Guild Wars 2

So here is a totally subjective analysis of the scourge leaks :

- The picture strongly suggest… A shoulder equipment!
- Weapon should be torch

Skills :
- The healing skill seem to be an aoe wide skill I’d bet on a channelled skill that heal and drain life force.
- The second skill seem to be related to movment speed. I’ll follow a hunch and say that it’s a skill that apply slow on a foe.
- The third skill remind me of oppressive gave in GW. Poison and weakness.
- The forth skill obviously summon something, let’s go with the wall of hand that hinder the foes that try to pass through.
- The fifth skill look like a viper, another poison skill
- The last skill could represent a bacteria (did I say another poison skill?)

Traits :
Minor :
- The first represent a malignant shadow.
- The second hint toward the ability to have 2 shadows alongside yourself.
- The third have something to do with… poison (I said that it would be subjective)

Major :
- first major is the torch trait
- second major look like a seryngue on a cross. Poison on crit!
- third major seem to have something to do with the malignant spirit
- forth major look like an aura (let me dream please). Reduce surrounding foe movment speed by 25%.
- fifth trait is definitely another poison related trait.
- sixth trait proc a tic of the heal skill.
- seventh trait have something to do with time, probably something related to slow.
- eigthth trait is another malignant spirit trait
- ninth trait give the feeling of someone shouting “toward infinity and beyond”

Shroud :
- Because I’m a jerk, I suppose that plague have been removed because scourge shroud AA is a slow aoe skill that do low damage and apply a short condition on hit.

So after listing all of this here is what I deduce (again that’s totally subjective) :
- A poison spec!
- The inbuilt ability to have up to 2 new minions fighting alongside us. Mesmer like clone?
- Slow on necromancer. I know that’s unlikely but it fit.

All I know is my gut says maybe.

Why is the concept art not in downed state?

Downed Shroud

Assume the form of a downed player. 10s cooldown.

Scourge Shroud: Transform into a Dust Mite and pulse AoE blind once per second.

There – that should explain the change to Plague and the theme of Scourge.

Sublimatio.6981:

Downed Shroud

Assume the form of a downed player. 10s cooldown.

And because of our supreme downed skill #1 and #3 damage, we shall have glory in all the raids!

Dadnir.5038:

- A poison spec!

I deeply hope you are wrong

vicious.5683:

Dadnir.5038:

- A poison spec!

I deeply hope you are wrong

I hope that I am wrong to!

The only thing that I would look for in my analysis is the addition of a clone/fantasm system to the necromancer’s mechanism. Clones/fantasms are supposed to be a kind of hexes so they more or less fit the necromancer’s thematic.

However, that’s just what I’d find interesting. I strongly believe that the necromancer need a spec that lean toward some support that really give him some weight in a party. And sadly nothing in the leaks hint toward that at first glance. Thought a spec leaning toward control and the poison condition is not that bad and feel pretty relevant to the necromancer’s thematic. Yet It would still be disappointing.

Dadnir.5038:

spec leaning toward control and the poison condition is not that bad and feel pretty relevant to the necromancer’s thematic

its another condi dps spec like 100000years ago for necro……necro needs

A. Build that has evasion/blocks etc instead of DS so its viable in TF like condi mesmer…

so it means instead of DS you drain life force to become sandmist like ele mist form.
IF full DS duration is 5s or something BUT DS is not that hard to charge to 100%

and some kind of teleport or movement skills…..

B. Build for support…..like dark healer/support role…..

Amityel.5324:

Dadnir.5038:

spec leaning toward control and the poison condition is not that bad and feel pretty relevant to the necromancer’s thematic

its another condi dps spec like 100000years ago for necro……necro needs

A. Build that has evasion/blocks etc instead of DS so its viable in TF like condi mesmer…

so it means instead of DS you drain life force to become sandmist like ele mist form.
IF full DS duration is 5s or something BUT DS is not that hard to charge to 100%

and some kind of teleport or movement skills…..

