Eles - Sword v. Pistols

Eles - Sword v. Pistols

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Posted by: lukejoe.1592

lukejoe.1592

Since Unload’s nerf killed P/P thieves (or at least made them less fun to play), I’ve been hoping for another P/P class to capture that game play style and sense of satisfaction of racing onto a point and blasting like a madman.

I think eles would be the obvious choice to go P/P. It would be fun, fast, magey, and fit very well into guild wars. An elemental gun mage makes so much innate sense to be that I’m not really sure why we got the warhorn spec at all, but what’s past is past. I think they could spice the ele’s mechanics up by letting you attune your right hand and left hand to two separate elements letting you mix and match fun combinations in your number 3 skill slot.

People seems committed to getting swords though. Not sure why. Melee mages would mess with the gear balancing, and we already have several poppy, evasive sword classes. Flash jumping like a lightning bolt and slashing with your sword is exactly like a guardian. Doing a basic attack combo that applies whatever predictable condition on the 3rd swing is exactly like the everything-else in the rest of the game.

What are the great ideas boiling up under the community that would make sword eles fun?

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Posted by: Tanner Blackfeather.6509

Tanner Blackfeather.6509

There’s nothing inherent in sword to make it melee for a caster, just look at Mes Greatsword and Rev Hammer.
On the other hand, ele has literally no melee weapon currently, just short range. I could see one flavored around stationary rather than mobile protection – functioning similar to Mes sword’s evade but flavored differently.

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Posted by: Faaris.8013

Faaris.8013

Since Unload’s nerf killed P/P thieves (or at least made them less fun to play)…

It’s interesting how anchoring worked here. I play a double pistol thief, but apparently only since the “nerfed” version. I never had more damage with Unload than I have now, and I think it’s fun! I prefer P/P over other weapons. I can use Unload four times until I run out of Initiative, and that’s more than enough to finish most mobs you just need to get out of your way. Each Unload stacks might and therefore, every next one deals more damage if you don’t pause too long.

I usually start a fight with P/P and after the fourth Unload, bring my staff into play. Then, when my initiative is full again, it’s worth switching back to pistols if you have a single target.

Since I never knew how it was before, I’m totally happy with how it is now. I did every story boss fight with double pistols, they are sufficient for everyday life.

Herleve – Ruins of Surmia

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Posted by: Cyninja.2954

Cyninja.2954

If they approach balance this 2nd elite specialisation the way they did the first, most classes will get a similar amount of new skills and mechanics.

Since many classes get a new 1 hand weapon with some exception getting 2 hand, it seems highly unlikely that elementalist with their inherent higher skills per weapon would get a main AND offhand weapon.

Your rational behind sword being melee is flawed. There is enough examples of “melee” weapons having range on multiple characters (mesmer – greatsword, necromancer axe, ranger axe, etc.)

In the end it will be up to arenanet to decide (which they already have by the way) which weapon to give each class. No matter of arguing or complaining at this point in time will change that.

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Posted by: Hot Boy.7138

Hot Boy.7138

I like the idea of dual pistol elementalist. Honestly, it doesn’t sound more fun to me than sword ele. And I really like the idea of sword ele, but imagine elemental bullets.

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Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781

Illconceived Was Na.9781

I think it’s hard to predict how people will make use of a weapon+skill set up. People initially loved Necro GS, then it went out of fashion, and now it’s (almost) back in fashion. It’s not so much because the skills changed a lot (although there were some changes); it’s more because we got more clever about using it or other weapons.

People make all sorts of predictions about the impact of future changes will be, they make declarations the day the changes are implemented, but it always turns out differently (sometimes wildly different, sometimes just a bit). I’m not going to worry about elementalist sword until I get a chance to play it.

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Posted by: Doam.8305

Doam.8305

None of the classes last time got a main handed weapon nothing but two and offhanded. So if anything it wouldn’t be a p/p ele but a main or offhanded pistol ele. They’d be like Necro axe or Mesmers pistol and I wouldn’t wish that for any other class.
At least mainhand Sword sounds better and its another melee option for ele.

