Guild Wars 2

Been browsing over the forum and i couldn’t find (or i must have missed) a topic on Elite Specialization, thus i created one.

As introduced earlier, “These are the brand-new level-80 specializations that.. …introduce new weapons, mechanics, skills, and traits to existing professions in Heart of Thorns”. In short, it provides players a new way of doing things.

I haven’t realized the extent of the new things until i started playing it during the beta weekend. And i am both excited and disappointed.

For the elite of elementalist – the tempest – and that of the necromancer – the reaper, i am truly delighted as to how it was conceptualized, designed, and implemented. It truly showed an elite class for both professions – be it the new skills, the improved profession mechanics, and the effects and animation. I found that its name (i.e., tempest, reaper) live up to what it can do and show.

For the elite of mesmer – the chronomancer, i feel short changed. while the idea or concept is nice. i think, it seems to be not as elite as the earlier professions i mentioned above. i guess there is this challenge on how to manipulate time and space but not making the profession too powerful against the rest. but then again, there is this other side of the coin – that is unintentionally reducing the mesmer’s elite potential into making the elite class just another trait of choice.

For the elite of guardian – the dragonhunter, i felt lost. While the new profession mechanics, specially the “wings” effect, seems to be fitting and timely for its elite class; the bow, the traps, and the name makes me think “what the hell am i doing?, am i a ranger now?”. maybe I was hoping the guardian’s elite will enable guardians to be better in what they do – just as how the tempest and the reaper gave justice to the elite class of their respective professions – instead of turning it into a ranger with wings.

Experiencing the elite classes during the beta weekend, i fear that the ranger’s elite class will again be a disappointment – that is turning the ranger into something different instead of making it into a better ranger.

I guess it is truly a new way of doing things – be it making the profession better or changing the profession into something different.

In the end, i truly hope there is still a way to improve the chronomancer and the dragonhunter (including changing the name to something better, please). And make the remaining elite classes, including the druid, comparable to what was done with the elementalist and the necromancer.

I agree about the Reaper and the Dragonhunter (especially the name. come on.), but I would have to disagree on both the tempest and the chronomancer.

the chronomancer was not a massive difference compared to mesmer, but it felt to me like the most of polished of the elite specs. it wasn’t too powerful, but it was new, interesting, and possibly the most fun to play.

tempest, on the other hand, brings nothing new to the Ele, the overcharges leave you as a sitting duck, and the shouts were lackluster at best. I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy it, and I still feel like it’s the worst elite spec to date.

Worst spec hands down has to be the Tempest. New utilities leave much to be desired, the new elite only worked randomly and lets not get on the topic of how gods awful the warhorn is…. Overloads by design could have been good, but sitting duck channeling skills on the lowest armor and life class in the game have never been that great to begin with, why do you think Earth 5 on Dagger is mostly ignored as a skill?

Chronomancer seems to be a niche, some of us loved it, others hated it. I happen to be in the first category of loving it and actually enjoying mesmer more while playing it. It felt very polished and clean and fun. So out of all the ones we got to test Chronomancer was my favourite out of this BWE.

Dragon Hunter hopefully gets a name change…… really guys Guardian to a Dragon Hunter, where does that even sound like it works conceptually? Guardian to Avenger would sound and work much better or heck Paragon/Paladin both would work as well. The playing, minus I didn’t give all but the ring trap much credit for any good was fun and liked the feel of the update of the class mechanic, they felt nice. Though I will admit I totally forgot to try out the elite on the Gaurdian while I was playing it.

Reaper may have been better to me if I wasn’t such a scrub Necro, but as I am a scrub with the class it was sort of click buttons and hope it does what I want. As well didn’t really notice much difference in damage from my DPS Wells build to Reaper build when using wells. The new skills I was probably not using to the utmost effiecency though, just like old. But I did not really enjoy the feel of the greatsword, wish I had something else to play with like dual axes or a great-axe(though that would require a new weapon.)

Gray.9041:

tempest, on the other hand, brings nothing new to the Ele, the overcharges leave you as a sitting duck, and the shouts were lackluster at best. I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy it, and I still feel like it’s the worst elite spec to date.

