Guild Wars 2

DiogoSilva.7089:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Hope so as specializations doesnt bring all that much to waste a week per one specialization when in reality there not much going for them from my pov. 1 new weapon, 6 new skills (heal, 4 utility, elite) and new traitline with slighty modified class mechanic doesnt cut the problem base classes suffer from.

In the CDI threads where the concept of sub-classing was discussed, some anet’s devs were very interested on the idea of quests/ adventures being required to unlock sub-classes. So that may very well happen, and if so, who knows, maybe specs will bring new lore, in addition to the new adventures, to the world as well. And, perhaps, we’ll also get spec-themed armor sets for each one of them too? I don’t want to hype it too much, but if Anet once thought they could dedicate one whole week for each spec, then it’ll probably be a bit more elaborated than merely “some new skills and some changes to existing skills”.

Spec-themed armor that everyone will be able to wear just like revenant set.. Makes no sense. Now if they were restricted to profession sure, count me in but it wont happen. Quest/Adventure? Possibly but i hate that thing already. I want to unlock it via skill points and forget, also its forcing people that pvp olny to actually play pve otherwise they will be at huge disadvantage vs pve’ers.

I think their decision behind that was to create a delay in information and hold on with release date a bit longer as to this day we have no idea when they going to release ls3+feature pack called HoT, but based on that what you said and how their blogs sounds lately its safe to say that it coming sooner than we think. Either way for me specializations are nothing special but a few extra skills with slighty modified class mechanic in current state. Ofc im not saying specializations arent interesing but they are overhyped for me

Well if they are overhyped it would be because we’ve heard comments from Arena Net themselves saying things like specializations are akin to be sub-classes or similar to secondary professions from GW1.

Colin Johanson himself says “….they get new profession mechanics that fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays when they become a Druid.” Interview Link

The important bit here is the fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays. I’m not sure about most people but I believe this to mean that playing a Druid will not feel like playing a Ranger.

PCGamer asks Colin “Beyond having a different weapon, how different will the druid specialisation be from a ‘standard’ Ranger?”

Colin’s first sentence reply is, “We’re really trying to make it feel like it’s almost a sub-profession or a secondary profession if you will, and not just a new set of a couple of skills.” Interview Link

Again, more evidence that they are supposed to feel substantially different.

This is why some general information, and possibly an example of one Profession’s Specialization, is very much being asked for; a lot of people, myself included, want to just see an example of how different will a Specialization be in gameplay from the base Profession.

Thus far, the way Arena Net has been talking about it makes it seem as if they will be very different. If they are not, it would be nice of them to temper our expectations, just like Bobby Stein did on PoI yesterday with the Personal Story overhaul.

Mar.4839:

fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays

Yet druid is still stuck with pets. Druids probably will get F5 key with special skill but rest most likely will remain the same. We have seen warrior with f2 grayed out in poi – guess what? They still utilize adrenaline.

Grayed out f2 leads me to think that their new f2 key is for new weapon olny. Which leads me to guardian.. We have seen leaked skills of guardian longbow – they gain a off/def stance (f4?) but thats..for longbow olny it seems.

We also seen ele sword placeholders – they still utilize attunements.. Nothing to be impressed about in current state. I hope they prove me wrong but i dont see that happening outside of “new tech” and cool fx effects on their new skills and ul.

Scoobaniec.9561:

Mar.4839:

fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays

Yet druid is still stuck with pets.

That was probably meaningless hype, just like the “revolution” they promised when they released GW2. The specializations appear to be the same old professions with just a few extra skills.

Test.8734:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Mar.4839:

fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays

Yet druid is still stuck with pets.

That was probably meaningless hype, just like the “revolution” they promised when they released GW2. The specializations appear to be the same old professions with just a few extra skills.

I’m not sure if “revolution” is the correct term but they definitely made a lot of improvements over typical MMO elements. IMO we just take it for granted now because a lot of it is little things but when you take all the small parts and bring them together, it’s a refreshing system.

Here’s a thread by a recently new player from Reddit

Yeah it’s one person but I, and I’m sure many others, feel this way too.

