Guild Wars 2

I wish Anet allowed the new weapons/utilities to be equipped outside of the specialization. Currently i’m playing a Guardian, i dislike the new Dragon Hunter spec, but i like the bow. I wish i could equip the Bow without the spec. I dislike the new Virtues, i’m not a trap person, but love the bow. I would be Gimping myself if i equip Dragon Hunter just for the bow, especially since i greatly prefer the previous Virtues. I would trade Virtue if Courage for Shield of Courage tho. Maybe we should be able to freely select which virtue we want. (Like Virtue of justice for Spear of justice etc.)

I used Guardian for the example, but i would like if all classes can have these options. like Necromancers to be able to select if they want Reaper’s Shroud or Death Shroud without the Spec.

Also some new specializations add, while some replace (unbalanced). Like the Tempest has additional functions to their elements, while the necromancers have a shroud replacement.

The Chronomancer has an additional Shatter, while Guardians have Virtue replacements

If the new Specializations were like the current ones, and allowed new Weapons/Utilities to be utilized outside the spec, we would have more customization, and less cookie cutter.

Just my thoughts so far.

As much as I’d love this, I just don’t see it happening. This is the new system Anet’s devised and they like it. I’m in the same boat with guardian; and I’l actually like one of my necromancers to use the reaper line, but keep regular death shroud.

Anywho – weapons, skills and traits are tied to the elite spec line; that’s basically written in stone.

I feel the same way for Guard, too. I would rather use the bow than scepter/focus for ranged with my current GS build because I really do not like the trait-line. To me, it takes away from the aim of being a power/burning build that I have and the survivability of GS. There are no traits in that new line to assist with burning but the Spear of Justice (or w/e it is called) would work better for it.

I would love to use my necro with the Reaper Shroud because she is all melee but I hate losing out on one of my other trait lines just to use it (Spite, Blood Magick, and Soul Reaping are all essential for survivability and damage). In order to use the new trait line, you basically have to go chill/condi in order to maintain the same damage output. The greatsword is just not my thing… I want to get in the enemies face and, essentially, bite them and drain their life, so, again, the new trait line does not fit well. But the giant scythe? It makes up for the insane nerf to death-shroud we all suffered with trait rework.

Same for the Chloromancer. I think it works well with shield and synergizes with the shatter-type builds but the wells are not spectacular enough to take the entire trait line for it. I used to use a mantra build but, after the trait-change, stopped playing it. This will let me pick it up again and use a tormenting shatter build but I feel like I am really only benefiting from the two main trait lines and the shield. Of course, I only used the one well, but I really need the shield for survivability. Maybe there are builds out there that could use some of the wells and not want the rest (support?).

As for the Tempest… after the last patch and how they nerfed the heck out of the arcane line, I am fine swapping that out with the new line and it synergizes quite well (I was really enjoying playing it and did not feel like my other lines were taken away from or my overall build was nullified just to use the new weapon. Dagger/Warhorn seemed more fun than Dagger/Dagger. So far, this is the only one where it is okay. However, locking down a weapon to the trait line seems silly. We always take other weapons regardless of the bonuses in the trait-line, why should it change now?

I would love to think they will monitor the game, see how many people use the new trait-lines, and potentially allow this customizability but I will not get my hopes up. I guess we will see if things change in the far future to allow more variation in our builds rather than falling down the funnel of one-build-for-all crap that WoW has going for it.

P.S. There is almost zero customizability in Revnant, which is what worries me they are going down the route of noob-friendly gaming where it takes no effort to come up with a build that works. I like that the mobs in the new area are challenging to defeat… but without customizability in the game, with multiple options that actually work and allow the player to play how they like to, it is just going to became another cookie-cutter build game where you take a specific build or you stand no chance (this is why I quit playing WoW).

This simply can’t be done cause a different elite spec may use a different weapon, and having a class eventually use all weapons seems a bit useless, so they are bound to the elite spec.

I feel the pain tough, as someone who will probally not main guardian anymore.

we can make less build with weapon/skill bound to elite trait
many elite specs cant use in pvp -*-

if they did that, you’d lose the “special” part of “specialization”

nathanjameson.3542:

if they did that, you’d lose the “special” part of “specialization”

Not really all trait lines are considered specializations. You can check it if you hover over the tab.

Fox.3469:

This simply can’t be done cause a different elite spec may use a different weapon, and having a class eventually use all weapons seems a bit useless, so they are bound to the elite spec.

I feel the pain tough, as someone who will probably not main guardian anymore.

I think if every class uses every weapon that would be awesome, and a bit realistic. Would be appropriate especially in this game, since each class uses each weapon differently. Like think of the Elementalist with a Elemental Rifle…..Awesome. Elemental Sword, and Shield? Awesome. Even if Anet added Cesti Punch Weapons, they would be like an Elemental monk Bender from Avatar……Awesome.

I think all weapons all classes should be the plan eventually.