B. Build for support…..like dark healer/support role…..

Aye! Chill a bit, take a step back and look at how Anet handle the necromancer since launch.

You want to see things that I also want to see on the necromancer. However, up to now Anet systematically pushed the necromancer toward an indirect kind of support through soft conditions and it’s been said that there won’t be any e-spec specialized in healing this time around.

Let’s be realist, the shroud have to many ties in the core traitlines to become a mere evade/block skill. There is a few way that we can imagine to modify the shroud but making it into an evade/block skill is probably the most improbable. The shroud is part of the necromancer in such a way that we need to keep the “skill bar” thingy.

What’s possible :
- an F2 skill (well knowing Anet even if it’s that it would blind foe around us instead of giving us some block/evade)
- a skill set with skill 2 to 5 having a cost in life force (giving some block, evade or blinding skill but this at the cost of the 2nd life bar thingy)
- Creating a life force minion with skill 2-5 being command to this minion. (again since you transfere your life force into a minion, no 2nd life bar)

That’s the 3 possibility that are the most realist outside of the bland classic shroud like what we got with reaper.

On the leaks, nothing hint toward any kind of shroud of extra mechanism except perhaps what seem like the ability to summon minion that I conveniently see as clone/fantasm. Nothing say that I’m right or wrong. I just feel that it could be relevant in the necromancer’s thematic. Anet could even see this as a form of defense throught body blocking.

I might be desillusioned and didn’t expect much from anet but like I said a spec leaning toward poison and control wouldn’t be bad. I said this not because I would like it but because it could be another failed shot at a “power” e-spec that end up being stronger as a condi spec.

I agree that we need a spec that gives us blocks, evades, invulns, charges, leaps and teleports.

Sublimatio.6981:

I agree that we need a spec that gives us blocks, evades, invulns, charges, leaps and teleports.

Don’t forget a portal, aoe quickness and allied might generation.

Lahmia.2193:

Sublimatio.6981:

I agree that we need a spec that gives us blocks, evades, invulns, charges, leaps and teleports.

Don’t forget a portal, aoe quickness and allied might generation.

I like that idea, maybe necromancers could get a place in raids now.

vicious.5683:

Lahmia.2193:

Sublimatio.6981:

I agree that we need a spec that gives us blocks, evades, invulns, charges, leaps and teleports.

Don’t forget a portal, aoe quickness and allied might generation.

I like that idea, maybe necromancers could get a place in raids now.

Nah, Anet would then give all that and more to Ele.

http://imgur.com/a/FlIj0

I included both the Reaper elite specialization and the Scourge elite specialization in the link above so we can do an easier comparison. I think we can actually draw accurate inferences by comparing both. I think it would be more accurate this way because Anet might model the relevant effects after the Reaper traits.

The traits

• 1st trait: Shows the weapon.

Reaper = Greatsword

Scourge = Torch

• 2nd trait: Shows the new shroud.

Reaper = Reaper Shroud

Scourge = What the hell is that? This? http://imgur.com/a/WqqJD
Monster bear shroud? Just kidding…looks like a devourer of sorts

• 3rd trait: New skill

Reaper = Shout healing skill

Scourge = A burn-based healing skill? Perhaps something like healing based on damage done to enemy or ‘burning’ up your shroud for healing etc. That was what I thought if I matched trait for trait. But the color of this trait is different. It doesn’t look like a new skill color. It looks more like a normal trait. I think this trait position is swapped with the 13th trait. The healing skill was moved to 13th. And the burn condition boosting trait was moved here. See trait 13. The 13th Reaper trait is a Chill condition-boosting trait. This 3rd trait on Scourge looks like a burn condition-boosting trait.

• 4th trait:

Reaper = Shout-boosting trait

Scourge = A trait that boosts the new type of skills we are getting…It looks like a man standing between two shadows that could be summons…but I’m thinking more and more its going to be like the mesmer’s themed manipulation skills. I’ll explain more later.

