Guild Wars 2

Is anyone else feeling nervous that they are going to make Professions irrelevant with the elite specializations? I was under the impression that the elite specs would provide alternate ways to play a class, not just a BETTER way to play a class.

Is this just me?

I guess I am mainly just concerned with how the current ones are looking compared to the Professions they are from. Like Tempest, it looks to be ele but with over charge abilities and more utility without losing anything.

Am I missing the downside to Elite Specing?

I understand it takes a trait line, but from what they have shown so far any of these elite spec lines blow all the other lines out of the water already…

I really don’t want be be forced to make my Ranger a Druid if i don’t like the way Druid plays. Yes i understand you don’t HAVE to elite spec, but if the elite spec is so much more powerful then the Professions won’t have any place anyway.

Thoughts?

“Like Tempest, it looks to be ele but with over charge abilities and more utility without losing anything.”

Except the ability to use that attunement for quite some time after overcharging it you mean?

lordkrall.7241:

“Like Tempest, it looks to be ele but with over charge abilities and more utility without losing anything.”

Except the ability to use that attunement for quite some time after overcharging it you mean?

I don’t think the cooldown is long enough to be honest. Sure you won’t be able to rotate as quickly, but cycling through all of the elements and using 1 or 2 more abilities than you would have before will allow you to go back to the one you started with by the end.

seems like a valid fear. I however see these elite spec as “an expansion” because when you think about it they are just one extra trait line, you are still an “elementalist” but instead of a secepter/dagger you go scepter/warhorn with added skills, you can completely ignore these if you want to or go “full temptest” dont worry have fun and enjoy the elite spec.

I’ve been kind of wondering the same myself. I have multiple characters that share professions, and elite spec’ing seems like a great way to differentiate my overlapping professions. That said, however, I also hope that elite specs don’t outshine the core profession should you choose not to use that trait line.

Elite specs do lock you down two only two other trait lines.

In the case of Tempest, you also have to stay in an attunement for a while before you can overload it, then sending it on a long cooldown. Many (I daresay most) elementalists move between attunements quickly, outside of the camp-in-fire PvE build.

The elites are there for more options, but you won’t be able to use all current builds in a class and still take an elite. There are tradeoffs for all of them (class-specific forums will detail them more if you care).

To echo Palindrome, the tradeoff for using an elite spec is supposed to be being unable to go into three of your core spec lines instead of only 2. That is only a tradeoff, of course, if you are making a meaningful choice by giving up that third core traitline in your build setup. Using Necro as an example, if I go reaper, I couldn’t take Foot in the Grave, Vampiric Rituals, and Unholy Feast as Grandmasters alongside the Reaper traitline. Now, having a cleaving, melee deathshroud with new abilities and better life force generation is a pretty big buff compared to the clunky life blast we have already. That issue is largely one of balance/content, not an issue with the concept of elite specializations themselves. Also consider that with the ability to change traits on the fly, you are still free to optimize your loadout for a situation where the elite spec may not be optimal or necessary. And I believe, for elite specs to not be a straight upgrade, there has to be content where it would not be optimal to swap them in.