Guild Wars 2

I suspect that the Scourge will bring support through attrition in the form of unique Debuffs (Not Conditions, debuffs) that will solidify their position in team Comps.

Debuffs like “The target gains additional stacks of a Condition from any source for X seconds”, “All incoming Condition Duration is increased by 33%” or “The target copies Conditions from nearby allies to itself every second for X seconds”.

The problem with low movement Speed on your Guardian can easily be alleviated by using runes that increase movement speed, such as Runes of the Traveler. Keeping an armor set with those around for when you have to run distances will certainly help in making you feel less sluggish.

There is a trait in the Honor Specialization line called “Force of Will” for Guardians that increases their Vitality by a set 300 at Lvl 80, if you find yourself at a lack for raw HP and don’t want to waste points on Vitality Armor.

In WvW, your role as a Guardian is pretty Supporting but you’re not gonna gear up in Healing Power gear for it, rather you’d be kitting out in Soldier gear and leading zergs or squads like a Commander. You can also roam and flip camps as a Burn Guardian/Dragonhunter if that fits your playstyle more. It’s true that the current meta don’t see many Guardians in pve, but that’s primarily high-end Fractals and Raids. In low-end fractals, noone’s really gonna bother min-maxing anyways.

All races have the exact same hitbox, they just have different visual sizes. In Competative PvP you can also set all enemy models to use a human default model, for easy recognition.

As for why you would go Norn over Human? Depends on what you’re after and how much you care about flair such as “Lore” and “Fantasy”.

Male Norn are big and lumbering, so they -feel- slower than other races while running about even if they aren’t. I’m personally not a big fan of their Sword Animations, but their Axe Animations are better than Human ones. Female Norn aren’t very different from humans (Save for the fact that their running animations as well as GS/Staff animations are more powerful) and feel less sluggish than male Norn as a result.

Lorewise, I guess it’s if you wanna play a Viking-inspired berserker/raider/warrior archetype (in which case, Norn is your go-to) or a budding Adventurer/Knight archetype (In which case, Humans work better).

There’s also the part about the voice, since each race only has one VA. Humans will sound like a 20-something, young and rogue-ish adventurer both as male or female, while Norn will have much deeper voice befitting their size. (Though the Female Norn isn’t to many people’s liking due to a lack of investment, she sounds very bored and sheepish a lot of the time.)

Aside from that, there’re Cultural Armors that only the race can wear. Humans get different sets of Chainmail and Plate Armors more befitting knights, while Norn get furs and metals in a mix that looks straight out of the Viking Age.

Tempest isn’t a Bunker in PvP, it’s a Support. Druid is a Bunker. Tempest’s sustain remarkably hinges on them being in team fights, not fighting duels as they lack the damage to finish duels while their sustain will only last for so long.

Outside from the obvious Healing and Protection that they bring, they also bring a great deal of Condition Cleanse with Soldier runes and Overload Water.

The ability to grant a whole team Shocking Aura or Magnetic Aura is a massive advantage in combat, because these Auras can’t be corrupted, removed or otherwise counter-acted. Once you slap Magnetic Aura on an ally, then that’s 4s of them being invulnerable to blockable projectiles. Shocking Aura can entirely negate an enemy’s (or enemy team’s) burst and can even interrupt skills where the Attacker is usually invulnerable, such as Relentless Assault or Blurred Frenzy.
A lot of their personal sustain comes from Focus, specifically Air 4/Earth 4+5. They also have some powerful CC with Water 5 and Air 5.

2 often overlooked skills are Blazing Speed and Ring of Earth. The former is an Evade that hits quite hard even without much Power, while also being a quick Mobility Skill. The latter Blocks projectiles in an Area (Meaning you can use it to peel for allies) while activated and has a very short CD, making it a perfect tool for fighting Dragonhunters or other projectile-reliant professions.

A lot of their sustain also hinges on their Trait synergy. Diamond Skin is easily maintained when you can heal back up from most anything, while Perma-Protection from Elemental Shielding is a fair reality when you have such an abundance of Auras at your disposal.

If we’re talking about which one “feels” the most like a typical MMO Healer, then Elementalist is probably on the money, followed by Druid.

Elementalists wear light armor (robes and cloth), are squishy but have strong Healing and Versatility. Slap a Staff on them and they’re pretty much the archetypical Spellcaster. They can also be played like a healer from the very get-go, as they start the game with access to Water Attunement.

Druids wear Medium armor (leather and trenchcoats), are less squishy and have a Pet to help them. But they require some proximity to heal properly and are entirely resource-based, not to mention that she’d have to level a Ranger to 80 first (Which is hardly a Healer whatsoever, only able to apply some Regeneration through traits and summon Spirits to buff allies).

Guardians are Paladins in all but name. Heavy Armor, smite enemies and heal allies yada yada. If she wanna follow you into melee side-by-side, Guardian’s the way to go. They can also be played from the get-go as Healers, as most of their Healing comes from Weapon Skills on Mace, Shield and Staff.

Revenants also wears Heavy Armor, but will pump out the best healing of the Core Professions with Legendary Centaur stance. Lack of ranged weapons means they typically need to be close too.

It’s entirely possible that Sword will bring competative DPS with it’s Auto-attack alone, kinda like how the old DD Staff or Warrior Axe worked. Shield has a few things going for it that can be useful in PvE, such as a Blast Finisher and lots of CC (Especially if a Defiant enemy attacks the Block on #5 several times) although it does need a few tweaks and buffs still (Such as reduced AT on Shield Throw and possible more Damage overall).

Don’t forget kits, too. If Sword has enough DPS its Auto Attack and a few short CD skills, then you can mix in high-damage skills like Freeze Grenades, Grenade Barrage and Acid Bomb into your rotation despite their substantial cooldowns, because you now have a decent filler, where previously there was none.

RabbitUp.8294:

TheSwede.9512:

Assuming that the “Support” trinity of raids is currently Chrono/Druid/Berserker, what if the next set of Especs fills a similar role but in different ways.

Say that Firebrand can apply Quickness, Might and Healing. Then perhaps Holosmith can apply Invulnerability and Alacrity, while Scourge provides group-wide DPS-increase with unique Debuffs and Life-steal Buffs equivalent of GotL.

You could then run a Chrono/Druid/PS setup, or a Firebrand/Holosmith/Scourge setup.

Now, you might say “But GotL is still a unique set-up!” but what’s to say that Soulbeast isn’t a really powerful DPS spec? Enough so that it competes with other high-end DPS specs currently out. Sure, you could bring BOTH a Soulbeast and a Druid, but at some point having too many Team Buffers over actual DPS just loses out. We’ll see how the meta changes once the Xpac hits.

Soulbeast won’t be able to apply GotL, and ranger already has a top dps build as base condi ranger. That build can provide spirits and spotter to 5 people. So, you can have 2 druids, or 1 druid+1 cranger. I honestly see Soulbeast being the new scrapper, a pvp-focused spec.

But this is exactly what I don’t want, for firebrand to be nothing but the crowbar to break the meta comp with. I want groups to take firebrand because of the things it offers, not because it does a good enough job imitating chrono.

Cranger can’t apply GotL either though, as it uses only Core Specs to get the job done. I was suggesting that, if Soulbeast turns out to be a Power Spec, it’d allow Rangers to deal competative DPS on Power Builds as well. Daggers typically have fast animations, resulting in high DPS and/or Condition Application, after all.

But back to the topic at hand: I do not doubt that Firebrand will bring something new to the table. ANet can introduce new mechanics as they see fit, including ones outside of the box that we as players aren’t even thinking of. But the more new Supportive effects that are included, the more players are going to have to choose between them and eventually, one of the effects will become meta and people will stick to that.

Or ANet decides that Healer Specs are also the new Offensive Buffer specs and slaps GotL on Firebrand as well.

Assuming that the “Support” trinity of raids is currently Chrono/Druid/Berserker, what if the next set of Especs fills a similar role but in different ways.

Say that Firebrand can apply Quickness, Might and Healing. Then perhaps Holosmith can apply Invulnerability and Alacrity, while Scourge provides group-wide DPS-increase with unique Debuffs and Life-steal Buffs equivalent of GotL.

You could then run a Chrono/Druid/PS setup, or a Firebrand/Holosmith/Scourge setup.

Now, you might say “But GotL is still a unique set-up!” but what’s to say that Soulbeast isn’t a really powerful DPS spec? Enough so that it competes with other high-end DPS specs currently out. Sure, you could bring BOTH a Soulbeast and a Druid, but at some point having too many Team Buffers over actual DPS just loses out. We’ll see how the meta changes once the Xpac hits.

Utility Skill Changes

Gadgets

• A.E.D – Now additionally Stuns nearby enemies when healing you. Stun Duration is doubled if you take Lethal Damage.
• Personal Battering Ram – Additionally Cripples target struck.
• Rocket Boots – Additionally Burns enemies at your position when initiating.
• Slick Shoes – Additionally Grants Superspeed when activated.
• Utility Goggles – Additionally Reveals your target.
• Laser Grid – Create a Laser Grid line in front of you that Destroys Projectiles and Burns enemies passing through it, making them Vulnerable as well. Acts as a Light Field.

Munitions

• Med Pack Drop – Healing Skill. Now only removes 3 Conditions on Impact but Initially Heals the Engineer as well on activation, before scattering Bandages around. Bandages Heal for less but Cooldown is greatly reduced to compensate.
• Incendiary Ammo – No Changes. Same as Flamethrower’s Toolbelt Skill.
• Throw Mine – No Changes.
• Scatter Bombs – Throw 3 special grenades that explodes and scatters into 2 smaller grenades upon Impact. Deals damage equivalent to Grenade Barrage.
• Bear Trap – Set a Bear Trap that will Reveal, Immobilize and Bleed an enemy that steps on it. The Bear trap can be destroyed to remove the Immobilize.
• Napalm Strike – Elite Skill. Channel for a short time, marking your target for a bombing Run that creates several Firefields around them and greatly damages enemies. Up to 4 “runs” will continue to follow enemies as you channel.

Trait Changes
Naturally, some Traits in the different Specialization Lines will need to be modified for this change to work.

Explosives

• Grenadier – Swaps places with Skilled Marksman.
• NEW: Skilled Marksman – Adept Trait. No longer increases Attack Speed. Now Increases the Range of all your Rifle and Harpoon Gun Skills by 300, while also reducing Cooldowns by 20%.
• Short Fuse – Merged with Siege Rounds into Demolitionist.
• NEW: Cry Havoc – Master Trait. Drop a barrage of Grenades around you when you are Downed. Throw Junk is now an AoE Explosion and deals 33% More Damage.
• NEW: Demolitionist – Grandmaster Trait. Combo Fields created by your Mortar and Bombs lasts 1s Longer. Bombs explode faster and Mortar Rounds fly 100% Faster.

Firearms

• Heavy Armor Exploit – Changed Functionality. Increases Critical Hit Chance against targets with Protection by 15%. Critical Hits against targets with Protection stack Vulnerability.
• Grenadier – Moved from Explosives. Moved to Adept Traits. Additionally increases Range of thrown grenades by 150.
• Skilled Marksman – Moved to Explosives.
• NEW: Unstoppable – Replaces No Scope. Increases your Critical Hit Chance by 5% for each Nearby Enemy, up to a maximum of 5 enemies. Radius: 240.
• Juggernaut – Now affects the new Specialist Kit instead.

Inventions

• NEW: Master Mechanic – Replaces Power Wrench. Moved from Tools. Doubles Healing to turrets while wielding your Mechanic Kit. No Longer reduces Cooldown of your Mechanic Kit skills or increases their Damage, but while you’re wielding your Mechanic Kit, 15% of incoming Damage is redirected to one of your Turrets.
• Experimental Turrets – Changed Functionality. Now Overcharges Turrets automatically on a set Intervall after being deployed. When Turrets Overcharge, they grant Boons to nearby allies. Each turret has its own unique ICD on Overcharge. Boon Duration/Intensity changed to match.
• Bunker Down – Moved to Tools.
• Automated Medical Response – Changed Functionality. Moved to Grandmaster. Now releases a Minor Cleansing Burst whenever you activate a Heal Skill. Minor Cleansing Burst Has less Baseline Healing than Cleansing Burst and only cures 1 Condition, but still acts as a Water Field. ICD: 20s.
• Medical Dispersion Field – Moved to Alchemy.
• Iron-Blooded – Moved from Alchemy. Changed Functionality. Protection Applied to you now reduces Condition Damage by 33% as Well.

Alchemy

• Health Insurance – Merged with Backpack Regenerator.
• NEW: Mint Condition – Adept Trait. Healing to allies increases by 2% for each Boon on you.
• Inversion Enzyme – Changed Functionality. When you gain a Stacking Condition over the threshold, convert it into a Boon. Threshold: 10 stacks. ICD: 15s.
• Health Insurance – Merged with Backpack Regenerator. Regenerate Health and increase Healing to allies by 33% while wielding your Medical Kit.
• Elixir of Life – Replaces Stimulant Supplier. Thrown Elixirs now Heal affected allies on Impact. They heal for an additional amount of a Condition is Removed.
• Iron Blooded – Moved to Inventions.
• Medical Dispersion Field – Moved from Inventions.

