Guild Wars 2

Has it been explained yet, what the trade off will be between these two groups?

Mesmer got off hand weapon and a new set of 67890 skills.

guardians getting Longbow which is two hander. Will they get a nice set of 67890 skills as well like mesmer, or not?

Yes

All elite spec will get 6-0, 1 heal 4 utility and 1 elite.
1h will get get a new 1-3
2h will get a new 1-5
and off hand will get a new 4-5

As far as I am aware they will all be roughly equal in terms of game-changiness

The Chronomancer gains Alacrity, as well. There’s no guarantee, as of yet, that every other specialization also gains access to a new unremovable buff or the ability to double-cast elite skills. It could be that specs with two-handed weapons gain fewer, or less impactful, non-weapon resources.

What ArenaNet said was that each elite specialization was supposed to be equally fun and rewarding to play. That doesn’t mean each of them gets the exact same list of benefits, as such a stance would tremendously limit ArenaNet’s flexibility in creating new specializations. People are flippin’ their hairpieces over the minutiae and making all kinds of accusations about ArenaNet ‘favoring’ certain classes simply because they get more weapon skills.

Well, how ‘bout this – the Chronomancer gets to pick between melee-range Power sword attacks or distance Malice scepter attacks while still making use of 100% of its new specialization mechanics, enabling it to pick where it wants to be. The Bowdian gets to use a Longbow, and if it doesn’t like those Longbow skills it gets zero granularity to decide “Hey, maybe if I used a Focus or Shield instead…”

Two-handed weapon means it gets five new weapon skills – or zero new weapon skills if it wants to use its non-weapon mechanics with something other than a Longbow.

The combination of utility/healing/elite skills, traits and changed/added profession mechanics (such as an F5 ability and alacrity) together are far more important than whether or not you get 2 new weapon skills or 5 new weapon skills.

That said, I do remember Anet saying that those elite specializations that do not get a 2-hander will be compensated somehow. How exactly can’t really be answered until we can properly compare for example the chronomancer to the guardian’s elite specialization.

If ele gets sword for elite spec. , then it’s 3×4 = 12 new weapon skills. (If ele gets new attunement it’ll be 16 + new skills from old weapons) and he can still add dagger/focus for offhand. I think that’s a nice compensation for ele

Diovid.9506:

The combination of utility/healing/elite skills, traits and changed/added profession mechanics (such as an F5 ability and alacrity) together are far more important than whether or not you get 2 new weapon skills or 5 new weapon skills.

In practice, that’s not true, at all. Weapon skills are the ones you press 90% of the time, they are the prime build defining feature of any build and playstyle.
No matter how they twist it, some professions getting 5 weapon skills and others getting only 2 is an enormous difference.

Khenzy.9348:

Diovid.9506:

The combination of utility/healing/elite skills, traits and changed/added profession mechanics (such as an F5 ability and alacrity) together are far more important than whether or not you get 2 new weapon skills or 5 new weapon skills.

In practice, that’s not true, at all. Weapon skills are the ones you press 90% of the time, they are the prime build defining feature of any build and playstyle.
No matter how they twist it, some professions getting 5 weapon skills and others getting only 2 is an enormous difference.

If it substantially changes how a profession plays, then why does it matter how many weapon skills you get? It’s about roles and play style, not some simplistic skill calculus.

Khenzy.9348:

In practice, that’s not true, at all. Weapon skills are the ones you press 90% of the time, they are the prime build defining feature of any build and playstyle.
No matter how they twist it, some professions getting 5 weapon skills and others getting only 2 is an enormous difference.

You’re stating that 1-5, by themselves, outweigh literally every other facet of one’s build all taken together, such that the ‘loss’ of three weapon skills means an offhand spec class is categorically inferior to a 2h spec or Mainhand spec class.

1-5 outweigh your traits, equipment, utilities, healing, elite choices, as well as your profession mechanic and profession-specific functions. All at once.

You realize how ridiculous that sounds, right?