@Scoobaniec: Yes Druids are still stuck with pets but we have no idea what changes have been made to them. For all we know the pet could play a much less important part when it comes to the druid as in maybe instead of 30% of a Ranger’s damage coming from a pet, now just 10% of it comes from the pet along maybe the pet being uncontrollable or maybe it does certain things when you use certain skills.

We just do not know because they haven’t elaborated on any of it other than Druid’s mechanic still utilizes pets.

Thus I would greatly appreciate it if Arena Net just clarified, by demonstrating, what to really expect from Specializations. Saying that the Druid is supposed to be like a secondary profession and then showing that its mechanic still utilizes pets is very confusing and really doesn’t explain much at all how different a Druid can be from the base Ranger.

DiogoSilva.7089:

The one time I chatted with Roy Cronacher in-game (revenant’s designer), he said they would probably reveal 2-3 specs each week, and only after that would they show everything else about the revenant. But it was clear to me that no definitive plans were set in stone yet.

That makes sense. 1 week for light professions, 1 for medium and 1 for heavy with revenant as the last reveal with each week’s specs showcased by a livestream on Friday.

so, will we get something today?

Lamu.8453:

so, will we get something today?

Maybe?

Usually blogs comes later in the week though.

I doubt it. There was some heavy news yesterday. It sort of sets the tone for not much happening this week. Would be weird to release exciting news so quickly after yesterday.

Just my take on it, never know.

I’m wracking my brains to think what “heavy news” you mean. We didn’t get anything game related, and while some awful things have happened (and keep happening) in the world, I can’t see how any of them would delay normal business at ANet.

Donari.5237:

I’m wracking my brains to think what “heavy news” you mean. We didn’t get anything game related, and while some awful things have happened (and keep happening) in the world, I can’t see how any of them would delay normal business at ANet.

Yes I’m talking about the news yesterday about the memorial Mike Zadorojny made. Of course it will not delay normal business (as shown by Mike doing this in his spare time) but add onto the fact that there was no Wallpaper teased yesterday either (which they seem to always do before doing a reveal).

It certainly doesn’t paint the picture of a reveal of anything major as far as this particular week is concerned.

I wouldn’t mind being wrong though.

I think most of us can agree on the fact HoT has some making up to do, and we’re anxious to see what that entails. By going off how Mike O’Brien presented HoT’s announcement at PAX Anet feels the same way. Heart of Thorns has to be a home run. Anything less will be seen as a dissapointed compounded with the fact they halted the short but entertaining LS releases.

I’m giving Anet the benefit of the doubt with specializations. Whether they decide to reveal the other subprofessions or not before release just make sure they are complete and bug free.

Mar.4839:

Test.8734:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Mar.4839:

fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays

Yet druid is still stuck with pets.

That was probably meaningless hype, just like the “revolution” they promised when they released GW2. The specializations appear to be the same old professions with just a few extra skills.

I’m not sure if “revolution” is the correct term but they definitely made a lot of improvements over typical MMO elements. IMO we just take it for granted now because a lot of it is little things but when you take all the small parts and bring them together, it’s a refreshing system.

Here’s a thread by a recently new player from Reddit

Yeah it’s one person but I, and I’m sure many others, feel this way too.

@Scoobaniec: Yes Druids are still stuck with pets but we have no idea what changes have been made to them. For all we know the pet could play a much less important part when it comes to the druid as in maybe instead of 30% of a Ranger’s damage coming from a pet, now just 10% of it comes from the pet along maybe the pet being uncontrollable or maybe it does certain things when you use certain skills.

We just do not know because they haven’t elaborated on any of it other than Druid’s mechanic still utilizes pets.

Thus I would greatly appreciate it if Arena Net just clarified, by demonstrating, what to really expect from Specializations. Saying that the Druid is supposed to be like a secondary profession and then showing that its mechanic still utilizes pets is very confusing and really doesn’t explain much at all how different a Druid can be from the base Ranger.

It could also be that the pet now simply “buff” the Druid / the Druid has spells that change a little depending on the pet, instead of the Pet attacking stuff. Just because you saw a pet doesn’t mean it still behaves like a ranger-pet.