• 5th trait:

Reaper = chilling nova aoe damage trait. Doing a round of aoe chill damage on chilled targets.

Scourge = looks like a needle marking a spot/cross. Hitting a target. Perhaps it works the same way as Reaper. If you hit the enemy under certain conditions, he will take more damage or you inflict vulnerability etc.

• 6th trait:

Reaper = reduce movement impairing conditions. Defensive.

Scourge = Looks like a simple bleed icon. But if we follow the Reaper’s theme of a defensive trait, it might mean blood transfusion. As in you gain blood/HP.

• 7th trait: Very important! Shows what new condition focus we are getting

Reaper = Inflict Chill on fear

Scourge = The whole image looks like a ‘burning fire’ image with a scary face and I’m guessing its going to inflict burn on fear.

• 8th trait:

Reaper = New skill you are all weaklings shout. Defensive.

Scourge = New skill. It looks like an AOE regeneration channeling skill. Defensive. Or it could be he is encased in an AOE fire field that does cleanses or heals or something. Or an AOE convert all conditions into boons.

• 9th trait:

Reaper = New skill chill shout. Offensive.

Scourge = WTF IT LOOKS LIKE WE ARE GETTING A MOBILITY OFFENSIVE SKILL!!!! PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPEN! I’m guessing he is riding on burning speed to move swiftly. Burn yourself to gain swiftness? hahahaha.

• 10th trait:

Reaper = Grave digger. A booster for new weapon.

Scourge = Looks like a ball with concentric circles and swirling auras inward. Probably reduces recharge on new weapon torch. Not too sure what skill though.

• 11th trait:

Reaper = Chilling victory for life force gain against chilled enemies.

Scourge = Looks like a bubbling image…like poison…or its so hot and boiling its burning? Burning would seem to fit the theme more. Gain life force on burning?

• 12th trait

Reaper = decimate defenses. a trait that boosts the crit stats.

Scourge = looks like the guy is in ZEN mode…boost…healing stats? please NO

• 13th trait

Reaper = Increase chill duration and lessen damage from chilled foes.

Scourge = This is possibly the new healing skill that was swapped with the position of trait 3 on the Reaper traits. It looks like a grim reaper with his hand near his mouth about to swallow something. Or is he saying LOOK AT MY HAND!!!

• 14th trait

Reaper = new skill. Offensive. unblockable shout. boon removal.

Scourge = new skill. offensive. 2 hands. erupting from the ground. Maybe aoe immobilize?

• 15th trait

Reaper = Gain life force or HP on boon. It was represented by a butterfly or moth image =/

Scourge = Looks like some sand is dripping into a bowl, like an hourglass type of dripping. Perhaps something to do with time/accumulation for some gains.

• 16th trait

Reaper = Deathly Chill. Chill condition does damage. Offensive.

Scourge = Burning does even more damage? Look at the image. The poor soul is being burned and in agony!

• 17th trait

Reaper = Attack faster, gain ferocity stat, reduce shroud skill recharge. Offensive.

Scourge = Looks like someone in shock with 3 exclamation marks. Possibly something to do with our shroud skills, offensive in nature.

• 18th trait

Reaper = new skill. Defensive shout. damage reduction.

Scourge = new skill. Looks like a large serpent. defensive or offensive? it looks very offensive to me though. A summon/minion? NO PLEASE NO Could it be a…mesmer-themed manipulation type of skill?

• 19th trait

Reaper = New elite shout. Stun. Stability giving. Chill.

Scourge = New elite skill. It looks to me like a mask or head screaming. Its too blur though. Could be anything.

What is our new type of skills going to be?
For Reapers it was the Shouts.
For Scourge?
I’m thinking it might be similar to Mesmer’s Manipulation.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Manipulation

Manipulation is a skill type used to evade attacks, mislead opponents, redirect forces or to simply escape from a deadly situation. Many of these skills focus on the aspect of control, turning what could have been a player’s end into an opponent’s undoing.

