Guild Wars 2

I think one of the biggest flaws of the first generation of elite specializations is that they come out of nowhere, and most of them don’t even fit neither the story nor Heart of Maguuma. They have no lore, and don’t feel special or unique, just some random skills here and there. Not cool.

So, let’s assume we’re going to Elona next, and this time, elite specializations need to be themed on the new continent and cultures. They could have a lore introduction or not, what matters is that there’s a bond between them and the new content.

What’s your pick? Go wild, infinite budget. Only requirement is to make them Elonian elite specializations.

Few ideas:

Elementalist – Dervish

Since the Six Gods are gone, the mystical dervishes of Elona have reverted to praying to the wind and the earth. They wield two-handed scythes and use mantras. Their new mechanic is the Djinn Form, which transforms them into a djinn and locks them to the current attunement. They have four forms, one per each attunement, with different roles. The transformation replaces weapon skills as well. Their role is at the front lines, as a tank+DPS spec.

Mesmer – Bladedancer

When Vabbi fell, many of the former jugglers and dancers found themselves at the front lines. Bladedancers wield axes in both hands and use tricks. Their new mechanics are custom dodge abilities, as well as a special vortex skill which changes depending on the main-hand weapon, and lets the bladedancer unleash a whirlwind of illusory weapons against his enemies. Their role is at the front lines, dancing through their enemies as a pure DPS spec.

Necromancer – Scourge

Half-executor, half-priest, scourges are the best of the best among Palawa Joko’s forces. They wield two-handed greataxes and use mantras. Their new mechanic is the swarm, a group of pets that can be manually controlled. Undead sacarabs, scorpions, and locusts crawl from beneath the scourge’s mummy wrappings and funerary mask, feasting on their master’s enemies’ flesh. They also have a new Scourge Shroud, which transforms them into a nightmarish insect lord. Their role is at the front lines, as a pure DPS spec.

Engineer – Occultist

The ancient tombs of the Primeval Kings hold many secrets, including ancient artifacts and technologies that escape mortal comprehension. Occultists wield a staff and use glyphs. Their new mechanic is the relic, an ancient artifact which can be manipulated with the staff and the glyphs. Floating astrolabes, energy hypercubes, demonic gatekeepers… Dangerous toys in dangerous hands. Their role is at the back, as a support and ranged DPS spec.

Ranger – Swampstalker

The heket frog-men of Elona are renowned swamp hunters, and the toxins they impregnate their weapons with are among the world’s deadliest. Only a few survive their training and become swampstalkers. They wield one-handed spears in both hands, and use venoms. Their new mechanic is the swarm, groups of snakes, pocket raptors, crabs, piranhas and more, that can be selected instead of the classic pet. Venoms are shared with the swarm creatures, making them even deadlier. Their role is at the back, as a ranged condition DPS spec.

Thief – Sharpshooter

An offshoot of the original Order of Whispers, sharpshooters are a small group of deadly snipers. They wield rifles and use gadgets. Their new mechanics are the overcharge skill, which temporarily boosts initiative regeneration, and the lockdown skill, which changes depending on the main-hand weapon. The lockdown skill has a long channel, and grows in power as the channel goes on, consuming initiative. It’s a high-risk high reward skill, which can be easily interrupted, but can deal a lot of damage if you’re greedy and hold the channel till the end. Their role is at the back, as ranged DPS.