Tools

• Power Wrench – Moved to Inventions.
• Gadgeteer – Moved to Adept Traits. Changed Functionality. Gadget Skills recharges 20% faster. They recharge 33% faster while you’re below the Health Threshold. Threshold: 50%.
• Streamlined Kits – Changed to function with the new kits. Always grants Swiftness, but only creates an Attack while in Combat.
  • Demolitions Kit – Drops a Magnetic Bomb that pulls enemies towards it when exploding.
  • Specialist Kit – Grants Fire Shield for 4s.
  • Medical Kit – Creates a Water Field that Heals nearby Allies for 3s.
  • Mechanic Kit – Grants Magnetic Aura for 2s.
• Takedown Round – Changed Functionality. Activating a Munitions Skill causes your next Attack to create a delayed Explosion at the target’s feet. The Activated Munition skill recharges 25% faster if the explosion hits a target.
• Bunker Down – Moved from Inventions.

So yeah, here’s my idea for how to redesign Engi that’ll never happen.

Changes

• Kits are fused with the Toolbelt to become the new Profession Mechanic, using Weapon Swap and F1-F4, freeing up the F5 slot for future ESpecs.
• Kits are merged together, becoming a total of 4 kits with 5 Swap-to Weapon Skills and 4 Always-available Toolbelt skills each, but the Engineer can only choose 1 new Kit to equip out-of-combat, similar to Legends for Revenant.
• Replacing Kits as Utility Skills are new Gadget and Munitions skills.

Kit Changes
With kits being merged into the Engineer’s Profession Mechanic, they’re merged down or expanded upon in order to make each kit impactful and specialized within its area.

• Mortar Kit and Bomb Kit are merged into the Demolition Kit which focuses on Direct Damage, Hard CC and Combo Fields.
• Flamethrower Kit and Grenade Kit are merged into the Specialist Kit which focuses on Condition Damage, Soft CC and AoE Denial.
• Elixir Gun Kit and Med Kit are merged into a Medical Kit which focuses on Healing, Condition Removal and Boon Support.
• Tool Kit is expanded upon with the Mechanic Kit to be more involved with the use of Turrets, focusing on Personal Sustain, CC and Stalling.

Demolitions Kit
Equipping a powerful Mortar, the Demolitions Kit turns the Engineer into a master of all things explosive. The mortar fires explosives shells across long distances, while their plethora of Bombs can be used in close range to keep enemies at bay while Sustaining Allies. With this mastery of range, the Demolitionist controls the battlefield and the enemy’s movements through constant barrages of explosives.

Weapon Skills

• Mortar Shot – No Change
• Gas Shell – Reduced Poison Duration to 2s per pulse, but now Additionally pulses Weakness as well. Still acts as a Poison Field.
• Endothermic Shell – No Change.
• Magnetic Shell – Replaces Flash Shell. Causes Vulnerability and Immobilizes all enemies on Impact, acting as a Blast Finisher.
• Orbital Strike – Replaces Elixir Shell. Mark the target area for an Orbital Strike that will severely Damage and Knock Down enemies within. Acts as a Blast Finisher.

Toolbelt Skills – All Toolbelt skills now acts as a Blast Finisher in addition to any Combo Field they might create. Cooldowns adjusted accordingly.

• F1: Big Ol’ Bomb – No Changes.
• F2: Concussion Bomb – No longer causes Confusion. Now Stuns all enemies on Impact, creating a Lightning Field that pulses Damage to enemies.
• F3: Smoke Bomb – No Changes.
• F4: Elixir Bomb – Replaces Glue Bomb. Heals allies on Impact and creates a Water Field that pulses Healing to allies.

Specialist Kit
The Specialist is a combat veteran that will take down their targets by any means necessary. They come equipped with a Flamethrower and a cluster of grenades, specializing in attrition to stack loads of Conditions on their targets to wear them down quickly before they knew what hit them.

Weapon Skills

• Flame Jet – No changes.
• Flame Blast – No changes.
• Air Blast – No changes.
• Napalm – Additionally Cripples enemies who pass through it.
• Smoke Vent – No change.

Toolbelt Skills

• F1: Shrapnel Grenade – No Changes.
• F2: Flash Grenade – No Changes.
• F3: Freeze Grenade – No Changes.
• F4: Incendiary Grenade – Replaces Poison Grenade. Each grenade causes 1 stack of Burning for 3s (base) on Impact.

Medical Kit
The Medic employs an alchemical Elixir gun in order to support, heal and protect their allies, while also coming equipped with specialized elixirs they can throw at allies in order to support those even further out of their reach. With a watchful eye, they aid allies in need whereever they might find themselves on the battlefield.

Weapon Skills

• Med Blaster – Replaces Tranquilizer Dart. Heal allies in a cone in front of you while Weakening enemies in the blast as well. Heals more for each Boon on allies deals more damage for each Condition on enemies.
• Glob Shot – No changes.
• Fumigate – No changes.
• Acid Bomb – No changes.
• Super Elixir – No changes.

Toolbelt Skills – Thrown medkits are merged with Thrown elixirs for these Toolbelt skills.

• F1: Throw Elixir H – Throw Elixir H at the target area, Healing Allies and randomly granting them Protection, Regeneration or Vigor.
• F2: Throw Elixir B – Throw Elixir B at the target area, Curing 1 Condition and randomly granting them Might, Fury or Retaliation while always granting them Swiftness.
• F3: Throw Elixir S – Throw Elixir S at the target area, granting Stealth to allies on Impact and Blinding Enemies hit.
• F4: Throw Elixir R – Throw Elixir R at the target area, creating a Light Field that Pulses Resistance to allies and slowly Reviving Downed Allies.

Mechanic Kit
The Mechanic is an enduring architect that builds to last. With their trusty Tool kit at their disposal, they have access to a myriad of odd tools that can be used to slow down enemies and stand tall against whatever they throw at them. With their tools, they can also repair their turrets and maintain them.

Weapon Skills

• Smack → Whack → Thwack – No Changes.
• Throw Wrench – Replaces Box of Nails. Now Additionally Destroys Projectiles.
• Pry Bar – No Changes.
• Gear Shield – Duration increased to 3s, up from 2.
• Rapid Repair – Replaces Magnet. Flurry with your wrench, Damaging and Crippling enemies while rapidly repairing the nearest Turret. Overcharges the Turret on a full Channel.

Toolbelt Skills

• F1: Surprise Shot – Fire a Bullet from your Belt. Now Additionally Cripples the target. (Same as Rifle Turret’s Toolbelt Skill.)
• F2: Box of Nails – No Changes.
• F3: Mine Field – No Changes. (Same as Throw Mine’s Toolbelt Skill.)
• F4: Magnet – All active Turrets will now target the Pulled enemy for 5s.

If you’re looking to Raid and do Fractals, then I’m afraid you’re gonna have to deviate from your “Fantasy” quite a lot as Meta dictates what is useful and what is not. For example, Warrior wants to run Condition Damage with Sword/Torch + Longbow in Raids and Direct Damage with Greatsword + Mace/Shield in Fractals. You -can- of course run whatever the heck you like in open world PvE or when teaming with friends, however Raids and High-end Fractals are designed to be challenging to the point where playing sub-optimal builds oftentimes just pulls the team down with you.

PvP/WvW is slightly different. There are still optimal builds, but in a player-vs-player environment the win typically goes to the mechanically more skilled player. Running Optimal Builds greatly improve your chance of winning but overall you can coax by with anything if you’re just good enough.

Overall, from the weapons you’ve chosen, I’d say Warrior is your best bet for taking part in every game-mode. Guardian and Revenant are currently lacking in PvE, especially endgame content such as Raids, and even there you’d be expected to run weapons you probably don’t want to run.

With Warrior, if you can fit Torch into your fantasy, then Sword/Torch + Longbow with a Condition Setup will fit you into any Raid (Look up qT’s builds for Raids for optimal builds). In Fractals, Greatsword-camping with a Mace/Shield to swap to when you need CC is typically the way to go.

In PvP most people run a full-throttle Spike build with Greatsword and Mace/Shield, but again if you’re good enough you can probably switch that up a little. Greatsword/Rifle is a fun build to use, as someone stated above.

So, with a name like Holosmith, I’d imagine they’d become some kinda battle artificers. I’ve got a few theories on what their mechanic could turn out as.

• 1/ The Holosmith passively creates holographic weaponry during combat. A meter that defaults to 0 builds up while in combat. Once it reaches Max, the Holosmith can press R to swap weapon to a powerful Holographic weapon not too dissimilar to Elementalist’s Conjured weapons.

• 2/ The Holosmith actively creates weapons and armor for allies in Combat. The Holosmith can press R whenever to change their weapon skills for Holosmithing skills, where they can create Holographic weapons, grant holographic forcefields to allies or create obstructive terrain for enemies.

• 3/ The Holosmith is surrounded by a Forcefield that grants them an extra layer of separate HP over their current HP. This overlay takes priority damage before the Holosmith’s own HP and regenerates separate of their normal HP. They’d also have some way of giving this kinda Forcefield HP to allies and maintain it.

Healing Power is useful to a few professions. Tempests, Druids and Ventari Revs primarily, as they can be specced into dedicated healers.

In PvE, Healing Power is really only necessary in Raids to keep a squad going but it makes high-level fractals into EZ mode if you bring a Druid along. Druids will be doing most if not all the Healing here, and typically spec into Magi stats to pump out as much Healing as possible. (You don’t bring a Heal Druid for DPS, but the combination of their massive Heals and massive Damage-Buffing capabilities make them the unconditional kings and queens of PvE Healing.)

In sPvP, Druids use Mender Amulet (Pow/Healing Major, Prec/Vit Minor) to be effective Bunkers while Tempests use the same amulet to be the go-to Team Supporter/Healer.

Can’t speak for WvW as my potato of a computer won’t allow me to delve into it much, but supposedly there are both Tempests and Ventari Revs running around those parts. Would have to ask someone else about that.

EdwinLi.1284:

Yes trying to beat the current “Meta” in PvE will be near impossible since the community has established Kits being 100% required to meet the “Meta” damage rate for endgame content but the funny thing about “Meta” standards is that they only remain Meta until someone else decide to diverge from it and discover something of equal or greater value.

Now back to Elite Specs…

From here it is most likely we may see future Elite Specs changing Gameplay styles of Engineer by adjusting the Toolbelt into new functions that may adjust gameplay style to focus less on kits and more on using the new Toolbelt system. The way I see it Anet has set up two types of Elite Specs being the Extension Elite Specs that only add on to Core profession current gameplay style (being Scrapper, Tempest, Berserker, Chronomancer, and Revenant) and the Unique Elite Spec that changes and adjust the core system into a new set of skills and functions thus changing the gameplay style (such as Reaper, Druid, and Dragonhunter).

A problem with changing the Core of Engineer is the Trait Synergy with already existing Traits. Change Toolbelt skills too much and they might not end up working with current traits at all (Such as Static Discharge, for instance).

And it’s quite the faux pas to call that the “Community” has decided on Kits being meta, as the decisive factor isn’t with a anyone’s personal preference but rather the numbers (In DPS) that comes from using kits, and the way GW2 Combat is designed. While it’s true that the Meta is a fluctuating concept, let me try and put my concerns like this (This is talking PvE):

If you change the Profession Skills of the Engineer with an Elite Spec to rival the DPS that kits allow, then Kits will simply add to the DPS with how they are designed. Unless new Utility Skills are introduced which can either rival Kits in DPS, or provide much greater Utility that is necessary in Raids (Unique Buffs, Boons etc), then there will be no reason NOT to run kits anyways. It’d be like having your cake, and eating it too.

(Also, I find it odd that you consider Druid to have made major changes but not the Scrapper. Both only got a function added rather than having Profession Skills changed, but through their new weapon, skills and function was changed greatly in playstyle. Druids became Healers and Bunkers, where Rangers are neither, while Scrapper became a Melee Bruiser where Core Engineers typically were midrange Bunkers.)

EdwinLi.1284:

TheSwede.9512:

The problem with all these solutions is that they don’t actually get Worse when you add kits to them. If we’re talking DPS, they’d just get better because you get powerful weapon skills with unique cooldowns to add to your rotations. Kits are always going to have a place on any Engineer’s Utility Bar in PvE. There will most likely always be at least 1 in PvP because Engi lacks weapon swap, as well.

Also, only so many ways you can reliably change their Toolbelt Skills, as they’ve got some traits hinging on them working as they are right now.

Your best bet for a Non-Kit Engi is probably a Support kit of some kind, with Utilities and Mechanics designed to buff or Heal (or both) allies similar to a Druid.