Shiki.7148:

Mar.4839:

Test.8734:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Mar.4839:

fundamentally change the way a Ranger plays

Yet druid is still stuck with pets.

That was probably meaningless hype, just like the “revolution” they promised when they released GW2. The specializations appear to be the same old professions with just a few extra skills.

I’m not sure if “revolution” is the correct term but they definitely made a lot of improvements over typical MMO elements. IMO we just take it for granted now because a lot of it is little things but when you take all the small parts and bring them together, it’s a refreshing system.

Here’s a thread by a recently new player from Reddit

Yeah it’s one person but I, and I’m sure many others, feel this way too.

@Scoobaniec: Yes Druids are still stuck with pets but we have no idea what changes have been made to them. For all we know the pet could play a much less important part when it comes to the druid as in maybe instead of 30% of a Ranger’s damage coming from a pet, now just 10% of it comes from the pet along maybe the pet being uncontrollable or maybe it does certain things when you use certain skills.

We just do not know because they haven’t elaborated on any of it other than Druid’s mechanic still utilizes pets.

Thus I would greatly appreciate it if Arena Net just clarified, by demonstrating, what to really expect from Specializations. Saying that the Druid is supposed to be like a secondary profession and then showing that its mechanic still utilizes pets is very confusing and really doesn’t explain much at all how different a Druid can be from the base Ranger.

It could also be that the pet now simply “buff” the Druid / the Druid has spells that change a little depending on the pet, instead of the Pet attacking stuff. Just because you saw a pet doesn’t mean it still behaves like a ranger-pet.

Yes, if that is the case then I’ll love playing the Ranger even more. If Druid’s pet will be similar to WoW’s Warlock class then I will be very happy. The warlock is a pet class but the pet is basically a buffer and if the warlock pet happens to die then it is not too much of a hindrance to the Warlock (you can still do loads of damage and have utilities available). But this is because the flavor of the Warlock is that the pet is not a pet but just a demon minion serving the Warlock, thus the interdependence between the two is much less than WoW’s Hunter pet class.

Looks like another week without info. About druid;

In the trailer we have seen pet rushing to something once the vine skill was casted so i doubt druid will get f1-4 abilities based on pet.

Yeah, but we get sort of open beta next week and that’s BIG I guess. Now I think we will get release date short after that, and between this announcement and release they will be showing the best stuff – 3 weeks of specs (every week 1 heavy, 1 medium and 1 light) and Guild Halls. With premiere very late Q2 – early Q3. These are my hopes :P
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-stronghold-pvp-public-beta-is-coming/

I think they said 1 week, 1 specialization.
And before specialization, we are still waiting for revenant second half and I’m sure they got some stuff under their hand like :
- The new ally you’ll encounter
- The amazing stuff we’ve come to for fractals
- Guild hall
- Bestiary of the maguma jungle
- Another thread on what happened during LS1&2
- Annoucement about spvp tournament
… etc.

Lamu.8453:

Yeah, but we get sort of open beta next week and that’s BIG I guess. Now I think we will get release date short after that, and between this announcement and release they will be showing the best stuff – 3 weeks of specs (every week 1 heavy, 1 medium and 1 light) and Guild Halls. With premiere very late Q2 – early Q3. These are my hopes :P
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-stronghold-pvp-public-beta-is-coming/

It is open beta for the PvP map. Not HoT as a whole. It will only be that single map and it will only be for 24h.

About 1 spec/week we got another, equaly possible option (unofficial conversations)

The one time I chatted with Roy Cronacher in-game (revenant’s designer), he said they would probably reveal 2-3 specs each week, and only after that would they show everything else about the revenant. But it was clear to me that no definitive plans were set in stone yet.

That’s why I think 1Heavy+1Light+1Medium is the most fair scenario. If we got PvP Open Beta next week and Stress Test 2 weeks behind us, what ArenaNet needs more to place release date? They don’t even need this PvP beta honestly. I don’t think they will show us more PvE content before release, WvW was definitly tested by prof. testers (we can see a lot of folks on WvW trailers).

