Guild Wars 2

I’m sitting on 20 or so 80’s and well given certain balance changes would like to change up my toons a bit. If I had the option to profession change then I could take the same medium gear and use it to a better fit, how would a ranger perform in full commander gear with 100% boon duration, not sure but my engineer isn’t putting it to good use. I have quite a few toons I’d love to change profession since their viability in the builds I enjoyed playing is shot to @#$%. Anyway can we please get this, I know many have asked but given the headaches of HOT it might actually be a good way to preserve a strong player base otherwise Dragon Stand is going to be even more of a ghost town. On the server I’m currently playing I see the Meta finished maybe once a week? I like changing around on toons and playing different styles, but there is a bitter hatred of cookie cutter builds I have and for some of the classes I play they are doomed to be played once in a great while.

You do know that all pve maps are region wide right?

So your saying that either eu region or na region do dragon stand once a week?

Must be na since I know eu do it atleast once a day.
Just becouse your unlucky and dont get into the active maps dont mean that people arent doing it.

Linken.6345:

You do know that all pve maps are region wide right?

So your saying that either eu region or na region do dragon stand once a week?

Must be na since I know eu do it atleast once a day.
Just becouse your unlucky and dont get into the active maps dont mean that people arent doing it.

Look at his recent topics, he believes HoT metas are basically dead.
Since i am working on some collection + preperation for the next xpac + generally finishing some achievements i have left on the maps, i can say that he doesn’t know what he is talking about, i don’t even search for an organized group anymore like in the beginning and i get decent maps.

@OP
Also on the profession change:

1) if you have 20 characters you probably have at least 1 of every profession
2) I don’t recall being forced into a playstyle in open world ever … so that point doesnt hold true as well

Having played FF, I wonder why they can’t just let us level every job on a single character.

The first game had a secondary profession system where you could pick up pretty much anything from another profession and meld it with your primary.

The least they could do for the second game is to let us learn and switch professions, as long as you have to level all of them from level 1 that’s not much different from having alts, with all the things that are already shared between an account’s characters.

The only issue is that character slots would suddenly less attractive, so they would probably have to sell the option on the gem store.

Bearhugger.4326:

Having played FF, I wonder why they can’t just let us level every job on a single character.

The first game had a secondary profession system where you could pick up pretty much anything from another profession and meld it with your primary.

The least they could do for the second game is to let us learn and switch professions, as long as you have to level all of them from level 1 that’s not much different from having alts, with all the things that are already shared between an account’s characters.

The only issue is that character slots would suddenly less attractive, so they would probably have to sell the option on the gem store.

Yes and were do you suggest anet get the money for character slots that they then have to refund?

Bearhugger.4326:

Having played FF, I wonder why they can’t just let us level every job on a single character.

The first game had a secondary profession system where you could pick up pretty much anything from another profession and meld it with your primary.

The least they could do for the second game is to let us learn and switch professions, as long as you have to level all of them from level 1 that’s not much different from having alts, with all the things that are already shared between an account’s characters.

The only issue is that character slots would suddenly less attractive, so they would probably have to sell the option on the gem store.

Would love this, the one thing in FF14 I do really miss in GW2. But yeah I can see why this would impact Character Slot sales, and refunds sigh

Dominik.5162:

Linken.6345:

You do know that all pve maps are region wide right?

So your saying that either eu region or na region do dragon stand once a week?

Must be na since I know eu do it atleast once a day.
Just becouse your unlucky and dont get into the active maps dont mean that people arent doing it.

Look at his recent topics, he believes HoT metas are basically dead.
Since i am working on some collection + preperation for the next xpac + generally finishing some achievements i have left on the maps, i can say that he doesn’t know what he is talking about, i don’t even search for an organized group anymore like in the beginning and i get decent maps.

@OP
Also on the profession change:

1) if you have 20 characters you probably have at least 1 of every profession
2) I don’t recall being forced into a playstyle in open world ever … so that point doesnt hold true as well

First off no I didn’t say the Meta is done once a week. I said I see it done once a week, and given the current state of Doric, and many older maps like the Orr. If they are Meta exclusive to have access it can take quite some time to actually get where you’re going.

