Guild Wars 2

General concept: This profession is a fast paced, medium armored “sword master” type that specializes in rapid stylish attacks against one or more foes, similar to the thief. However where the thief is focused (at least in practice) on dashing in for powerful burst attacks and then fleeing, the dualist is instead designed to stand its ground.

Profession mechanic: Fineness. The polar opposite of the warrior’s adrenaline system, a dualist’s fineness meter fill slowly throughout combat, however where adrenaline builds based on attacking foes fineness instead fills with each incoming attack successfully blocked or evaded. Fineness is used to “channel” one of two special “flurry” skills. These skills are as follows.

Blade Tempest (when with equipped melee weapons, this includes shields): Stands rooted in place whirling with the equipped weapons, striking all foes in melee range and blocking attacks.

Bullet Storm (when equipped with pistols or rifle): Stand rooted in place whirling with the equipped weapons, firing a barrage of ranged attacks in all directions and blocking attacks.

Weapon list
Great sword: Similar to the ranger’s great sword, this weapon is used for wide sweeping attacks. While it deals lower overall damage it is capable of striking the largest number of foes with each attack.

Rifle: A sharpshooter weapon used to inflect massive damage on single targets for long range.

Main-hand Sword: A fast weapon used for flashy spinning attacks. Based used against single targets, but has effective blocking skills.

Main-hand Axe: Slower and less impressive than the sword, this weapon has lower overall defense and slower attacks, but makes up for this with greater damage and debilitating conditions like weakness and vulnerability.

Main-hand Pistol: An area damage weapon used for maintaining pressure on multiple weak foes. The dualist uses pistols to spread rapid bullet volleys (cone based area attacks) to damage and disrupt groups of weaker foes. Damage is lower than the rifle, as is range, but it is useful for attacking groups. Fancy footwork grants this weapon type natural evasion.

Off-hand Sword: The counter point to the main-hand sword, this weapon brings an area attack in the form of a spinning AOE as well as an additional block.

Off-hand Pistol: Used as a surprise weapon, the off-hand pistol’s primary function is to attack additional targets. This includes skills such as “Blind Fire” that attacks behind the dualist, striking approaching foes while they maintain focus on their primary target.

Off-hand Shield: A heavy defensive weapon, the shield is actually based on small bucklers rather than tower shield, and as such is not used to “turtle” damage, but rather is itself another melee weapon with inbuilt blocking on its attacks. An example would be “Reverse Fist,” a skill that back-hands the target for damage and daze, and can block attacks during its brief animation.

General weapon concepts: Melee weapons block or daze, ranged weapon evade or knock back.

Utility skill types: Like all profession the dualist has a number of special utility skills divided into a few types. Of course they also “techniques” (skills that do not fall into the other types; general abilities) and Signets. Their three special skills types are as follows.

Flourishes: Support skills. A dualist uses flourishes to provide themselves and their allies (through boon sharing traits) with a number of boons. Flourishes are extra, low damage, attacks that provide boons on successful hits. Through traits these skills can cure conditions, provide minor healing, or share their effects with allies.

Ripostes: Control skills. A riposte is a brief added block or evade skill. These skills have extremely brief animations and as such successfully using them requires near perfect timing. On a successful block or evade a riposte inflicts the attacking creature with an impairment such as daze, stun, knock back, or conditions like cripple, weakness, or vulnerability. Through traits ripostes can be made easier to use by extending their duration, lowering cool downs, and creating lingering effects.

Feints: A feint is a useful “utility” skill that provides additional effects such as assisting with positioning. Feints allow the dualist to quickly move into and out of melee range, flank foes, or drop aggro.

Elite skills: following is an example of a few elite skills based on the above utility skill types.

Impossible Heroics: Flourish. The dualist lashes out at a single foe, gaining all boons and quickness on a successful attack. This effect can grant healing and remove conditions, and can be shared with allies based on traits. However the grained boons are not shared in this way.

Reckless Gambit: Riposte. The dualist loses all endurance and a percentage of their current health while attempting to block an attack. If an attack is successfully blocked the target is stunned, inflected with bleed, cripple, weakness, and vulnerably. Further, if Reckless Gambit is a critical attack the attacking foe loses all endurance.

King of Blades/Unnatural Precision (depending on equipped weapons): Feint. With a melee weapon equipped the dualist uses King of Blades, a long ranged targeted dash toward their target, evading attacks along the path. Upon reaching their target the dualist unleashes a powerful single strike that is unblockable and has a guaranteed critical chance. With a ranged weapon equipped the dualist uses Unnatural Precision, firing a single divesting piercing shot at their foe, also unblockable and a guaranteed critical attack. This version of the attack neither evades nor blocks, but instead knocks back all surrounding foes.

