Guild Wars 2

Hey folks!

first of all:

• this may be too much to implement in a “patch”, but could be considered for a larger update since it will require a lot of change to the classes
• the Idea is not thought of completely, there may be some ups and downs I haven’t seen!

The Idea!
Since Day 1 People complain about so many things they dont like about their class.
Naturally, you cannot please everybody so there will ALWAYS be a bunch of people who just don’t like what ANet did.
There is no real solution to this issue, but more variety in choice of classes could help more people to find their way.
My Idea is to allow players to choose a subclass

What is meant by that?
I am not talking about what GW1 had (a warrior being an elementalist secondary).
Every class has a certain lore and feel ANet tried to accomplish.

The warrior is thought of a tough and brutal class, able to use any weapon and a fearsome enemy in any battle.
But a Warrior could also take the role of a coordinator in Battle or a Protector.

The Ranger is natures guardian, able to shine in many categories. The ranger can also take the support role by seeking help of natures spirits or focus on letting beasts fight for him.

Every class in GW2 tries to do so many things at once, but yet you never quite feel like you really fit your role.
having suppclasses would mean that you can literally chose to be a special type of warrior/ranger/guardian/elementalis/thief/mesmer/engineer/necromancer

Example 1:
Let’s take the ranger as an example.

Subclass 1 – The lone Ranger
The lone Ranger once angried the spirits of nature and is an outcast of his profession.
He can not rely on animals to assist him in battle, therefore he had to train his Body and Skills to a level superior to other rangers
- The lone Ranger can not use pets
- The lone Ranger uses Weapons more effectively

Subclass 2 – The Beastmaster
This ranger relies on his Pets in combat. Spending many years among them, he gained their trust and trained them to be deadly beasts he can use to hunt down his enemies.
- New elite skill: Call of the Pack (for a short duration, the rangers secondary pet joins the battle. This pet attacks whatever the main Pet attacks. It can not use it’s f2 skill)
- The Beastmasters Toughness is decreased
- If a Pet dies the Beastmaster becomes weakened and confused for 10 seconds and recieves damage based % of his pets health
- Pets under the controll of the beastmaster are deadly creatures, they attack faster and healing is more effective on them

Subclass 3 – The Archer
The Archer is a master of the Bow and deadly from long distances. Being used to take down enemies before the know what hits them, this ranger is not suited for close combat.
- Swords, Greatswords and Daggers deal 10% less damage
- The toughness of the Archer is decreased
- Bows critical strike damage is increased by 15%
- While wielding a bow, movement impairing effects only last 33% of their original time.

Remember: example

Example 2:
The warrior

Subclass 1 – the Berserker
A fearsome Warrior, lusting for blood and glory in battle.
- the Berserker can not use ranged weapons (Bow, Rifle)
- If the Berserkers health falls below 50%, he begins to deal 3% additional damage for every 5% of missing health (below 50%)
- The Berserker gains health regeneration at 10%, 25% and 40% Health

Subclass 2 – the Commander
This warrior supports his team with his presence. Being known as a hero in Battle, his comrades fight even harder – for him and for victory.
- The Commander has increased toughness and vitality
- Banners have increased radius and stronger (or additional) effects
- If the Commander is downed, nearby comrades recieve weakness and confusion for 5 seconds

Subclass 3 – couldn’t think of any yet ^^

I hope you really got the idea.

How to become a subclass?
In sPvP you can chose it freely in your traits menu.
In PvE you will have to complete a task for you classmaster to be acknowledged as the Subclass you want to be. This can reach from defeating a dungeon to collection materials and participating events. Once you completed this task, you can chose the subclass like you chose traits. To become another subclass you will have to have the required task finished and spend some coin at your classtrainer to change it. You only need to complete this task once.

What do you guys think about it?

It just sounds like a trait tree that every other game uses. While it adds variety, I think the fact that we are given the choice to build our characters how we please is enough.

There should be 3 subclasses for each class, but every sub-class should use a different armor. A very high pure damage warrior shouldn’t necessarily be full plated. High armor usually means more defense and a lower attack/movement speed.

Here are ideas for Engineer Subclasses:

- Light armor: Scientis
- Medium armor: Alchemist
- Heavy armor: Mech/Tinker

GuardianOMS.8067:

It just sounds like a trait tree that every other game uses. While it adds variety, I think the fact that we are given the choice to build our characters how we please is enough.