But in Dragon Stand there’s one major difference, during non Meta play times the Noxious Pods are rare you might find 10-15 running around the whole map while trying to avoid the mobs that travel the lanes.

Second you really believe any class can play any style and still be relevant in solo play of current content, which is what I mean by they are doomed to cookie cutters. Second raids are already doing that, but what’s most important for me at least is why I chose GW2 in the first place. They promised you could customize your characters and just have fun with the game, that your profession could play multiple ways and be relevant and in GW2 pre HOT they did follow through with that.

No elite specs are a necessity for current content and well everyone knows once you take a third of your traits and lock them in one style of play well the rest follow and this is how you get your class pigeon holed into a cookie cutter. So for classes like the engineer and ranger that their elite spec is designed around non open world content they can quickly find themselves being overrun by content without a group to compensate for their classes lack of an elite that opens up the current content. But there’s the other problem of elite specs that don’t compliment your play style, this is where HOT has really dropped the ball. It took the premise of GW2 and said it’s about the elite specs not players playing what they like. And that is why I would prefer a profession change, they already have the system look at the free 80 system they added in HOT, so why not open it up so new players aren’t discouraged to have to build another 80 because the profession they started or in my case the amount of 80’s I already have doesn’t help in having to make more.

This last note is a general one. I have 5 Necros and they are by far the only class that I can still play in different styles with different builds and still have fun with current content. Each of these are different in their approach to play and it makes it fun, so no more character slots won’t go away with a system like this. It will do more to keep a large player base and not discourage continued play. In HOT I’ve gone through too much regearing that is way too expensive to maintain. Since the November balance patch were nine of my current builds just started doing soo little damage they couldn’t down current content or became too squishy that I would get steamrolled like Doric where my Rangers that were running LB AW were forced to build for close combat since the staff does barely any damage add to that the pets were under performing for the bulk of the expansion, it wasn’t until Feb or Mar they finally fixed a ton of pet issues and it’s easy to see why someone would want this change.

I started with a Ranger and the fact that my main now is a Necro says a lot to how much current content has forced my hand to play a different profession. Before HOT I was content with one toon, now the costs of regearing and the balance changes that have made certain classes no fun to play is a huge reason I may not buy the expansion.

Hmm. I main a Ranger without using the Elite Specialization Druid. I’ve not changed my build since launch, really. I’m not into that kind of thing. I don’t really have any issue with new content. I wonder why you do with your Ranger.

Ah, well. Each to their own. Necromancers are pretty fun to play, as well. =)

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

I’m sitting on 20 or so 80’s and well given certain balance changes would like to change up my toons a bit.

With ~20 level 80s, you can change up your toons already. Assuming an even division, you have room for two builds per prof, so you can easily go with condi+power or DPS+support.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

If I had the option to profession change then I could take the same medium gear and use it to a better fit, how would a ranger perform in full commander gear with 100% boon duration, not sure but my engineer isn’t putting it to good use.

Are you saying you don’t have any rangers?
Or are you saying that you’d like to be able to re-use your soulbound exotics on… well, what amounts to another toon?

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

since their viability in the builds I enjoyed playing is shot to @#$%.

You didn’t mention how. While it’s true that there have been various balance patches, very few changes have shot build viability to heck. Pretty much any stat set|build can be used in this game for open world. It’s mostly a question of patience sometimes.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

given the headaches of HOT

And which headaches might those be? And how would profession change address that?

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

it might actually be a good way to preserve a strong player base otherwise Dragon Stand is going to be even more of a ghost town.

It’s not a ghost town now.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

On the server I’m currently playing

You realize that there’s no such thing as “on the server I’m currently playing”? It’s all megaserver.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

I see the Meta finished maybe once a week?

How often are you actively looking?

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

I like changing around on toons and playing different styles,

Sure, as do many people. Nothing wrong with that.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

but there is a bitter hatred of cookie cutter builds I have

What is a “cookie cutter build”? I’m not familiar with the term.
And if you hate it, why not swap to something you like? Most of the game is quite forgiving about build choice, as long as you’re willing to be patient.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

and for some of the classes I play they are doomed to be played once in a great while.