Again – a Chronomancer is balanced such that the player can use either MH sword or MH Scepter and still gain 100% of the Chronomancer’s new abilities. Furthermore, utility cooldowns are falling and their impact is rising since the days of launch, when they were largely pointless. And if you don’t feel like the Chronomancer is worth your time? Don’t play it – run a base Mesmer instead with a 2H weapon. Or wait for the time when Mesmers get a hammer elite spec or a bow of their own, as they otherwise use every other 2H in the game already, eh?

Khenzy.9348:

Diovid.9506:

The combination of utility/healing/elite skills, traits and changed/added profession mechanics (such as an F5 ability and alacrity) together are far more important than whether or not you get 2 new weapon skills or 5 new weapon skills.

In practice, that’s not true, at all. Weapon skills are the ones you press 90% of the time, they are the prime build defining feature of any build and playstyle.
No matter how they twist it, some professions getting 5 weapon skills and others getting only 2 is an enormous difference.

What they said of the professions that are getting off-hand or one-hand only weapons is that they’d get something “Just as good” as getting the remaining 2-3 weapon skills.

You can see this in practice with the Chronomancer reveal: the mechanics the new spec brings into play offers a LOT, more than enough to outweigh a couple new weapon skills. I’m referring to the new shatter, Continuum Shift and it’s incredibly powerful effect.

It is unreasonable to expect that every profession will gain something as intrinsically powerful as Continuum Shift as their new profession mechanic, or even the supplied new effects/skills/traits. It is a good move on Anet’s part to limit the other benefits of the new specialization in the cases (like the mesmer) where the new mechanic is extraordinarily powerful.

As such, expect any profession set to have a new 2-hand weapon to play with, to have a much more limited mechanic for that specialization.

The thing is, for most classes, a new Mainhand or Offhand results in more builds than a new Two-handed weapon. Why? Because of getting more weaponsets.

Shield gives Mesmer two new combinations. If it had gotten a Mainhand instead, it would have gotten a whopping four new combinations.

If Warrior gets a new Off-hand, they gain three. If they get a Main-Hand, they get five!

If a Guardian gets a new MH, they gain three. If they get a new OH, they gain 2.

If a Ranger gets a new MH, it gains four. If it gets a new OH, it gains two.

If an Elementalist gets a new MH, it gets two combinations – same for if it gets a new OH.

Thieves are particularly exciting because of their dual skill mechanic. A new MH gives them two new combinations while a new OH gives them three new combinations – but each of these combinations is also worth more because of the addition of an interesting new dual skill.

The only exception really is the Engineer, which is so limited by its low base weapon pool that a new OH only accounts for one new set while a new MH only adds two.

So for every non-Engineer profession, MH/OH weapons give more mileage. Yes, they don’t have five new skills, but the potential for new builds increases more than with a two-handed weapon.

You know those other skill slots aren’t BLANK, right?

A new novelty 2-H weapon does not intrinsically beat being able to mix-and-match a new 1-hander with your existing weapons.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

The only exception really is the Engineer, which is so limited by its low base weapon pool that a new OH only accounts for one new set while a new MH only adds two.

So for every non-Engineer profession, MH/OH weapons give more mileage. Yes, they don’t have five new skills, but the potential for new builds increases more than with a two-handed weapon.

but engineers get 2 new skills instead of 1 for each new heal or utility skill that somehow compensate the weapon problem I think

btw do you think that engineers will get elite toolbelt slot for F5? ^^

MaXi.3642:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

The only exception really is the Engineer, which is so limited by its low base weapon pool that a new OH only accounts for one new set while a new MH only adds two.

So for every non-Engineer profession, MH/OH weapons give more mileage. Yes, they don’t have five new skills, but the potential for new builds increases more than with a two-handed weapon.

but engineers get 2 new skills instead of 1 for each new heal or utility skill that somehow compensate the weapon problem I think

btw do you think that engineers will get elite toolbelt slot for F5? ^^

Vanilla engineers get it already. Yes… Elite skill gets a toolbelt skill. For example X potion can be tossed for aoe moa and morta does an orbital strike