Guild Wars 2

We know that the xpac will give us an option to specialize our profession and get a new weapon and some new utility, healing, and elite skills and traits, but in turn lose some of the base skills/traits (maybe even some of the currently available weapons) and change the class mechanic and the overall way the profession plays in some way.

But will we get some new traits/skills for the base professions, or will we be stuck with the exact same builds if we don’t chose to specialize when the xpac drops?

I don’t think anything changes if you don’t specialize.. So yeah same traits skills and weapons…

Ranger = exact same as now, all skills, weapons and traits the same.
Druid = Lose some skills and traits, gain new ones in exchange with a new staff weapon added and a possible change to the class mechanic.

So ranger will stay the exact same, not to say they won’t add in base skills at some point but they’ll be adding new specialisations eventually so you’ll be able to select a more ideal specialisation that fits your playstyle if the base ranger, druid etc don’t appeal to you.

Where exactly are you getting the information that classes `lose` anything through the specialisation system? From what I heard, they talked about gaining things (ie. weapons, skills, utilities, traits), not losing them.

Kaz.5430:

Where exactly are you getting the information that classes `lose` anything through the specialisation system? From what I heard, they talked about gaining things (ie. weapons, skills, utilities, traits), not losing them.

Find the post about the PAX after party with dev comments. You will lose a trait line in favour of a different one, and as such “specialize” as a druid rather than upgrade to one.

psizone.8437:

Ranger = exact same as now, all skills, weapons and traits the same.
Druid = Lose some skills and traits, gain new ones in exchange with a new staff weapon added and a possible change to the class mechanic.

So ranger will stay the exact same, not to say they won’t add in base skills at some point but they’ll be adding new specialisations eventually so you’ll be able to select a more ideal specialisation that fits your playstyle if the base ranger, druid etc don’t appeal to you.

So if you do not like the specialisation for your class you are stuck with the same traits/skills/weapons as you had before? That doesn’t sound right.

Needs to be at least 2 specialisations per class at launch or it gonna be a big flop. Exactly the same as before or all change to the same thing. Hardly any choice in that.

Veneratio.1980:

So if you do not like the specialisation for your class you are stuck with the same traits/skills/weapons as you had before? That doesn’t sound right.

Needs to be at least 2 specialisations per class at launch or it gonna be a big flop. Exactly the same as before or all change to the same thing. Hardly any choice in that.

That’s what they said, one specialisation per class at launch with more coming later. Most likely they want to test the waters first and make sure that the first wave of specialisations are balanced before adding more.

You say it’s hardly any choice but it’s much more than we had before, especially considering the specialisations could alter the class mechanics, too.

Veneratio.1980:

So if you do not like the specialisation for your class you are stuck with the same traits/skills/weapons as you had before? That doesn’t sound right.

I’m not sure what else you could reasonably expect.

You are offered a new option, if you don’t like it then that’s that. the same would be true of anything else they add in.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

You are offered a new option, if you don’t like it then that’s that. the same would be true of anything else they add in.

The thing is, what if i like a profession the way it plays now? Since the specialization is going to change the class mechanic i may not want to specialize on some profession, which would be a issue if they do not add anything to the base professions.

It may make playing feel like i do not have any use of the xpac ( from a build making, min-maxing pov, especially in spvp/wvw) because choosing not to specialize, for the reason of liking the class mechanic/play style of a profession the way it is now more, means that trait and skill (utility) wise i get no new build options from the expansion.

They said that specializations are sort of gw2’s secondary professions, so to me it is illogical that the ‘primary’ profession is going to get neglected.
Keep in mind that they have not announced everything yet so my concern may be null and void.

I expect they will also add a few additional skills (not traits though) to the base classes as well. They weren’t mentioned because everything so far has focused on major features and additional base skills aren’t a major feature, but a minor add to an existing mechanic.

Nothing has been definitively stated (that I’ve found) that there won’t be “any” additional skills for the base classes. So, there might be, but if there are I wouldn’t expect there to be loads of them.

I believe it has been confirmed that it is just a single specialization per class for HoT; however, this does not mean that more won’t be coming at some point.

I think we need more detail regarding how much specializations will add and change before we get too worked up over it.

What I foresee about the specialization: If all specializations at launch are limited to 1 and limited to a support-type of specialization then specializations will be used by players to test the water. And will be left behind after they have been fully understood.

As far as I’ve come into contact with support = providing boons and ripping conditions in Dungeons only. Since healing is such a small part of GW2 and the Berserker-stats meta is usually still the best to go for pve-wise players will wait for the new damage dealing specializations and the rest will be left un-used as was the destiny of like 80% of the stat-combinations are today.

Before implementing new mechanics/changing class mechanics or do anything that builds upon the current game they’d be better off balancing out the current mechanics in the game. Make Conditions more viable to name one thing quickly. There is no incentive unless you’re playing solely in pvp/wvw content to use other stat combo’s because the pvp content more builds are viable to use so more stats combo’s are viable to use because defense and counter enemies mechanics are more of a deal.

We’ll just have to wait what the expansion will bring us Specialization-wise, but looking at the druid if it doesn’t provide superior party boons to other professions like Guardian, but doesn’t pack the slightest punch it’s going to be left unused. But as I said, will just have to wait and not get overhyped.

foste.3098:

The thing is, what if i like a profession the way it plays now? Since the specialization is going to change the class mechanic i may not want to specialize on some profession, which would be a issue if they do not add anything to the base professions.

It may make playing feel like i do not have any use of the xpac ( from a build making, min-maxing pov, especially in spvp/wvw) because choosing not to specialize, for the reason of liking the class mechanic/play style of a profession the way it is now more, means that trait and skill (utility) wise i get no new build options from the expansion.

They said that specializations are sort of gw2’s secondary professions, so to me it is illogical that the ‘primary’ profession is going to get neglected.
Keep in mind that they have not announced everything yet so my concern may be null and void.

You’re reading this all wrong, the specialisations are their way of bolstering the main professions by adding new and interesting ways to play them. They might add new skills to the main profession but they want to try this to see if they can fix some class shortcomings and allow people to try new things if they want instead of just spamming each profession with skills and traits that may seem pointless or jammed in.

If the expansion just came with the new class and you don’t like the look of the class, guess what? You don’t have to play that class, they can’t be expected to add new things to a base profession because you don’t want to play something different.

You could end up finding that these specialisations change some traits and utilities that you didn’t use in your class as it stands and it could open up new build ideas, you don’t know for sure yet.

Plus, adding more and more specialisations will allow people to build new and more interesting classes instead of seeing the same dozen builds for every class.

MangoMonkey.7582:

We’ll just have to wait what the expansion will bring us Specialization-wise, but looking at the druid if it doesn’t provide superior party boons to other professions like Guardian, but doesn’t pack the slightest punch it’s going to be left unused. But as I said, will just have to wait and not get overhyped.

I’m just hoping it provides better condition removal, since that’s the main shortcoming of the ranger.

This is upsetting but there is a potential redemptive value in the mastery system possibly.