It is not about making a gameplay style worse using a kit but providing more options into Engineer’s gameplay style so that player have more options not to depend on Kits for 90% of their gameplay.

There will be kits in majority of builds but really most players only use 1 or 2 skills from majority of the kits they have on.

that way Engineer can have a better choice between focusing only on main weapon thus using all their utility skills for something not a Kit, Mix between Main Weapon and kits, or focusing only on kits for combat.

As of now majority of gameplay for Engineer is focus on kits for combat or mixing their main weapon with kits but few options for focusing only on Main Weapon only.

A new Elite Spec that changes the toolbelt into a “Main Weapon Kits” that change the Main Weapon’s skills based on which F1 to F4 or F5 skill chosen may provide far more room for the option to focus only on Main hand weapon and using utility only for other utility skills not a Kit.

Of course this will also add more options to the “Mix Main Weapon/Kit” option and “Kit Only” option in gameplay style as well if the player can handle the new set of 15 or 20 news skills for each Main Weapon and elite spec weapon with the other skills in each kits.

While true for PvP, in PvE you’d only see even more convoluted and extensive rotations incorporating kits and the new “Weapon Skills” rather than room being made for other Utilities, if the Engi remains a DPS spec.

You could add 25 new weapon skills and Kits would still make up the entirety of the Engi’s PvE Utility Bar when specced for DPS. If you change the Engi into an Ele with attunements on the F1-F5 keys you’re basically just adding 5 more Kits to the mix, because when it comes down to it Kits are already just 5 extra Weapon Skills. The playstyle wouldn’t change at all, only the visuals and the skill requirement for getting top DPS, which in turn would only serve to make Engi even more difficult to manage in Raids.

The “Option” to focus on Main Hand weapon only that you describe won’t be a reality in PvE scenarios unless you give the Engi new Utility Skills that match the Kits in terms of DPS and/or Utility, such as party-wide buffs akin to Warrior Banners or Druid Glyphs. And if that’s the case, you really don’t need to copy/paste Elementalist onto Engineer’s Toolbelt skills anyways, better to focus on entirely new gameplay in that case.

The problem with all these solutions is that they don’t actually get Worse when you add kits to them. If we’re talking DPS, they’d just get better because you get powerful weapon skills with unique cooldowns to add to your rotations. Kits are always going to have a place on any Engineer’s Utility Bar in PvE. There will most likely always be at least 1 in PvP because Engi lacks weapon swap, as well.

Also, only so many ways you can reliably change their Toolbelt Skills, as they’ve got some traits hinging on them working as they are right now.

Your best bet for a Non-Kit Engi is probably a Support kit of some kind, with Utilities and Mechanics designed to buff or Heal (or both) allies similar to a Druid.

Warrior/Berserker has a place everywhere, yes. They’re Bruisers/Duelers in PvP, Frontliners in WvW and Boon+Bannerbots in Raids.

Mesmer/Chronomancer also has a place everywhere. They’re insane point-holders/Duelers in PvP, Portal/Stealth Bots in WvW and Tanks/Boonbots in Raids.

Aside that, Thief/Daredevil is +1/Assassins in pvp, Roamers in WvW and High-level DPS in Raids.

Guardian/Dragonhunter is a Pointholder/Trapper in pvp, Zerg Frontliner in WvW and High DPS in Raids.

Elementalist/Tempest is the primary Supporter of a pvp team, Zerg Healer Midliner in WvW and High DPS in Raids.

Most professions have at least 1 working build in every game mode. Revenant/Herald has kinda fallen behind in PvP and PvE but supposedly still going strong in WvW, and Necromancer/Reaper isn’t very used in Raids but sees a lot of favor with High-end Fractals, while still having a strong presence in PvP and WvW. Engineer/Scrapper as has been stated are still extremely powerful in PvP and can work well in WvW and PvE (Though as Base Engi in PvE).

I’d suggest looking up sites such as Metabattle and qT forums to read up on current meta, helps with getting an understanding of what works right now.

Necromancer main spotted!

For animations:

Human and Sylvari have pretty much the same animations, while Norn have mostly the same but with some key differences (The most striking one being Female Run animation). Overall, Thief isn’t too heavy on unique Animations, the most striking ones for Core Thief are Death Blossom (which looks about the same on all races.) and Unload (Which looks best on Asura IMO, due to them going full gangsta hold while channeling).

Now, if you’ve got HoT and access to Daredevil, then you’ll get a slew of unique animations in Staff and Physical Skills. Humans and Sylvari are the same still, Norn gets a different Vault Animation, Asura and Charr have entirely different Staff Animations. Daredevil Staff is one of the better weapons to get the most out of your Asura due to how flashy their skills are.

Utility Skills – Stances
Duelist Stances are all focused on lethality and opportunism, however they command a variety of effects that aim to help the Duelist adapt to any situation in which they might find themselves. Like Warrior Stances, most are instant effects. They have relatively short durations in return for lower cooldowns than Warrior Stances, requiring timing to be used for maximum impact.

• Vampiric Assault – Healing Skill. Heal yourself and Siphon Health from your target with all Attacks for 3s.
• Viper’s Defense – Channel for 3s, destroying Incoming projectiles. At the end of the Channel, you hurl a Poisoned Dagger at the target for each Projectile destroyed, up to a certain threshold. Threshold: 6.
• Way of Perfection – For 3s, you have greatly Increased Initiative and Endurance Regeneration as long as you keep Moving.
• Way of the Lotus – Break Stun and become Immobile for 3s, Evading all incoming Attacks and gaining Might whenever you’re attacked. If attacked in Melee, Knock Back the enemy that strikes you.
• Way of the Fox – For 3s, all Attacks are Unblockable and Inflict Vulnerability.
• Dark Escape – Elite Skill. For 3s, you gain pulsing Stealth and Superspeed. You cannot be Revealed for the duration of this skill.

Specialization Line
The Duelist Traitline focuses primarily on gaining and regaining the upper hand in combat. Their Minor traits add an Initial Effect similar to Ranger’s Opening Strike, which can be further enhanced with a Grandmaster Trait. Otherwise, it focuses on making the Duelist more adapt at surviving prolonged fights or battles against multiple targets, as well as opening venues to enhance the Weapon Finishers.

Minor Traits

• Duelist Training – Gain access to Combination Attacks, Weapon Finishers and Stances.
• Lethality – Your first attack when entering Combat deals 20% more Damage.
• First Blood – You gain +150 Ferocity while you have Lethality.

Adept Traits

• Dual Barrage – Deal 10% more Damage while Dual-wielding two of the same weapon.
• Composure – Stances grants you Regeneration (3s) when activated and removes Movement-Impairing Conditions. ICD: 10s.
• Rush of Battle – You regain 2 Initiative when you successfully execute a Weapons Finisher.

Master Traits

• Falling Shadow – Helm Splitter now deals 10% more damage to Disabled targets and Blinds (4s) them on hit.
• Vacuum – Thin Air is now Unblockable and Dazes (1/2s) all targets Struck.
• Shot in the Dark – Twisting Shot and Parting Gift fly 100% faster and grants you Stealth when their effects end.

Grandmaster Traits

• Assassin’s Promise – You regain Lethality whenever you gain Stealth. ICD: 5s.
• Their own worst enemy – Whenever you Block or Destroy a projectile, Reflect it instead. Reflected Projectiles are made Unblockable.
• Crowning Momentum – Cooldown on Combination Attack and Weapon Finisher are reset whenever you Kill or Finish an enemy.

Thief – Duelist
Weapon: Off-hand Sword
Utility Skills: Stances
Mechanic: Gains new Combination Attacks and Weapon Finishers that can pull off powerful combos if executed within specific timeframes.

Mechanic – Combination Attack
The Duelist is an expert combatant that thrives on momentum. Once an opening presents itself, these ruthless opportunists will move in for the kill, throwing everything they’ve got at their unfortunate target.

During specific conditions, the Duelist gets the prompt to press F (or whichever key interact is bound to) in order to start up a Combination Attack. The window for this is extremely small, which is why F is used for ease-of-access. However, F3-F5 (Default) can also be used for this purpose.

• Lift Combination – Can be triggered when a targeted enemy is Dazed, Stunned, Feared, Taunted, Knocked, Launched, Sunk or Floated. Shadowstep to the targeted enemy and leave them Vulnerable them with a precise strike, before Launching them upwards into the Air.
• Pin Combination – Can be triggered when a targeted enemy misses an attack as a result of Blindness. Pin them to the ground with a precise dagger toss, Immobilizing them, before Shadowstepping to their position and Weakening them with a Body Blow.
• Setup Combination – Can be triggered when the Duelist gains Stealth. Dash through your target, dealing no Damage but Blinding and Crippling them.

Each Combination has its own unique Cooldown of 20s. Activating a Combination Attack is always instant, cancelling any other action or aftercast of the previous skill. However, it’s not much of a Combo Attack without a Finisher! Whenever a Combination attack has successfully hit its target, the Duelist can finish it off with a new Weapon Finisher skill that occupies their 1st skill slot for a second after being triggered, but can also be activated by pressing F again. This Finisher move cannot be activated if the Combination Attack is blocked, dodged or otherwise evaded. The Weapon Finisher varies depending on which weapon is currently used in the Main-Hand slot:

• Dagger: Helm Splitter – Leap into the Air and Descend with a powerful strike that leaves the target enemy Vulnerable. Evades while leaping. Acts as a Leap Finisher.
• Sword/Spear: Thin Air – Sweep your blade in an arc, sending out a powerful Shockwave that Cripples enemies struck and destroys Projectiles.
• Pistol: Twisting Shot – Fire a twisting bullet that spirals around the target, striking and Bleeding them several times over a short duration.
• Shortbow/Harpoon Gun: Parting Gift – Leap away from your target, firing down an Immobilizing Arrow. After a short delay the Arrow Explodes, Bleeding and Blinding enemies around them. Acts as a Projectile Finisher. Acts as a Blast Finisher.

Any Combination Attack can be followed up with either Weapon Finisher. Each Finisher has a Cooldown of their own at 5s. However, by swapping Weapons through the Combo, the Duelist can pull off some real wacky Combos if they’ve got the flair and build for it.

Weapon – Off-Hand Sword
Because Revenants aren’t the only ones who want to be Shiro knock-offs!
Jokes aside, the Duelist has a very peculiar approach to using a secondary sword on their person. They don’t draw it in tandem with their other weapon, but leave it in the scabbard for when they feel they need it.
The Off-hand sword offers them a venue to AoE Cripple and an Initiative-based Block-skill, however like their Combination Attacks it’s all about timing. If they time it wrong, the Duelist is punished by heavy and long aftercast frames.

• Sweeping Strike – Draw your off-hand sword and spin around, Damaging and Crippling up to 5 enemies around you. Initiative Cost: 4. Acts as a Whirl Finisher.
• Flash of the Blade – Draw your off-hand sword for a split second, Blocking attacks and Dazing (1/4s) nearby enemies, while Reflecting Projectiles. Initiative Cost: 6.
  Note: Flash of the Blade only blocks attacks for about 1/4s, but its activation time is nigh instant.

The Dual Wield attacks gained from the Sword are widely varied depending on the main-hand weapon, designed to bridge the gap between the Main-hand and Off-hand in terms of gameplay.

• Sword: Sword Dancer – Twirl both blades around, becoming Immobile while Damaging all nearby enemies in a flurry of steel. Evade attacks while channeling. Initiative Cost: 5.
• Dagger: Shadow Tag -> Shadow Pursuit – Hurl your Blade at the target Area, Damaging and Crippling enemies within for a short time. Activate again to Shadowstep to the Target Area and Gain Stealth. Initiative cost (Tag): 3. Initiative Cost (Pursuit): 3.
• Pistol: Dirty Fighting – Draw your blade and wreak up a Blinding cloud of Smoke in front of you, acting as a Smoke Field. Proceed to then Unload your gun through the cloud, Bleeding enemies struck with each Bullet. Initiative Cost: 5.

Utility Skills: Purifications
Purification skills are the Lorekeeper’s response to Necromancer’s Corruptions. However, rather than to cause self-harm in order to weaken and cripple enemies, the Lorekeeper stacks Conditions or other negative effects on themselves in order aid and heal allies with instant effects, or Punish enemies. Most Purifications have a quick or moderate activation time with instant, powerful effects.

• Sacrificial Healing – Healing Skill. Weaken yourself and pull Conditions from nearby Allies to yourself, pulsing Healing in an Area around you.
• Flesh of my Flesh – Damage and Bleed yourself in order to Heal allies at the target area and grant them Regeneration.
• Scourge Healing – You and your target become Immune to all forms of Healing for a brief Time.
• Healer’s Covenant – Burn yourself and make yourself Vulnerable. Increases all your Outgoing Healing by 25% and causes all Healing you cause to revive fallen allies by a % of their Downed Health.
• Purifying Veil – Pulse Blindness to yourself for a time. Allies around you Remove 1 Condition with each Pulse.
• Reversal of Fortune – Elite Skill. Reduce your own Damage and Condition Damage by 100% for a brief time. Allies around you now convert a incoming Damage into Healing when struck.

