to point them out.

No offense, but your idea sounds good at first, but it’ll be quite hard to implement and balance. For example, the fact that this “novice” class can choose “elementalist fire dagger” and what not means that you’re basically devaluing the elementalist’s profession mechanic. Not the whole thing, but still part of it. While the other classes’ profession mechanics are not taken into account at all.

There is also the issue of the healing skill, and possibly utility skills. Will this “novice” class have its own healing skill? What about utility? You mentioned that they need to go back to the class trainer when they reach they level to get utility skills, meaning level 5, right? Does that mean they can’t level pass 5 until they get their permanent class? If not, what’s stopping them from leveling up as a “novice” that has all the class weapon skills? And what would happen if they reach level 11 (traits)?

These are the immediate issues I can see, aside from the glaring issue that your suggestion is basically remodeling the game’s basics and starting gameplay.

Elsdragon.5109:

There is also the issue of the healing skill, and possibly utility skills. Will this “novice” class have its own healing skill? What about utility? You mentioned that they need to go back to the class trainer when they reach they level to get utility skills, meaning level 5, right? Does that mean they can’t level pass 5 until they get their permanent class? If not, what’s stopping them from leveling up as a “novice” that has all the class weapon skills? And what would happen if they reach level 11 (traits)?

1) Yes, the healing skill will be a “novice” one, Good point. The real one will be ulocked after the class is chosen.

2) They can level pass lvl 5 and get all the weapon skills for all weapons exactly like they do now with different characters. and yes, they can reach the lvl 10 for the traits but when going to the class trainer to buy the trait book it will tell them to choose a class first. This is not too hard to implement.
Later, after choosing a class, the other classes weapon unlocked skills won’t be lost. They will be available from the start to their current progress when the character is switching the class.

Again, what’s stopping people from leveling up as “novices” with all class weapons? It may not seem much, but I’m willing to bet people will find a way to abuse that with the weapon switch.

Also, what about the elementalists’ profession mechanic? You basically took half of it from them with this system.

Elsdragon.5109:

Again, what’s stopping people from leveling up as “novices” with all class weapons? It may not seem much, but I’m willing to bet people will find a way to abuse that with the weapon switch.

Yes, people will level up as “novices” with all class weapons but when having an elementalist weapon equipped the switch weapon set button wont be usable but when equipping a warrior weapon set it will become usable with another warrior weapon set.
The character won’t be able to equip 2 different class weapon sets. If they have a elementalist dagger in the first set they MUST use an elementalist weapon in the second set too.

Even the current system in the game lets you level up till 80 in starter zone by doing dailies and only using the weapon skills with no need to buy utility skills

Elsdragon.5109:

Also, what about the elementalists’ profession mechanic? You basically took half of it from them with this system.

I don’t understand what you mean? Can you be more specific please
I think you mean the atunements for the weapons right?
Ok, if this is it, here is the explanation
There are in the Starter weapon tab on vendors these weapons
Ele Fire Dagger
Ele Earth Dagger
Ele Water Dagger
Ele Air Dagger
Equiping one of these weapon will unlock the specific atunment for that weapon type. Once unlocked they will remain so an you could use any type of dagger for each of them becasue the daggers will have the same stats,
When a foe drop a dagger the pop up window will ask you “will you equip this as earh or fire or air or water weapon” only until you have unlocked that atunment for that weapon type. After that any dagger you equip can be used with different atuments as it is now in the game.
This make it easier for knowing what attunments on what weapons you still need to unlock and because it is applied to the weapons that are dropped by foes, it will not force you to go the Starter weapon vendor all the time.

The thing with the weapons would be tricky. Since elementalists and engineers can’t have a second weapon set at all, so their “novice” counterpart should not as well. Which brings us to the point about elementalists’ profession mechanic…

Elementalists’ profession mechanic is to switch between the four elements giving them four sets of weapon skills but disables their weapon switching. If you give them fire, water, earth, and air weapons and allow them to reach level 7 for weapon switch, then they could effectively use a fire dagger for one set and maybe a water dagger or worse a staff on the second. The first case would allow the novice to in a sense do half of the elementalists’ profession mechanic, while the second case would allow them to use combinations not even available to the permanent elementalists. That in effect belittles the elementalists’ ability, at least to me. I’m not an elementalist myself, but I’m just stating the possible problems.