Lets look at the new skills trait images again.

Trait 4 : the trait that if mirrored with the Reaper’s 4th shout boosting trait, is a trait that boosts our new skill. A man is standing between 2 shadows. Manipulation? Deception?

Trait 8 : the new aoe skill. AOE convert all conditions into boons maybe? Fits the Manipulation description above.

Trait 9 : A movement skill…An escape skill? Similar in purpose to mesmer’s manipulation blink? I WANT THIS!!!!*

Trait 13 : Reflect projectiles and heal yourself for mesmer manipulation. This skill with the grim reaper looking at his hand…I don’t know…

Trait 14 : Again a “double” hand image that could be manipulation themed.

Trait 18 : An illusionary serpent? Or the serpent bites back which fits the theme of manipulation. The opponent comes near you thinking its a branch but its actually a snake and it bites.

Trait 19 : Elite skill. I don’t know. Let me know your thoughts =p

you may not have seen it…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Scourge-analysis/first#post6605946

aside from that trait 4 is a minor you can see this from the form of the trait which is different different from other trait and skills. Minor trait do not affect utility skills.

Alright, time to respond to all of this speculation. Lets see where I agree and where I don’t. So lets get going. Just so you know, This is from my perspective on what I think it might suggest so lets get started.

Dadnir.5038:

- The picture strongly suggest… A shoulder equipment!
- Weapon should be torch

Not refutable. The torch is a sure thing. However one thing I’m going to point out with the image is that there are more than once piece of armor that the asura is wearing that we haven’t seen before. The leggings have chains on them which isn’t something any armor set in the game currently has to my knowledge. However, I’ll go one further, looking at other leaks we see that there seems to be multiple armor pieces that each of the elite specs are wearing that do not currently exist. Since Anet has more time to introduce content it could be possible that each elite spec has a specific armor collection. THough this is speculation and it could be that the unknown armor pieces in each of these images belong to new armors not related to the elite specs.

Dadnir.5038:

- The healing skill seem to be an aoe wide skill I’d bet on a channelled skill that heal and drain life force.

Unlikely. The necromancer already has a life stealing heal skill and already has a life force heal skill. Signet of Vampirism and “Your soul is mine!” respectively. This one was a bit of a tricky one for me to speculate on, but I think I have the answer. I don’t think its a channel personally, But rather a heal that also cause AOE Fear. It fits within the realm of a defensive area that necromancers could use. Interrupt someone while healing so that they can’t easily strike you while healing. It fits and would be another piece for a terrormancer build which Arena net have wanted to push for a while now.

Dadnir.5038:

- The second skill seem to be related to movment speed. I’ll follow a hunch and say that it’s a skill that apply slow on a foe.

I had a prediction a while back that scourge would obtain the skill Savannah Heat. And the image could suggest scorching winds. However I’m not convinced that it is Savannah heat though I think slow might be likely. Strangely though slow as an effect was removed from the necromancer’s kit in the transition from GW1 to GW2, and I’m skeptical that we’ll ever get it back… Like how we never got confusion back….

Dadnir.5038:

- The third skill remind me of oppressive gave in GW. Poison and weakness.

Reminds me of Defile Flesh, contagion or plague touch. Hmm. I think the conditions you’ve suggested fit. However It most certainly is a touch since the hand is there.

Dadnir.5038:

- The forth skill obviously summon something, let’s go with the wall of hand that hinder the foes that try to pass through.

Its a trope in Egyptian horror movies that hands of mummies will pop out of the ground to drag some unsuspecting victim under the sands. Would Arena net do something like that? i don’t know, but that’s what it reminds me of.

Dadnir.5038:

- The fifth skill look like a viper, another poison skill

Looks kinda like the skill Entangling Asp. An assassin skill that caused poison on knockdown. Though I doubt it’ll function like that poison is a sure thing though.

Dadnir.5038:

- The last skill could represent a bacteria (did I say another poison skill?)