Specialization Line
The first line specializes on the use of Dagger as a weapon and Cleansing Conditions from allies. The Second Line specializes in straight-up healing, increasing the Lorekeeper’s ability to keep Allies topped on health. The Third line focuses primarily on punishing enemies by buffing Allies with Damage and Retaliation, or the use of Purification Skills.

Minor Traits

• Lore Mastery – Gain access to Lore, The Tome of Courage and Purification Skills.
• Smiter’s Boon – Gain 1 stack of Lore when you stack Burning on an enemy above the threshold. Threshold: 3. ICD: 3s.
• Spotless Soul – Recharge Virtue of Resolve when you gain 10 stacks of Lore.

Adept Traits

• Shielding Hands – Mending Touch now grants Protection (2s) to yourself and affected allies. Dagger Skills recharge 20% Faster.
• Watchful Healing – Increases outgoing Healing to Allies by 2% for each Stack of Lore on you.
• Reversal of Damage – Allies you Heal gain Retaliation (3s). ICD: 10s.

Master Traits

• Vital Blessing – Regenerate Health while you have your Tome of Courage open. Gain Stability (1 stack, 4s) on Activation. ICD: 5s.
• Words of Comfort – Gain 3 stacks of Lore and Remove 1 Damaging Condition when you Revive an Ally.
• Judge’s Insight – Purification Skills grants you 1 stack of Lore on Activation. Purification Skills recharge 20% faster.

Grandmaster Traits

• Mend Conditions – Heal an ally when you Remove a Condition from them. Heal for a greater amount if you Convert it into a Boon.
• Orison of Healing – Tome of Courage Spells can now affect up to 10 Allies, rather than 5. Heal all nearby Allies when you open your Tome of Courage.
• Strength of Honor – When you cast a spell from your Tome of Courage, nearby allies gain a stacking 2% Damage and Condition Damage Buff for each Lore Charge you spent. Stacks up to 10. Duration: 5s.

Guardian – Lorekeeper
Weapon: Two-handed Dagger
Skills: Purifications (New)
Mechanic: Gains access to a new resource called Lore, which is used to cast extremely powerful spells from their Tome of Courage.

Mechanic: Lore and the Tome of Courage
The Lorekeeper is a guardian of ancient lore and lost knowledge, utilizing archaic magical practices in revolutionary ways. With history written and kept whole within their Tome of Courage, they call upon spellpower thought lost to the passages of time to support their allies and smite their enemies.

The Lorekeeper has a new resource called Lore, which they generate up to 10 stacks of by activating their Virtues or through other means available by Trait Choices in their Specialization line. Lore stacks do not degenerate over time in PvE, but has a 30s duration in PvP.

• Virtue of Justice grants them 1 stack of Lore when activated in Combat.
• Virtue of Resolve grants them 3 stacks of Lore when activated in Combat.
• Virtue of Courage grants them 5 stacks of Lore when activated in Combat.

Lore stacks are used in order to cast powerful spells from their Tome of Courage, which can be opened at any time by pressing F4. There’s no cooldown on the Tome itself, but every spell within requires a set amount of Lore to cast. In return, each individual spell has relatively short Cooldown.

• Halo of Fire -> Greater Halo -> Grand Halo – Create a whirl of fire at the target area that Damages and Burns enemies within. Greater Halo Burns enemies in a larger area. Grand Halo Burns enemies in an even bigger area and creates a Fire Field. Lore Cost: 1 (x3).
• Healing Ring -> Glimmer of Light – Heal allies around yourself with an expanding ring of light. Cast again to send the ring Forwards, Healing allies it passes through. Lore Cost: 1 (x2).
• Illumination – Blind the target enemy with a Blazing light that also Stacks Vulnerability over time, turning them into a Mobile Light Field. Allies dealing Damage to the target enemy are Healed. This Heal can only happens once every second. Lore Cost: 3.
• Protective Spirit – Channel and pulse Protection to nearby Allies. While you channel, each affected ally gains a barrier that destroys Projectiles. Greatly Heals allies if channeled completely. Lore Cost: 5.
• Apotheosis – Become Invulnerable and channel, calling down several pillars of Light around you that massively Heal nearby allies, even Downed allies, and Knocks Down enemies struck. Lore Cost: 10.

Weapon: Two-handed Dagger
I know what you’re thinking: “Two-handed dagger? How’s that supposed to work out?”
The Lorekeeper doesn’t hold both hands on the dagger, of course. That’d be silly. No, instead, when equipped with a Dagger, the Lorekeeper also equips another ethereal tome, hovering before their Off-hand slot, the Lesser Tome of Wrath. Their weapon skills mixes the Dagger’s quick strikes with magical barrages, focusing heavily on Medium-range AoE Burning, Healing and Condition Clearing.

• Writ of Castigation – Hurl a dagger with page from your Tome of Wrath speared on it. After hitting an enemy, the page conflagrates and Burns the struck enemy. Acts as a Projectile Finisher (20%).
• Mending Touch – Throw your arms forwards and bathe allies in light, Healing them and removing 1 Condition while Blinding enemies within range. Heals for an additional amount if a Condition is removed.
• Word of Healing – Strike a page from your tome into the ground with a dagger at the target area, causing it to Pulse Healing in an Area at set intervalls for a short time.
• Symbol of Resolve – Symbol. Inscribe the target area with a Symbol of Resolve, removing 1 Condition from allies on creation and pulsing Stability. Acts as a Light Field.
• Seal of Purification – Several pages from your tome fly at the target area, struck into the ground with daggers and forming a large seal. Pulses Damage to enemies within while in creation, and explodes in a massive burst of fire that Launches and Burns all targets struck when finished.

There’s a play called “Die Freishütz” by Goethe, I think.

Here, a Hunter makes a deal with the devil for magical bullets that never miss their target. Could be a great Elite Spec for Necromancer. Even has the name “Freeshooter” up for grabs!

The Devs wanted each profession to be able to fill each of the three core “Soft roles” at launch, which translates to each Profession having access to Damage, Support and Control specs in one degree or another.

Notice how “Healer” isn’t there. Notice how “Tank” isn’t there. That’s because Healing falls under Support, and Tanking falls under Control. Some professions support with Healing, others with Boons and others still with unique effects or a mix of everything. Nothing’s changed with their direction, only the application and availability.

Druid was a wholy sensible way to go for Rangers, far as I’m concerned. Nature Magic was always one of the five pillars behind Rangers, but all they got was Martial weapons with a few Utility Skills that were magic. Druid brought the Nature Magic Pillar up to par with the rest of their kit, such as Bows and Wilderness Survival.

We’re gonna get more Elite Specs down the line taking the Professions in other directions, just gotta be patient enough to let them hit.

People playing what they want to play (In this case, a set meta) and requesting certain roles to be filled in their LFG is not toxicity.

Toxicity is if they just post “LFG 40 Farm” with no further info, then proceed to curse you out for not following meta despite them not bothering to post those 4 extra letters in the LFG. Then you can call them toxic.

If someone joins an LFG asking for something specifically when the player in question is NOT what the LFG asking for, then that player is the problem. If said player then start cursing them out for not taking them along despite the LFG ASKING for something completely different, then said player is the Toxic one.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

TheSwede.9512:

Scepter/Dagger + GS is a horrible combo for Necro and you’ll struggle greatly to find a squad that’ll take you along. Reason for that is that Scepter/Dagger is a good Condi set-up, but GS is a Power weapon through and through. It’s absolutely atrocious for a Condi Build. Even with Deathly Chill, its extremely slow AA doesn’t even hold a candle to the Bleed Stacks Scepter tosses out.

cough the condition “meta” builds use it right now. it’s definitely only briefly used, but it brings a bunch to the table in pve with whirl finishers, the grab/chill, etc, coupled with the reaper shroud.

It’s not the thing to camp, but it’s definitely worth having. Not to mention that the “best” condition gear, vipers, brings plenty of power to the table, so GS AA is good for old-world objects that don’t take conditions, etc.

Well, look at that! I stand corrected, seems I was stuck in an old mindset. Nevermine my post.

Scepter/Dagger + GS is a horrible combo for Necro and you’ll struggle greatly to find a squad that’ll take you along. Reason for that is that Scepter/Dagger is a good Condi set-up, but GS is a Power weapon through and through. It’s absolutely atrocious for a Condi Build. Even with Deathly Chill, its extremely slow AA doesn’t even hold a candle to the Bleed Stacks Scepter tosses out.

There are some decent Power Reaper builds with GS far as I know (Check out Brazil on Youtube for that) but I can’t recall how useful those are after the last patch.

Bottomline is: If you wanna go GS for Reaper, power build all the way. You wanna go Scepter, then it’s Condi. Don’t go both, it won’t work out.

OriOri.8724:

TheSwede.9512:

ThomasC.1056:

Really nice ideas and work.

Just to be sure, you’re using utility skills to shatter your illusions ? Is it a plain dismiss, or has it got side effects ?
Also, you’re saying trickster blades replace shatters. Do blade command skills also trigger the “on shatter” traits ?

The Utility Skills that shatter Illusions function mechanically similar to Shatter Skills, in that they shatter any clones you have in use in order to grow stronger. They can be traited to also trigger “On-Shatter” traits using Magician’s Assistants.

Trickster Blades can be considered a Chain Skill. Once you’ve created 4 blades (Which can be done in one Shatter if you have 3 Clones out, since the Mesmer themselves now count towards shattered clones) your Shatter Skills are replaced by the Blade Command Skills until you activate one of them, at which point you regain your old Shatter skills. They do not trigger “On-Shatter” traits.

I’m gonna need a bit more time to think about your proposed elite spec as a whole, but right now it sounds interesting.

However this does worry me with the blade command skills replacing shatters. Its a valid tactic to chain shatters together for effects, whether its loading up torment/confusion, healing/condi cleanse, or just for each shatter’s base utility. And this would negate that, which would also mean shatters at the core level might need to be reworked.

Its a really cool idea, but I’m not sure how well it fits with core mesmer.

Shouldn’t be a big problem. If you unload Shatters without clones, you’ll only chain into the Blade Command Skills once you’ve used all 4 (As without clones, you’ll only generate 1 Blade for each Shatter and you need 4 in total before the skills change).

If you have 3 Clones out on the first Shatter, then you’ll swap to the Blade Command Skills instantly, necessiting a slightly different rotation. For instance, you could throw down Wheel of Pain to add ticks of Bleeding with Lacerating Blades, or Immobilize enemies with Rain of Blades so that the other Shatter skills are gauranteed to hit. (Since your Shatter skills return the moment you activate a Blade Command skill, wether you successfully hit an enemy or not.)

I could imagine the following Spike rotation for a Condi Mesmer running Maim the Disillusioned and Lacerating Blades:

Cry of Frustration (3 clones) → Wheel of Pain (Blade Command) → Mind Wrack → Diversion → Distortion.

ThomasC.1056:

Really nice ideas and work.

Just to be sure, you’re using utility skills to shatter your illusions ? Is it a plain dismiss, or has it got side effects ?
Also, you’re saying trickster blades replace shatters. Do blade command skills also trigger the “on shatter” traits ?

The Utility Skills that shatter Illusions function mechanically similar to Shatter Skills, in that they shatter any clones you have in use in order to grow stronger. They can be traited to also trigger “On-Shatter” traits using Magician’s Assistants.

Trickster Blades can be considered a Chain Skill. Once you’ve created 4 blades (Which can be done in one Shatter if you have 3 Clones out, since the Mesmer themselves now count towards shattered clones) your Shatter Skills are replaced by the Blade Command Skills until you activate one of them, at which point you regain your old Shatter skills. They do not trigger “On-Shatter” traits.

Utility Skills
As for their Tricks, they wouldn’t be Physical Tricks like the Thief has, but Mind Tricks, Magic and Illusions that excel at misdirection and confusion. Many Trick Skills work as extended Shatter skills, using Clones you have summoned to extend their effects further.

• Vanishing Act – Healing Skill. A shatter effect plays on your clones and they gain Stealth. Gain Stealth and Heal yourself for each active Clone.
• Hypnosis – You and your illusions channel Lulling energies at your target, pulsing Blind, followed by Cripple and finally Stun depending on the number of illusions alive.
• Shadow of Doubt – Shatter your clones, Sending out black orbs at surrounding enemies that attaches to them, pulsing Slow and Weakness to them for a time or until they successfully deal damage.
• Weave of Inspiration – Shatter all your clones, surrounding yourself with a magical, colourful weave for each clone shattered. Each Weave will Absorb the next incoming Projectile, shooting out to Immobilize the origin of the projectile and Steal a Boon from them.
• Now you see me… – Shatter all your clones, Taunting the enemies your clones have targeted while gaining access to “… Now you don’t.” chain skill.
  • … Now you don’t. – Break Stun, Gain Stealth and reform clones Shattered with “Now you see me…”, while stacking Confusion on Taunted enemies.
• Magic Box – Elite Skill. Stun the target, enveloping both yourself and the target in Illusionary Boxes. Blades strike into both boxes, massively Damaging and Crippling your target, before you both swap places. If the enemy is Downed by this Skill, they’re immedietally defeated. Defiant Enemies will not be displaced but instead take Break Bar Damage.