Continues below

Continued from above

Guardian – Sunspear

The original Order of the Sunspears was slaughtered centuries ago, but some of its surviving members have preserved their paragon arts in secret. Sunspears wield two-handed tridents, and use boon banners. Their new mechanics are new wing virtue skills, and the Ascension, a boost transformation that temporarily boosts their stats and unlocks new boosted virtue skills. Their role is at the front lines, as a boon support spec. (Dragonhunter virtues would be updated to replace Wings of Virtue by something else)

Revenant – Hierophant

Abaddon fell centuries ago, but its servants still dwell in the shadows, led by a new generation of margonites. Hierophants wield an off-hand torch, and use Flame Legion magic by channeling the legendary Flame Legion Imperator Bonfaaz Burntfur. Their new mechanic is the relic, a summoned object linked to the active legend: Apocrypha, Tome of the Rubicon, Shiro’s Blades, Ventari’s Tablet, and Searing Cauldron. These relics unlock new devastating powers for each legend. Their role is at the back, as ranged DPS. (Ventari’s Tablet would be removed from the core profession, replaced by less-annoying to use skills)

Warrior – Corsair

The pirates of Elona are a military power on its own, famous for their skills at naval combat. Corsairs wield pistols in both hands, and use tricks. Their new mechanic is the kittenatrice, an exotic pet, half a combat rooster and half an annoying parrot. They’re specially skilled at killing other pets, and coordinate their attacks with their master’s trick skills. Instead of using multiple species of pets, the corsairs customize their pet slot through different types of combat armor. Their role is at the back, as ranged DPS and crowd control.

So, those are my ideas (With links to main forum posts with more information). Feel free to improve them, or make new ones yourself! (Don’t forget to link threads if you have them too)

Whatever happens, I hope the second generation of elite specializations isn’t another random mixup of roles with no attachment to the world whatsoever.

Whatever a kittenatrice looks like, I’m sure I want one!

I know what the new Dervish Elite will be.

“Wish of the Djinn” – Based on your attunement, for you and your allies, grant 1 stack of might, 1 stack of swiftness, 1 second of regeneration, or 1 stack of protection. 240 second cooldown.

Would be nice to see more lore behind each elite spec for sure, but I don’t know if I’d say not having lore behind them is a flaw. One thing that I do think would really add to them (as well as the story of the next expac) though would be to have one chapter in the story be different depending on which base class you have. It could be the very first chapter, which would be a way to introduce the elite specs (something like “Oh look, I can do this thing to help. I should do this thing. I like doing this thing. I’m good at this thing. I’m gonna switch to doing this thing and call myself a XXXX profession now”), or it could be somewhere in the middle or end of the story.

Regardless of where it is, I do think it would add a lot to the story. It would provide a real reason to repeat it on different characters outside of just getting more weapons for a collection. If done correctly, it could also provide a way to add a bit of background lore (but probably not as much as some people would prefer).

Uh, Illconcieved, this was about Elite Specializations, not Masteries. Completely separate things…

This is so rich. Even if any of these don’t make it out in the actual expansion, I would love the new elite’s to become sub sources for great lore i.e, direct from gw1 inspiration. As a gw2 novice, I aways hear many people referring to the first game when it comes to new content ideas, it being as one of the best games they’ve played and from the many kinds of lore I’ve heard and even classes out there, its no telling why.

Though a question of originality, having gw1 lore inspired elites will sure serve all the nostalgic fans out there but also I believe would help weave the two games together, a nice reminder that the two are not completely separate from each other and would surely enhance the gw2 world building.

These elite suggestions are the best I’ve scene: because yea you’re right. The classes don’t just come out of nowhere. And having this kind of theme would really do the exact opposite of limiting play style and imaginative gameplay. In fact, I believe it would give more incentive to create more diverse and very creative theme/gameplay for future elite specs as new expansions will (hopefully) be released in major regions of the greyed-out map, and this is a seemingly great a way to flesh out lore from the past and enlighten GW franchise newbies like me ^^

We’re not going to be getting new weapon types, especially not for single classes. Of course, Dervishes and Scourges could use Greatsword and Hammer, respectively.

Unfortunately, spears are strictly underwater weapons.

I for one would like to see a “new” elona embraced. too many people have hang ups and want throwbacks to GW1 when we have so much of the world steeped in GW1 lore already (and even a class dedicated in it’s entirety to GW1 references).

Elona has been split off from Tyria for 250 years, why not embrace whatever the “new” elona has become, and base the new classes on Elona’s current events, whatever those happen to be.