You’ll have to explain why that is.

I mean, there are a couple of profs that I just never have been able to enjoy — that’s why I have alts, so I can swap to ones I like more.

tl;dr
I’m unsure how it is you have 20 toons and can’t find a way to enjoy playing some of them with builds you’ve chosen. (I’m even less clear how this has anything to do with HoT, especially DS.)

Kept saying it was too long so I parsed it out in paragraphs.

Regearing prohibits wild trait swapping without requiring large amounts of bags space for multiple sets of armor. That is why it can be difficult to keep ahead of balance changes especially massive ones.

I have three. Lake Doric made the berserk gear with LB A/W incompatible with current content. Still have found a synergetic build that doesn’t make my Ranger have to try to kill everything but the cleric but if you do use a close combat weapon or staff that does miniscule damage and makes them agro to your Ranger off your pet. Lately Mesmers have basically put an end to survival and nature magic. I have a necro that didn’t have to give up his ranged attacks to fight Clerics but my Engineer, Ranger, and Warrior had to.

I don’t see how it’s another toon, when you consider that toon keeps the same living story and name. They already allow this swap for the free 80 you get from HOT. So why is odd? Also if you want to take a real life example of it. You don’t have to give away your stuff to change professions in real life. And you can use stuff from one profession in another so yeah it’s not unusual.

Patience, I guess if you don’t mind dying a lot and repair cost to rework through content again and again if your in the off hours or only play the game when there is a large player base in the content you’re playing. Sure I guess. Guild groups can help it’s a matter of being able to schedule play. So how is this a game one will play for long?

If you’re no longer liking the play style of a profession, why wouldn’t it help vs rerolling another profession from scratch?

Depends on what you consider a ghost town. A map with a 2 hour Meta that isn’t played more than a handful of times if you can’t get in on the full map and there isn’t another meta at the same time? Happens all the time. As I said initially I only see it completed once a week where when it was end game it was completed multiple times a day with plenty of opportunity to get in on a map that was actually running the meta.

You mean all of the reloading of zones after an event? That can take away material nodes or cause you to loose out on event rewards that multiservers use to combine many servers to make a large player base. But since wvw is based on servers they are still the foundation of the system which is why you have to reload zones otherwise like wow it would just do it automatically without you doing anything.

About once or twice week lately, but when I was pursuing the Electric Wyvern and Jungle Tiger pets I would pop in multiple times a day and when I was trying to complete the map with my main I would pop in a lot, took a couple weeks with one toon. The others well one was shear luck first time in. The other took a few days. Weekly I usually find it done once on average.

Cookie cutters are paste and copy builds for professions which many have had to adapt to for raids and pvp. Oh you play a Ranger here’s the paste and copy Druid for raids. This is your skill rotation. And so on. Balance patches should be about balancing multi builds but what you find is that it just turns into balancing professions so balance is simplified for easier control. Sadly though, this is exactly why I got bored with WOW. It’s no fun when end game is here’s the gear you need it costs ex, here’s your build don’t mess with it, and here’s your rotation. Don’t forget it and don’t stand in fire. This is the bane of MMO’s it strips classes of versatility and uniqueness. Eventually you’re either one of three archetypes. Tank, DPS, and Healer. Each has their place and each is boring. It was fun for a while, but that wares off fast as it’s just a distraction from the treadmill of gear progression.

When the synergy of the class isn’t fun. That is increasingly encompassing more and more professions and that’s definitely making me hold off on considering buying the expansion when it comes out. Would like to see them clean up content.

What repair costs?

You can pass your Ascended gear among your characters (of the same armor class).

I’m afraid the rest got lost on me. Sorry.

Think he was talking about the repair costs they removed 3 years ago.

The OP has about 20 characters, yet asks for an option to change professions due to builds no longer working?

Errr… logic?

@OP: How about changing the gear in the Mystic Forge instead? Also, what would changing professions do about your problem, since I am pretty sure you already have all nine professions covered in those 20 characters?

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

I have a necro that didn’t have to give up his ranged attacks to fight Clerics but my Engineer, Ranger, and Warrior had to.