Specialization Line
The Trickster specialization line is all about Offense, offering up a wide variety of approaches towards tearing enemies asunder. The first line offers up a venue at Condition Damage, the second focuses more on sustained DPS while the third is all about creating steady opportunities for massive Bursts.

Minor Traits

• Magician – Gain access Tricks and the Trickster Blades mechanic.
• Ethereal Armaments – Gain Fury (4s) when you activate a Blade Command skill.
• Guile Hero – You deal 1% more Damage for each Boon on yourself and 2% more damage for each Boon on your target.

Adept Traits

• Adept Illusionist – Confusion you apply deals 10% more damage. Confusion duration is increased by 100% against Non-Player enemies.
• Phantasmal Rebirth – Activating a Blade Command Skill now reduces the recharge of all your Phantasm Skills by 10s. ICD: 10s.
• Shattered Armor – Remove Protection from enemies struck by your Shatter Skills.

Master Traits

• Trickster’s Guile – You and nearby allies gain 150 Expertise.
• Thought Sever – Temporal Shot now Chills enemies it strikes, and Dazes them when exploding. Shortbow Skills recharge 20% faster.
• Magician’s Assistants – Trick Skills that Shatter your clones are now also considered Shatter skills for Trait Synergy and generate Trickster Blades when used. Trick skills recharge 20% faster.

Grandmaster Traits

• Lacerating Blades – Blade Command Skills now cause Bleeding (1 stack, 3s) on enemies with each strike.
• Dancing Blades – Your Trickster Blades now continously circle around you while passive, Dealing Damage to nearby enemies constantly.
• Piercing Blades – Blade Command and Shatter skills are now Unblockable.

So, Mesmer got one of the arguably best Elite Specs in Chronomancer, the immense sustain and support they offer being rather unparallelled. But, it didn’t fix one thing that Mesmers lacked, which is sustained Damage. With the Trickster, I aim to give an alternative that excels at AoE Nuking and Sustain Damage.

Mesmer – Trickster
Weapon: Shortbow
Skill: Tricks
Mechanic: Trickster Blades will now appear behind the Trickster whenever they shatter a clone. These blades can number up to 4. When 4 Blades are created, Shatter skills are replaced with Blade Command skills.

Mechanic: Trickster Blades
With nothing but their mind, the Trickster can create powerful and very deadly Trickster Blades from pure ether to bring into battle. Whenever a Shatter skill is used, the Trickster reshapes the shattered remains of their clones into illusionary swords that hover behind their back, ready to strike at their call and beckon. 1 Blade is created for each clone shattered, the Trickster themselves included.

When 4 Blades have been created, the 4 Shatter Skills are replaced with 4 brand new Blade Command Skills that use all 4 blades at once for a devastating attack, before shattering them and returning the basic Shatter skills, necessiting for the Trickster to keep creating clones and shattering them to maintain their secondary weapon.

• Blade Impalement – Replaces Mind Wrack. Send your blades to impale your target, Damaging and stacking Vulnerability over time on them.
• Wheel of Pain – Replaces Cry of Frustration. Send your blades to circle the target Area, continuously Damaging and Crippling enemies within. Acts as a Whirl Finisher.
• Rain of Blades – Replaces Diversion. Rain your blades down at the Target Area, Immobilizing and Slowing all enemies within.
• Mental Storm – Replaces Distortion. Drive your blades into the ground before you, sending out a Cascading wave of sharp blades that Knocks Back enemies.

Note: Trickster Blades are visually identical to Whisperblade, save for two occasions:
When equipped with The Dreamer, the blades are replaced by Unicorns. When equipped with Chuka & Champawat, the blades are replaced by Tigers.

Weapon
The Shortbow might be an odd choice for a DPS weapon, but the Trickster doesn’t use the bow in a conventional way. True to their nature of deception and trickery, Trickster gets Melee Shortbow, of course with plenty more twists and turns. It excells as a high DPS weapon, especially against large Hitboxes and groups of enemies with skills such as Temporal Shot, Illusionary Acrobat and Chaotic Trap.

• Illusionary Arrow/Illusionary Blade -> Trickster’s Treat -> Mind Render – Fire an Illusionary Arrow at your target which explodes, dealing Damage to enemies near it. If your target is closer than 130 units, conjure an Illusionary dagger to strike them with, Third attack creating a delayed Pulse that will damage the target and remove a Boon after a brief time.
• Double Entandre – Clone. Fire an illusionary arrow that teleports you to your target, leaving behind a Clone that uses Illusionary Arrow.
• Temporal Shot – Fire a slow-moving Arrow surrounded by magical energy that freezes in place in front of you, Blocking enemy projectiles. The arrow pulses damage to enemies close to it and explodes after 5 strikes, dealing massive Damage to nearby enemies. If it doesn’t hit 5 times, it doesn’t explode.
• Illusionary Acrobat – Phantasm. Fire an Arcing arrow at your target that explodes in a Blinding Flash, creating a Phantasm that Attacks nearby enemies with evasive leaps and acts as a Whirl Finisher. (Phantasm uses 3x Death Blossom animations and wields daggers).
• Chaotic Trap -> Trickster’s Bounty – Fire a Spread of Illusionary Arrows connected by etheral webbing, Immobilizing enemies caught and creating an Ethereal Combo Field. Activate again to Pull all enemies caught towards you, Stealing 1 Boon from each Enemy.

Notes: Illusionary Acrobat uses the same animation as Mordrem Stalkers. The Channel is long and best against Large Hitbox enemies or groups where each leap hits all 3 times for maximum Damage.

Cheers for all the feedback, folks!

I went back to check up on the skills and specialization line after some thinking. Of course the Healing skill should’ve been Reboot, can’t believe I missed that chance the first time.

I fiddled around a bit with some traits, and I do believe that with some tweaks then this could be a viable Elite Spec for PvE as well as PvP and WvW. With Staff being a Melee weapon that lacks all the defenses of a Scrapper’s hammer, then I don’t think it’d be much of a faux pas to give it heavy offensive capabilities on the side of Support when traited.

Knuckle Joe.7408:

I would find it hard to believe that a ranger lost all of his pets lol, its a great idea tbh but the concept is a little odd or maybe grim. Not intending to bash your idea, but prolly would be better to say he’s just a animal spirit/totem caller kinda like the norns, instead of saying his pets DED.

The thematics behind the Strider are rather grim, admittedly. Although, as ANet has shown in the past, they’re always looking for new venues to explore and they don’t shy away from darker thematics if they feel they can work with it (Such as Reaper having been inspired by Slasher flick monsters.)

And while sorrow is definitely a big part of the Strider, so is permeance. After all, the bond between the master and pet was so strong that even death couldn’t part them, so there’s some silver lining in there too!

Woah, lotsa input to adress, let’s get to it!

I see a common concern (and rightfully so) is the lack of a “permanent” pet and its effects on baseline traits and skills entirely reliant on its presence. While the Spirit Companion is recalled, any such traits or skills will treat the Pet as if it’d defeated, simple as that.

Now, I’d imagine that the Spirit Gauge will build fast enough to have possible upkeep of the Pet at around 40-80% in Combat (Depending on how much damage is going out and how many Spectral Skills the Strider has on their Utility bar). I agree though that having the Spirit Gauge degrade out-of-combat might’ve been a tad overkill, will correct that to work more like proper Life Force.

The primary objective of an Elite Spec is to bring a new kind of playstyle to the Core Profession. The Strider accomplishes this by transforming the Pet from a staple part of the Ranger’s DPS (Think someone calculated the pet to be responsible for about 40% of a Ranger’s DPS) into a more controllable Burst Damage tool. Because of the loss in DPS, the Strider gets a Damage Bonus from their Minor Grandmaster trait (Regretful Power) to somewhat off-set the lack of a Pet.

However, while numbers are good and all, realistically speaking the Strider will be much more suited for encounters where pets are oftentimes disadventageous, either because they die so quickly or because their presence makes the fight harder. Able to remove the Pet from combat entirely without much ado, the Strider trades the constant stream of DPS for greater versatility and control. At least, that’s my reasoning for the design choices I’ve made so far.

Onto the skills!

For the Strider’s Shield, I took inspiration from the Chronomancer’s Shield. When getting only an Off-hand weapon and no actual other Non-Utility skills to speak of, then I think that the off-hand should be atypically elaborate when compared to standard Off-hands, which is why the Strider got 2 Chain Skills as part of their kit. It only makes sense to Block after you Taunt enemies, but it felt a bit hollow to only have two regular skills on the list. Initially, the Taunt was a stand-alone feature, with Turtle Down being something you could cancel into Aggressive Protector’s rush feature. But I felt the lack of a secondary mode or new Profession Skill warranted a more elaborate and multi-faceted load-out on the Shield itself.

Looking back at the Utility Skills, I can tell that some might be a bit over the top and will be going back to make a few changes here and there. But the function of each will remain the same.

Specifically, Spectral Wisps is a Defensive Tool that can be used in two ways: Either placed on ranged enemies to both slow them down and prevent them from firing Projectiles at you, or placed near yourself in order to gain Frost Aura. With a new Leap Finisher available and a Defensive Ice Field, the Strider have easier access to Frost Aura than ever. This is to off-set their use of Medium Armor despite being a tankier Elite Spec, similar to how Scrapper got Adaptive Armor and Bulwark Gyro.

Spectral Cleansing is admittedly quite boring, and Spectral Tree might need a look-over. Ranger overall have pretty good Heals that cover a wide variety of niches already, so I tried to find one that was relatively new.

It bears mentioning that all the input I’m getting is greatly appreciated! Kudos to ya’ll for that.

Utility Skills: Codes
Codes are lines of mathematical formulas written on a holographic display in front of the Technician. Most have some Activation time, however their Toolbelt Skills typically have shorter Cooldowns and quick activation times.

• Reboot – Healing Skill. Place yourself in stasis, becoming Immobile while Blocking incoming attacks. Remove Conditions from yourself and Connected Allies while channeling, before gaining a Burst of Healing and 10 stacks of Data Transfer.
  • System Recovery – Toolbelt Skill. Remove 1 Condition from yourself and allies connected with Data Link, while extending the duration of already existing Boons on allies by 2s.
• Malware – Write a line of code that Dazes your target for 2s. For 4s, any Incoming Boons on the target are converted into Conditions instead.
  • Virus Upload – Toolbelt Skill. Create a Link to the target, pulsing Poison to them as long as they’re within range.
• System Optimization – Write a line of code that optimizes all connected systems, increasing Data Transfer rate from 1/s to 3/s and granting Quickness to all allies connected with Data Link.
  • Corrupted Data – Toolbelt Skill. Remove up to 3 Boons from the target, damage and Cripple them.
• Memory Wipe – Write a line of code that wipes all tracks of your presence, placing you and allies connected through Data Link in Stealth. Allies striking an enemy from Stealth applied by this skill causes Confusion.
  • Ghost Program – Toolbelt Skill. Link to enemies at the target area. Remove 1 Boon from all connected enemies every second for a brief time and pulse Revealed.
• Firewall – Write a line of code that creates a Barrier in front of you that Blocks enemy Projectiles and Knocks them back if they run into it. Allies moving through the wall gain Resistance for a short time.
  • Protection Program – Toolbelt Skill. Break Stun for yourself, granting Barrier to all nearby Allies.
• Heist – Elite Skill. Stealth yourself and Channel for a brief time. After Channeling, Steal all Boons from nearby enemies. Taking Damage breaks the Channel.
  • Data Distribution – Toolbelt Skill. Copy all Boons on yourself to nearby Allies.

Specialization Line

Minor Traits

• Computerized – Gain access to Data Link, Data Transfer and Command Skills.
• Speedy Upload – Activating a Tool Belt Skill grants you 4 stacks of Data Transfer.
• Data Surge – Gain Quickness (3s) when you gain 40 stacks of Data Transfer.

Adept Traits

• Anti-Virus Program – Remove 1 Condition when granting Barrier to an Ally.
• Lost in Transmission – Interrupting an Enemy removes 1 Boon. Whenever you remove a Boon from an enemy, you have a chance Steal it instead. Trigger chance: 50%. ICD: 5s.
• Repurposed Power – Gain Might (3 stacks, 6s) when you execute a Dodge Roll. Duration is doubled if you also Evade an attack. ICD: 8s.