If they want to release HoT in late August, why would they do PvP event 5 months earlier? If all specs will be shown in 3 weeks, +1 Guild Halls, +1 Revenant, +1 Open Beta, +1 Legendaries that’s only 7 interesting info/events until realease. We can be sure they are aiming at 1 something every week since they haven’t skip any since first blogpost, so what with other 10 (weeks)?

IMO 1 spec/week is impossible now, because there are not enough weeks until Q3, even late, to show everything. I hope so :P

9 Classes = 9 Weeks (this includes Revenant and its own Specialization, Rev Blog will just be the most fleshed out blogpost, because of the new general class)

1 Week for Guild Halls.

Thats so far 10 weeks, or 2 1/2 months.
Currently we have the 9th April.
Add 2 and a half months on that and we would be already nearly in July.
Gamescom for a big info event will be roughly 5 to 6 weeks later in Germany/Cologne

So, what can Anet basically put into these 5-6 weeks to buy themself some time to keep people entertained and busy while they wait on the big deal?? :

• Return of SAB?
• A new WvW Tournament
• BLTC Updates with stuff, that we know, will come, but hasn#t been brought into the game yet, like the Countess Anise Outfit
• Blogpost about the new Allies in HoT and the races and enemies there, like the Itzel (so a Lore Blogpost)
• One week will surely also be used explicitly for the new legendary weapons and a more dtailed recap of the changed Precursor Crafting with some new infos about it, perhaps with some new surprice infos about something like Jeweler/Chef 500??? to be added finally to make the Craftign Jobs finally complete and equal for all of them.

and then on gamescom drums

Release Date/ playable Demo, like they did it with the Main Game 2010 before of its release, where they officially announced the game

They don’t need 9 straight weeks to give us information on the specializations. The lack of information on this feature probably shows that either::
- Anet is saving the info to build more hype (since its been falling pretty hard since hitting critical mass back in January), or,
- they don’t have everything finalized yet (most likely), or,
- they aren’t just doing a few specializations and skill updates, they are actually giving each profession a major overhaul to fix all existing problems or at the very least the professions that need it most (Necromancer and Ranger probably)(also…least likely, otherwise this stuff would have been planned way back in 2012 when everyone saw the problems and constantly railed on Anet for the problems that still haven’t been fixed).

Chrispy.5641:

- they aren’t just doing a few specializations and skill updates, they are actually giving each profession a major overhaul to fix all existing problems

Oh god, I would take back any complaints I’ve ever had about Anet if this were true.

CambrianExplosion.6394:

Chrispy.5641:

- they aren’t just doing a few specializations and skill updates, they are actually giving each profession a major overhaul to fix all existing problems

Oh god, I would take back any complaints I’ve ever had about Anet if this were true.

Well, in the least, I think I recall one of the devs mentioning that there were gonna do more balance changes on base professions.

CambrianExplosion.6394:

Chrispy.5641:

- they aren’t just doing a few specializations and skill updates, they are actually giving each profession a major overhaul to fix all existing problems

Oh god, I would take back any complaints I’ve ever had about Anet if this were true.

Link or didn’t happen. I’m pretty sure that won’t happen but I’d like to be wrong.

witcher.3197:

CambrianExplosion.6394:

Chrispy.5641:

- they aren’t just doing a few specializations and skill updates, they are actually giving each profession a major overhaul to fix all existing problems

Oh god, I would take back any complaints I’ve ever had about Anet if this were true.

Link or didn’t happen. I’m pretty sure that won’t happen but I’d like to be wrong.

There was an Angry Joe interview where they mentioned revisiting current professions. But how much they actually look at it is the real question. Is it just a balance patch? Or would they really rework some skills and traits across all professions? Two very different things there.

Chrispy didn’t say it was true, s/he just posited it as one possibility and set it as “unlikely” compared to his/her first option.

They said several times that the new skill technology they have is going to affect some existing professions and existing skills.

Like the Stability changes and the condition changes.

Hopefully this new skill technology will fix what often breaks some professions, such as pet/minion AI. My level of confidence that Anet actually fixes the AI without breaking more things though, is somewhere between atoms right now.