Do I understand it correctly, that you want the ability to change the profession on the fly, in the middle of map (or anywhere), because some classes work better against some mobs and other classes work better against other mobs?

Linken.6345:

Bearhugger.4326:

Having played FF, I wonder why they can’t just let us level every job on a single character.

The first game had a secondary profession system where you could pick up pretty much anything from another profession and meld it with your primary.

The least they could do for the second game is to let us learn and switch professions, as long as you have to level all of them from level 1 that’s not much different from having alts, with all the things that are already shared between an account’s characters.

The only issue is that character slots would suddenly less attractive, so they would probably have to sell the option on the gem store.

Yes and were do you suggest anet get the money for character slots that they then have to refund?

Why would they feel compelled to refund character slots? Multi-profession characters have their pros and their cons compared to plain old alts. For example, alts have their own inventory space whereas if you had many professions on your character you would have to carry their gear somewhere. It makes character slots less compelling, sure, but it doesn’t make them obsolete. And if it’s a money issue for them they can sell alt-profession unlocks on the gem store, I would be fine with that.

Bearhugger.4326:

Having played FF, I wonder why they can’t just let us level every job on a single character.

The first game had a secondary profession system where you could pick up pretty much anything from another profession and meld it with your primary.

The least they could do for the second game is to let us learn and switch professions, as long as you have to level all of them from level 1 that’s not much different from having alts, with all the things that are already shared between an account’s characters.

The only issue is that character slots would suddenly less attractive, so they would probably have to sell the option on the gem store.

FF has a subscription based model. GW2 is Free to play, and the whole game + xpac is only $29.99 USD. If they made it so you could level all classes with 1 character, then no one would by character slots, and Anet would not make any money. The gemstore pays the bills, so that we can get more content. As nice as that would be, the only way I would want that is if the game introduced a subscription model. That way I could support Anet and gw2 development.

We need race change and profession change and the store will be complete. You’ve included the much contested max level 80 item that gives players a free level 80 character when buying the expansion for HoT so why not finish the job?

tigirius.9014:

We need race change and profession change and the store will be complete. You’ve included the much contested max level 80 item that gives players a free level 80 character when buying the expansion for HoT so why not finish the job?

No its not needed mate, buy more slots and make the race/class combos you want.

joneirikb.7506:

Bearhugger.4326:

Having played FF, I wonder why they can’t just let us level every job on a single character.

The first game had a secondary profession system where you could pick up pretty much anything from another profession and meld it with your primary.

The least they could do for the second game is to let us learn and switch professions, as long as you have to level all of them from level 1 that’s not much different from having alts, with all the things that are already shared between an account’s characters.

The only issue is that character slots would suddenly less attractive, so they would probably have to sell the option on the gem store.

Would love this, the one thing in FF14 I do really miss in GW2. But yeah I can see why this would impact Character Slot sales, and refunds sigh

Not when altwars 2/fashion wars 2 is your end game ^^ and well w/e sales they would lose in character slots they would gain in bag slots because i would sure as hell need 2 more inventories worth of space to have all the gear for 9 classes in 1 char xd

Also, they can charge this utility like e.g. “1000gems to unlock all professions of the same armor weight in this char and 2100 gems for all the professions”. Its not like if they ever added class swap they would give it for free so i might as well get this system instead.

Bearhugger.4326:

Linken.6345:

Bearhugger.4326:

Having played FF, I wonder why they can’t just let us level every job on a single character.

The first game had a secondary profession system where you could pick up pretty much anything from another profession and meld it with your primary.

The least they could do for the second game is to let us learn and switch professions, as long as you have to level all of them from level 1 that’s not much different from having alts, with all the things that are already shared between an account’s characters.

The only issue is that character slots would suddenly less attractive, so they would probably have to sell the option on the gem store.

Yes and were do you suggest anet get the money for character slots that they then have to refund?

Why would they feel compelled to refund character slots? Multi-profession characters have their pros and their cons compared to plain old alts. For example, alts have their own inventory space whereas if you had many professions on your character you would have to carry their gear somewhere. It makes character slots less compelling, sure, but it doesn’t make them obsolete. And if it’s a money issue for them they can sell alt-profession unlocks on the gem store, I would be fine with that.

