Guild Wars 2

This thread was very different then i figured to rephrase it to be more inline with the title.

necros get a gs and shouts and go melee, this is very far different thena regular necro

guardian gets a solid ranged option

basically classes are getting things to “round them out” or give them tools in situations where they previously had none.

warriors have a lot of options, single target, aoe, ranged, melee, aoe placed marks (banners), shouts, stances,burst, sustain, control, etc there is not a lot a warrior doesnt have that other characters have in some similarish way.

So we can look at this objectively, what does a warrior NOT have.

stealth
poison
minions
magic
potions
(feel free to chime in with others if you think its worth a note)

now there are others but i feel they overlap too much to create a really distinct feel (virtues=stances as a example, banners fill the aoe ground placed utility)

so of this list (and any you can think of) what seems most likely?

nobody seems to like the idea of minions even tho it does fill a gap.

poison/stealth-ya warriors dont have these but one sucks and the other im not sure if its wise to spread it around too much.

potions i could see being imbibed buffs like mutagens.

magic, lot of people dont want this one either, but it would also make sense.

also to note, i believe there has been zero weapon overlap with the new weapon options for revealed elite specializations yes? so we can assume this to continue.

ranger has staff, thats the only one of the currently revealed classes that we dont posess. so scratch it.

this leaves us with

shortbow (too similar to longbow imo)
pistol (possibility for a van helsing like potion imbiber)
dagger (possibility)
scepter (possibility)
focus (possibility)
torch (possibility for a van helsing like character again)

of these options unless my basis is super far off the ones that seem most likely are pistol and torch imo. unless they do something magiclike and completly off the wall i cant think of.

Elixirs would fit thematically, although they might be too similar with stances. Some form of minion might be possible, but meh, there’s already too many of those. Mantras are stance-like, but would be a thematic fit like elixirs. Consecrations might be possible.

Elorna.5329:

Elixirs would fit thematically, although they might be too similar with stances. Some form of minion might be possible, but meh, there’s already too many of those. Mantras are stance-like, but would be a thematic fit like elixirs. Consecrations might be possible.

i think it depends on what they do. if a mutagen actually changed the way you looked it would be different enough but i see what your saying.

I actually thought they might get traps, but then guardians got those.

Although I suppose that doesn’t exclude them from traps completely… I don’t know if they’ve said that each new utility group for each new specialization will be a unique skill type.

Now I’m thinking that maybe they’ll get summons or something similar. This is because they’re the only profession that doesn’t directly have any AI buddies they can use since banners don’t do anything. Mesmers have illusions, necros have minions, engineers have turrets, rangers have pets and spirits, thieves have other thieves, elementalists have elementals, guardians have spirit weapons, so the only one that needs something is warriors. I guess there’s also revenants, but we don’t know 100% of their stuff yet.

So maybe the specialization could be some kind of “commander” type thing that can summon things to do something. It would have to be a more active-type summon so that it doesn’t overlap with the passive banners… So maybe they’ll be like minions, some kind of mercenary they can summon or some kind of spirit from the mists they bring into battle. Or maybe it’ll be like spirit weapons that do spirit weapon-y things, I dunno. Not really sure what other weapon they would get though, maybe a staff that’s used for physical attacks?

Of course, they could always just go crazier and implement some more magical themed thing instead. I thought they might be against that so the lines between guardian, revenant, and warrior don’t become more blurred, but they could do some interesting things that way. Like some sort of “battlemage” or something, maybe they get glyphs or cantrips.

My choice would be staff (for quarterstaff style fighting) but I think we’ll get torch. My reasoning is this:
1- Looking at some screenshots, there is a very strong indication that we’re getting an F2 skill, which is most likely an off-hand burst since bursts are weapon-based. (Not sure what it’d do for 2-handed weapons.)
2- Torch is off-hand so it would benefit from an F2 skill. It would be silly to get a new weapon that can’t use the F2.
3- Pistol, scepter and dagger are one-handed weapons that could fit in either hand (so technically F2 compatible) but I don’t see Arenanet giving us 5 new weapon skills on top of all those F2 skills. (Although ele are probably getting 12 new weapon skills minimum so I guess that point could be debated.)
4- Focus and scepter do not really fit the theme of the class. The magic-themed armored class is the guardian.
5- Likewise, pistol, dagger and shortbow don’t really fit the theme of the class because those are more “stealth” types of weapon and warrior are everything but subtlety.
6- Torch fits the class, we already have fire effects on bow, and an horde of angry pillaging warriors enjoys putting villages on fire.
7- From a game design perspective, warrior already has plenty of weapons, and those cover most roles, so it would make more sense to give them a small (2-skills off-hand) weapon and to just add an extra skill to all the weapons (the F2) they already have.

Of course I could be 100% wrong, and I wouldn’t bet any of my goods on that.

