Obviously they were in Guild Wars 1, and were a big part of what I think made that game interesting. They even seemed kind of integral to the ‘Guild Wars’ brand, or were at least something I definitely associated with it. So I guess the question is, why not have them in GW2?
It would certainly help expand the number of viable builds (something this game has always seemed to struggle with.) It also seems like it would go a long way towards accomplishing the original mission statement ArenaNet laid out prior to GW2’s launch, (the one about every class being able to more or less play any role it wanted) that I always felt the game fell far short of. Honestly, I think GW1 did a better job of meeting that goal than GW2 has.
I’m not sure how hard it would be to implement, but I definitely think it could work. You could differentiate the starting professions by limiting their ability to take the traits/specializations of the secondary prof. (like, force them to always have at least 2 specializations from their starting prof. and have the elite specializations HoT made available locked for secondary professions.)
As for skills, don’t ban anything. Let them mix and match weapon skills (so, for example, if you were running W/N with a greatsword, you could choose the Necs. autoattack on 1, the warriors hundred blades on 2, etc.) Honestly, I think the game might even benefit from unlocking the last five skills on the skillbar. IE, if you don’t want to run a healing skill or an elite, you don’t have to. If you want to run 5 healing skills, then you can. Obviously only one elite, but other than that it just seems like options are needlessly limited.
I mean, I guess this is just my opinion. Maybe people love the game the way it is and would hate being given more options, but at least in my mind, having more potentially viable builds and ways of playing can only be a good thing. It might hurt balance in the short term, but I definitely think it would improve the game in the long term.
I guess I’m posting to see if anyone agrees, or in the hopes that Anet will randomly notice and decide to go along with the suggestion?