I like the theme behind this a lot. And I especially like the idea of a less movement dependant class.

Might end up a bit too tanky in PVP with all his ways of attack evasion while standing still. Unless it’s damage is highly crippled.

I’m usually against any new profession ideas, but I kinda like this one. An agile, medium-armor fighter is something we’re missing (rangers and thieves come close, but they’re too busy with their nature/stealth stuff to really work).

Personally, I think Duelists should go without the great sword, or at least use it in a different way (using great swords for wide sweeping attacks is already done by rangers, warriors, and guardians).

Personally its not a horrible idea to have a class like this.

But what I want you to do now is actually tell me the probable weakness of the class
(I often read these class suggestions and always find that they make the class overpowered)

I have some of my own ideas after reading this what those weaknesses might be.

The class seems similar to the guardian in terms of blocks
but its large amounts of CCs on attachment to those blocks remind me of a warrior or thief
(not to mention the evades you were discussion earlier go in and out of melee range).
With all of these ways the class has to not be hit (whether It would be blocks/CCs/or evades)
I would have to imagine this class would start out with an extremely low hp pool
(probably around the level of the guardian or thief)

I would imagine its damage to be fairly competent
( not a lot of burst damage but some fair debuffs and boons)
I see this class as much more of a control/support class (much higher emphasis on the control).

The dynamic in play I see for this class is sort of an evasive tanker
that would spends it time sort of evading around the target till it raises its fineness to a point
where It can hold its ground for some time (recharge its cds on evasive moves or recharge endurance)
and dodge again.
Or possibly using the rifle at long range
(I wouldn’t make its damage so severe as suggested but with more knock-backs and immobilization’s)
in order to keep the target standing still and away from you.

Slayrix.5789:

Personally its not a horrible idea to have a class like this.

But what I want you to do now is actually tell me the probable weakness of the class
(I often read these class suggestions and always find that they make the class overpowered)

I have some of my own ideas after reading this what those weaknesses might be.

The class seems similar to the guardian in terms of blocks
but its large amounts of CCs on attachment to those blocks remind me of a warrior or thief
(not to mention the evades you were discussion earlier go in and out of melee range).
With all of these ways the class has to not be hit (whether It would be blocks/CCs/or evades)
I would have to imagine this class would start out with an extremely low hp pool
(probably around the level of the guardian or thief)

I would imagine its damage to be fairly competent
( not a lot of burst damage but some fair debuffs and boons)
I see this class as much more of a control/support class (much higher emphasis on the control).

The dynamic in play I see for this class is sort of an evasive tanker
that would spends it time sort of evading around the target till it raises its fineness to a point
where It can hold its ground for some time (recharge its cds on evasive moves or recharge endurance)
and dodge again.
Or possibly using the rifle at long range
(I wouldn’t make its damage so severe as suggested but with more knock-backs and immobilization’s)
in order to keep the target standing still and away from you.

Good suggestions all around, and indeed I hadn’t thought of this class as being particularly physically powerful. Rather I envisioned it to rely on those block and evasion skills to stay alive rather than a high toughness or vitality. So saying they would have a low hp pool is fairly accurate. Further I’d say that timing would be extremely important here; in that most of its skill have short animations and provide their block or evasion effects only during those animations. So if you use a blocking skill too soon or too late you miss the chance and eat the damage, rather than being able to just sit there and turtle behind your shield for several seconds like a warrior or guardian.

So a reactive profession who has high damage and great utility but isn’t based on mobility like the thief. Interesting concept.

Assuming it is allowed, I am just going to go ahead and bump this so it gets a little more attention. I really like this idea, and still hope the developers take notice, even if for no other reason than to inspire their own -better- ideas.

The idea has finesse which hard to pull off with profession suggestions.

fine tuning the specific standards of it’s strengths and weaknesses will go a very long way towards pushing for it’s addition into the game.

and FYI be on the look out for… well… no naming and shaming from me.

guaranteed they shall be here

Seems pretty cool, I’d play it.

Seems like a cool idea. Not sure about the shield or greatsword. When I hear duelist, I think rapiers or pistols.

Haven’t read it yet, but had to say: It’s Duelist. Unless one of the profession mechanics is making a double of yourself to fight along side.

Yeah those Elites are not overpowered the slightest. Especially not Impossible Heroics.