Elsdragon.5109:

Elementalists’ profession mechanic is to switch between the four elements giving them four sets of weapon skills but disables their weapon switching. If you give them fire, water, earth, and air weapons and allow them to reach level 7 for weapon switch, then they could effectively use a fire dagger for one set and maybe a water dagger or worse a staff on the second. The first case would allow the novice to in a sense do half of the elementalists’ profession mechanic, while the second case would allow them to use combinations not even available to the permanent elementalists. That in effect belittles the elementalists’ ability, at least to me. I’m not an elementalist myself, but I’m just stating the possible problems.

I suppose you didn’t fully understand what I have last answered. You can buy all daggers – fire, water, air, earth and just equip them from inventory. that will unlock all the atunments for elementalist dagger. After that, it wont matter what dagger you equip as elementalist. You will be able to switch atunments like you do now.
If you dont do that, but you get a new dagger from a drop, if you will equip it it will pop up what atuments you have to unlock more and also the other classes that use that weapon.. It is player’s choice to do that or not. A “Cancel” button will be present for convenience skip.
At one point, even the most uninformed player will want to equip a weapon on other atunmets or another class so he wont be seeing the pop up window everytime

Second, you can’t equip 2 weapon sets on elementalist. In the Hero (H) panel when dragging a weapon to equip it, it will ask you what class you want to equip it as. So, if you choose elementalsit for equipping the dagger, the second weapon set won’t be available to use. If you select necromancer when equipping the dagger, the second weapon set slot will be available as long as you have unlocked it.

After choosing a “permanent” class you will not be asked anymore when equipping a dagger if you want to use it as elementalist or necromancer. It will be tied up to your “permanent” profession"

Imagine this
A new player with No MMO experience.
1) he picks up a random weapon from the tutorial. (for the example we will use Elementalsit Fire dagger)
2) he start to play the tutorial and unlocks first main hand skills with fire atunment
3) at the end of tutorial he gets rewarded with a random weapon. lets say a guardian shield.
3)He opens inventory and right-click the shield to equip it. A pop up window will say to him. “This is an offhand weapon used by guardian, warrior, engineer, assassin professions. Which one do you prefer to chose for the moment?” there will be the 4 option clickable
4) He chooses to equip it as an assassin because he didn’t read too much, just clicked something
5) he will try to use that shield and will see that it can unlock the second skills but because it wont do much damage, he will want to equip his first Ele fire dagger. No pop up window this time because it is a “:specific elementalist weapon” so it cant be used as another profession
6) He will continue playing that weapon and find a hammer. trying to equip it, it will pop up the window telling him that the hammer is used by warriors, guardians.
He will equip it as guardian, but finally he will start to understand that there are more professions in the game and they can use the same weapons in some sort.
he might look at his starter Ele fire dagger and understand that it was a specific elementalist weapon
7) He will start to ask himself or in the chat where can he choose a profession and people will tell him that will happen after lvl 5.
8) He will use the weapon he has in his hands and level up till lvl 5 and then will go to profesion trainer and choose to become elementalist.
9) In that moment he will have a permanent Elementalist profession with all the things that brings to the game.

During its gameplay till lvl 5 he might find new weapons and try to use them.
From here some players will want to use all profession weapons not bothering about a permanent profession, others will just do whatever untill lvl 5 so they can be what they want to be.

I just see this a bit longer tutorial with the explanation of how different profession have different skills on the same weapon giving them a bit of chance to try these weapons without the need of making a new character just for that.
I think its not very confusing so it will break the game for the new players.

Having a class changer is a great idea, but i really have come to dislike having a Novice class from all the games i’ve played with one. It’s a flavor i’ve lost the taste for and i really hope doesn’t get brought into this game. I like just picking the class i want to play and starting as that. Having definition and direction from the beginning is liberating in it’s own way.

Maybe you should try Mabinogi, it’s classless, involves exploration, has a push button attack system with some similarities to GW2, and character progression is completely open.

@Ronah

You’re the one who has completely missed my point entirely. The fact that a novice can choose attunements on their weapons just because they make it an elementalist means that they have the elementalist’s profession mechanic. I’m saying if I equip the dagger as a thief dagger will I get the “Steal” mechanic? Or how ‘bout the “Death Shroud” mechanic if it’s a necromancer dagger? If they do, that’s imbalanced because it creates a class that can switch between profession mechanics by just switching weapons. If they don’t, then you are devaluing the elementalist’s profession mechanic by giving it to the “novice” but not the other professions’. So from what I can see, it’s a kitten if you do and kitten if you don’t.

For the second weapon set thing, I’m no expert, but I would think that would be a bit tricky to implement that just because he’s using a weapon as an elementalist or an engineer that the weapon switch would be turned off.