I agree with this. And to further this point, the elite spec does not at all fit what I would think to be a ‘Tempest’. 2 of the 4 overloads have nothing to do with storms/weather, the shouts do not fit, and the rebound is a mesmer skill that would not even be good enough to be a regular utility on a mesmer bar.

This isn’t nearly as important, but i feel it’s unnecessary to create a whole new thread for it:

Why call it “specialization” if there’s only one per profession? A specialization warrants multiple choice, as without it there’s nothing special at all; you’ll be exactly the same as everyone else. “Special” is a path one chooses that is very different from all others. And as there is only one path to choose for each profession, it just sounds really bad and is also misleading to call them specializations. There’s far more choices in the existing hero-point progression already. Thus they should be called “expertise” instead, as that is an improvement that doesn’t warrant multiple choice. Everyone can have the same expertise, but everyone cannot have the same specialization as the meaning of the word “special” more or less is “close to unique”. Everyone having the same path to go no longer makes it “special”.

Sorry for the English lesson, but this is how it actually works in the real world and i’m surprised that nobody at AN have picked up on this already. Considering that there’s so many different concepts to keep track of in GW2 already, i find it important to give each additional feature names that accurately describe what they actually are. Calling expertise “specialization” is the very opposite of this.

RobbySpry.2671:

This isn’t nearly as important, but i feel it’s unnecessary to create a whole new thread for it:

Why call it “specialization” if there’s only one per profession? A specialization warrants multiple choice, as without it there’s nothing special at all; you’ll be exactly the same as everyone else. “Special” is a path one chooses that is very different from all others. And as there is only one path to choose for each profession, it just sounds really bad and is also misleading to call them specializations. There’s far more choices in the existing hero-point progression already. Thus they should be called “expertise” instead, as that is an improvement that doesn’t warrant multiple choice. Everyone can have the same expertise, but everyone cannot have the same specialization as the meaning of the word “special” more or less is “close to unique”. Everyone having the same path to go no longer makes it “special”.

Sorry for the English lesson, but this is how it actually works in the real world and i’m surprised that nobody at AN have picked up on this already.

because they’ll add more as time goes on?

dsslive.8473:

because they’ll add more as time goes on?

Will they? Nowhere among the official publications or websites concerning HoT have i found anything that hints this. If you’re right, i think they should make this more clear directly on heartofthorns.guildwars2.com, as thus far they’ve just revealed one expertise per profession.

RobbySpry.2671:

dsslive.8473:

because they’ll add more as time goes on?

Will they? Nowhere among the official publications or websites concerning HoT have i found anything that hints this. If you’re right, i think they should make this more clear directly on heartofthorns.guildwars2.com, as thus far they’ve just revealed one expertise per profession.

they’re only adding one per profession for now (read: with heart of thorns), with more to be added in the future.

plus,each class now has six specialisations, 5 core and 1 elite.

RobbySpry.2671:

dsslive.8473:

because they’ll add more as time goes on?

Will they? Nowhere among the official publications or websites concerning HoT have i found anything that hints this. If you’re right, i think they should make this more clear directly on heartofthorns.guildwars2.com, as thus far they’ve just revealed one expertise per profession.

They said this in interviews, and i think even one of the blogposts. The HoT site only focuses on whats in the expansion, not what’s coming in the future after it.

Gray.9041:

tempest, on the other hand, brings nothing new to the Ele, the overcharges leave you as a sitting duck, and the shouts were lackluster at best. I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy it, and I still feel like it’s the worst elite spec to date.

While it is a recurring comments on tempest, I disagree totally that it brings nothing. It is a new gameplay, a new dynamic brought to the class. Now that people don’t enjoy it because of numbers or whatever is a different story, that can be easily changed. But overall the concept is good since it is new. I’ve seen many Ele in game camping the same elements over and over, I’m sure they may be interested by tempest. Those players who actually switch their attunements permanently won’t.
The spec is a support spec but felt different to me as other support specs of the class and in that the goal of bringing something new is achieved. Numbers will most probably change over time but the design is nice for me.
Take all the professions into account and think if you like say bleeding signet earth ele, mantra healing Mesmer, venomous share Thief, turret engineer, banner support warrior…… those are specs that offers a different gameplay to those professions but they are far from being popular. They could be better sure, but I think tempest will be such a spec, not too much played in competitive environment but for those wanting a different gameplay it’ll serve its purpose.