Don’t get me wrong, I love GW1, but this game is stuffed full of GW1 lore and references as it is. It’s time for something new

Elona is more of an arid area than anything in tyria so :

Elementalist : Earthling
I’m going to go along with you by chosing a Djinn transform as extra mechanism. Minions as utiliries (’cause why not?) and off hand torch as weapon (no reason really)

Engineer : Glass-blower
Change toolkit skills into some kind of glass clone thingy. Hologram skillset and well staff should be the most fitting weapon with a focus on fire type attack.

Guardian : Zealot
Extra mechanism : burst skills with rage bar. Weapon main hand pistol. Utility : Aria which are buff that refresh themself if you use a burst skill.

Mesmer : Mirage
Extra mechanism : extra dodge. Weapon : offhand dagger. Utilities : deception.

Necromancer : Withered
Extra mechanism : an F2 skill that use some endurance for something else than dodging. Weapon : Axe off hand. Utilities : curse (work like mantra)

Ranger : Stalker
Extra mechanism : grant stealth to you and your pet when using a movement skill. Weapon MH dagger. Utilities : tricks.

Revenant : Cantor
Extra mechanism : Hymn – upkeep skill that grant you an aura that depend on your secondary legend (shiro aura of darkness (new!), jalis frost aura, ventari light aura, mallyx poison aura and legendary cantor fire aura). Axe main hand (range 900, open rifts with every to hit your foes at range like you would if it was in mele range.

Thief : Dustdevil
Extra mechanism : Do aoe damage whenever you miss an attack due to being blinded. Off hand sword. Utilities : something inbetween coruption skills (mainly blind you) and stance.

Warrior : Champion
Mechanism : F1 skill depend of your off hand weapon (new set of mainly defensive/support skills). Weapon : Off hand pistol. Skillset : grenades which primary purpose is to make fields (a set of low cool down low damage skills).

We need profession lore, for every profession and elite specialisation. I half agree that the specialisations came out of nowhere, some of them were natural progressions of the classes (druid, chronomancer, daredevil somewhat), others had the smallest sliver of lore (scrapper, dragonhunter), while the rest still fit the lore of the classes but don’t have a basis set up for them.

With that out of the way, I have some issues with the classes that you’ve presented (and lets ignore the weapons for the moment):

Dervish elite spec for elementalist is actually a great idea since dervish in GW1 used earth and air elements for their attacks and spells. Mantras may by a good idea, i’d have to see how the devs handle it. The djinn mechanic does not work. First, djinn are already an existing sapient species in GW2, it doesn’t make sense to transform into one of them. Secondly, the transformations in GW1 were based on the human gods. I know this is a cool idea, but it doesn’t truly fit GW2 anymore because of the distance between GW2 and human-centric lore. There are other dervish mechanics that deserve attention more than the transformation. Also that would give the elementalist four more weapon skill bar abilities, they already have enough as it is, even if they are locked in their attunement for a while. Interesting idea but quite a few big flaws.

Bladedancer and axes don’t truly mix, so another name might be appropriate. The main mechanic should deal with illusions and shattering, the vortex does not seem to do that at all and on top of that is more like the warrior mechanic than anything to do with the mesmer. Honestly cantrips work better than tricks when it comes to the mesmer, the different dodge rolls could be a cool idea but again, the mesmer has better tropes to work with.

The scourge shroud idea is fine, but I see NO reason to add the swarm mechanic especially if you’re already updating the shroud mechanic. And why is the scourge in mummy wrappings? this one doesn’t make sense (for these reasons and another I’ll point below).

Engineers don’t use magic. That’s the entire POINT of engineers. They use technology and elixirs that mimic magical effects, but they don’t directly channel magic. The theme just doesn’t work and the entire thing collapses under this one fact. Also, why does the relic only interact with glyphs and the staff? That doesn’t make sense, it should be interactable no matter what weapon or utility skills are chosen.