For the new class of skills I have no idea what we’re getting. If I’m right that we’re getting torch, then the torch users are guardian, mesmer and ranger, and thematically, guardian and ranger both make sense. I could see us getting survival skills if ranger and meditations if guardian.

Again, pure speculation.

EDIT: I forgot guardians got ranger skills. So warriors are probably getting guardian skills if we indeed get torch. I don’t see what mesmer could get us. (Mantras? Nah, I think that’s what thieves are getting since they’re all about instant attacks.)

I’d like to go with a Berserker (as stated by Oscuro.9720) type name for the elite specialization, with a dagger OH.

Cut’em Down

The #4 skill could be a dash like the shield bash but instead of a stun make it an Achilles tendon hit and if it lands the target is knocked down you then have the an additional follow up hit you can do similar to a backstab but the knocked down has to land. If it misses then you generate 1.5x more adrenaline or as Oscuro.9720 stated rage, in which case would be refunded and generated more rage since you are zerking and would get more agitated lol.
The 2nd part of the #4 skill would be called Put’em Down. Damage scales with the level of rage you entered/enraged in/at. Also to add an additional level of skill to the mix if you are quick enough to be completely 180% behind the target and the target is still in a knocked down state then being a pretty or in the zerkers’ case unpleasantly state “zerky” smoke puffing dude would hit for 3x the base damage. Yes you would literally be out stabbing the BS, yes in both sense of the abbreviation, dirty Thieves (finally our forum might not be filled with so many one hit wonders +_-).

Try Not to Move
#5 It’s a dagger, hey you got to be able to throw it, how far I’ll let the developers figure that out. Again to add more variety or skill play into the mix, if you hit the target from the front it causes 3 stacks of bleed, however if you’re able to close the distance while the bleeds are still ticking you can activate an additional 12 stacks of bleeds and refresh the original 3 stacks for a total of 15 stacks. I’m no expert on the mechanics of conditions and how much damage / duration they tick for, I’m not even an expert on Warriors, just not an expert… but I do play this game a lot lol. Finally if you are in pursuit mode you can throw the dagger hilt first to daze the target and do a bit of blunt damage. Daze time would be determined by range, ranging from 0-600, 600-900 and 900-1200 at 1, 1.5, and 2.25 to 2.5 seconds respectively. The duration increases, again in keeping with the Berserker / rage theme. But, also as a team / skill play mechanic if the target was say (first classes that come to mind) LB Rangers or staff Elementals standing on ledges harassing your teammates on the point. You can give a little early warning that the zerker is coming and also create a little relief for your teammates. Think of it as a Headshot with utility, Thief joke =)

As Lordhelmos.7623 suggests in his post “Warrior Elite Specialization Idea: Archon” a F2 button for Warrior elite specialization. I would like to elaborate further on both F1 and F2 buttons. F1 would activate a burst skill on the main hand weapon and F2 would activate the off hand weapons’ burst skill. Since you’ve gone smoking “zerky” as Oscuro.9720 stated in his post “Elite Specialization Theory: The Berserker” you can enjoy all the benefits of the percentage level that you rage on or became “Enraged” at 25, 50, 75, and 100% but still be able if you choose to activate your burst skills. If you activate it at 100-75, 75-50 or 50% or lower it’ll be equivalent to a level 3, 2 or 1 burst.

The Dagger OH burst would a ranged cc move similar to Mesmers’ OH Pistol #5, but it would pierce and knock down the first target, pierce and stun the second, stun and blind the third. Finally, it would also apply 15 stacks of bleed to the first target, 5 stacks of bleed and 5 seconds of poison to both the second and third targets.

Looks and sounds good on paper to me lol, but programming and implementing it is another story. If you’ve got anything positive to add feel free.

What Warrior doesn’t have (Which I think should stay and define Warrior):

-Easy mode instant cast maneuvers, gap closers, CC (other than Fear Me but Fear Me has counterplay than most CC)
-Easy mode evade-frame eaters
-Protection uptime
-Z-axis teleport
-Evade on skills other than GS

What Warrior has:

-The one of the most dangerous class in GW2 with no stun breaks if played CC zerker. CC feels very rewarding to land, almost a guaranteed dodge bait/stun break bait OR kill if mechanically intensive.
-Best effective HP with team support, Warrior with protection and healing from others can be borderline cancer.
-One of the best burst mitigation classes in the game cause high HP and endure pain.
-Great team support/duel with shoutbow.
-One of the best point delay/hold in the game.
-Rampage

TL;DR Warrior is balanced.

A bit late here but I’ll be back on another time to share some more weapon choices and elite specialization ideas. You can message me in-game also if you want to know some of my crazy ideas.

Elite spec Monk. Weapon melee staff utilities mantras GW1 Wammo comeback

Focus is my favorite. A holy warrior option that trades damage for group buffs so banners are unnecessary. War can use other utilities, then. There is too much reliance on banners in the game and it screws build diversity.

+1 for Monk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!