In GW1 I had an Assassin and Mesmer. I loved the idea of a secret society working behind the scenes to direct the course of history.
That being said, their “leader” and main liaison to the player was the Master of Whispers, a Necromancer.
I’m curious, from a lore standpoint, what would be the GW2 profession that MOST exemplifies the Order of Whispers? I look at the Thief, but Rogue archetypes in most games are the order takers, not the order givers. I’m curious, were this a single player game, which profession type would most likely rise to leadership of the Order. It would have to be a profession capable of deceit, manipulation and the “forest view,” not the individual tree.
In my mind that throws the Soldier professions right out (perhaps I’m biased). A Ranger doesn’t seem to fit, and an Engineer seems too occupied with gadgetry and inventions to worry about subtlety. Elementalists seem too overt, which leaves the Thief (Assassin), Mesmer and Necromancer, at least in my opinion.
I like the lore behind both professions, my main in GW1 was a Mesmer.
As of now I only have a Sylvari Elementalist and was looking for a different play experience.
I want to role Human, probably with the Nobility template, ankittenrying to figure out which of the two professions is more fun. I’d like to get thoughts on overall usefulness at end game (PvP, WvWvW, Dungeons, Fractals, etc.) and while I recognize that fun is subjective, I’d still like to hear opinions.
My problem is I keep rolling a Human, level to about 10 or 15, then scrap and restart because I just can’t settle on a character concept. I’ve gone through Mesmer, Engineer, Necromancer and Guardian. Its quite frustrating actually. I think I can narrow it down to Guardian or Mesmer, but I’m quite stuck and don’t want to re-roll again lol.
According to some lore, namely Oola, necromancy is the future of golemancy.
Looking at the cities, weapons and architecture, there’s obviously some magitech going on.
Which asks the question, what profession designs all this? Are the computer systems made by Mesmers, the buildings by Engineers, the golems by Necromancers and everything powered by Elementalists?
Or is there one profession that is, more or less, quintessentially Asura?
It may in fact be the roleplay thing. For all the professions I WANT to play, I can usually think of two or even three race that fit. For example, a Necromancer i can see being Asura (Oola’s talk of golemancy and necromancy, etc.) or Norn (in terms of talking to the spirits of the dead, a shaman). Engineer could be Human (rejects all gods and their “gifts” focuses on science) Asura (focusing more on the technological and manufacture of golems, rather than the imbuement of magic into golems) or stereotypical Charr.
I think the problem is a double edged blade, ANet made the races and professions malleable enough that any combination is truly possible lore-wise, and so having so much choice makes it difficult to settle on one, especially when you consider the time investment of taking a character to 80 and outfitting with exotics.
I’ll bet ANet could make a killing in the gem store by allowing race changes in the makeover packs.
I don’t know if anyone else has this problem, but I can’t decide what race to play with which professions.
Example, I want to try both a Guardian and a Mesmer. I want to also play a Human and an Asura. Problem is, I can’t settle on whether I want the Human to be Guardian or Mesmer, and vice versa with the Asura. I think it stems from the fear of getting bored with one or the other, although there could be any number of reasons, from roleplaying issues to OCD and ADD lol.
Anyone else have this problem?
Not sure if I would categorize Mesmers as a pet class, simply due to the nature of their Illusions.
No I’m more curious about the Ranger and Necromancer (and to a lesser extent, Engineers with turrets)
I know Necromancers have to dedicate Utility skill slots to be a Minion Master (and recently got buffed in the last build), while the Ranger has a pet as the class mechanic. My question is, if running an MM build, does a Necro “outperform” a Ranger as a pet class? And between the two which has more utility in group settings (WvWvW, dungeons, fractals, etc.)?
So I want to roll an Adventurer alt, but cannot decide which one. As I have limited time, I’d like to get some ideas from the community.
I know that each is fun in its own way, but the question becomes which of the three have the most options available? Such as builds, playstyles, etc.