I loved the Final Fantasy games in which you could learn all professions.
Races share models across professions, as we can see in the preview panels.
And when you get racial skills, you also get the engineer ones, so I’m guessing that profession changes should be possible.
You go to a profession trainer, pay for profession change, and if there’s enough room in your inventory, all items are unequipped, you go back to that profession’s level (1 if you never leveled it up) and must learn both trait and skill points – and pay for the training books- again.

As for ‘starting’ skill, they could have been a set of common ‘unarmed’ skills you get for your initial 5 slots of no weapon is equipped, or if the current weapon doesn’t use them all up:
- Punch: a skill that simply deals damage.
- Kick: a skill that deals a bit more damage, but with a cooldown.
- Leap: a skill to jump to a foe, knocking them down and dealing little damage.
- Push: a skill to push the enemy away, knocking them back and dealing also little damage..
- Grapple: a skill that deals no damage, and that immobilizes both you and the foe.
These skills could show up whenever you equip a single 1h weapon, or when you get an environmental weapon that does not replace all 5 of your weapon skills.
To put it simply, they’ll replace the empty skill slots you get with single 1h weapons and many environmental weapons.

But even if ‘common skills’ and profession changes should be possible, as the game is right now, it’s a bit too late to add exactly what you suggest.

Elsdragon.5109:

I’m saying if I equip the dagger as a thief dagger will I get the “Steal” mechanic? Or how ‘bout the “Death Shroud” mechanic if it’s a necromancer dagger?

Yes, if you equip the dagger as a thief you will get thief mechanic. but you wont be able to change it in the combat to get a necromancer mechanic. I dont think anyone will abuse this because of a pop up window that will always appear in your screen to chose what profession you equip that weapon for. And when you have chosen your permanent profession you wont be able to do that and no window will pop up anymore. I dont understand what is so difficult to imagine.
I will make this comparison
You make 8 human characters with different professions. You log in with one and run about 100 meters and than log out and change to the next character. You run with him the same path 100m and than log out and get anotyher character doing the same.
After that you log in with the first character and engage a fight.
Can you log off from a fight? yes, you can.
Ok, you log off and come with another character which is in the same place and continue the fight with that one character. This is the “Novice” you imagine.
What was this? a bad joke you can say. No, it was meant to show you what you think I was suggesting.
You have your all characters in the same place but you can’t log out and take the new one to fight in the same fight. This is the “Novice” I suggested

Your example seemed to be a pretty unrealistic one. I’m not sure if you’re kidding around with me or what, but that’s not the problem at all. First off, logging off to switch characters would give that enemy a chance to heal up, so switching to a new character would be nigh useless in that sense, especially after factoring in the load time. Also, you can’t equip new weapons in combat, so this is not the issue with the “novice”.

You seem to like examples, so I’ll give you one.

A “novice” equips a warrior’s sword and uses the warrior’s Flurry adrenaline burst to take out an enemy, he then continues on and sees another enemy, equips a guardian sword to fight an enemy, kills it with expert use of the guardian’s three virtues.

It’s not the same fight, but it still doesn’t make it fair that a “novice” can switch between profession mechanics as they travel across the world. I’m sure some people would find giving up utilities and elite if “novices” don’t get either, for the chance to be able to do something like this.

That is something I don’t think is balanced. If you wanted to try out different classes, just make a kitten alt and try it. I don’t see how that could be so difficult. After trying out the classes on alts, make a fresh character and play the game for real with your chosen profession.

I’m sorry, but the more you expand on this idea, the worse it becomes to me. Having a class that can imitate other classes’ profession mechanic, having characters switch class, having characters be able to rerun a story because of amnesia(?)…

Elsdragon.5109:

It’s not the same fight, but it still doesn’t make it fair that a “novice” can switch between profession mechanics as they travel across the world. I’m sure some people would find giving up utilities and elite if “novices” don’t get either, for the chance to be able to do something like this.

First of all, i am not kidding around with you. You just couldn’t explain it so I can understand. I am sorry, but you could’ve put this example before so things have gone more easily without the use of sophisticated language like class core mechanic etc.
Ok, I understand now your point.
So, from your example it comes up that people might not want chose a profession.

Well, how can we avoid this inconvenience? Let’s be constructive and solve the problem and not just trash it because it not worth it.

I have a solution for this, but again I am sure it will not satisfy your views, but I will say it anyway. Many games unlock new zones only by achieving different requirements:
Expl: You cant go into the world without completing the tutorial, You cant access dungeon X if it wasn’t unlocked by storyline. etc.