This one is hard to place for me as well. I want to say poison heart, but I think it might actually be some sort of elite support skill… Something to do with infusing conditions? ugh…

Dadnir.5038:

Traits :
Minor :
- The first represent a malignant shadow.
- The second hint toward the ability to have 2 shadows alongside yourself.
- The third have something to do with… poison (I said that it would be subjective)

The first one is our new mechanic. Which the leak some months back stated it was sandshroud. Which is still possible though something to do with phantoms isn’t off the table.
The second one is strange. I… I think its a support trait. I don’t know why, but I think it has something to do with some form of shroud support.
Third? Looks like blood. Blood washes blood… Sorry, random thought… um. Ignore that last one.

Dadnir.5038:

Major :
- first major is the torch trait
- second major look like a seryngue on a cross. Poison on crit!
- third major seem to have something to do with the malignant spirit
- forth major look like an aura (let me dream please). Reduce surrounding foe movment speed by 25%.
- fifth trait is definitely another poison related trait.
- sixth trait proc a tic of the heal skill.
- seventh trait have something to do with time, probably something related to slow.
- eigthth trait is another malignant spirit trait
- ninth trait give the feeling of someone shouting “toward infinity and beyond”

These will be more difficult to place, I’d not too firm on anything though since the torch one is a adept my thought is that its probably “Torch Skills have 50% increased condi duration.” would be my guess which would make the trait great. Far better than Soul eater….
Second one is likely the skill trait. Looks almost like something used for hexing or cursing… Hmm.
I’ll get back to you on the rest of them. I have to think on it a bit more.

Dadnir.5038:

Shroud :
- Because I’m a jerk, I suppose that plague have been removed because scourge shroud AA is a slow aoe skill that do low damage and apply a short condition on hit.

Not likely. Arena net want us to to make a shroud build that turtles for a good duration on our condi builds. A slow AOE wouldn’t really aid that. A chain skill that causes something like bleeding > bleeding > burning is more likely in my opinion. This puts it as an alternative to scepter and with Dhuumfire it could surpass its DPS which it would need to do if arena net wants us to have a shroud based condi build.

Dadnir.5038:

So after listing all of this here is what I deduce (again that’s totally subjective) :
- A poison spec!
- The inbuilt ability to have up to 2 new minions fighting alongside us. Mesmer like clone?
- Slow on necromancer. I know that’s unlikely but it fit.

Poison would be nice, though I think poison and burning are a heavy focus on this spec. Having 2 minions along side? I’m skeptical about that since the majority of the line doesn’t seem conducive to a minion spec.

My hope is that this spec is offensive support. one idea that came to my mind was the ability to coat downed allies in a sort of false shroud that allows them protection and gives them the chance to keep fighting. Strange I know, but would be interesting in a supportive style.

My only question for this new spec is… since Guardians have special effects on Virtue of Justice activation…

Will our fires burn GREEN?

“In-depth analysis of pure speculation”

/thread

Since you shared that image, I decided to look closer and something doesn’t quite make sense.

It appears as though you unlock your weapon, then your first minor trait, then a tier 1 major trait and then… another minor trait? To make things stranger, it appears as though you would unlock all 3 minor traits before you even get your first utility skill!

If this is how the final release will play out, it’s gonna suck for revenants.

Coffietire.2783:

Since you shared that image, I decided to look closer and something doesn’t quite make sense.

It appears as though you unlock your weapon, then your first minor trait, then a tier 1 major trait and then… another minor trait? To make things stranger, it appears as though you would unlock all 3 minor traits before you even get your first utility skill!

If this is how the final release will play out, it’s gonna suck for revenants.

It pretty much means you can play the spec more completely a little faster since you get all the minors pretty quick.