Why would there be a need to refund character slots to begin with? This system wouldnt be free you would pay to get acess to this ofc alot of ppl just makee the same classes on other race gender combos for many reasons or just buy char slots for bank alts this wouldnt hurt anyone

I have 22 lvl 80’s

So I’m roughly where you are… I have 27 ascneded armors now… Given the fact the can be stat swapped and I’ll soon hve a legendary armor for my main warrior I will say.. yes sometimes you need a different run set or sigil replacement somewhere… It happens.

All characters are still viable for open world, all characters are still usable in dungeons, fractals and in most cases (for me) in Raids.

I have 3 warriors 1 for WvW and 2 PS-es, 1 power 1 condi for PvE/instances,
both PvE builds have roughly been the same for the last 2 years,
only the WvW build needed updating, but was okay before.

I have 3 guardians 1 for WvW and 1 for PvE/instances; 1 with a legacy burn build on exoitics; all gear have roughly been the same for well ~3-4 years now, only the WvW build needed updating, but was still okay before updating it just lacked some DPS.

I have 1 revenant in exotics, It’s a mule, and might get my cPS warriors’ ascneded set when it gets it’s legendary armor (nearly done) I’ll figure out what to do if that happens.

I have 2 rangers 1 for healing and PvE and 1 for condi in PvE
both builds have roughly been the same for the last 2 years…
The druid got a zealot armor next to it’s zerk armor, I have chests and gear for a magi build but cannot be bothered at this time. the condi build slowly migrated from sinister to viper’s and became meta recently

I have 2 thieves they used to be not meta and both for PvE mainly
1 is zerk and it’s build has not changed since launch, I am still using P/P and S/P cause I like it.
1 is condi… I made it 1,5 years ago, got it a viper’s set and started experimenting, t is meta now…seemingly. I still like it for PvE

I have 1 engineer , a Mule again in exotics. I find no reason to play it. It’s nice, It’s the reason why I bought the game, but I failed to connect to it or it failed to connect to me. It has asceded weapons.

I have 4 elementalists, 3 for PvE and 1 for other things,
1 zerk it is my main ele. It have played it with peasure for quite some time
1 viper’s it was the last oone I made I played it for about a year, experimenting with it only to find it has a place in meta now. my build was spot on, as were the weapons, I only needed 1 different utility.
1 Zealot (full) and/or Magi’s (full) healer it’s my main auramancer, I’ve ran auramancer since zealot appeared.
1 Minstrel (full) or Celestial (full) WVW bunker ele I can tak with it (very usefull at Cairn, the minstrel build has 90% boon duration with 150 AR and I’ve had fun runs while outhealing most dmg in t4 fractals. facetanking through social awkwardness anyone?

I have 2 mesmers I for PvE 1 for everywhere I like playing it, whcih varies from day to day (WvW/Raid).
1 PU condi it has been rabid, dire, sinister and viper in it’s 4+ year history. build is still the same.
1 chonomancer with minstrel, commanders and assassins gear. It is fun in most cases. I can restat an armor without much harm in the future.

And finally I have 4 Necro’s
My 1st Necro, started carrion, became berserker, later sinister, an goit a viper armor it traded with a sylvari for a trailblazer set. I now use it for WvW
My second was clerics and zerk, later zealot and clerics, I used it as midliner and frontliner healer in commander’s groups in WvW…
I made a sylvari eventually for a trailblazer necro for WvW, but it recieved the viper set when meta shifted from the 1st necro. So it’s my main instance necro now.
And lastly my last necro is only 2 months old and I wanted a berserker necro again for dungeons… I liked dungeons and I liked necro in dungeopns as well. So it had to come back… Not meta , still usefull, for me.

I maintain my armors and my runes, but it’s not a matter of life and death… Most older builds still do okay dmg. No they are not the most DPS, but they often do bring good synergies. I still use some vanilla builds, cause there are no HoT counterparts.

Excelsior.