TBH I feel like they should have held off on announcing the expansion until they had more info to give. I can accept the excuse that a lot of content just isn’t ready to show off yet, but all that leaves myself and many others in the community with is a huge sense of burnout.

Even just a POI talking about the names and concepts behind the specializations would be BEYOND amazing right now. No specifics on mechanics, just the thought process behind the ideas for the specializations. You could even break it down into three POIs or something, picking three specializations for each one of them. Put a week or two between each of these goldmines, do whatever you need to, but we need SOMETHING.

It was amazing of them to give us the info they have about Revenant. That was great. The Stronghold and new borderland stuff was interesting too, but they keep rehashing the same info every week it feels like. When we have to wait an entire week between updates only to find a crappy recap of what’s already been covered, it’s beyond frustrating. You’re tying dynamite to the rails of the hype train.

Sieg.8439:

TBH I feel like they should have held off on announcing the expansion until they had more info to give. I can accept the excuse that a lot of content just isn’t ready to show off yet, but all that leaves myself and many others in the community with is a huge sense of burnout.

Even just a POI talking about the names and concepts behind the specializations would be BEYOND amazing right now. No specifics on mechanics, just the thought process behind the ideas for the specializations. You could even break it down into three POIs or something, picking three specializations for each one of them. Put a week or two between each of these goldmines, do whatever you need to, but we need SOMETHING.

It was amazing of them to give us the info they have about Revenant. That was great. The Stronghold and new borderland stuff was interesting too, but they keep rehashing the same info every week it feels like. When we have to wait an entire week between updates only to find a crappy recap of what’s already been covered, it’s beyond frustrating. You’re tying dynamite to the rails of the hype train.

^ EXACTLY. Hell they brought back so many people with the announcement just to see them leave again because IT’S THE EXACT SAME GAME AS BEFORE WITH A NEW MAP!

they like to hype up, we like to spend money.
both are not gonna happen if they keep this up, hype only works if there is something to be hyped about and the only to do that is by having info to base the hype on.
what we want is some real info, what they give is a lollipop they give to children.

^ And what would happen if they give us all information now, and then the expansion itself will not be ready for release before November?

It is better to spread out the information than to drop it all and then be completely quiet for months.

lordkrall.7241:

^ And what would happen if they give us all information now, and then the expansion itself will not be ready for release before November?

It is better to spread out the information than to drop it all and then be completely quiet for months.

I don’t think anyone’s advocating for all of the information now. It does certainly need to be dispersed throughout the coming months, I think we’re all just frustrated with how little we’ve gotten recently. I’d honestly rather radio silence than the weeks where they post, “Did you miss last week? Here it all is again!”

No information is always better than the same information.

lordkrall.7241:

It is better to spread out the information than to drop it all and then be completely quiet for months.

It is. But I’d say people are starting to get desperate a bit. Meaningful blogposts stopped in February. People want to hear something, anything at this point.

witcher.3197:

It is. But I’d say people are starting to get desperate a bit. Meaningful blogposts stopped in February. People want to hear something, anything at this point.

April 4:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/gameplay-features-making-the-most-of-maguuma/

March 26:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-legendary-journey/

March 17:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/essential-elements-of-the-new-borderlands/

Those three were all later than February (in fact, all of them were within a month from now).

There were also a bunch of other posts, but since people don’t seem to count those I didn’t add them to the list. The three posts here however have all included plenty of new and meaningful information.

lordkrall.7241:

witcher.3197:

It is. But I’d say people are starting to get desperate a bit. Meaningful blogposts stopped in February. People want to hear something, anything at this point.

April 4:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/gameplay-features-making-the-most-of-maguuma/

March 26:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-legendary-journey/

March 17:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/essential-elements-of-the-new-borderlands/

Those three were all later than February (in fact, all of them were within a month from now).

There were also a bunch of other posts, but since people don’t seem to count those I didn’t add them to the list. The three posts here however have all included plenty of new and meaningful information.

Other sites posted all the WvW info weeks before Anet did I believe (around the end of february). So march 17 is a delayed repost with no new info.

April 4 is a summary of what we already knew by February.