The only thing i hope to find is that the Torch will be at last a medium range weapon. Looking to the skill icons (if that image is real, correct and we can trust it) there’s things like a possible movement skill or a “Dome”, with a possible Immobilize skill.
Expecially the Movement skill and teh Torch make me think that this new elite will be a short range condition elite. Like the revenant mace/axe and the “warrior mace” (highly used as a condi weapon in different situation for the F1 berserker ability and te trait that give confusion when you interrupt someone), they’re all short range weapons that spam a really good amount of conditions and both the classes have good mobility and defensive skills (revenant mallyx have a spammable Movement skill that convert boons into confusion, for example).

The torch make me think more to a Burn elite, expecially if the weapon will be main hand. The problem will be… how will be able a necromancer to stay melee in a PvP contest?
In PvE there will be not a single problem with mobe, boss and things, but in PvP? We already find hard to play with Ranged weapon with our total lack of real defensive skills, what will happen if we obtain a melee condi weapon? (or a 300 range weapon like the Ele dagger).

There will be skills so strong and a so modified mechanic to grant us something like that?
The necromancer had always been an Attrition class and never changed since the game release. Will that Elite bring something (finally) new?
i really hope but, looking to the class skills, unless the new skills are seriously OP we’ll never see a first line setup for that class.

I hope for something new for this class, but I’m also sceptic on our future, expecially looking to what we obtained in the last years.

IMO some kind of movement ability or stealth is an absolute minimum!

Svarty.8019:

IMO some kind of movement ability or stealth is an absolute minimum!

Well given that shroud 2 has been a movement skill in both baseline and reaper, its almost guaranteed to be a movement skill again. Not sure why some people keep clamoring for stealth though. Seems like its in demand for the sake of demanding it.

Lahmia.2193:

Svarty.8019:

IMO some kind of movement ability or stealth is an absolute minimum!

Well given that shroud 2 has been a movement skill in both baseline and reaper, its almost guaranteed to be a movement skill again. Not sure why some people keep clamoring for stealth though. Seems like its in demand for the sake of demanding it.

But… How can we pop out of nowhere to give someone a fright if we don’t have stealth? Ain’t we supposed to be one of those scary monster that show up in horror movies?

NB.: That thread merging troubled me!

yay another extremely slow heal skill that can and will get interrupted at every opportunity.

Sigmoid.7082:

Coffietire.2783:

Since you shared that image, I decided to look closer and something doesn’t quite make sense.

It appears as though you unlock your weapon, then your first minor trait, then a tier 1 major trait and then… another minor trait? To make things stranger, it appears as though you would unlock all 3 minor traits before you even get your first utility skill!

If this is how the final release will play out, it’s gonna suck for revenants.

It pretty much means you can play the spec more completely a little faster since you get all the minors pretty quick.

Depends on your definition of “more completely”
Frankly, when it comes to the early stages of leveling up an espec, I’d much rather get a few of the utility skills sooner than the later minor traits. That means I actually have stuff to play around with as I unlock it.

For example: If the reaper had unlocked in the same fashion, we’d be in the situation where, "I can’t test out that sweet heal skill that makes me shout, ‘Your soul is mine!’ but at least my chill lasts longer. That’s cool I guess :/ "

Depends on your definition of “more completely”

By design each line of a E-spec represents an aspect of it. Top/Mid/Bot all follow similar themes. Being able to play one of those off the bat then fleshing it out feels better to me. Plus it was probably changed because of the complaint that the specs didn’t feel useful when you were unlocking them.

Looking at the wheel you will get all the minors and the top trait-line followed by the heal. Completes aspect number 1. Then things are worked in complete aspect batches surrounded by utility skills probably to introduce you do a different aspect of the spec in its full gradually.

Even with speculation and little information there are some things we can guarantee since they are trends in every trait-line we have and every shroud so far.

Shroud
Shroud 1 is usually a strong auto attack with a fairly decent power coeff. It likely wont apply a condition or a boon.
Shroud 2 will be a gap closer/opener of some sort.
Shroud 3 will fear because of all the fear.
Shroud 4 will be a multi hit ability.
Shroud 5 will be some sort hard/soft CC.
At least 1 of the above will generate LF in some way.

