Racial Elite Specializations
Love the idea, but there’s a reason why racial skills are underpowered.
A-net didn’t want race to be a limiting factor for game-play. If race played a large roll in build-crafting, people would get restricted to playing a certain race because one race would be better in particular areas of the game than others.
The current racial skills are purely for flavour/aesthetic and are deliberately underpowered so they don’t compete with class skills.
Love the idea, but there’s a reason why racial skills are underpowered.
A-net didn’t want race to be a limiting factor for game-play. If race played a large roll in build-crafting, people would get restricted to playing a certain race because one race would be better in particular areas of the game than others.
The current racial skills are purely for flavour/aesthetic and are deliberately underpowered so they don’t compete with class skills.
Yeah, I do understand that, but making the skills practically useless renders them irrelevant to the point that they might as well have not been added to begin with. At the very least, I think adding racial elite specs would make race choice far more interesting and add even more flavor, so to speak.
One point in particular that has bugged me since the beginning of GW2 (and this largely contributed to the idea of racial elites for me) was the fact that when you play as an Asura, every other major Asura you know seems to have their own personal golem companion. It’s very much a part of their culture and when I looked at the likes of Zojja and Taimi, with Mr. Sparkles and Scruffy at their sides, it always struck me as odd that I, as their fellow Asura, didn’t also get to have my own golem that I could name and customize as my own. That’s where the golemancer idea came from.
I also thought it would be nice to give more meaning to character creation choices, like god choices for Humans or legion choices for Charr, which have basically zero impact on the game outside of the very early story missions (in fact, choosing a human god has zero impact at all from what I’ve seen). Those choices seemed rather pointless to me, and I always felt that the decision between human gods, or an Asuran colleges, etc, should have at least some potential impact outside of the story, in terms of how you play. It would also enhance role playing or build themes.
As for the build balance argument, I think it would be nice if racial elite specs were designed in such a way as to compliment existing builds without feeling too mandatory. As it is, current elite specs already run the risk of feeling mandatory for some classes. That’s a risk that will continue to be prevalent with all elite specs going forward, whether they be racial or not. It would be up to Anet to ensure things remain balanced.
There was a thread about WP’s idea for making racial skills useful but I can’t seem to find it. but here’s a link to the vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxmQoJeRlYc
I posted almost the same idea so I upvote yours.
I would really love something along the lines of racial specs to expand the lore, add variety and most of all give some identity back to our races.
To prevent from content exclusion, this specs could simply be pve only and not available in raids/fractals.
I would gladly pay for something like this, like a dlc. Because it adds variety without being forced to have it to play challenging content.
(we even thought of the same spec names for some races…)
I posted almost the same idea so I upvote yours.
I would really love something along the lines of racial specs to expand the lore, add variety and most of all give some identity back to our races.To prevent from content exclusion, this specs could simply be pve only and not available in raids/fractals.
I would gladly pay for something like this, like a dlc. Because it adds variety without being forced to have it to play challenging content.
(we even thought of the same spec names for some races…)
Well, considering Anet has already mentioned adding more elite specs, I see no reason why it would need to be pay for content (unless all new Elite Specs were planned gem store items from the start). Anyone who already paid for the expansion should be getting new elite specs as part of the package.
I personally don’t like the idea of having content that can affect gameplay (like new skills or traits) being limited to acquisition through micro-transactions though, because it will begin to segregate the playerbase further down the line based on who is the wealthiest.
Well, considering Anet has already mentioned adding more elite specs, I see no reason why it would need to be pay for content
I’m 99% certain they meant that for future expansion packs.
Well, considering Anet has already mentioned adding more elite specs, I see no reason why it would need to be pay for content
I’m 99% certain they meant that for future expansion packs.
I’m not sure personally, but I’d like to think they’d add more without us having to wait 3 years for another expansion.
Their words on it were quite vague though:
Source: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-two-reward-tracks-and-elite-specializations/
“Will There Be More?
When Heart of Thorns goes live, each profession will receive one elite specialization to supplement its five core specializations. We like to describe builds using the new system in two ways:
1. I am a(n) {profession name} specializing in {Spec #1}, {Spec #2}, and {Spec #3}. i.e., I am a ranger specializing in Marksmanship, Wilderness Survival, and Beastmastery.
2. I am a(n) {elite spec} specializing in {Spec #2}, and {Spec #3}. i.e., I am a druid specializing in Nature Magic and Skirmishing.
For now, characters will only be able to equip a single elite specialization. Doing so will be as easy as it currently is to swap trait points; simply exit combat and select your new elite specialization, or do it in Heart of the Mists for PvP. We made this system to build upon it, so let the speculation about future specializations begin before we’ve even revealed the first full set!"
(edited by Tenrai Senshi.2017)