Here’s a lore problem with the swampstalker: The hylek are wide-mouthed frogmen with lashing tongues and are descendants from the heket species of Elona. So you have that to work around. Plus you again use the swarm mechanic here when you also used it for necromancers. Mechanics are unique to each profession so already this shouldn’t be a thing. It’s more palatable if it’s removed from the necromancer (especially with the overload of necromancer mechanics you insist on) but still, why can’t rangers just tame swarms with their current mechanic? Why do all their pets collected up until now no longer matter?

The sharpshooter again has two mechanics, are these on top of steal, the current thief mechanic? or do they replace steal? How does the lockdown skill work with non-ranged weapons like mainhand dagger and sword? Also, you’re telling me that thieves can use gadgets, a form of technology, but engineers are forced to use magic? This discrepancy doesn’t work.

Sunspears have ‘winged virtues’? and on TOP of that a ‘boost transform’? This is way over the top and unnecessary, the virtues are the guardian mechanic and you should stick to that. Also, why should wings of virtue be replaced just because you want to hang on that mechanic for your elite spec? If you want to make a suggestion, you shouldn’t have to change what’s previously been made.

You start off the hierophant lore with something about Abaddon, but then swiftly turn around and say they use flame legion magic. That’s not Elonian lore, that’s Tyrian lore (Tyria the continent, not the planet). This is disconnected from the rest of your suggestions. Again, the relic is copied over from the occultist, so this mechanic shouldn’t exist. I agree that the ventari tablet needs redesigning, but the mechanic shouldn’t then be reused in an elite spec.

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Why should the corsair get a pet? That’s the ranger’s mechanic, it should not be on a warrior. Thematically speaking, I feel a warrior should not use tricks but this is the only one where I can possibly see an argument made against what I’m thinking. Why would the corsair pet only be strong against other pets?. Remember, you’re making these professions for PvE, not just PvP or WvW, so this specific enhancement of damage against other pets doesn’t work. Also, once more, you use utility skills that work exclusively with the new mechanic instead of having the mechanic be useful with every utility option.

You seem to fall into a few common mistakes:

The lorework seems quite a bit of a stretch at times, especially those relating purely to human centric ideas (why would a sylvari dress up in mummy wraps? why would any race except humans?).

You seem to add unrelated mechanics to professions for every single example (there is an argument that druid does this though). More synergy between the classes and their already established mechanics would better aid your suggestions.

You also seem to ignore the fact that profession mechanics are unique to each profession. Giving warrior a pet steps on the toes of the ranger mechanic and you’d be better off finding another alternative. Giving swarm to both necromancer and ranger when both of those classes have pet-like capabilities doesn’t make sense either and they step on each others toes. Giving relic to both engineer and revenant similarly does the same and removes the uniqueness of those professions by giving them the same mechanic.

These elite specs have the tendency to wildly divert from already established mechanics, so you’d be better off redesigning them using currently established mechanics.

As for your weapons, well you fell into the trap of providing weapon capabilities that shouldn’t really exist. Also ArenaNet have stated they will not add a new weapon for only a single class to use (so greataxe, one handed spears and land tridents would need to be added to other classes). I also believe that ArenaNet have stated they will only add a single weapon for each elite specialisation, so giving warriors dual pistols or rangers dual spears doesn’t seem to fit that philosphy, but Anet could change their mind in the future.

Good try, but needs a lot of reworking to make viable and the lore needs a good hard look to make sure it’s viable for every playable race, not just humans.

Nice ideas for specializations.

But i think “Elite specialization” is bad design.

Make all specializations equal and don’t change class(profession) name with specialization.
Maybe add 1 more specialization slot for next expansion.
Or expand each specialization with 1 more tier.

warrior corsair? sorry, that makes little sense for me, why would a corsair wear heavy armor?

Really love the occultist idea, though I would change glyphs to signets. Signets are actually rings imbued with magical power which fits nicely with the whole artifact idea. Also engineers are the only class without signets right now.