Master Traits

• Feedback Loop – Barrier you apply will now explode at the end of their duration or when destroyed, dealing AoE Damage around the targeted ally.
• Hack the Planet – Malware is now an AoE centered around your primary target. You gain 5 stacks of Data Transfer when activating a Code Skill and Code Skills Recharge 20% Faster. Radius: 360.
• Cutting-edge Technology – While wielding a Staff, you deal 10% more damage and gain Data Transfer faster. Whenever you gain 40 stacks of Data Transfer, recharge Overclock. Data Transfer gain: 1 every 7s.

Grandmaster Traits

• Enhanced Barriers – Barriers you apply now last 2s longer and grants +240 Toughness to its Target.
• Speed Thief – Whenever you Daze, Stun, Knock, Taunt, Fear, Float or Sink an enemy, they are Slowed (3s) and you gain Quickness (3s). ICD: 15s.
• System Admin – When Data Transfer copies Might to nearby allies, it will now copy All instances of Might on you instead of just 1 instance. Might you apply lasts 20% Longer.

This concept is that of a Party Supporter that focuses on Might, Quickness and a new, unique buff called Barrier. It’s supposed to be able to replace Chronomancer and/or Warrior in Team Content for Quickness/Might purposes, however it lacks access to Alacrity/Distortion and Banners respectively, meaning they won’t outclass either of the other two professions in every scenario. Instead, it’s here to offer an alternative, so that Mesmers and Warriors may run other specs while a Technician is on their team!

Engineer – Technician
Weapon: Staff
Utility Skills: Codes (New)
Mechanic: Whenever the Technician grants Boons or Barrier to Allies, they create a temporary Data Link between them. Over time, the Technician builds a Data Transfer buff that will copy Boons to connected allies when it hits a threshold, and the rate at which Data Transfer builds up can be affected by the use of Toolbelt skills. Lastly, Barrier is a unique buff that grants a Shield over an ally’s HP bar, with its strength equal to a % of the Technician’s own Max HP.

Mechanic: Data Link, Data Transfer, and Barrier
Crack your knuckles, kick the coffee machine into gear and grab your snuggliest Hoodie, the Technician is getting to work. While the Engineer and the Scrapper focused on a more physical approach, the Technician delves into the metamagical cyberspace of the Mists with their Magitech equipment. Unlike casters and their magic however, the Technician is not interested in anything but concrete numbers and quantifiable data.

As resident Tech support, the Technician can uplink with allies they grant Boons or Buffs to, creating a Data Link between them to work as a unit. The Link is green in colour and extends from the Technician to nearby allies.

• Data Link – Granting a Boon or a Buff to nearby allies links them to you for 15s. Radius: 600. Number of Targets: 5.

With how the Data link works, the Technician must constantly update allies with new Boons, otherwise the link disconnects so as to not waste precious Data. Once linked to any number of allies, the Technician will start stacking a unique Buff on themselves called Data Transfer. When this buff hits 40, it will Copy a number of Boons from the Technician to linked allies before resetting.

• Data Transfer – Gain 1 stack of Data Transfer every second. At 40 charges, Copy 1 instance of up to 3 Boons on yourself to Uplinked allies.
  • Priority – Quickness = Might = Fury > Swiftness > Retaliation > Regeneration = Vigor = Protection > Stability = Resistance

Lastly, the Technician gains access to a unique buff through Weapon and Utility Skills called Barrier. Barrier grants extra HP to its target that is placed “over” their own HP (Including Necromancer’s Death Shroud). Any Damage is prioritized towards the Barrier itself, however if the incoming Damage exceeds the Barrier’s HP, the damage will bleed over onto the Ally’s own HP. Barrier excels at protecting an Ally from Chip Damage while they heal up and is less effective against massive Spikes.

• Barrier – Grants extra HP to an Ally equal to 20% of your Max HP. Lasts 4s. Doesn’t Stack. After Barrier expires or falls, the target gains a debuff that prevents them from gaining Barrier again for 6s.

Weapon: Staff
The Staff is a Support weapon first and foremost, primarily focused around granting Barrier and Boons to allies, but due to its Melee Properties and lack of Defense it also possesses above-average DPS and some CC, the former which can be boosted with traits.

• Static Shock -> Dual Current -> Shock Slam – Electrify your staff, striking enemies with a shocking combo. Stacks Vulnerability on enemies with the first two strikes, before releasing an energizing surge that Weakens enemies and grants Might to nearby allies.
• Deploy Barrier – Ground-targeted skill. The Ally with the lowest health at the Target Area gains Barrier for 4s.
• Overclock – Strike down with an electric burst that Damages enemies and grants Quickness to nearby Allies. Acts as a Blast Finisher.
• System Disruption – Launch a quick strike at your target that Stuns and Poisons them. If they were using a Skill, the Cooldown on this skill is greatly reduced.
• Data Gate – Create a line of data that grants Barrier and Superspeed to allies that moves through it. Maximum number of targets: 5. Combo Field: Ethereal.

Utility Skills
The Strider’s thoroughly connected to the world of Spirits, just like a Necromancer is. Calling upon the restless spirits of the forests and wilderness, the Strider makes sure that even on his lonesome, he’s a force to be reckoned with. Like how Spectral Skills grant Life Force to Necromancers, Striders gain Spirit Force to fuel their Spirit Level with, in order to Summon their Companions.

• Spectral Tree – Healing Skill. Heal yourself and create a spectral tree that slowly Blooms over time, pulsing moderate heals to nearby allies in an expanding radius. Once fully bloomed, it will drop 3 fruits allies can walk over to Cleanse a Condition and gain Regeneration. This Consumes the fruit. Each time a fruit is consumed, you gain Spirit Force.
• Spectral Mist – Summon Mist at the target area, Chilling enemies within. Projectiles fired into the field are destroyed. Gain Spirit Force whenever a projectile is destroyed. Acts as an Ice Field.
• Spectral Wisps – Break out of Stun and surround yourself with Spectral Wisps, Blocking incoming Attacks for a short duration. Chill enemies that attack you and gain Spirit Force. The chill portion can only happen once every second.
• Spectral Sight – Pull nearby enemies out of Stealth, Revealing and Chilling them, gaining Spirit Force for each target Struck. You become Immune to Blind for 4s, plus 1 additional second for each Enemy struck.
• Spectral Pack – Surround yourself with a pack of spectral wolves for 5s, gaining Frost Armor and increased Movement Speed. The wolves lash out at nearby enemies, damaging and chilling them.
• Spectral Warden – Elite Skill. Surround nearby Allies with Spectral Wings, causing them to Pulse Protection for 4s. If an enemy strikes a Protected Ally, you Taunt them for a long durationm, Gain Protection yourself and Stealth your Ally, consuming the Buff.

Specialization Line

Minor Traits

• Lone Wolf – Gain access to Spirit Companions, the Spirit Gauge and Spectral Skills.
• Wayward Soul – Summoning your Spirit Companion grants Swiftness and Protection to you and your Companion.
• Regretful Power – While your Spirit Companion is inactive, you gain +15% All Damage Strength.

Adept Traits

• Vengeful Hunter – Gain Fury (4s) whenever your Companion or a nearby Ally takes Damage. ICD: 10s.
• Chilling Sorrow – Whenever Chill is applied to you, nearby enemies are Chilled (2s) as well. Outgoing Chill Duration is increased by 20%. ICD: 10s.
• Lonesome Memories – While your accumulated Spirit Force is 50% or higher, you and your Companion take 10% less Damage from all sources. Spirit Force gain from all sources is increased by 25%.

Master Traits

• Decisive Lament – While you or your Companion have Fury, you or your Companion gain 180 Ferocity.
• Eyes of the Raven – Activate Spectral Sight when striking a target whose health is below the threshold. Spectral Skills recharge 20% Faster. Threshold: 50%. ICD: 35s.
• Mourning Mist – Gain Frost Aura (4s) when you Summon your Spirit Companion. Lose 1 Condition when you gain Frost Aura.

Grandmaster Traits

• Feral Aggression – Shield Drum’s Cooldown is reset whenever you kill an enemy. Taunt Duration on none-player enemies is increased by 100%. ICD on Reset: 5s (15s in sPvP).
• Nature’s Domain – Finishing an enemy or reviving an Ally creates a lesser Spectral Tree at their location. You finish enemies and revive allies 10% faster.
  • Lesser Spectral Tree – Create a Spectral Tree that slowly blooms over time, pulsing healing to nearby allies. Once fully bloomed, it will drop 1 fruit that allies can walk over to Cleanse a Condition and gain Regeneration. ICD: 20s.
• Parting Promise – When you Summon your Companion, Copy 1 instance of all Boons on yourself to it. When you Recall your Companion, Copy 1 instance of all Boons on it to yourself.

Lotsa people have suggested either Rifle or Dagger for a Ranger elite spec, and those suggestions have been good on their own rights so I’ll head for another approach instead.

Ranger – Strider
Weapon: Shield
Skills: Spectral
Mechanic: The Strider no longer has their trusty pets along. At least not in corporeal form. Yet, these loyal beasts remain in the form of Spirit Companions that passively empower the Strider, and can be called on to strike enemies when the Spirit Gauge is filled.

Mechanic: Spirit Companion
The Strider is no proud warrior, not anymore. A lone wolf who lost their trusty companion, the Strider now walks alone with only the spirit of their former companions appearing in their time of need.

While the Strider has no visible Companion, they’re constantly surrounded by the spectral whisps of their pets. While Passive like this, the Spirit Companion increases a Parameter of the Strider depending on which type it is:

• Canines, Sharks: +10% All Damage, +10% Critical Hit Damage
• Felines, Birds: +10% All Damage, +10% Critical Hit Chance
• Ursines, Porcines, Armor Fish: +10% Damage Resistance, +10% Condition Damage Resistance.
• Wyvern, Drake, Saurian: +10% All Damage, +10% Damage Resistance.
• Spiders, Devourers: +10% Condition Damage, +20% Condition Duration.
• Moa, Jellyfish: +10% incoming Healing, +20% Boon Duration.

The Strider can materialize their Spirit Companion for a short time in order to attack their enemies. The Spirit Companion is 15% stronger than normal Pets, however they cannot be summoned indefinitely, as the Strider must maintain a new Spirit Force Level to keep them corporeal, which is a Bar behind the Pet Commands that fills as the Strider Deals or Takes Damage. When the Bar is at least 20% full, the Strider can Summon their Companion with F1, which also triggers Pet Swap Traits on activation now. When Summoned, F2 is available as the Pet Command skill and the Strider can unsummon his Companion prematurely with F3. F4 still switches between 1 of 2 Companions, who now share the same Spirit Force bar.

• F1: Summon Spirit Companion – Use Spirit Force in order to summon an incorporeal spirit of your pet to attack enemies. Spirit Force is continously depleted while the pet is active, and acts as your Pet’s Health Bar. If the Spirit Force is depleted while the Companion is summoned, the Cooldown is increased.
• F3: Recall Spirit Companion – Withdraw your Spirit Companion into the Mists again, placing Summon Spirit Companion on Cooldown.

Spirit Force doesn’t diminish outside of Combat, similar to Life Force.

Weapon
The Strider is a Defensive champion, who won’t let his mistakes be repeated with his allies’ lives on the line. The Shield mixes powerful CC with Defense and Defensive Boons, making the Strider a tough adversary to take down, and even tougher to go through if you’re headed for his allies.

• Shield Drum -> Turtle Down – Taunt all nearby enemies by striking you shield. If this skill hits a target, gain access to Turtle Down. Turtle Down Blocks all incoming attacks, while pulsing Protection to nearby Allies.
• Aggressive Protector -> Brave Distraction – Rush your Target with your Shield and Knock them Down, gaining access to Brave Distraction if they were using a Skill. Aggressive Protector acts as a Leap Finisher. Brave Distraction Immobilizes your Target, while removing Movement-Impairing Conditions from and granting Swiftness to nearby Allies.

I’ma just throw up some suggestions.

Sigil of Air (PvP)
Build charges when you hit an enemy with an attack. At 5 charges, your next Attack summons a Bolt of lightning to strike them. ICD: 3s

Sigil of Fire (PvP)
Build charges when you hit an enemy with an attack. At 5 charges, your next Attack causes an explosion to erupt around the enemy. ICD: 5s

Sigil of Blood (PvP)
Build charges when you hit an enemy with an attack. At 5 charges, your next Attack Steals Health from the enemy. ICD: 5s

Notes: While the ICD is in effect, no stacks can be built with these Sigils. The additional Effect also now triggers regardless of wether the fifth attack hits or misses its target, meaning it can be blocked or evaded.

Sigil of Bloodlust (PvP)
You deal 10% more Damage and Condition Damage for 3s after swapping weapons while in Combat. ICD: 9s.

Sigil of Ferocity (PvP)
Critical Hits deal 20% more Damage for 3s after swapping weapons while in Combat. ICD: 9s.