I say if Anet wants specializations, i Suggest these are handled and equipped outside of the Trait lines/Specializations. We wouldn’t be forced to equip the Spec just for one thing , and would make sense when additional specs come in the future.

What would happen when Anet releases more Specs like this? How will it even work if lets say i have 3 new specs equipped and they all change the virtues?

Right now when having Dragon hunter on, any previous trait that effects the Virtues don’t even have an effect on the new ones.

I can certainly see why people would want this.

But at the same time, it would undermine the whole point of elite specs. That point being that its supposed to be a meaningful choice, something you have to strongly consider slotting or not. Something with a lot more impact than a normal traitline.

If you got everything for “free” without even using the spec, then its nearly as meaningful of choice at all. Then its just another normal traitline, nothing “elite” or different about it at all.

I feel the same about DH / Guard so far. IF. They fixed the bow to work less clunky and didn’t have such large gaps in damage applied.

I want my original virtues.
I want the trait-lines I already use. ( Better in all regards. Only thing that could tempt me is +25% running speed trait. I loathe you “Rune of the Traveler” :C )

Traps aren’t worth taking over meditations or even shouts. The only trap I find fun is the one that applies aegis.

MatyrGustav.6210:

What would happen when Anet releases more Specs like this? How will it even work if lets say i have 3 new specs equipped and they all change the virtues?

just a comment on this, elite specs won’t be able to be mixed, so let’s say they add another elite spec, you can’t use both the new one and the dragonhunter one. You can only use one elite, and combine it with 2 core specs.

Fox.3469:

This simply can’t be done cause a different elite spec may use a different weapon, and having a class eventually use all weapons seems a bit useless, so they are bound to the elite spec.

I like the idea of different specs being able to use the same weapon but with different abilities. So you could have the base weapon abilities or the spec weapon abilities.
Well I’m a necro players so I really don’t have the same problem (the weapon and the mechanic changes are awesome!), but I guess I can see where the issues are coming from.

nathanjameson.3542:

if they did that, you’d lose the “special” part of “specialization”

Yeah. Well they do introduce some new mechanics, but not to such an extent that the mechanic changes in and of themselves would be particularly ‘special’. Mind you I’d have liked the specialisation to really change how a class feels and plays, but yeah if that was the case they might just as well have added a new class or two instead of specialisation.

MatyrGustav.6210:

I say if Anet wants specializations, i Suggest these are handled and equipped outside of the Trait lines/Specializations. We wouldn’t be forced to equip the Spec just for one thing , and would make sense when additional specs come in the future.

Now that I think about it disconnecting weapons from specs would eventually end up in a bit of a balancing nightmare. At present you have 5 specs and then an elite, so six in total. You can only equip 3 at a time and elites are mutually exclusive. So that means Each Elite and thus each weapon only needs to be balanced against 10 (think my math is right) combinations. Decoupling weapon from spec means that a weapon need to be balanced against a far large number of spec combos.
So maybe ANet is just trying to keep thing manageable?

dsslive.8473:

MatyrGustav.6210:

What would happen when Anet releases more Specs like this? How will it even work if lets say i have 3 new specs equipped and they all change the virtues?

just a comment on this, elite specs won’t be able to be mixed, so let’s say they add another elite spec, you can’t use both the new one and the dragonhunter one. You can only use one elite, and combine it with 2 core specs.

Yeah at present the choices aren’t that meaningful, however as the system expands you’d have more conflicting options to choice from. In this case with dragonhunter it’s only really a matter of ‘well I like the weapon but them virtues…’ while down the road with more specializations it becomes more of a consideration when you’re faced with more weapon / virtue combinations.

Chameleon Dude.1564:

As much as I’d love this, I just don’t see it happening. This is the new system Anet’s devised and they like it. I’m in the same boat with guardian; and I’l actually like one of my necromancers to use the reaper line, but keep regular death shroud.

Anywho – weapons, skills and traits are tied to the elite spec line; that’s basically written in stone.

It doesn’t have to be written in stone.

ANet can simply put a switch shroud button(the tiny rectangle box with an arrow that is similar to switching Utility skills) over Death shroud.

ANet can simply not tie utility skills and weapons to the Specialization.

ANet can give Core Mesmer a new F5 skill that can be change between Chronomancer’s F5 or Core Mesmers F5. Or ANet can just put Continum rift on the F4 skill.

Then, the only reason to get Elite Specialization is to enhance them. Why should ANet do this? Because the game doesn’t have to be more restrictive. It should allow some more freedom after trait changes.

I would separate weapons, too. I think the possibility of using the new weapons with the older builds is not only fair, but even a symbol of what the spirit of GW2 is about.

Breaking apart specs from trait lines and such, I don’t like so much: they already buried the old cherry-pick trait system, so I think it makes no real difference to make Specs separate, and in the end it would simply become more bothersome.

Well, for one thing the current set up allows them to use the same new weapon more than once. Or to swap an existing weapon for a different set of skills while holding that weapon. Both of those are tools more important in the long run than making every class use every weapon by default.