Xenon.4537:

Really love the occultist idea, though I would change glyphs to signets. Signets are actually rings imbued with magical power which fits nicely with the whole artifact idea. Also engineers are the only class without signets right now.

You guys have a clue about it, that Occultists have to do with rituals, or ??
They aren’t about technology or anything about relics that would make rifle/pistols wielding Engineers fit for them to be the Core Class…

If any Core Class at all fits for a ritual loving, demon loving, death loving, blood loving occultist, then its the Necromancer and nothing else!

costepj.5120:

Whatever a kittenatrice looks like, I’m sure I want one!

God kitten it, forum. I guess it’s “cokcatrice” for friends now.

OriOri.8724:

Would be nice to see more lore behind each elite spec for sure, but I don’t know if I’d say not having lore behind them is a flaw. One thing that I do think would really add to them (as well as the story of the next expac) though would be to have one chapter in the story be different depending on which base class you have. It could be the very first chapter, which would be a way to introduce the elite specs (something like “Oh look, I can do this thing to help. I should do this thing. I like doing this thing. I’m good at this thing. I’m gonna switch to doing this thing and call myself a XXXX profession now”), or it could be somewhere in the middle or end of the story.

Regardless of where it is, I do think it would add a lot to the story. It would provide a real reason to repeat it on different characters outside of just getting more weapons for a collection. If done correctly, it could also provide a way to add a bit of background lore (but probably not as much as some people would prefer).

It’s not hard to give them a bit of backstory, and it’s better for marketing overall, instead of making them pop up out of nowhere. New allied and enemy NPCs should use the new elite specializations before we do, too, sort of a preview.

I don’t like race or profession centric story instances, I’d rather get a bit of each but available to all characters no matter what.

Quiksilver.5786:

This is so rich. Even if any of these don’t make it out in the actual expansion, I would love the new elite’s to become sub sources for great lore i.e, direct from gw1 inspiration. As a gw2 novice, I aways hear many people referring to the first game when it comes to new content ideas, it being as one of the best games they’ve played and from the many kinds of lore I’ve heard and even classes out there, its no telling why.

Though a question of originality, having gw1 lore inspired elites will sure serve all the nostalgic fans out there but also I believe would help weave the two games together, a nice reminder that the two are not completely separate from each other and would surely enhance the gw2 world building.

These elite suggestions are the best I’ve scene: because yea you’re right. The classes don’t just come out of nowhere. And having this kind of theme would really do the exact opposite of limiting play style and imaginative gameplay. In fact, I believe it would give more incentive to create more diverse and very creative theme/gameplay for future elite specs as new expansions will (hopefully) be released in major regions of the greyed-out map, and this is a seemingly great a way to flesh out lore from the past and enlighten GW franchise newbies like me ^^

Thanks! All elite specializations can get some background with a bit of effort. It’s a pity HoT elite specs got no lore at all, when it would have been so easy to link them to the various factions involved in the storyline (Like a Zephyrite and Exalted background for tempest, daredevil, and herald).

Sartharina.3542:

We’re not going to be getting new weapon types, especially not for single classes. Of course, Dervishes and Scourges could use Greatsword and Hammer, respectively.

Unfortunately, spears are strictly underwater weapons.

Why not? There are no sacred rules regarding this. You’re locked in the past ^^.

Sartharina.3542:

We’re not going to be getting new weapon types, especially not for single classes. Of course, Dervishes and Scourges could use Greatsword and Hammer, respectively.

Unfortunately, spears are strictly underwater weapons.

Devs said at some point that new weapons are a possibility they want to look into after spreading the original weapons out a little.
While i agree that there probably won’t be a weapon per single class i wouldn’t say it’s completely off the table that we get new types.

castlemanic.3198:

…

My viewpoint of what elite specializations should be is slightly different from what we got with HoT. You could say it’s more ambitious. This is how I envision elite specializations:

• Upgrade/Variation for the core mechanic, when possible.
• New additional mechanic, separate from the upgraded core mechanic. This is the key of the elite specialization, and should change how you play it.
• The new mechanic, the new weapon skills, and the new slot skills need to have deep synergy, and work well with each other.