Traits
At least 1 trait will do something when entering/exiting shroud
At least 1 trait will have a persistent effect while in shroud.

I will hope that we finally get a condition based shroud that inflict some sort of condition on the AA. it can be bleed or eventually poison. more likely bleed because don’t have secondary effect and is a low damage condition.

If ANet keep his project for the reaper and that new elite, they will rework a little the traits of the Reaper to be more power fiendly (also just changing Deathly chill to inflict direct damage when apply chill, the change they probably will do) and the Scourge will be mainly focused on Condition damage. That mean that every skill of the scourge will inflict some sort of condition, also and expecially the AA.

looking to our Shrouds, we have a full range and a melee shroud, then we’ll probably obtain a mid range shroud, with a range of 600-900 (I hope 900).
The shroud 2 will for shure be a sort of movement skill, and we already have a teleport to the target and a leap, then a leap/teleport back should be good to keep the range from the enemy and make a difference between this shroud and the others. maybe a stunbreack, a good thing that we don’t have on any shroud.
For the skill 3 I hope another istant skill, just because the actual one is strong but in different situations an istant fear will help more (for example against a thief). I don’t know if we’ll obtain a stability source in this shroud, the Reaper have stability because is melee and made to fight in the front line, the new one will probably be a mid range shroud then I’m not shure about the stability. maybe another kind of defensive skill, bu not too good like stealth or immunity, maybe a boon like protect or a conidition like chill or immobilize. A mass fear+immobilize should be good and themed, expecially with a teleport back on the skill 2.
The skill 4 should be another AoE, more likely a Cone size AoE with a good range. It should inflict Burn, looking to the Torch.
The skill 5 can be a Knock Back with Burn and/or maybe another condition like Torment. maybe a Bubble that also block projectiles, to grant a kind of defensive skill to the shroud

Silv.9207:

I will hope that we finally get a condition based shroud that inflict some sort of condition on the AA. it can be bleed or eventually poison. more likely bleed because don’t have secondary effect and is a low damage condition.

I hope the same, but if the leaks are true, we will get torch. And with this I would guess, we will get more burning, which would be a nice addition to our actual condis.

Silv.9207:

If ANet keep his project for the reaper and that new elite, they will rework a little the traits of the Reaper to be more power fiendly (also just changing Deathly chill to inflict direct damage when apply chill, the change they probably will do) and the Scourge will be mainly focused on Condition damage. That mean that every skill of the scourge will inflict some sort of condition, also and expecially the AA.

This, I hope so much this^^

Silv.9207:

looking to our Shrouds, we have a full range and a melee shroud, then we’ll probably obtain a mid range shroud, with a range of 600-900 (I hope 900).
The shroud 2 will for shure be a sort of movement skill, and we already have a teleport to the target and a leap, then a leap/teleport back should be good to keep the range from the enemy and make a difference between this shroud and the others. maybe a stunbreack, a good thing that we don’t have on any shroud.
For the skill 3 I hope another istant skill, just because the actual one is strong but in different situations an istant fear will help more (for example against a thief). I don’t know if we’ll obtain a stability source in this shroud, the Reaper have stability because is melee and made to fight in the front line, the new one will probably be a mid range shroud then I’m not shure about the stability. maybe another kind of defensive skill, bu not too good like stealth or immunity, maybe a boon like protect or a conidition like chill or immobilize. A mass fear+immobilize should be good and themed, expecially with a teleport back on the skill 2.
The skill 4 should be another AoE, more likely a Cone size AoE with a good range. It should inflict Burn, looking to the Torch.
The skill 5 can be a Knock Back with Burn and/or maybe another condition like Torment. maybe a Bubble that also block projectiles, to grant a kind of defensive skill to the shroud

I hope there will be a complete new meachnic. Not Shroud so far. Anything else to use LF.
Maybe...its true, what the leak with this speculations said and it will something equal to the mesmer continuum shift. You earn life force and will be able to drop this energy at some position with F1 and you can use it with F2 and return to there and get the collected LF tranformed into HP and so on or you return there if you get killed and will be back from the death with some HP. As Addition with F3 you can transform this enery to a torch you can pick up for an amout of time depending on how much LF was saved in there.