The only “real” blogpost is the march 26 one.

witcher.3197:

lordkrall.7241:

witcher.3197:

It is. But I’d say people are starting to get desperate a bit. Meaningful blogposts stopped in February. People want to hear something, anything at this point.

April 4:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/gameplay-features-making-the-most-of-maguuma/

March 26:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-legendary-journey/

March 17:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/essential-elements-of-the-new-borderlands/

Those three were all later than February (in fact, all of them were within a month from now).

There were also a bunch of other posts, but since people don’t seem to count those I didn’t add them to the list. The three posts here however have all included plenty of new and meaningful information.

Other sites posted all the WvW info weeks before Anet did I believe (around the end of february). So march 17 is a delayed repost with no new info.

April 4 is a summary of what we already knew by February.

The only “real” blogpost is the march 26 one.

This.

And even then, I don’t honestly know how much I care about how to make the new precursors without knowing what the new legendary designs are. Though it really was an interesting read.

lordkrall.7241:

witcher.3197:

It is. But I’d say people are starting to get desperate a bit. Meaningful blogposts stopped in February. People want to hear something, anything at this point.

April 4:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/gameplay-features-making-the-most-of-maguuma/

March 26:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-legendary-journey/

March 17:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/essential-elements-of-the-new-borderlands/

Those three were all later than February (in fact, all of them were within a month from now).

There were also a bunch of other posts, but since people don’t seem to count those I didn’t add them to the list. The three posts here however have all included plenty of new and meaningful information.

April 4 – Nobody cares.

March 26 – We already knew that we will be able to obtain precurson via collection system along with tiers so it doesnt bring anything new. For me its just a recap with a bit more detailed info – you can dance with your queen now.

March 17 – Not everyone care about WvW. I like the map but i dont care much about these mechanics which we would figure out in the first day at release as there inst alot of stuff anyway.

The last great news for me at least (and i think for many others as well) was about revenant.

^ Exactly, it isn’t that we want just any news. We want more details on things that haven’t been explored yet. Even if that information itself is spread out like they are doing with the Revenant where we did not get all of its information at once. If they did the same thing with say Guild Halls and talk about a certain part of it now but another part of it later, I’m sure most of us would enjoy that. This way Arena Net is able to give information at a steady pace and people won’t feel like there are “dry spells” of new information (which is honestly what has been happening recently).

At first I was surprised to see an Open Beta for Stronghold but then I remembered that it will be available to everyone regardless of if they purchase HoT or not so maybe it could also be something they release before HoT.

Mar.4839:

Zetsumei.4975:

You guys realise that probably the biggest reason specialisations haven’t been talked about or put in the beta is because the content isn’t anywhere near being completed right lol? That goes for most of the content in HoT. What people are failing to realize is that the majority of the content wasn’t being completed in secret all this time in some good-willed plan by anet but being created from scratch as we speak. People should weigh up whether the missing content from the usual updates is significantly less than what this expansion will give us.

Where did they say that they just started work on this expansion? If I remember correctly they said they’ve been working on the features for a while and they waited until they were content with what they were going to add in the expansion before talking about all of it.

Also with closed beta starting soon (and there being no NDA for the closed beta) means that HoT is feature complete already and just a lot of iterations/balances/fixes are left to do.

I’m surprised when people think news shared with the community is when the devs started the whole process. They are always working on future content, always. Just like with the story reveal for the Sylvari, it was something planned from the beginning of gw2. Yes they will iterate along the way, sometimes greatly sometimes less so, but the future is always being planned.

Arena Net definitely knows how to keep the hype train going, even when some of us feel like it’s been agonizing to wait. They’ve released a blog post every week since the expansion announcement so while it may not be news some of us are interested in, there is always news being shared.

I’ve said more than I needed but basically all of this has already been planned way in advance. Even their weekly blog releases. It would be naive of someone to think otherwise.

Remember when I said this?

“Collections for the existing legendary weapons will be available on launch day, while the first three new legendaries will become available shortly after launch, alongside raids.”

^ taken from the blog about the new legendaries.

Unfinished product. Pathetic.