Coming from FF14, I am happy this BS is not in GW2.
“Hey, I am a Black Mage, I am such a bad guy hiding myself in dark clothes and manipulate the ether to cast massive flares and fire IIIs on my poor enemy”

switches job stone

“Now I am a happy white mage, wearing all white clothes, I believe in the strength of nature and cast shiny heal skills or let rocks fly all over the place, with the power of nature!” or something like that.

It’s nothing but stupid. When my Asura is a thief, he is a thief, not suddenly turning into a ranger, and a ranger won’t probably even close to be an Engineer. Just like a ganster boss won’t be the Chief officer of the police department, and an electrician won’t become a surgeon within a blink of an eye.

My Lalafell was a Bard and a Black Mage. Those were not interferring with each other immersion wise. Switching around like crazy would also be super stupid to replace people in your group. “Hey, Bill’s not here, let me just click two buttons and do the content without him anyways”. 2 minutes later: “Sorry guys, here I am” “Sorry Bill, I just took your space”. So dumb.

Stop that nonsense already.

Linken.6345:

You do know that all pve maps are region wide right?

So your saying that either eu region or na region do dragon stand once a week?

Must be na since I know eu do it atleast once a day.
Just becouse your unlucky and dont get into the active maps dont mean that people arent doing it.

EU’s Dragon’s Stand is completed several times a day. The only times I have difficulties getting enough people for completing the event is 1:00 – 5:00am in the middle of the night (gmt-0 times) on weekdays.

Inculpatus cedo.9234

Not all of us have full sets of ascended gear. Most of my gear is exotic since I don’t currently do raid content.

Pumped.2371

No the cost to portal to the nearest Waypoint is still a repair cost.

seinka.4823

No I don’t mean that. In WOW they allowed you to carry different kinds of sets and preset builds that you could swap on the fly. You’re still same profession. This post is more about profession change, for when you’ve built up a character only to have the synergy of the profession work against your play style. This is where I think this would be beneficial, instead of starting from scratch.

If you aren’t doing raid content, then I don’t understand why you aren’t able to run any build you like, including what you refer to as “cookie cutter”. Although you cannot swap exotics, you can maintain multiple sets, which is what many people do.

I have nothing against a profession change option from the gem shop. All the same, it doesn’t seem that we “need” it, especially not if we have more than 20 characters — we can already accomplish the same goals. Seems to me that there are far, far too many other things that folks want for which there aren’t already alternatives.

Arenanet’s stance and comments on this type of request in the past have been:“Will never happen because technically to difficulty to implement.”

I don’t think this has changed so far. The problems they had when changing around the personal story was an indicator of how difficult and interwoven the original personal story and a character are.

That’s before even geting into any arguments for or against this kind of change.

tl;dr: never going to happen.

I really wish there was a Profession Change. I’m sure it wouldn’t be easy (though theoretically easier than other character changes), but it would solve a big problem I’m having right now.

When the game first came out, I wanted a Sylvari and a Human, and a Mesmer and a Thief. I wasn’t sure which should be which. Eventually I just picked Sylvari Mesmer and Human Thief even though I wasn’t really sure yet, and told myself that I’d forget about it eventually.

For the most part, this wasn’t a problem because I’m not much of an alt person and thus, even with the issues I had with Mesmer, I was able to stick to one character. However, recently I started playing my Thief a lot because I was trying to make back up money I spent and I consider him more of my gathering character. During this, I finally actually started to get the hang of Thief, and realized I was finally having fun with the game without having to force myself to play.

It might sound like the answer is easy: just switch to the Thief as my main. The problem is, when it comes to the character himself, I just can’t really seem to like him. There’s just something about the human male. Meanwhile, I still absolutely love how my Sylvari turned out, and my favorite armor set on her is the wedding dress anyway, so her appearance wouldn’t have to change at all.

The other problem is that I have a huge amount of investment in my Sylvari, from map completion to story to crafting. I could get a new character up to 80 in a second, but that’s the easy part.

If I could just pay to switch the professions of my Sylvari and Human though, it would fix everything. Then my human would be a reference to my GW1 Mesmer and I could hop over there when I felt like it, but I could continue to spend most of my time on my Sylvari, who would end up being a lot more fun.