Sigil of Momentum (PvP)
You take 10% less Damage and Condition Damage for 3s after swapping weapons while in Combat. ICD: 9s.

Sigil of Benevolence (PvP)
Outgoing Healing is increased by 20% for 3s after swapping weapons while in Combat. ICD: 9s.

Notes: These all increase your abilities upon weapon swap, but still requires the player to use their own skills and plan ahead for Bursts of Damage or Healing.

Sigil of Stability (PvP)
Gain Stability (1 stack, 3s) after swapping weapons while in Combat. ICD: 9s.

Utility Skills: Legendary Rebel – Kalla Scorchrazor
“Revolution begins here!” – “No foe can stand against us!”
In her life, Kalla Scorchrazor formed a secret rebellion against the tyrannical rule of the Flame Legion shamans, training female Charr in secret before starting a widespread rebellion that eventually defeated the Flame Legion once and for all at the Plains of Golghein. Yet, she died by a coward’s hand when stabbed with a poisoned dagger by the Imperator she offered parly to. But by then, Kalla’s place as a legend was already made.

The skills afforded to the Vindicator by Kalla Scorchrazor all grow increasingly more potent and decisive as their Health gets lower. At 66% and 33% HP, each skill becomes even more powerful which allows the Vindicator to wrangle victory from the jaws of defeat with nothing short of determination, grit and courage in the face of death.

• Second Wind – Healing Skill. Heal yourself and regain Energy. Healing and Energy gain increases as your health diminishes.
• Cry Havoc – Release a massive roar, Breaking Stun for nearby allies and Stunning enemies around you. Stun Duration increases and Energy Cost decreases as your Health diminishes.
• Pain Exchange – Strike forwards, tearing into a nearby enemy and Siphon Health from them, while also stacking Torment on them. Health Siphoned and Torment stacked increases as your Health diminishes. At 33%, this attack is Unblockable.
• Mistfire Arms – Upkeep Skill (-10). Coat your weapons in the flames of rebellion, causing them to surge with mystic energy. All of your attacks now deal 10% more Damage and cause Burning on enemies you strike at a set intervall. Upkeep Cost is reduced as your Health diminishes.
• Plains of Golghein – Elite Skill. Arrows rain down over the target area, Immobilizing enemies within and creating a Fire Field that Burns them at set intervalls, with Condition Duration increasing as your health diminishes. Spectral echoes of Kalla’s allies will appear to Finish off downed enemies and revive downed Allies within the field while it’s in effect.

Note: Kalla, like other legends, have call-out lines that occasionally play when using Healing or Elite skills:

• Healing: “We’re not going down that easily!”
• Elite Skill: “Upon these fields, we will know Victory!”
• Legendary Rebel Stance is colour-coded Red as Kalla was part of the Blood Legion, and the Mists rising from it vaguely takes the shape of weapons raised in a rally.

Specialization Line

Minor Traits

• Martyrdom – Gain Access to the Legendary Rebel Stance and the Sacrifice Mechanic.
• Pain Adept – Gain Protection (3s) when you activate Sacrifice.
• Desperate Power – Damage increases as your Health gets lower. Increase at 66%HP: 10%. Increase at 33%: 20%.

Adept Traits

• Relentless March – Reduces the duration of incoming Movement-Impairing Conditions, depending on your Health. 100%HP: -25%. 66%HP: -50%. 33%HP: -75%.
• Imbued Exhaustion – Weaken (3s) enemies that you Siphon health from. You take 10% less Damage from Weakened enemies. ICD: 10s.
• Pain for Pain – Gain Retaliation (3s) when struck while below the Health Threshold. Threshold: 75%. ICD: 15s.

Master Traits

• Overpower – Gain Condition Damage equal to 10% of your Power.
• Spirit of Rebellion – Using a Legendary Rebel Skill grants you Stability (1 stack, 4s). ICD: 10s.
• Returning Vigor – Resurgance now Heals you and restores Endurance depending on Your health. Endurance gained: 25/50/75.

Grandmaster Traits

• Tyrant’s Folly – Combo Finishers you perform in Dark Fields now additionally stack Confusion (1 stack, 3s) on affected enemies.
• Sunder and Rule – Vulnerability you apply now also increases Condition Duration on the enemy by 1% per stack.
• Insurmountable – Incoming Condition Duration and Stun Duration is reduced by 25% while Sacrifice is active. Gain Resistance (3s) when you Activate Sacrifice. ICD: 20s.

Revenant – Vindicator
Weapon: Greatsword
Skills: Legendary Rebel – Kalla Scorchrazor.
Mechanic: Gains access to a new F2 skill called Sacrifice, allowing them to substitute their very life for energy to activate skills.

Mechanic: Sacrifice
The Vindicator is a fearless champion that will go to any lengths to assure her and her allies’ victory, even if that would spell doom for herself in the process. There are no mountains too tall and no hell too deep to stave the Vindicator’s conviction. If they will it, mountains will move and oceans will part.

Channeling the strength and courage of the Charr revolutionary known as Kalla Scorchrazor, who lead the charge that freed the race from the oppressive and tyrannical rule of the Flame Legion, the Vindicator has access to a unique ability called Sacrifice:

• Sacrifice – Upkeep Skill (0). Enter into Sacrifice Mode, causing all Skills with an energy Cost to instead reduce your HP by a set % (1% of Max HP for every 2 Energy, including other Upkeep skills). While Sacrifice is active, you regenerate Energy at full speed, but Healing is 66% less effective on you, with the exception of Health Siphoning effects.
  • Resurgance – Exit Sacrifice Mode.

Notes: Each legend has their own call-outs for when Sacrifice is activated:

• Jalis – “Bahaha! It barely tickles!”
• Mallyx – “This suffering… becomes us.”
• Ventari – “There is no pain which we cannot endure!”
• Shiro – “We shall pay blood unto blood!”
• Kalla – “Whatever it takes, we will stand victorious!”

With this skill, the Vindicator maintains a High-risk, High-reward playstyle that lets them fight on with all their might as long as there’s still breath left in their body.

Weapon: Greatsword
The greatsword was Kalla’s weapon of choice, but it isn’t a typical melee weapon in the hands of the Vindicator. While still martial in nature, it fills the niche of a Medium-ranged (600) Hybrid weapon that specializes in Conditions and Sustain. Its biggest pull is its duality however: The Auto Attack deals increased Damage to enemies at Close range, but the Intensity of Conditions it applies increases with Distance. This duality allows for fighting both at close range and medium range, depending on what build is used and for what purpose.

• Decisive Strike -> Resurgent Cross -> Paradigm Shift – Fire cleaving waves of mist energy forwards in a chain combo, dealing increased damage the closer enemies are to you and stacking Conditions on them, Intensity increasing the further away they are. The first strike causes Vulnerability, the second Torment and the last Burning.
• Pierce the Veil – Spin around while Evading attacks, tearing up a Rift at your target’s location that pulses Weakness to them. The Final Pulse of this skill acts as a Blast Finisher.
• Great Divide – Strike downwards with your blade, creating a vertical shockwave that Knocks back enemies and leaves a line behind. Enemies who cross it stack Confusion and Blindness. Combo Field: Dark.
• Gravity Blade – Hurl your blade at the target area where it spins in place, Pulling enemies in and Immobilizing them while striking them several times. Destroys Projectiles. Acts as a Whirl Finisher.
• Reaving Mists – Quickly zig-zag forwards through the mists while evading attacks, tearing open a Rift at each target you strike. Each Rift pulses Chill once before it collapses and Burns every nearby enemies.

Among the 4 professions that use Hammer, here’s what each of them do:

Warrior
Damage: Low DPS, Decent Spike
Sustain: Low
CC: Very High
Support: None
Mobility: Decent

Hammer Warriors are among the best AoE CCers available in the game and their attacks, while slow, hit for a lot. In return, their Offense and Defense suffer as their DPS is quite low and they lack defensive options on the weapon, which can be made up for with Defensive Utility Skills.

Guardian
Damage: Good DPS, Decent Spike
Sustain: High
CC: Decent
Support: Very High
Mobility: Very Low

For Guardians, Hammer is a very tanky and supportive weapon. It has less reliable CC and barely any Mobility compared to Warrior but much better DPS and Permanent access to Protection against Stationary Targets.

Revenant
Damage: Low DPS, High Spike
Sustain: Decent
CC: Decent
Support: Very Low
Mobility: Very Low

Acts as the Revenant’s only ranged weapon, and does a fairly decent job at it. With innate Projectile Blocking, an Evasive skill and a Life-stealing combo, it has good sustain against enemies with ranged weapons. Coalescence of Ruin is spammable and does a great deal of Damage to far-away enemies, but its only CC skill is very slow and highly telegraphed. Entirely lacks mobility, however.

Scrapper
Damage: Good DPS, Good Spike
Sustain: Very High
CC: High
Support: None
Mobility: Good

Scrapper’s hammer is extremely good. It doesn’t top any charts in terms of Damage or Support, but its massive Sustain and Mobility afforded by a Spammable Projectile Reflect, a double leap-finisher and a Low-CD block skill coupled with a Lightning Field with a Stun Component more than makes this weapon extremely well-rounded, meaning you won’t necessarily miss Weapon Swap too much with it equipped.

We only got a handful new and unique Characters animations with HoT and Elite Specs.

Daredevil’s Staff #1 and #5 (#3 Technically counts, but it’s sort of a cop-out so not gonna count it.) They also got Fist Flurry/Palm Strike, Bandit’s Defense and the Impact Strike Combo, besides the 3 unique Dodge Animations.
Revenant’s got a unique animation on Hammer #1, Staff #1/#3/#5 and Sword #3. They also got Chaotic Release with Glint.
Scrapper got Hammer #3.
Reaper got Greatsword #2 and Reaper’s Shroud #2.
Berserker got Sundering Leap and Headbutt.

Rest got nothing. Daredevil actually got the most unique animations on the simple virtue of getting Physical Skills as their Elite Spec Utility Skills, and their Dodge animations.

Bear in mind, I’m only counting Character Animations here where the PC performs a unique movement, not effect animations such as Berserker’s Blaze Breaker or Chronomancer’s Wells.

ADDENDUM: Curiously enough, Norn Female thief has a different Vault Animation compared to humans. They leap straight up, spinning the staff overhead, before flipping into the vault mid-air as they come crashing down. Definitely preferable to the human one in my oppinion.

I’ma do a shameless insert here, because I challenge your notion that Sword Main-hand won’t work for an Ele Elite spec, and I challenge you with this:

The Spellweaver

With the introduction of Longbow and subsequently Symbol of Energy, we saw that a Symbol Skill could have an initial effect that is separate from the Symbol itself. When Sword and Scepter then got their 2nd Skill remade into Symbol, they too retained their original effects as Secondary Effects on top of this.

This has left the original Symbols in a bit of a stasis as they’re “only” symbols with no secondary effects. Symbol of Swiftness on Staff, for instance, was changed a long time ago in order to be in line with what was then the standard of Symbols. I think that this skill, along with the other untouched Symbols, need to be given a slight buff in the form of an “on creation” effect.

Staff: Symbol of Swiftness

• Suggestion 1: Change it back to its old self, where it would grant a stack of Long-lasting Swiftness on creation, then pulse a shorter duration of Swiftness afterwards.
• Suggestion 2: Alternately, add that Symbol of Swiftness removes Movement-inhibiting Conditions (Cripple, Chill, Immobilize) on Allies on creation, before pulsing Swiftness. This would reinforce Staff’s utility as the Support Weapon it is.

Greatsword: Symbol of Wrath Note: I will not suggest adding Cripple to this Symbol even if it’d be a great addition, because Core Guard is lacking Cripple by design.

• Suggestion 1: Add a surge of AoE Damage around the Guardian on creation. GS is a powerful Burst Weapon, and this’d help cement it further in its role and making the Symbol less of a waste of time to activate. Would also serve as a buff to Zealot’s Speed.
• Suggestion 2: Add a surge of smaller AoE damage that also causes Vulnerability on enemies, allowing this skill to set up for a Burst.

Hammer: Symbol of Protection

• Suggestion 1: As this skill already has the secondary effect of being part of the AA chain, an addition might not be necessary. Nonetheless, if one were to be added, I’d like to see a single Stack of Stability (for a very brief time, think 1/2s Base) upon starting the Channel, which I feel wouldn’t be over the top considering the immense Activation Time of the Symbol.
• Suggestion 2: Alternately, Add Impact AoE Damage with a greater area than the Symbol Itself, to make it easier to hit a moving target.

Mace: Symbol of Faith

• Suggestion 1: Add an AoE cleanse (1 condition) to this Skill. Simple, easy and straight-forwards, although perhaps a bit powerful to the point of requiring a Cooldown Increase as a result.
• Suggestion 2: Even easier is to add a small Heal with each Pulse, similar to the added Damage that Symbol of Punishment retained from Smite.