In other words, of all HoT elite specs, only the druid really satisfied me, in design terms.

Additionally, I’ll add that I would like to see core professions upgraded as well, giving customization options for the core mechanic. The ranger has multiple pets to choose from, why not give necromancers 3 different Death Shrouds to choose from too? Then add a 4th option with new elite specializations, instead of the all-or-nothing approach. Same for guardian with virtues, and mesmer with shatter skills.

The new additional mechanic doesn’t need to be 100% unique, either. Mostly because you can’t keep making new ideas forever, and some common ground could be interesting for gameplay. That’s why you see corsair with a ranger-like pet mechanic, scourge and swampstalker both with a swarm mechanic, or dervish with a necromancer-like Death Shroud mechanic. They’re the same, but with a different touch.

This approach can be specially positive for runes and other upgrades boosting said mechanics. A rune improving a pet or a transformation is only useful for rangers or necromancers, but if more professions get that as an elite spec option, you can devote resources to these ideas in a game-wide manner. You can also give said mechanics more important roles, like making 4 players with pets necessary for a raid boss, without needing 4 rangers.

Finally, by sharing mechanics across professions, you can devote more time to create new unique mechanics, because you’ll be able to reuse them later with other professions. See the swarm or relic mechanics, they could be pretty complex to develop, but since they’re used by multiple elite specs, they’re a better investment in the long term.

Note how my ideas have a deep synergy with Elonian assets, too. Most of the graphics needed would be reusable in the open world for other things. That’s why dervishes transform into djinns, because they’re cool, and because you don’t need a new model.

In the end these are just fan ideas, and explanations are nice, but don’t get too obsessed with viability from a developer perspective.

(There are also links in the main post, to threads focusing on each elite specialization idea)

castlemanic.3198:

mummy wrappings

Those are just a way of speaking, as to imply the scourge is mummy-like in theme. “Scarabs crawling from under the mummy wraps” sounds better than “scarabs crawling from under your dress”.

Xenon.4537:

Really love the occultist idea, though I would change glyphs to signets. Signets are actually rings imbued with magical power which fits nicely with the whole artifact idea. Also engineers are the only class without signets right now.

I chose glyphs because they have different versions depending on a secondary mechanic (attunement, astral form, and in this case, the relic), but anything could work as utilities for any elite specialization to be fair.

The Sunspear or Paragon Elite Specialization should utilize adrenaline to boost allies with chants. And didn’t Paragons use spears? Spear could become a non-aquatic main-hand ranged weapon.

i cant w8 for the exoac to be anounced and to have nothing to do with elona ohhh the salt " this was supposed to be a crystal desert expansion, you lied to us anet" better make that popcorn in advance

I would love to see Elonian elite specs skills!!
Very nice idea! I hope, hope this will come!
Specially Paragon Spears

Great ideas OP! Something that I could see differently is

Warrior: Dervish. Since the six gods have left, the dervish has abandonded magic derived through devine means and have reverted to their martial ways and pulling what magic they need through bloodstone sources. I think this coudl be a way to give the staff to Warriors. There are current staves that are in scythe form.

Elementalist: Corsair. There are plenty of corsair mages and this magic could further the arcane line type of magics.

Just a thought.

Great ideas. One has to wonder though, why most of the time it is so IMPOSSIBLE and UNSPEAKABLE to even think about new weapons/animations? I mean, they did it with GW1, Paragon, Dervish, Assassin and Ritualist all 4 had compeltely different battle postures/animations than the core classes, plus in the case of of all except ritualist, different weapons. I find it disturbing that some fans have come to accept no new stuff like weapons/armors/animations and even defend ANET when someone brings that up.