How about not leaving the starter zone or the starter city unless you have chosen your profession? That inconvenience you mentioned will them be restricted to the starter zone. A similar thing was done in GW1 when you couldn’t leave the tutorial zone without choosing the 2nd profession.
Players can abuse this as much as they want because they wont be leaving the starter zone. Anyway, as the game is now, you are able to get lvl 80 in the starter zone too. So it wont hurt the game too much. You could get max level in starter zone in GW1 too.

So, there are always solutions to every problem, but its more easier to trash it than solve it. Right?

I kinda started to see you are not just trolling the idea and have a good constructive opinion on it, but you blew it up at the end with mocking of the amnesia suggestion. Too bad.

Okay. The language I used wasn’t “sophisticated” at all since it was what Anet had called them. “Profession mechanic”

Now for your suggestion, there are more issues with that. Again what you’re basically asking is that Anet restructure the entire game (or at the very least a good chunk of it). If they were to implement this, I would think that they would have to change not only a good deal of game codes and what not, but also all the story lines to include a part for people to “choose” their profession.

Another issue is which starter area you’re gonna bound them to. The first instance-like area where they get minimal exp and no drops? (I doubt that since your method requires them to be able to receive drop) Or the starting level 1-15 (usually) area? Most, if not all, of the level 1-15 areas have dungeons as well. or do you plan to keep them in another instanced version of those areas?

You have to remember that this game isn’t very similar to GW 1. In GW 1, max level was 20, and skills were a lot more important. In GW 2, level goes up to 80 and doesn’t simply involve skill points but also trait points. It may not be that important, or something to be abused, but can still be an issue.

The issue isn’t whether I’m choosing to trash the idea or solve it. It’s that when I ask for a solution, that solution presents more problems. If that’s the case, solving it permanently may not be all that simple or possible.

Also I care little for your opinion of me or how I say things. I simply saw this idea and thought that it was a decent one to look into at first, but after all that, I feel that it was simply incompatible and unrealistic.

Elsdragon.5109:

Another issue is which starter area you’re gonna bound them to. The first instance-like area where they get minimal exp and no drops? Or the starting level 1-15 (usually) area? Most, if not all, of the level 1-15 areas have dungeons as well. or do you plan to keep them in another instanced version of those areas?

Of course the novice character will be restricted to the lvl 1-15 zone of its race and his racial town. If a player chooses to level up this way and limit himself from going to other starter cities or zones of other races its his own fault.

Getting to choose your profession at lvl 5 won’t be such a terrible thing to what A-net has intended so people can go and visit other zone just after the tutorial.

Besides, having a window pop up every time you want to equip a weapon can become really annoying (this thing will always pop up until you have chosen your profession) and I don’t think most players will resist this annoyance for too long.

Well, now in the game people can get to lvl 30 (or 80) in the starter zone and unlock the dungeons. For me this is a terrible idea having unlocked dungeon by level not by storyline. I wouldn’t have done it like this. A-net just made a compromise for low lvl players so they will not be mentally stressed they need to be lvl 80 to unlock dungeons. That is all to it. a mind release feeling.

Now back to answer: I would make dungeons unlock able through storyline whcih will require to have a specific class chosen. The same thing will happen with the traits and utility skills.

So, if some one will likes to level up to 80 without choosing a class and be boud to his race starter zone and having always a window pop up in the screen every time of choosing a different weapon for a different class, its totally and solely the players fault not the game design. That player will not do the sotryline, will not have traits or utility skills, it will just be a failed player in my opinion.

I think that most players will just level up to 5 and chosoe their profession and be free than stay up in starter zone. A very small part of player base will stay in starter zone to unlock all the weapon skills and extremely few will be in there for ever.

At some point, in GW1, people were able to change their 2nd profession. That was a good option for all. Many used it, many didn’t even know it exists. But in the end it offered posibility for players to play a different character without manking a new one.
That’s why we saw necomancers as spirit healers, elementalists as spririt spammers, warriors as rangers and monks as paragons. Everyone was free to play what profession he wanted on his favorite character. I dont think this will hurt the game, but it will enhance it.

In GW1 people were able to skip 70% of the Prophesy content. I even saw players of lvl 10 at the end mission. No one was hurt by that and I don’t think many have taken this short cut until A-Net has released the HoM rewards calculator.

Making alts and leveling is not everyone’s play-style. Let others have their profession change so they will enjoy the game not be forced to level up a new character. It won’t hurt those who still want to do it, but it will not limit the options for those who are not willing to do that.