The Tempest and reaper looks cool? – yep true…
The Dragonhunter looks like… strange ranger… with an uncertain role? – yep true…
The Chronomancer hasn’t any real difference against mesmer? – agane – true…

But! Guys… if we talking about PvE…. i think you’re missing one big thing about… “specialization”.
And this thing is: For now most common “LFG” sounds like – "ONLY “meta build” (2ele, 1 thief, 1 war, 1 gward)". It’s realy bouring, but it works…
So… Sorry my french but … How, the hell, new “tempest” (or any other of the above) specialization can change it?

I mean, it looks like, common staff build (if we talking about ele, still have more DPS)…. And mesmer and necro still have lower DPS than common “meta build party”.

In the end we have realy good specialization (i’m realy like it… m\b except “dragon-humster”)…that no one will use! Because ppl say:kitten#8230; let’s kick this low-dps-junk from party!

IMHO: DLC must change main rule not only… scenery. For example: for now we have sistem with 4 “PVE professions” (war\ele\thief\gward), and 5 “PvPprofessions” (mesmer\engineer\necro\hunter\and thef). Sure, you can play all you want! But I’m talking about the average data.

So… why not to change it? I mean – Ideally all profession must be good in both direction.

But m\b i’m – wrong and Annet just wants convert game in to full PvP game. Without any good PvE content… yet, it looks like ..

Well the Reaper was cool to play and i really enjoyed it to play ,but it felt so clumsy with his sword and the only skill that made dmg was for me skill 2 or trying to get into the reaper mode ,which looked pretty kitten and fun aswell to play , but still same concept autoattack does more dmg…. Also i was kinda hoping it would get some range sword skills,instead of going melee.

Chronomancer was fun to play , but seriously you literally popped for everything you did a clone and your skills became so spammable.You could smash your face on the keyboard and this over and over and over ,because everything was reloaded so quickly … And Yeah shield seems to be strong and fun aswell ,but still was like the mesmer i know before just with more spamming at all.

Tempest… Well yeah was fun to play and overloading attentunes was op , but i didnt saw the sense in some warhorns skills tbh … just weird and more or less not wisely to use also it felt better to dont use that trait , because other trait lines are more effective and thats sad !

Dragonhunter felt sooo wrong … i played that class and was like okay … why traps and bows ? I mean is this the first step to try to copy other class mechanics into others ? okay so … when ppls will get kits on elementalist or on warrior ? … it was kinda weird and yeah still fun to play ,but didnt got the sense in it at all.it did some dmg , but still felt so wrong.I mean from a mystic power and light support classes into a …. ranger with wings , that want to heal ? ..

Some of them where really fun to play , but i still hoped for more skills and a better trait or so … or that it will unlock other traits and skills … you know like when you pick up one this traitline all your baselines skills will be changed or so except granting access to another weapon and not forcing you to use that trait …

And i still wonder how the other specs will be … but if i think about engi i may will be dissapointed by anet totally …. because hammer melee skills felt so wrong and drones ,which are 2-3 hit and probably 20 sec cd … would be awfull …

Please make those specs usefull and also another kind of options and not ruin them for some classes …. they could give us freedom on how to create our play our classes so ppls wont be able to say im ele and done maybe they can say im ele or im tempest or so .. more class variations.Thats what im hoping for !

So yeah lets see how it will be … i wish there will be some amazing maps and stuff so far and more skills and better specs ideas for some classes … or i would go into the maguuma jungle with a mixxed feeling and being sad that for example for my engi my spec would be totally garbage ,while other classes profit from theirs ,that would be just weird and totally a fail tbh …

They should be usefull for all classes ! So make them good and awesome ! I hope for the best for hot !