Guild Wars 2

With HoT, we’ve seen elite specialisations introduced. Lets have a look at what you have to sacrifice for them and what they offer:

Sacrifice:
1 Trait Line

Lets assume this trait line is designed to be balanced to be in line with the elite specialisation trait line. In a lot of cases I would argue the elite specialisation traitline is one of the strongest choices for classes, but this really doesn’t matter.

What do you gain:
A new weapon choice
Access to a new heal, four new utilities and a new elite.

If this was all the elite specialisations offered, we might get away with it in an ideal world where everything was perfectly balanced. There would still be plenty of space for “base” classes in PvP.

However its not, the elite specialisations offer something else:
Augmented Class Functionality

Without losing anything, almost every class gains an additional tool for their kitten nal. Some of these admittedly, are a tad lackluster in comparison to others, but that doesn’t change the fact that they offer more than the base class.

Daredevil only gets an extra dodge, and additional functionality on dodges. All true, but again, all you lose is a traitline. Scrappers suddenly have a knew way to stomp/res. Berserkers have a new mode with new burst skills. Druids get a completely new form to use which has massive benefits. Chronomancers get a skill that lets them use any skill twice! Elementalist gets to overload its attunements. Revenant gets a new free button to use.

Necromancers and Guardians however, have their base class mechanic changed by the elite specialisation. This is the only way balance could have been achieved.

For me then, its no wonder that only elite specialisations have any place in the current meta and I can’t ever see that changing unless this changes.

If they allowed you to use the new utilities and weapons without the specialization I think you’d see a lot of that. Once they milk HoT for everything they can, maybe that will happen.

There are some cases where I’m not sure how much could honestly be changed on the base mechanics level of the professions. For example, changing attunements on an Ele would require a total overhaul on the profession. In this case, actually adding to the options is the only change to the profession mechanic they could feasibly do.

Engineers, on the other hand, could conceivably see a change to the toolbelt, since those skills are not so heavily ingrained into the profession design as attunements are.

It’s a case-by-case basis, really. Revenants and Elementalists I don’t think will ever see their profession mechanics replaced or altered at a base level. Rangers likewise will always have a pet, though the actual function of the F keys may change. Necros will always have Shroud, though as we have already seen, the skills are definitely mutable.

While I agree that Reaper and Dragonhunter were better designed as actual “alternative playstyles,” I don’t think every profession can really get that.

I think a few core builds are viable, but more as a niche thing taken as a countermeaure for something stronger than it, rather than actually being strong and worth taking on its own in every situation.

For example. Cele necromancer>Cele reaper as long as condi revs and bunker mesmers continue to dominate the ladder. Simply put, cele reaper can’t afford to take both curses and spite at the same time to maximize boon corruption, because you’re bound into soul reaping for unblockable marks, life force, and vital persistance.

With traited dark path (which is unblockable mind you) you can condi bomb chronomancers and mallyrevs through their shield and apply enough pressure to actually be able to kill them 1v1. In every other situation though, you’ll be sad that you don’t have reaper because necromancer is really kinda meh without stability and cleave.

As for some other quick builds that I can think of, I’d say that earth D/D ele and cele staff ele can perform fairly well, but are outclassed by tempest versions of the same build just to have more bunkering ability.

Thief is only a little bit better with daredevil imo, and warrior/berserker I can’t really comment on since both are unfortunately mediocre. But I wouldn’t even think about playing ranger, engi, mesmer, revenant, or guardian without their elite specs.

tl;dr- some base class builds have situational niche counterpick strengths or merely perform the same role but better with an elite spec, or are completely dependent on their elite spec.

No elites for core players vs elites for x-pac ones is part of the nagatives of the game in my metacritic review. Rather then making base elite specializations for core game and then bringing in alternatives with each expansion they took the easy way out. Now they just gonna chill and leave it be, as once the next xpac rolls out problem will “fix itself” with HoT becoming core game and elite from that becoming the free player’s elites to answer the next set.

I really think a good option for making baseline specs more viable is giving up more when you take the elite, like say an entire utility sub-group. You gain one, why not lose one?

examples: Chrono giving up glamours to gain wells (would lose portal and time warp thematically very weird but w/e)

Scrapper giving up gadgets like SS to gain the gyros

Reapers giving up signets

DH giving up meditations etc.

Not sure what to do with Zerker and DD, but ideally the things the elite spec gives up are valuable skills that would make the choice difficult.

This would also lead to my next idea….

Take shiro from Heralds. Yeah, this may be a bit harsh, but it makes sense in my mind, the sustain, dmg and mobility givin by this combo is just ridiculous, rev are too multifaceted in this regard. It’s why we are seeing 2 or more per game in pro leagues. The herald line is about boons and sutain, but they are allowed to keep the crazy mobility from shiro. Combo this with Mallyx for the condi pressure and group resistance and you have a spec that no one would ever not take. The Glint stance isnt even being takin atm because you get so much just from Herald and shield anyway, without giving up much of anything.

anyway, that’s my 2 cents, maybe not the best examples but I’m sure you guys see where I’m going with this. These kind of hard choices would shake up the meta a lot, and bring the baseline builds back into play a bit.

I just don’t see how ANet will ever go back on the changes they’ve made to the point that base classes can be balanced to be functional without the additional things a lot of classes got. Take druid, you could play a full zerker Druid that never utilises Celestial Avatar, you’d be slightly gimping yourself but it wouldn’t actually matter. At that point if you didn’t use a glyph or utility then the traitline youve picked on the basis the traits are stronger. Certainly this could be true of a rifle scrapper build for instance.

I’m not saying it’s true in all cases, but to balance Elite Specs something had to be taken away in some way. Maybe you tie all specialisations to Utilities, again taking ranger:

Beast Mastery: Shouts
Nature Magic: Spirits
Wilderness Survival: Survival
Marksmanship: Signets
Skirmishing: Traps

This would better allow for balance, but this again isn’t possible on all classes. How do you work it for engineers say?

You could do the same thing with weapons, but then you start to pigeon hole people.

jonnis.2946:

With HoT, we’ve seen elite specialisations introduced. Lets have a look at what you have to sacrifice for them and what they offer:

Sacrifice:
1 Trait Line

Lets assume this trait line is designed to be balanced to be in line with the elite specialisation trait line. In a lot of cases I would argue the elite specialisation traitline is one of the strongest choices for classes, but this really doesn’t matter.

What do you gain:
A new weapon choice
Access to a new heal, four new utilities and a new elite.

If this was all the elite specialisations offered, we might get away with it in an ideal world where everything was perfectly balanced. There would still be plenty of space for “base” classes in PvP.

However its not, the elite specialisations offer something else:
Augmented Class Functionality

Without losing anything, almost every class gains an additional tool for their kitten nal. Some of these admittedly, are a tad lackluster in comparison to others, but that doesn’t change the fact that they offer more than the base class.

Daredevil only gets an extra dodge, and additional functionality on dodges. All true, but again, all you lose is a traitline. Scrappers suddenly have a knew way to stomp/res. Berserkers have a new mode with new burst skills. Druids get a completely new form to use which has massive benefits. Chronomancers get a skill that lets them use any skill twice! Elementalist gets to overload its attunements. Revenant gets a new free button to use.

Necromancers and Guardians however, have their base class mechanic changed by the elite specialisation. This is the only way balance could have been achieved.

For me then, its no wonder that only elite specialisations have any place in the current meta and I can’t ever see that changing unless this changes.