Guild Wars 2

I know we’ll get more information on how specializations will work in the next coming months, but I’ve been thinking about this and would like to bring this up as a discussion/speculation.

It was said at PAX that specializations will be similar to a “second profession” like in Guild Wars 1, but it seems to me that specializations have the possibility of completely changing the profession, its playstyle, and its mechanics to the point that we will refer to a profession by a different name (for example, from a Ranger to a Druid).

If it worked out this way, could there possibly be an incentive to have 2 Rangers (both a Ranger and a Druid)? Do you think that a specialization could be so different in playstyle and mechanics from their original profession that they, in essence, become separate professions with only similar ties?

I know full and well that we’ll have more information on specializations before the release of the expansion, and I’m very excited for this system, which is why I am using this thread to discuss/speculate other people’s thoughts on this system before more information is available.

From what I’ve read, Colin said somewhere (one of the interviews maybe?) that you will be able to switch specializations just like you are able to switch traits and utilities anytime you are out of combat. So technically you’ll be able to play either ranger or druid on just once character.

Personally, I already have double (or even tripple) 80s of several classes, and tend to choose which one to take depending on how they’re currently equipped/traited. E.g. if I took mesmer A into WvW yesterday and still have her traited and equipped for that, I’ll likely take her into WvW again today instead of mesmer B who’s currently equipped for dungeon running.

I do change traits and equipment around fairly often though (and have equipment for different game modes on all of my characters), so I may well end up with taking mesmer B into WvW and mesmer A into dungeons next week .

What I am really hoping to see with specializations is build templates. I already have a hard time keeping track of all the trait and equipment set-ups for my characters, and need to look up builds for my lesser-played classes constantly (or just don’t bother retraiting in the case of my warrior ). Re-speccing to a whole new specialization sounds like even more of a hassle. A couple of template slots that allow you to save trait and utility set-up would go a long way here to make changing between specializations much less painful.

I don’t think there’s a reason to get two of any profession. One new healing skill, one new elite skill, and a set of new utility skills, plus a new weapon and some changes to class mechanic,….this isn’t anywhere close to “So different its a different profession”.

I think people are blowing these specializations up a little more than they actually are.

Some people are right about one thing…..GW2 is a balancing nightmare. If the specializations were really so different from existing professions, then Anet would have 18 professions to balance instead of 9, which would mean nothing would get done very often.

call me Sunny Optimistic if you want, but I look forward to using my staff with my pets, and using axes with the new utility skills, and I’m not worried in the slightest about being locked out of things for being a Druid.

Templates would be REALLY beneficial, especially for the swapping of specializations. Would love to see this again.

I’ve already got five rangers at 80 so you won’t see me doubling up anytime soon.

Chrispy.5641:

I don’t think there’s a reason to get two of any profession. One new healing skill, one new elite skill, and a set of new utility skills, plus a new weapon and some changes to class mechanic,….this isn’t anywhere close to “So different its a different profession”.

I think people are blowing these specializations up a little more than they actually are.

Some people are right about one thing…..GW2 is a balancing nightmare. If the specializations were really so different from existing professions, then Anet would have 18 professions to balance instead of 9, which would mean nothing would get done very often.

call me Sunny Optimistic if you want, but I look forward to using my staff with my pets, and using axes with the new utility skills, and I’m not worried in the slightest about being locked out of things for being a Druid.

In the interviews Colin has said that it will be much more than just changing some skills, there will be also trait changes and changes to the profession mechanics.

I’ve only found the classes in GW2 to be interesting enough to have two builds at most, as such I can get away with just one character of each class with an alternate set of armor and weapons in their inventory to satisfy all the builds I could possibly ever want. If specializations are actually good enough for me to explore third or fourth options I might just start doubling up on classes.

Going based on the way they ran GW1, and that the specializations are a more balance-able answer to secondary professions, I have no reason to expect that you can’t change your specialization.

Also going off of how ANet has done this stuff in the past, with secondary professions and attributes in GW1, and with traits in GW2: When they first release specializations, you will probably have to pay some gold-sink fee to “reset” your character to default and choose another specialization.

Then later, when everyone has gotten the hang of specializations and people get better at using the specializations effectively, they’ll open up specialization changing so you can do it anytime outside of combat. Which is how all the things I mentioned at the beginning for both GW1/GW2 eventually worked out.

Yeah, it was also stated in the same interview I think, that you can change between specializations freely.

I really hope that switching between the specialization and the “base profession” will be easy enough and not cost a lot of money. Would be cool if it was freely switchable outside combat, like traits, utility skills and gear.

Also really hoping we would get templates, OR at least that traits and utilities save separately for spec/base prof.

I hope they won’t make it changeable in dungeons… Being able to change traits and skills makes stuff easy already… making the specialisations also changeable in dungeons sucks really hard… #PermanentInCombatInDungeons

Lazaar.9123:

Chrispy.5641:

I don’t think there’s a reason to get two of any profession. One new healing skill, one new elite skill, and a set of new utility skills, plus a new weapon and some changes to class mechanic,….this isn’t anywhere close to “So different its a different profession”.

I think people are blowing these specializations up a little more than they actually are.

Some people are right about one thing…..GW2 is a balancing nightmare. If the specializations were really so different from existing professions, then Anet would have 18 professions to balance instead of 9, which would mean nothing would get done very often.

call me Sunny Optimistic if you want, but I look forward to using my staff with my pets, and using axes with the new utility skills, and I’m not worried in the slightest about being locked out of things for being a Druid.

In the interviews Colin has said that it will be much more than just changing some skills, there will be also trait changes and changes to the profession mechanics.

Okay, so, Skirmishing gets switched out for Shamanism or something, and you have the option to switch pets for whatever the new mechanic is, still doesn’t really count as a whole new profession.

Chrispy.5641:

Okay, so, Skirmishing gets switched out for Shamanism or something, and you have the option to switch pets for whatever the new mechanic is, still doesn’t really count as a whole new profession.

Not meant to be a whole new profession, just a sub-class. That’s what Revenant is for.