Is Anet really that crippled now, compared to GW1 days? Give me one good explanation besides the “Not enough resources”. I mean, they are selling expansion for a really nice price right there, surely they can dish out AT LEAST new weapons.

Lonami.2987:

My viewpoint of what elite specializations should be is slightly different from what we got with HoT. You could say it’s more ambitious. This is how I envision elite specializations:

• Upgrade/Variation for the core mechanic, when possible.
• New additional mechanic, separate from the upgraded core mechanic. This is the key of the elite specialization, and should change how you play it.
• The new mechanic, the new weapon skills, and the new slot skills need to have deep synergy, and work well with each other.

In other words, of all HoT elite specs, only the druid really satisfied me, in design terms.

This has nothing to do with ambitiousness. Just to let you know. I guess the druid fits that description, but really the decision to include glyphs was the reason why the synergy worked out. Glyphs, as they were designed on elementalist, changed depending on the attunement that was currently chosen. So if you were attuned to earth, all your attunements would be earth specific. Essentially you basically want every class to have a form of glyphs, which honestly won’t work out since glyphs are form/attunement specific.

Additionally, I’ll add that I would like to see core professions upgraded as well, giving customization options for the core mechanic. The ranger has multiple pets to choose from, why not give necromancers 3 different Death Shrouds to choose from too? Then add a 4th option with new elite specializations, instead of the all-or-nothing approach. Same for guardian with virtues, and mesmer with shatter skills.

I can see the argument for this, but I don’t necessarily agree with it.

The new additional mechanic doesn’t need to be 100% unique, either. Mostly because you can’t keep making new ideas forever, and some common ground could be interesting for gameplay. That’s why you see corsair with a ranger-like pet mechanic, scourge and swampstalker both with a swarm mechanic, or dervish with a necromancer-like Death Shroud mechanic. They’re the same, but with a different touch.

Except that’s exactly what the game was designed to be like. The mechanics of each profession ARE unique and were designed to be that way from the ground up. You’re throwing out previous design philosophies for the sake of… actually I don’t know why. Regardless, common ground mechanics wise was not the way professions were designed. If you give a warrior a pet, what’s the point of ranger? If you give elementalists a deathshroud like ability, what’s the point of necromancers? The mechanics NEED to be unique, especially from a design perspective. Since the next couple of paragraphs basically cover the same perspective, I’ll move on.

Note how my ideas have a deep synergy with Elonian assets, too. Most of the graphics needed would be reusable in the open world for other things. That’s why dervishes transform into djinns, because they’re cool, and because you don’t need a new model.

There’s a lore reason why you can’t transform into djinn, you’d need to get around that before you could implement such a thing, so it falls flat.

In the end these are just fan ideas, and explanations are nice, but don’t get too obsessed with viability from a developer perspective.

It’s cool as a fan idea, but it simply won’t work because of the viability from a developer’s perspective. I happen to like looking at things from a developer’s perspective to see whether some ideas can stick or not. From a developer’s perspective, everything you suggest can’t work and won’t fit into GW2 (especially some of the lore stuff).

Orpheal.8263:

Xenon.4537:

Really love the occultist idea, though I would change glyphs to signets. Signets are actually rings imbued with magical power which fits nicely with the whole artifact idea. Also engineers are the only class without signets right now.

You guys have a clue about it, that Occultists have to do with rituals, or ??
They aren’t about technology or anything about relics that would make rifle/pistols wielding Engineers fit for them to be the Core Class…

If any Core Class at all fits for a ritual loving, demon loving, death loving, blood loving occultist, then its the Necromancer and nothing else!

You seem to be getting hung up on the name “occultist” without considering the underlying concept. I suggest you read some HP Lovecraft if you want a better idea where I’m coming from. The concept is that there is ancient technology we don’t fully understand but the occultist studies it and attempts to use it. The ability of the technology seems like magic only because it is beyond our current comprehension.

Knuckle Joe.7408:

Is Anet really that crippled now, compared to GW1 days? Give me one good explanation besides the “Not enough resources”. I mean, they are selling expansion for a really nice price right there, surely they can dish out AT LEAST new weapons.

