Guild Wars 2

In playing through the new map, I realized a big part of my enjoyment was coming from the new Elite Specialization mechanics. I do not want to play though 50% of this expansion in order to unlock the Elite Specialization. I will feel like half the game was wasted before I could get to the key thing making it feel new and fun. If ArenaNet chooses to make the Elite Specializations so difficult that they aren’t available until the half way point in the story progression I’ll probably not bother.

There are things a player should work very hard for and then there are things that are core to the play mechanic. The core play mechanic features should be provided very quickly in the games progression. The primary novelty from GW2 HoT comes from the Elite Specializations. You should be able to get the Elite Specializations completely unlocked in less time than it takes to unlock all utility skills in GW2. Make it go much longer than that and you’re destroying the game.

We’ve all worked hard to get to level 80 and Mastery’s give us a progression path. Please make the Elite Specializations something realistically obtainable very early into the game.

While I agree that they should not be too far from entering VB, I do find it should make sense chronologically story wise.

It seems most likely that the ‘mentors’ that will be the first of every specialization will be some of the main characters (as some already have been show) f.e.

Revenant specialization : Rytlock
Guardian specialization : Braham
Warrior specialization : One that comes to mind would be Canach, he has no class specified on the wiki but seems a warrior character to me

Engineer : Taimi is the only one we know I think
Ranger : Rox or Eir, although since Braham seems to get Eirs bow perhaps more of chance of the latter becoming druid? Also looking at what the druid theme could be seems more of a Norn thing.
Thief : Caithe is the one that comes to mind, hase also been quite active/mysterious this LS

Elementalist : Zojja is only one I really know
Mesmer : Most likely Kasmeer, however Anise could also be an option here but I doubt she will have much involvement in the actual story besides from sending Canach
Necromancer : Marjory most likely, Trahearne could be an option but the first has the better “claim” IMO.

So in any case for it to make sense story wise all of this has to be shown in the PS before you could specialize, personally I am in favour of all being able to specialize at the same point, however some could happen before others if story is the only prequisite (f.e. revenant could technically go after first story with Rytlock appearing and clearly using glint which seems to be the specialization).

Anyhow as to how this should happen, IMO every specialization should have its own insance together with the “mentor” character with a specific challange to learn about the specialization, for example dragonhunter goes into the lair of a “dragon” and has to kill it, druid has to go to a trial to become one with nature etc.

Anyway I do really hope they have a meaningful way to acquire the specialization, this BE you just got the trait line slotted even though you could not invest points into anything yet, hopefully for the release there will be a meaningful, ‘challanging’ way to get it before you can start dropping points into it.

Hi Sam.
I agree with what you wrote. Because of a combination of working all weekend, my Windows 10 download getting stuck and sitting at 92% forever, and my bulging disc having a bit of a flare up, I did not have a lot of time to play the HoT but I did play with the Elite Specializations and OMG !!!!!! I loved them.

Devs, if anyone is reading this, from what I read on the forums, you gave the elite, young whippersnappers, content so difficult that I doubt I will be able to play the new maps….please, please, please make getting the Elites something the average joe players who work 40 hours a week, have a family life, and are not as coordinated and keyboard gifted as the young ones can achieve. We are part of your success too. You gave the young whippersnappers the majority of HoT content….give us this…please.

Anyways, thanks Sam for writing this.

Lisa-Loves the Reaper :)

smitske.4912:

While I agree that they should not be too far from entering VB, I do find it should make sense chronologically story wise.

It seems most likely that the ‘mentors’ that will be the first of every specialization will be some of the main characters (as some already have been show) f.e.

Revenant specialization : Rytlock
Guardian specialization : Braham
Warrior specialization : One that comes to mind would be Canach, he has no class specified on the wiki but seems a warrior character to me

Engineer : Taimi is the only one we know I think
Ranger : Rox or Eir, although since Braham seems to get Eirs bow perhaps more of chance of the latter becoming druid? Also looking at what the druid theme could be seems more of a Norn thing.
Thief : Caithe is the one that comes to mind, hase also been quite active/mysterious this LS

Elementalist : Zojja is only one I really know
Mesmer : Most likely Kasmeer, however Anise could also be an option here but I doubt she will have much involvement in the actual story besides from sending Canach
Necromancer : Marjory most likely, Trahearne could be an option but the first has the better “claim” IMO.

So in any case for it to make sense story wise all of this has to be shown in the PS before you could specialize, personally I am in favour of all being able to specialize at the same point, however some could happen before others if story is the only prequisite (f.e. revenant could technically go after first story with Rytlock appearing and clearly using glint which seems to be the specialization).

Anyhow as to how this should happen, IMO every specialization should have its own insance together with the “mentor” characterwith a specific challange to learn aboutb the specialization, for exampledragon hunter goes into the lair of a “dragon” and has to kill it, druid has to go to a trial to become one with nature etc.

Smitke, I love your idea of instances as a way to gain the elite specializations…maybe they could give us difficulty settings on these instances which would be a win/win situation for everyone…if wishes were fishes….

Lisa.

I’m 100% sure they’ll be story related, judging from the fact that Braham in the artwork has Eir’s bow, Taimi is training to add magic to metals, Marjory has already obtained her sister’s sword and so on.

Julischka Bean.7491:

Smitke, I love your idea of instances as a way to gain the elite specializations…maybe they could give us difficulty settings on these instances which would be a win/win situation for everyone…if wishes were fishes….

Lisa.

The thing is, on one end every human player should be able to get it, because it is a core function of the game so it should be “easy” enough. On the other hand however in the world of Tyria it should be something hard that not everyone can achieve, meaning we dont have every new NPC or even old ones all of a sudden be a specialization, it should be an achievement in the world itself. After all this is a class up and it should be a challanging task that feels really good once you complete it knowing that your specialization is something thats hard to achieve.

Obviously this makes striking the right balance not at all that trivial.

I agree that there needs to be a better balance. I only got to play part of Friday and then all day Sunday but I never managed to get to the point of unlocking ANY of the elite specializations and spent the whole time wondering what I was doing wrong/missing…. It made the Beta very disappointing.