Kydar Schattendolch.6879:

snip

That leak was a confirmed fake. Purely to spike the price of sawgrill mushrooms to make a quick buck.

Coffietire.2783:

Sigmoid.7082:

Coffietire.2783:

Since you shared that image, I decided to look closer and something doesn’t quite make sense.

It appears as though you unlock your weapon, then your first minor trait, then a tier 1 major trait and then… another minor trait? To make things stranger, it appears as though you would unlock all 3 minor traits before you even get your first utility skill!

If this is how the final release will play out, it’s gonna suck for revenants.

It pretty much means you can play the spec more completely a little faster since you get all the minors pretty quick.

Depends on your definition of “more completely”
Frankly, when it comes to the early stages of leveling up an espec, I’d much rather get a few of the utility skills sooner than the later minor traits. That means I actually have stuff to play around with as I unlock it.

For example: If the reaper had unlocked in the same fashion, we’d be in the situation where, "I can’t test out that sweet heal skill that makes me shout, ‘Your soul is mine!’ but at least my chill lasts longer. That’s cool I guess :/ "

The problem is that if you’re using an elite spec without having the minors unlocked and at least one major at each tier, then you’re playing with unfilled slots in your build, which can work out in one of two ways:

1) The new elite specialisation is so overpowered that you can play it with traits missing and still be as good as or better than the old builds (generally not desirable from a balance perspective), or…

2) You’re objectively less powerful than you would be with an old build – a state of affairs that is generally not considered ideal when exploring an unknown area with a steeper learning curve than core Tyria.

Starting the unlock process with the minors and then one major of each tier (assuming that the majors don’t assume you already have the elite spec utilities) avoids this problem. You can run the elite specialisation, make use of the elite specialisation’s mechanics, and use the new weapon without having the new heal or utility skills. From there, you have a solid basis from which to build on by adding utility skills and alternative traits.

One could think of this as essentially the unlocking equivalent of a minimum viable product. The minimum viable product for an elite specialisation is having the minors and one major from each tier unlocked. Further unlocks add new options.

I wrote an article on this topic about a year ago.

Lahmia.2193:

That leak was a confirmed fake. Purely to spike the price of sawgrill mushrooms to make a quick buck.

Even if it’s a fake, it doesn’t mean, that there won’t be something different to a shroud mechanic with the new spec. Would be nice so far

Kydar Schattendolch.6879:

Lahmia.2193:

That leak was a confirmed fake. Purely to spike the price of sawgrill mushrooms to make a quick buck.

Even if it’s a fake, it doesn’t mean, that there won’t be something different to a shroud mechanic with the new spec. Would be nice so far

Its highly unlikely however, given how certain traits interact with shroud. Yes it would be nice but the suggested mechanic just sounds like a copy/paste and change slightly of chronomancer’s f5. Most likely we’re getting another 5 skill + life force bar shroud.

Sigmoid.7082:

Even with speculation and little information there are some things we can guarantee since they are trends in every trait-line we have and every shroud so far.

Shroud
Shroud 1 is usually a strong auto attack with a fairly decent power coeff. It likely wont apply a condition or a boon.
Shroud 2 will be a gap closer/opener of some sort.
Shroud 3 will fear because of all the fear.
Shroud 4 will be a multi hit ability.
Shroud 5 will be some sort hard/soft CC.
At least 1 of the above will generate LF in some way.

Traits
At least 1 trait will do something when entering/exiting shroud
At least 1 trait will have a persistent effect while in shroud.

Also, nearly all healing skills have a “blue theme” (I think only signets dont), so apparently the new heal is the last thing we unlock