LAWL.

Why just not have it insta-kill anything, regardless of Health? And resurrect any and all downed allies around you. It does just about everything else short of those two already.

Regular dual wielding warriors already play like this, both bleed builds and standard axe/whatever builds can perform all their kitten while moving. There is no point to this profession.

Pretty sure this class is called the Mesmer but I could be wrong..

well at least half of it is.

Simple a NO to this…

The most agile and swift class should stay the Thief and basically the game has already Duelists, they are called MESMERS.

GW2 doesn’t need an extra hybrid class out of Mesmer and Thief….
What GW2 could need from these ideas is basically only some improvements to especially the Mesmer..instead of having them normal swords, mesmers should wield rapiers as an own kind of weapon, because a Rapier is no normal sword with that you do slashing attackings, its a thrusting sword for piercing attacks.

Mesmer has nothing in common with this. The dualist doesn’t use any illusion magic or whatsoever, he just uses pure skill to evade, block, parry anything the enemy throws at him.
I like the idea very much. It makes me think a bit about spartans.

Lemme break this down for you…

“Blade Tempest (when with equipped melee weapons, this includes shields): Stands rooted in place whirling with the equipped weapons, striking all foes in melee range and blocking attacks.” – See Mesmer Blurred Frenzy

“Bullet Storm (when equipped with pistols or rifle): Stand rooted in place whirling with the equipped weapons, firing a barrage of ranged attacks in all directions and blocking attacks.” – See Thief Elites

“Main-hand Sword: A fast weapon used for flashy spinning attacks. Based used against single targets, but has effective blocking skills.” – See Mesmer Sword Main Hand

“Off-hand Sword: The counter point to the main-hand sword, this weapon brings an area attack in the form of a spinning AOE as well as an additional block.” – See Mesmer Offhand Sword (also contains Phantasm to shatter for AoE)

“General weapon concepts: Melee weapons block or daze, ranged weapon evade or knock back” – See Mesmer GS and Staff as well as Scepter and Swords and Focus

Sorry guys to be a spelling nazi, but duels are fought by duelists, and dual means “two”.

Sirendor:

you’re not right. its not about what YOU think, what a duelist is, its about what ANET gives us for lore, what they want in the world of tyria to have as Duelists and in the lore of GW2, Mesmers are Duelists and they have the simple skills to BLOCK attacks, more than any other class, they have the ability to totally avoid damage with Distortions plus naturally dodging attacks. So Mesmers are a Class, which have 3 options to avoid damage, while most other classes have either only 1 to 1,5, if you count also Aegis as an option to avoid damage, which is also a thing Mesmers possess easily with that signet skill, which gives every 10 seconds a randomous boon.

Heres the official lore text:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/mesmer/
QUOTE:

Mesmers are magical duelists who wield deception as a weapon.

The very first sentence even. people can’t be really so blind seriosly, to oversee this so easily.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blurred_Frenzy
QUOTE

Strike your foe with a flurry of strikes, distorting the space around you, making you evade attacks

And its not just a 1 time evade, you evede in this short time absolutely ALL incoming damage, making you invulnerable for a few seconds, like as when you use the F4 skill with a shattering clone.
Not to mention the two blocking skils, 1 onder scepter, the other under sword offhand.

However, I haven’t said, that the ideas are bad, In opposite, here are some nice points into the right direction, how I’d like to see the Mesmer getting improved becoming more of a real Duelist, because the current sword gameplay of the Mesmer is WAY TOO MUCH agility based, looks way too fast and has by that too much of a thief tone in it, that I doesn’t like, when playing with dual swords.

Skills like the quote up one there, are skills, that I would expect so under a thief, when a thief would fight with two swords, that they use their agility, to outmaneuver incoming attcks to don’t get hit for a short period of time, what the Mesmer does in that moment with magical help using space distortions… what isn’t even chaos magic at all, space distortions belong to time magic!

Not to mention, how ridiculous the animations do look of Mesmers using great swords, especially skill 1 is one of the most hoble unfitting skills for a class, I’ve ever seen in my whole life! A real duelist would fight totally different with a great sword, than this, especially with magical help that can distract and confuse foes…

This discrepancy between thief design and mesmer design being in one way sort of different, but on the other hand feeling so similar, as if those two classes would be best merged together is something on the very long road of my personal redesign concept of those two classes, from which I made some time ago a tiny start with the thief.
I’ll put more time into that, once I’m done with my Guild Version 2.0, what has so far my higher priority.