Guild Wars 2

I know this topic has been discussed before, including the various difficulties in implementing such a system. However, what I would like to ask you all is if you could choose a different armour type as a specialisation choice for a class, what would you choose and why? I should point out, in order to give purpose to the previous specialisations, the weapons and thus skills/traits of those specialisations would be separate. I.e. you wouldn’t be able to use these armour changes as well as the first specialisations. Also, I propose a few skill changes on the existing weapons of the specific classes to reflect the specialisation.

I’ll give some examples, obviously not fleshed out, but to give an idea.

Guardian: Monk
This would entail wearing light armour, and focus on healing/ protection, ala the monk from GW1. Possibly with the aim of becoming more focused in this regard than the druid (and thus making the trinity more tangible). Perhaps increased range for the base staff attack skill, the other weapon skills focused on healing/ prot.

Necromancer: Death Knight
This would be a heavy armour wearing version of the necro, and so as well as relying on minions as extra meat shields, the Death Knight itself would be able to tank quite nicely.

Revenant: Dervish.

Another light armour choice, with the Legend being Warmashall Varesh Ossa. Visually, instead of a scythe, dual swords can be used (as in a traditional dervish). The class would be focused mainly on burst dps, and the sword skills would be reflective of this.

Well, these are some idea, would love to hear what the community might have to add.

It’s an interesting idea. Specializations can already be required for using types of equipment (specialization weapons,) so it’s not too far-fetched an idea that applying a profession could disable your current armor class and enable another one. As long as it’s done as a whole, it would avoid the mixing-and-matching problem, while opening up new looks for people.

Counterpoint: One of the problems with ascended armor is how difficult it is to build additional sets for alternate stat builds. Needing to build an additional set(s) for a specialization in a different armor class compounds the problem. Also, it might make balancing even more difficult, if, say, bunker eles suddenly have access to heavy armor.

How about an even more brittle glass cannon thief in light armor? Or dagger/pistol in heavy armor?

Honestly though, I think this messes with the balance too hard. Classes are balanced around their armor class, and as long as that new specialization doesn’t extremely limit what classes can do it will only result in total chaos. At that point, however, you could just add completely new classes instead.

Therefore, I’d rather see new uses for old weapons with future elite specializations.

Well, I did mention I know it would be a pain in implementing, and thus balancing. But I still would like to hear ideas on this theme. Even if it’s just a pipedream

There would be no reason not to choose heavy armor.

This sounds awesome, but it would require the entire armor system be overhauled.