So as many are undoubtedly aware, ArenaNet has on multiple occations stated that Elite specs are not meant to be stronger than Core specs. If we look at the traitz alone, in most cases this is true, but when you look at the Elite spec as awhole its an entirely different story. The new weapons, utilities, and class mechanics all add to the power of an Elite spec and make it impossible to keep them balanced to Core specs. As such, I’ve got a proposal to remedy this.
First, split weapon and skill unlocks off to a seperate progression line from the elite spec traits and mechanics. The weapons and utility skills should be usable regardless of what spec you have slotted in your 3rd spec slot once unlocked.
Next is the hard part. Every elite spec must sacrifice something from the core class in exchange for its new mechanic. This is mandatory for proper balance. Here are a few of my views on each.
Elementalists
Unlike most other professions, the elementalist actually needs something new added to accomplish its balance here. The Tempest and the Weaver both add a new mechanic that is reliant on the core mechanic of attunements, but there is nothing sacrificed from core to get these, additionally there is nothing to sacrifice. To fix this one a new mechanic must be added to Core Elementalist that is not available to Tempest or Weaver. nit aure what the mechanic Should be, but it shoukd be of comparabke value to overloads and dual skills/dual attunements.
Engineer
Toolbelt skills ade the engineers class mechanic and appear to play a large role in balancing utility skills as every engineer utility is a minimum of 2 skills. They are also the obvious choice for what should be lost in exchange for their elite spec mechanics… but some major work would need to be done…
Screpper would need to have a set of function gyro skills made for its new toolbelt replacement… toolbelt skill traits would have to be modified to interact with function gyros… and several utility skills would have to be re examined as to how valuable/functional they are without their toolbelt skill…
Holosmith however seems to complicate things more with engineer… honestly I’m not sure how they can fix the elite spec mechanic issues with engineer…
Guardian
One of the simplest ones really… just balance DragonHunter virtues and FireBrand tomes to Core virtues… this would be easiest to accomplish by bringing the Core versions up to par with the Elite spec versions.
Mesmer
Chronomancers and Mirage trade out their core shatters for new ones. This means chronomancers could potentially gain up to 3 new time related shatter options in addition to their current one, but as a trade off they lost the 4 core ones. No more F5. Mirage would gain 1 or 2 new skills, ideally their axe 3 skill would be converted into a new F2 ability with a new shatter on F1 that enables their ambush skills. No F3 or F4.
Necromancer
Just like the guardian this is an easy one. Simply balance Death Shroud, Reaper Shroud, and Shades.
Ranger
In the case of rangers things get a little complicated… again… the obvious option is to lose yohr pet in exchange for druid form… Soulbeast is pretty much on par with core. Druid is the only real outlier… Soulbeast trades their pet and their pets unique ability in exchange for a passive stat boost and access to their pets skills. For rangers i’d suggest trading out their ability to swap pets, making druid form and soulbeast form activate on F4 instead of F5.
Revenant
Like the Elementalist, the revenant requires the addition of a new mechanic to Core… however, due to the way Revenant functions, its new Core mechanics could actually be left in place. Each legend would have to have a unique mechanic that is gained while invoked. Currently, only Ventari qualifies as having such a mechanic when looking at core Revenant. The mechanics dont have to be in the form of new F# skills, passive mechanics also work, so long as they are unique to their specific legend,
Thief
Balance steal and Deadeye mark. Thats really it… daredevil’s only “mechanic” is 1 extra bar of endurance, a mechanic that thieves techically already had through an old acrobatics trait that reduced the cost if dodge allowing them to dodge 3 times in a row before we even had Elite specs. If anything, simply increasing the CD of steal on Daredevil would be enough to balance it to Core thief.
Warrior
The new Spellbreaker took a step in the right direction with restricting you to 2 adrenaline bars and level 1 bursts. The Berserker in the otherhand has no such limitations. Since the Berserker is a direct upgrade to bursts, it would be best to completely disable bursts outside of berserk mode for the spec. That way the stronger busrts dont simply add power, they are offset by not being able to use your bursts as frequiently. Warrior then has choice between frequent average bursts, infrequent powerfull bursts + attack speed, or frequent weak bursts + full counter.