Pretty much this. Now if only more builds were actually viable…

This is something I suggested already in the german part of the forums all the time.
GW2 lacks massively in character progression.
You play this game, you level up YOUR hero from a Level 1 nobody to a lvl 80 character and your level 80 hero still feels like a total nobody gameplaywise, because you’ve developed nearly nothing, except having learned just a few more skills, some traits that limit more your options, than giving you freedom to develop your character exactly into the way how you want to be and you just dish out only bigger damage numbers with one and the same weapon skills, that have nearly no way of development, except from tiny options from sigills, runes and if your lucky..traits that maybe have a little effect on specific skills, but nothing of great impact, that adds completely new features to the class, that improves greatly the ways of how you can play your class, how your character will look like and so on.
All the 8 classes in GW2 look like, as if they are only some kind of Basic Class. They all have so much unused potential to get further developed by Sub Classes, which could work similar like Secondary Classes as like in GW1’s 2 Class System, just only with the differency, that such a system is alot easier to balance, because there would be no cross class combinations possible this time. You just take your character only onto an advanced level of skills and features to specialize your character into certain directions and individualize your characters by those decisions alot better.
——

Sub Classes are the “keys” to further developed specialized characters, options that simple unlock all the possible potentials a class has making it able to unlock specific things for your character, which the “Basic Class” wouldn’t be able to use :

Example:

A Warrior developing to a Berserker:

• Unlocks Access to 2H Axes, this way unlocking Access to some new Weapon Skills
• Unlocks Access to new Berserker Traits
• Unlocks Access to new class specific Armor Sets, that can be only worn by Berserkers
• Unlocks Access to special Berserker Features, like the “Bloodlust Mode” and other Berserker specific Skill Categories like “Frenzies”, “Adrenaline Rushs” and “Wrath” Skills
• Receives Bonus on Strength, Precision and Critical Damage

With such things, that have a huge impact on a classes gameplay you’ll feel that you’ve developed your character further, that the character won’t be anymore at the end of the line a silly nobody, but intead the individual hero, you want to have that is in that dicrection specialized, that you like to play with the most and fits everybodies personal gameplay style the most.
So if you like to play Warriors total offensive to the most extend, then its the best choice to develop your character into a destructive fearful Berserker…
If you like to play your Warrior more defensively, then for example a Dragoon would be the better option for such a player and if you like to have more a kind of an allrounder specialized Warrior, you should develop the Warrior further into a Swashbuckler

All Classes should receive over tiem via Add Ons up to 3 Sub Classes. (1 Sub Class per Add On)

Warriors : Berserker, Dragoon, Swashbuckler
Rangers: Hunter, Druid, Scout
Guardian: Partizan, Augmentor, Warden
Engineer: Alchemist, Technician, Inventor
Thief: Rogue, Saboteur, Infiltrator
Mesmer: Fencer, Mentalist, Bard
Necromancer: Visionary, Torturer, Occultist
Elementalist: Arcanist, Runologist, Magus

Thats the way how I would design them, because with these, theres then basicaly no class archetyp left open anymore, except 1 and that would be the Gambler, which could come up with sub classes like:

Charlatan, Imposter and Trickster.

Stuff like Chronomancer could be done with the Visionary that could summon Time Aspects to manipulate the Past, the Present and the Future with them.

Stuf like a “Death Knight”, so the sterotypical counterpart of a guardian would be found in the Torturer as that one would be the physical development of a necromancer that goes more into melee combat…

There would be really nothing left open tastewise, with this system. and it would be unique for GW2.

I was also thinking of giving Subclasses new Weapons etc., but this might be too much for one expansion. Subclasses should offer small pros and cons without making it a completely new class. New skills would completely change the feeling of every class and are therefore not what we need right now.
Variety is the key, not changing everything completely ;-)

Different Armor sounds fun though, this is something you could include to subclasses.
An Elementalist wearing medium armor to become a Battlemage would be fun I guess.

The only problem I could imagine is the huge amount of balancing it would take, but there is no achievment without effort

This would be all cool and all, but this is something you cant do now. GW2 is released, meaning that redoing the game to fit this would be disastrous. This all is something done and defined in alpha testing where the core part of game play and mechanics are developed and fit in.

I actually like this, far more than Orpheal’s idea that’s for sure. This idea expands on what is given to us, but isn’t a progression of the character, it’s a customization of the character.

In Orpheal’s idea you have to subclass to be worthwhile because you only gain advantages. So you have to choose to me something more than what you are in order to get the benefits.

In Aeri’s idea, though, you gain benefits and drawbacks. I would consider the Archer subclass that he described, but it would detract from my Greatsword, and lower my toughness, both things I’m specced for. But I’m more specced for longbow so that would benefit. It’s a choice in customization, what am I willing to give up to gain in another area. I could choose not to subclass at all and just be a Ranger, which would also be acceptable. I would retain universal capacity which my build, I wouldn’t gain any new benefits with any part of my build, but I wouldn’t lose anything either.

The one thing the Trait system doesn’t have is draw backs. When I take traits to buff my longbow, I don’t lose anything in swords and pets. This is something else, which could be cool.