I don’t want to crush your dreams or anything and I could be wrong because we’ve never had a class get a main handed weapon before. There is a visual leak that seems to prove that we might get a paired weapon but in other written leaks people have stated its a class mechanic so who knows.

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Posted by: Electro.4173

Electro.4173

Ele ever getting two weapons from a single elite spec seems highly unlikely to me.

Even if the rumored “Warriors getting dual daggers” E-spec does end up being true and proving its possible for a class to get 2 one-handed weapons from a single Espec, Ele is in a whole ‘nother league above that since they have attunements. Warrior getting dual daggers is still just 5 skills. Ele getting dual pistols would mean a whopping 20 new skills from the new weapons alone. That’d be a huge amount of extra work and effort above all the other classes, so for the sake of fairness as well as keeping workloads similar I think the best Ele will ever get is a mainhand weapon.

Mesmer is probably your best bet for a magic dual-pistol class. Lots of people are already clamoring for it to happen, and its a more reasonable wish since it’d just be a single mainhand weapon.

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Posted by: Sartharina.3542

Sartharina.3542

Ele ever getting two weapons from a single elite spec seems highly unlikely to me.

Even if the rumored “Warriors getting dual daggers” E-spec does end up being true and proving its possible for a class to get 2 one-handed weapons from a single Espec, Ele is in a whole ‘nother league above that since they have attunements. Warrior getting dual daggers is still just 5 skills. Ele getting dual pistols would mean a whopping 20 new skills from the new weapons alone. That’d be a huge amount of extra work and effort above all the other classes, so for the sake of fairness as well as keeping workloads similar I think the best Ele will ever get is a mainhand weapon.

Mesmer is probably your best bet for a magic dual-pistol class. Lots of people are already clamoring for it to happen, and its a more reasonable wish since it’d just be a single mainhand weapon.

Ele getting dual pistols isn’t any different from getting Greatsword or Shortbow.

I think each elite spec only comes with one weapon type, but nothing stops them from dual-wielding that weapon type (In the case of warrior daggers)

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Posted by: Astralporing.1957

Astralporing.1957

Ele getting dual pistols would mean a whopping 20 new skills from the new weapons alone.

And maybe 3-4 of them useful.

Actions, not words.
Remember, remember, 15th of November

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Posted by: draxynnic.3719

draxynnic.3719

Okay. Let’s talk swords.

First, as some people have mentioned, swords are not necessarily melee weapons. Secondly, as other people have mentioned, elementalist does not currently have a melee weapon.

These two factors might not seem to be compatible, but with the elementalist, they can be – you can have some attunements where the weapon is a genuine melee weapon (with enough defensive skills to balance against the naturally low armour and base health of elementalists – although in practise, well-played elementalists tend to be hard to kill due to a combination of defensive skills and self-healing as it is) and some where they have some standoff capability. Granted, other professions can do the combination of melee and magic, but no profession combines genuine melee with the constant attunement-swapping of elementalists. Engineers can come close with kits, but engineers and elementalists do have distinct feels and, for lack of a better term, a different flow.

Third, we have various precedents for a melee elementalist-type in the setting. The GW1 dervish was essentially a melee elementalist with a more limited list of elements – while the current reaper is pretty close to a Grenth dervish (as translated into GW2 mechanics), a sword or greatsword elementalist could fit well as the more modern analogue to a dervish using multiple elements. We also have the Aspect Arena, using Zephyrite skills, which includes a melee setup with the Lightning Aspect. And this is without going into things like the GW1 secondary profession mechanic (although, arguably, the berserker is a bit of a W/E in that respect).

More broadly speaking, combining a light or relatively light melee fighter with elemental magic is a common enough theme for people to have encountered it elsewhere and have a hankering to play it in GW2. Geralt from The Witcher is possibly the prime example, but not the only one.

Pistols, well… I can’t help but feel that while there’s no doubt that you could come up with some cool skills for elementalist pistols, when push comes to shove they’d just be another midrange option. A genuine melee weapon (on some attunements, at least), on the other hand, inherently allows for the possibility of a playstyle that just doesn’t exist in the game at present.

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