The reason we think this way is because in the 4.5 years GW2 has existed, Anet has never given us evidence they are either willing or able to deliver new weapon animations to player characters. They had to re-use hammer animations for the new melee staff on thief/rev. And if you actually look at those animations they transition very poorly. The character will “snap” from one pose to another in certain situations and it looks terrible.

Anet has good animators. They seem to be focused more on animating enemy creatures, raid bosses, world bosses, etc. That’s because technically speaking there are less transitions to worry about for NPCs. Also keep in mind animation is actually very expensive relatively. It takes many hours just to animate a few seconds of motion. If I had to guess (as a freelance animator myself) Anet is just trying to save money by re-using old animations and creating as few brand new ones as possible.

I know it’s not the answer you want to hear but it really does come down to “not enough resources”. Yes they could absolutely give us new weapons fully animated, but it would take away from some other area of production, and Anet has to make a cost/benefit decision regarding that.

Xenon.4537:

Knuckle Joe.7408:

Is Anet really that crippled now, compared to GW1 days? Give me one good explanation besides the “Not enough resources”. I mean, they are selling expansion for a really nice price right there, surely they can dish out AT LEAST new weapons.

The reason we think this way is because in the 4.5 years GW2 has existed, Anet has never given us evidence they are either willing or able to deliver new weapon animations to player characters. They had to re-use hammer animations for the new melee staff on thief/rev. And if you actually look at those animations they transition very poorly. The character will “snap” from one pose to another in certain situations and it looks terrible.

Anet has good animators. They seem to be focused more on animating enemy creatures, raid bosses, world bosses, etc. That’s because technically speaking there are less transitions to worry about for NPCs. Also keep in mind animation is actually very expensive relatively. It takes many hours just to animate a few seconds of motion. If I had to guess (as a freelance animator myself) Anet is just trying to save money by re-using old animations and creating as few brand new ones as possible.

I know it’s not the answer you want to hear but it really does come down to “not enough resources”. Yes they could absolutely give us new weapons fully animated, but it would take away from some other area of production, and Anet has to make a cost/benefit decision regarding that.

Fair enough man, and you’re right, the animation work in this game is one of the best I’ve seen in MMO’s its a shame they keep up recycling stuff. I can just imagine the hype that a new expansion with 2 new classes complete with their weapons/animations would bring to this game, but I guess that’s just stuff for subscription MMO’s.

And now that I think about it, I guess it would be too much work doing animations for 5 different races, but meh. Race lock could work around this, but people would lose their kitten with that. Still, a race-locked new classes/weapons could be way better than none at all.

Xenon.4537:

The reason we think this way is because in the 4.5 years GW2 has existed, Anet has never given us evidence they are either willing or able to deliver new weapon animations to player characters. They had to re-use hammer animations for the new melee staff on thief/rev. And if you actually look at those animations they transition very poorly. The character will “snap” from one pose to another in certain situations and it looks terrible

But wait, there WERE new animations, specifically for the staff on revenant and thief. The third attack on staff auto for BOTH revenant and daredevil actually show two new animations. The third autoattack on revenant consists of spinning the staff above their head which we havent seen before on regular weapon animations:

https://youtu.be/0zvfijc3SN4?t=932

That’s specifically on the human.

As for the daredevil, look at the twirl at the end of the staff autoattack:

https://youtu.be/WRaMsiVNO2Q?t=17

That wasn’t in game before either.

I know there were a lot of reused animations (hell, mesmer scepter autoattack is the same animation as those used by warrior mace autoattack and that was at launch), but it’s not fair to say they NEVER introduced new animations since, well, they did, clearly. It’s not much, granted, but they do seem to have been able to introduce a couple of animations for players, so maybe there IS hope. A very slim hope, but hope nonetheless.

(Also on the note of monster animation, how long do you think it took to animate all those arms around Deimos’ neck?)