Thanks for all the input! Gonna adress any concerns one-by-one here.

Dadnir.5038:

- The special mechanism is good, reminding me of the warden in LOTRO.
- For the weapon skills, Gale stride would gain being a retraet instead of a gap closer.
- I’d change the healing waves of the heal skill to condition cleanse just to not step onto tempest’s toes.
- Invigorating performance might be a tiny bit to strong, bringing it to 50% might be more balanced.

Well… I like it, that’s a pretty well thought idea.

• Gale Stride might be a bit confusingly worded. Basically, you choose direction entirely on your own, similar to how Deflecting Shot works for Guardian. This means it works as both Engagement and Disengagement tool, depending on what you need at the moment.
• Crashing Waves would be very distinct from Wash the Pain away! in a few ways: First, they’re all projectiles aimed in front of you rather than waves cascading out from you. Second would be that there are about 5-6 of them. Third would be that each of them knocks back the target a short bit, making it a very useful CC tool but less useful for Party Support.
• Invigorating Presence might be a tad bit too strong, I agree. Although, that depends on how long the channel for the Physical Skills are. I myself imagine them being closer to 1-2s, myself.

Glad you liked it!

Wolfric.9380:

Hi

Greast one … But some very powerful things in it like Sand Veil which will allow easy stealth access ;-). I would change earth skills on sword to have poision in the autochain and have weakness on number 2 but well i would like that smoke field ^^.

• Sand Veil is indeed a multi-faceted and very powerful skill, however this is made up for by having a very short duration (Think 2s or so, with 1 1/2s Protection with each pulse) so that the player must know why they activated it in the first place in order to use it, adding to the High-risk/High-reward factor.

As for Poison, I feel like it not being present on Elementalists is by design and I’m sure it’d be great on an Elite Spec for sure, but it should be one focusing primarily on adding Condition and Attrition playstyle to Eles, rather than baking it into Spellweaver which primarily is designed to allow Eles to be agile bruisers in the vein of Daredevil.
Weakness on the other hand is very thematic, hence why it can be found on the AA, yepyep!

hornswroggle.8023:

Wow! This is one of the best ESpec ideas I’ve seen in a while. It looks balanced while feeling impactful, it has nice utility, it can sustain itself with its traits and has reasonable synergies with existing trait lines, especially Arcane, which seems a bit overlooked these days.
Also is has an incredibly high skill ceiling and would require a lot of training for some high risk – high reward plays. I dig that.
I like how you solved the problem of unwanted charges with Elemental Siphon. Since this is an Elite Spec there will be no Overload sitting in the attunement since you can’t be a Tempest at the same time.
I’d love to see this ingame.
Cheers

You’ve got it! Elementalists had notoriously good sustain when specced for it even before HoT, but if not specced for sustain they get steamrolled instantly. It was a bit of a challenge to balance something that’d add Sustain without having to require pidgeon-holding eles into certain stats, and I figured the best way to do that was through giving them access to a skill-based system and a weapon that had inherent Bruiser-esque qualities. Hence the Sword is designed to have good Non-healing and Skill-based sustain with high Spike capability, in exchange for having virtually no Support and Healing.

Utility Skills
The Spellweaver is all about dance and rythm. Obviously, their Physical Skills aren’t the brutal CC moves of a Warrior or the Lethal precision strikes of a Daredevil, but instead takes the form of mostly channeled skills focusing heavily on AoE Damage and Denial, all somehow graceful and awe-inspiring like a proper wardancer’s skills should be.

• Crashing Waves – Healing Skill; Channeled Skill. Enter into a prepatory stance, Healing yourself, before releasing a flurry of quick kicks that sends forth a cascade of Wave Projectiles at enemies in front of you. Each Wave Knocks back enemies and Heals allies in the Splash Radius.
• Lightning Rain – Channeled Skill. Transform into a bolt of Lightning, striking down several times at random at the target area while Evading attacks. The final strike Stuns all nearby enemies and grants Quickness to Allies.
• Winterstride – Channeled Skill. Gracefully step forwards, surrounding yourself with an expanding Ice Field that Chill nearby enemies. The final Pulse of this skill will Freeze solid all nearby enemies.
• Trial by Fire – Channeled Skill. Surround yourself with Dancing wisps of fire, becoming a Firefield that grows in size as you dance and pulses Burning to enemies. At the end of the Channel, Damage and Launch all enemies within.
• Dunesong – Channeled Skill. Wreak up a massive Sandstorm around yourself as you dance, Blinding, Crippling and Bleeding enemies around you. Enemy projectiles fired at you are destroyed, and clusters of Blinding Sand are fired back at the aggressor.
• Harmonic Convergance – Elite Skill. Break out of Stun, Convert all Conditions on yourself into Stability and Recharge all Attunements and Spellweaving.

Specialization Line
The Specialization line for the Spellweaver are focused around three different routes. The upper set of traits focus around Physical Skills and the use of Sword as a weapon, the middle set of traits focus on Attunement Dancing and Evasion, while the last set of traits focus on Spellweaving and Elemental Siphon.

Minor Traits

• Wardancer – Gain Access to Spellweaving, Spell Charges, Elemental Siphon and Physical Skills.
• Elemental Infusion – Activating Elemental Siphon grants you a Boon depending on which Attunement Charge it had.
  • Fire: Might (3 Stacks, 5s)
  • Water: Regeneration (3s)
  • Air: Quickness (2s)
  • Earth: Stability (1 Stack, 3s)
• Spellpower – Increases your Damage and Condition Damage by 3% for each Spell charge you’ve accumulated.

Adept Traits

• Invigorating Performance – You and nearby Allies restore Endurance 50% faster while you’re channeling a Physical Skill. Radius: 600.
• Evasive Empowerment – Gain a Boon when evading Attacks, depending on Attunement. ICD: 10s.
  • Fire: Retaliation (3s)
  • Water: Vigor (3s)
  • Air: Swiftness (4s)
  • Earth: Protection (2s)
• Awe of the Power – When you activate Spellweaving, all nearby enemies are Weakened (6s) and Allies gain Might (5 Stacks, 6s).

Master Traits

• Master Performer – Gain Stability (1 Stack) when you first Activate a Physical Skill. Physical Skills recharge 20% Faster.
• Quickening Surge – Gain Quickness (1s) when you swap Attunements while in Combat. ICD: 5s.
• Cleansing Infusion – Remove a Condition when you activate Elemental Siphon. ICD: 3s.

Grandmaster Traits

• Bladedancer – Gain charges when you score a Critical Hit with a Sword Skill. When you hit 5 Charges, you will Evade the Next attack. ICD on Charge gain: 1/2s.
• Flow like Water – Heal yourself and Recharge Water Attunement whenever you Evade an attack. ICD: 5s.
• True Ultimate Power – Spellweaving is 15% Stronger and recharges 33% Faster.

Weapon: Sword Main-hand
The sword acts as the centre piece for the Spellweaver’s fighting style, incorporating a tireless precision and dance-like agility into their casting.
Unlike other weapons in the Elementalist’s armory, the Sword shifts focus away from the traditional elemental roles and instead introduces a weapon that works at different ranges, depending on which Attunement is currently in use. This gives the Spellweaver unparallelled mobility, able to weave in and out of melee combat fluently through Attunement Dancing.

Fire – While attuned to fire, the Spellweaver gains a set of destructive and relentless melee attacks with a high Damage, AoE and means to stick to an enemy. There is no room for defense here, as fire merely consumes.

• Blazing Blade -> Trailblazer -> Immolation – Coat your blade in flames, striking your target with a chain of high damage attacks. The last strike in the Combo will set the primary target ablaze, causing them to stack Burning for a very brief time.
• Flashfire – Teleport to your target’s position, striking them and releasing a scorching wave of fire around you that damages and Burns all nearby enemies.
• Cauterize – Charge up a powerful strike that deals increased damage and grants you 1 stack of Might for each stack of Burning on the target enemy, up to a certain threshold. Acts as a Blast Finisher.

Water – While attuned to water, the Spellweaver gains access to a wide array of ranged attacks meant to slow down pursuers, keeping them at a distance and away from themselves. It has no access to self-healing, in return having better CC and Damage than other Water frameworks.

• Beam of Cold – Channeled Skill. Fire a stream of water from your blade that pulses several hits, freezing over the course of the maintain and Chilling the enemy briefly on the last hit.
• Frozen Tide – Send a cascade of icicles forwards that cause Vulnerability on enemies struck, before shattering and leaving behind an Ice Field that Chills enemies within. Acts as an Ice Field.
• Dancing Ice Blades -> Bombardment – Surround yourself with 5 swords of ice that circle around you, damaging nearby enemies and destroying projectiles. Activate the skill again to send your blades at the target enemy, causing Vulnerability for each blade that strikes them.

Air – While attuned to air, the Spellweaver becomes like the wind itself: Fleeting and unpredictable, moving as he desires. Another ranged set, Air is much more focused on Offense and Mobility than Water is, giving the Spellweaver the means to dictate the flow of battle and disengage from enemies at their leisure.

• Windcutter -> Thin Air -> Rolling Thunder – Cut through the air itself, sending deceptively fast and sharp ripples of wind at the target enemy. The last strike flurries with your blade, forming orbs around the target that strike them several times with Lightning.
• Gale Stride – Leap in the target direction on a gust of wind while evading attacks. Combo Finisher: Leap.
• Lightning Wall – Raise your blade skywards, sending 3 pillars of lightning racing in the target Direction that Daze enemies and grant Swiftness to Allies they pass through.

Earth – While attuned to earth, the Spellweaver gains access to a highly defensive melee set that focuses a lot on active defenses and CC. They gain access to Blocks, Protection, Blinds, Cripple and a Smoke Field, giving them a good fighting chance while up close and personal.

• Dust Slice -> Dust Slash -> Twisting Sands – Bleeds your target with whipping sand, before wreaking up a small dust devil that remains in place for a short time and Weakens enemies it strikes.
• Sand Veil – Spin around, surrounding yourself with a dust storm that Blinds nearby enemies and pulses Protection to Allies, becoming a mobile Smoke Field for a brief duration.
• Petrification -> Stone Shower – Turn yourself to stone, becoming immobile and Blocking all incoming attacks. When activated again, or at the end of the duration, shatter the stone shield and send out sharp debris that Cripples and Bleeds enemies struck. Stone Shower Acts as a Blast Finisher.

People want swords for elementalists, so I decided to try my hands at an E. Spec design using just swords. Built around the now almost archaic term of “Attunement Dancing”, I decided to incorporate that theme both figuratively and literally in the Spellweaver.

Elementalist – Spellweaver
Weapon: Sword Main-hand
Skills: Physical
Mechanic: A new F5 skill called Spellweaving, which is powered by Spell Charges gained whenever the Spellweaver Attunes to an element while in combat.

Mechanic: Spellweaving and Spell Charges
Can you feel the rythm of magic? The Spellweaver sure can, weaving it into deadly elemental dances that simultaneously entrance and terrify those who bear witness to it. As they dance through their attunements, they accumulate the magical power into powerful “Spellweaving” techniques.

Whenever the Spellweaver Attunes to an element while in Combat, they empower a new F5 skill with the respective Spell Charge of the attunement they left, so for Instance if you Attune from to Water you’d gain a Water Charge. You can only have 1 charge of each Element at any time. The Spellweave becomes available once 3 unique Spell Charges have been “added” to it, resulting in 1 of 4 different forms:

• Elemental Surge (Fire/Water/Air) – Combine scorching fire, biting ice and surging lightning into a single, Unblockable beam that pierces through enemies and deals massive damage.
• Elemental Annihilation (Fire/Air/Earth) – Stomp the ground, pulling your target towards you with a shockwave that Cripples them, followed by raising a Pillar of Fire upwards that Launches the target upwards, then finish off with a Lightning strike that inflicts massive damage and Finishes the target if they’re Downed.
• Elemental Calamity (Fire/Water/Earth) –Trap enemies you in frozen rock Prisons, Immobilizing and Chilling them. Follow up with a massive explosion that Launches all enemies struck, Burning them. Acts as a Blast Finisher.
• Elemental Sanctuary (Water/Air/Earth) – Surround yourself with rocks that pushes back enemies, winds that destroy projectiles and pouring water that Heals allies and removes Conditions. Acts as a Water Field.

Now, in order to have a little more control and allow the Spellweaver to swap attunements as they need rather than be forced into a specific Pattern, they have access to a Chain Skill that occupies the Attunement Slot for 3s after attuning, called Elemental Siphon. For example, after Attuning to Water, you have 3s to decide on wether you want to have a Water Charge or not. Using Elemental Siphon will remove the Charge.

Spellweaving is extremely powerful, so all 4 different versions of it share a relatively lengthy cooldown. The Spellweaver can still generate and siphon Spellcharges while Spellweaving is on cooldown, however.