When I read the class specific forums, it seems like the overwhelming consensus on these three professions is that they’re pigeonholed into only one or two weapon sets, have extremely kitten mechanics, or are simply boring by design to play. I’m hoping to get a different perspective from a general forum.
In terms of concept, I like all three. I’m not too worried about which one is most over or under powered in a specific setting, more that I’ll have fun once I reach 80 and not feel the need to abandon the class. If its important, my only level 80 is a Sylvari Elementalist, and I regularly switch between every available weapon combination (such kitten F and Staff for WvWvW, D/D or S/D for PvE, etc.) and switch up my trait builds to try new things. Thanks for any input in advance.
I really wish they’d take Swiftness off of Signet of Inspiration’s proc table, and simply make it a 25% speed boost passive along with the extra boon every 10 seconds.
Yeah that’s why I’m having such a tough time deciding on an alt. I already have a level 80 Elementalist, ankittenrying to find something a little different. Thing is, I absolutely love the mobility of the Elementalist, and the skill combos one can pull off across all the weapons and in various attunements.
So that being said, what I’m really looking for is a profession (not necessarily stealth based) that combines mobility and trickery. I’m not sure how keen I am on the Engineer, with few weapons and apparently the kits being nerfed, it seems like ANet is intent on marginalizing the profession. The Thief and Mesmer seem the most interesting, but I hear that end-game both PvP and PvE, the Mesmer is both more enjoyable and more versatile, while the Thief gets pigeonholed into very narrow roles and weapon sets.
I’m leaning towards Mesmer, simply because of the in-combat mobility, and the “trickery” nature of Illusion magic. I’d still like to get ya’all’s thoughts on this issue however.
One of the few other MMOs I’ve played prior to Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 was WoW, but only for a couple of months. In that time I leveled a Rogue up to max level, and took Engineering as one of his crafting professions. In Guild Wars 1, my two most played professions were Mesmer and Assassin.
The question is, which profession(s) in Guild Wars 2 is/are most analogous to the above? I really enjoyed the sneaky and wacky playstyle of the Engineering Rogue, and I loved the shadowstep mobility of the Assassin as well as the outright power of the Mesmer (both pre and post buff).
Here’s a thought. Why not make the Scepter autoattack hit like the Engineer’s Pistol autoattack, applying bleeds and then poison in a “nearby” AoE? And then do the same thing with the Axe’s #1 and #2 skills? I can see Dagger staying single target as its supposedly more of a “dueling” weapon, and the Staff is already AoE (despite Necrotic Grasp only being useful against enemies who helpfully line up), so no worries there.
ANet’s upload servers must be on fire, my download speed is all over the place, from 1.5MB/sec to 0.00KB/sec, and then back to the connection errors over and over again.
Have to appreciate the delicious irony of these connection issues with the update text, “The situation is getting worse for the citizens…”
I get a stream of profanity if I suggest someone is using a cookie cutter build with questions like: “Wow! Burst me right down. Are you running 100nades?” or “I’ve always wanted to play a 4 kit build. I saw bomb, eg, and ft. Do you have time to talk builds after this match?” and “Way to bunker. Is that the tankcat build?” (this last one earned me a stream of profanity)
And you wonder why you’re being targeted? Has it occurred to you that you’re being a jerk? There’s only so many builds, and in PvP the most effective builds will always be the ones most used. Calling people out on it is going to make you a target because no one likes a horse’s kitten
Simple question, in your opinion which professions have the most interesting or game affecting class mechanic?
For example, in my opinion the Warrior and Guardian are somewhat meh. The Warrior’s Adrenaline skill is basically just another damage skill, the Guardian has three extra permanent signets.
On the other hand, the Elementalist attunement swapping makes for fast paced and intricate gameplay, or the Mesmer with Illusions and their varied effects causing chaos on the battlefield.
The only reason ‘why’ is that it hasn’t be implemented yet. Game development for an MMO is always ongoing. I’m sure we’ll see proliferation of weapons in the future. It’s an easy way to add content without requiring special new art.
