Guild Wars 2

The bladedancer is a new elite specialization idea for the mesmer. Bladedancers were once Elonian artists, among them street performers, fakirs, acrobats, and jugglers. War changes everyone, and they weren’t an exception. Close combat fights are their new art, which they have refined into a terrifying yet beautiful spectacle.

Aside from classic mesmer weapons, bladedancers can wield axes in both hands, butchering their enemies in a deadly dance number. Axes clash at close combat, parry enemy attacks, fly across the battlefield, or levitate upwards to then plummet down cutting through anything in their path. Even in battle, bladedancers value beauty and emotion above all.

A performance wouldn’t be complete without assistants, but then again, it’s not a problem when they can summon them easily. Bladedancers use a new type of illusions, called mirages, which can’t be shattered like clones and phantasm. Mirages have one goal, and once it’s complete, they vanish. They can be destroyed easily, but if they reach their goal, the damage they deal can turn the tide of a battle. One mirage may charge at an enemy, exploding on contact, while another might chase him slowly, applying multiple conditions if not stopped in time. The elite mirage skill summons a small band of illusions, overwhelming the enemy for a few seconds.

The closing act is the vortex, their special mechanic skill, which varies depending on the active main-hand weapon. The bladedancer juggles his weapons into the air, where they split into multiple illusory copies, which then proceed to perform a devastating attack. Illusory axes form a whirlwind of destruction around the bladedancer. Swords surround the target and impale it from all directions. Phantasmal pistols are caught while they fall back into the ground, letting the bladedancer spin and fire in every direction at once. An array of greatswords shoot simultaneous beams at a single target. The vortex is the ultimate trick, and their deadliest weapon. It locks the bladedancer at his current position, and blocks the weapon skill bar, replacing it with a simple control skill to direct the vortex attack where is desired. The attack is enhanced by the number of active illusions, consuming them for additional illusory weapons and a longer duration. If that wasn’t enough, bladedancers can customize their dodge movements with various acrobat techniques, performing pirouettes, dashing forward, or spinning in place.

Bladedancer

• New weapon: Axes (MH + OH)
• New utilities: Mirages
• New mechanics: Vortex, dodge variants

Long ago, Vabbi was known as the golden land of arts. The Amphitheatre of Resplendent Makuun housed the best performers of the world, fueled by the riches and the excesses of the Vabbian nobility. When lich emperor Palawa Joko invaded, he dammed and diverted the Elon River north, cursing Vabbi with drought and famine. The economy of the province collapsed, and fruitless pleasures died one by one. Famous painters, musicians, and actors now starved to death in the streets, throwing away all their hard-earned wealth in exchange for a piece of bread. Those who were lucky fled to Kryta or Cantha. Those who weren’t died, or joined the buffoon court of the undead emperor. Others simply refused to surrender, and fought back. Mesmer entertainers threw away their outfits, and reforged their magic trinkets into weapons of war. The bladedancers were born.

Nowadays bladedancers are present across most rebel groups. They keep morale up by the campfires, reminding their fellow comrades about what they are fighting for, and their songs and stories bring hope into the hearts of the common folk. Vabbi might never be back, but as long as the voice and the spirit of the bladedancers survive, its memory will live on forever.

Important notes

This elite specialization idea assumes one change:

• Main-hand pistol is added to the core profession, providing additional ranged abilities not available to the core profession as of now.

More information on bladedancers, and a few changes as well:

• Thematic inspiration comes from fakirs, belly dancers, and jugglers.
• New weapons, axes for both hands, provide the much needed melee power build variety to the profession. The bladedancer is your go-to elite specialization for straight DPS combat.
• Mirages scrapped, and utility type changed to tricks, themed around various dance moves. The dance itself can be a quick movement or a channeled skill, which leaves you vulnerable to interrupts, but delivers a powerful attack if successful. Some of the effects of these dances appear progressively as you channel the skill, and others don’t appear until you’ve finished casting it.
• Vortex outbursts change depending on your main-hand active weapon, and grow in power depending on the number of active illusions, which they consume when used. They are inspired by warrior burst skills, and reinforce the DPS role of the bladedancer. Like tricks, they’re themed around dance moves, but they take considerably longer to channel, as they are more powerful.
• Acrobatics let bladedancers customize their dodge ability, inspired by the daredevil, but with no endurance capacity changes. They don’t deal direct damage, and instead create illusions that dodge in opposite directions of where you first dodged. The number of illusions created when dodging depends on the number of active illusions, which are consumed and replaced.
• Bladedancers have a new unique control effect type, that works like a stun. This effect is present on some trick skills. The bladedancer starts using a channeled skill, and both the bladedancer and the target or targets are locked into a dance movement, until the bladedancer cancels it, the channel ends, or one of the targets is granted stability or uses a stun-break.
• Their weak spot is crowd control. Interrupting a bladedancer in the right moment can destabilize his rotation and leave him vulnerable to attacks.

Man you really put a lot of effort into these. I really hate to rain on your parade, but you should know that it’s exceedingly unlikely for anet to take any of the ideas or suggestions you’ve laid out here.

It’s good elaborated and all, but i personally would go for a mid-ranged power build (mage-like). I hate that i can’t play mesmer like a magic class without going condi.

I mean: “axes for both hands, provide the much needed melee power build variety to the profession.” What about swords? They’re pure power based.

Sounds cool. I don’t like long casts or long channeled skills. One of the reasons I hate mantras. But I think the rest is interesting. And you’ve clearly put a lot of thought into it. Thanks for sharing.

I don’t think Anet would be willing to give us two weapons and yes main and offhand axes count as two weapons.

We got an offhand weapon last time that’s two skills where other classes got 3-5 new skills so I think it’s only fair that Mesmer gets 5 skills this time so a dual handed weapon so Hammer, Longbow, Rifle, or Shortbow and I’m rooting for Shortbow myself.

Fay.2357:

Man you really put a lot of effort into these. I really hate to rain on your parade, but you should know that it’s exceedingly unlikely for anet to take any of the ideas or suggestions you’ve laid out here.

Well, at least they won’t have excuses if the future elite specializations are boring and uninspired.

Ghataka.1604:

I mean: “axes for both hands, provide the much needed melee power build variety to the profession.” What about swords? They’re pure power based.

That’s the problem, only swords fill that role. There’s an obvious lack of variety.

Hot Boy.7138:

Sounds cool. I don’t like long casts or long channeled skills. One of the reasons I hate mantras. But I think the rest is interesting. And you’ve clearly put a lot of thought into it. Thanks for sharing.

Dancing animations need to be long enough to be appreciated.

Alternatively, instead of normal long channels, we could channels with phases, or charges, kinda like siege. So, you start dancing, and you decide when to stop. The longer you dance, the stronger the final attack, but you risk being interrupted. This solution should be good enough, and my sharpshooter thief idea already uses something like it for sniping, so the technology wouldn’t need to be made from scratch.

I think the dance part is important because it’s the driving theme of the elite specialization, and what makes it unique. Animations are expensive to produce, but this could be a good opportunity to advance dance animations across the rest of the game, through a dancing minigame or whatever, recycling the bladedancer’s moves for other purposes.

Doam.8305:

I don’t think Anet would be willing to give us two weapons and yes main and offhand axes count as two weapons.

We got an offhand weapon last time that’s two skills where other classes got 3-5 new skills so I think it’s only fair that Mesmer gets 5 skills this time so a dual handed weapon so Hammer, Longbow, Rifle, or Shortbow and I’m rooting for Shortbow myself.

If we can get two-handed weapons, then I don’t see why we can’t get one-hand weapons for both hands. It’s the same at the end of the day.