If, as part of an expansion or major patch update, they made a new necro ‘widget’ primary weapon, they would have to have their art people make a bunch of equivalent widgets to all the other weapons, PLUS, equivalent to any new weapons in the new content, but for all their work they would only create one weapon for one class.
If, on the other hand, they gave necromancers the ‘sword’ weapon, they would still be able to add three new primary weapon skills, but they wouldn’t need to go retroactive with their art. They would only need to add new swords for the new content, and they would be available to everyone. Not only is this more efficient, but with the saved time they could make MORE new swords.
Pragmatism is a wonderful thing.
I think a better question is WHY we don’t have other weapons that could easily be used by many classes. Whips for example can be fancy, magical, evilish, and dexterious. If you include flails and lump them as ‘flexible’ weapons, that could easily serve every class.
I would like to see flexible and polearm weapons added ASAP, even if only one or two classes got them right away. The longer we wait, the more swords they create, the more widgets they’ll have to back fill later!
I posted a while back about adding a “flail” class of weapons, at the time specifically for the Mesmer as a dedicated AoE weapon. Given that caster classes use weapons as foci (greatsword laser beams and dagger lightning whips) all manner of crazy purple butterfly effects could be had, and there would be much rejoicing…
The funny thing was (and still is) there are NPCs who use whip like weapons (Nightmare Court for one) and between that and the Ele’s Lightning Whip attack, the animations certainly already exist in the engine, so its a simple case of adding class specific graphical effects and one or two animations. In fact skill balancing would be the more difficult part.
I see as time goes on and new areas are revealed in expansions, there will be a proliferation of weapons to the various professions, much like the class proliferation among the races in WoW. I can see an Elementalist being given the Shortbow (Arcane Archer!) a Warrior MH Pistol, Engineer could get the Mace and/or Hammer (what kind of engineer doesn’t know how to use a hammer? lol), so on and so forth. The only problem with weapon proliferation is that several classes already have so many to choose from (Warrior, Guardian, Ranger) that eventually they won’t be able to add any more from the existing list, and several don’t fit the “flavor” of the class, such as a Rifle wielding Ranger or caster weapons on a Warrior.
So yeah, definitely need a Flail class of weapons, from simple whips and chains (gives a new meaning to the idea of a Domination Mesmer lol) to the Mighty Seven Headed Flail Of Ages!
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had a few ideas about how to make the Mesmer more viable in PvE and other improvements, and just thought I’d share. Not sure if it should go here, as I have no illusions (pun intended) about whether the devs will actually implement any of these ideas.
1. Phantasm change; first they no longer vanish on target death (sort of how the powerful hexes in GW1 were usually multi-target like VoR) and just switch to the Mesmer’s new target, and only shatter if the Mesmer uses a Shatter skill or goes out of combat (or the Phantasm is “killed”). Second, all phantasms become a sequence skill with the secondary effect being a “mode switch” similar to the Engineer turrets. The sequence in most cases would be an AoE mode, for example:
Phantasmal Duelist – AoE mode becomes a Grammaton Cleric-esque pistol attack animation, hitting up to five targets each attack cycle for 1/5 the listed single target damage, improved up to 1/3 or even 1/2 listed single target damage via traits.
Phantasmal Swordsman – AoE mode becomes an animation reminiscent of the Monk’s Seven Sided Strike from Diablo 3, the Swordsman Blinks to up to five targets each attack cycle for 1/5 the listed single target damage, improved up to 1/3 or even 1/2 listed single target damage via traits.
The rest of the phantasms would be in the same vein, and as long as the Phantasm is up and running, the Mesmer can switch modes at will, so back to single target mode for stronger targets or when the rest of the mobs are softened up for a Shatter.
2. A new weapon type, Flails. Would be dual wielded (such as whips, cat-o-nine tails or flails), and if possible some could be two handers (such as martial arts themed chain weapons) if the coding and animations allow for it. This would be our signature AoE weapon, perhaps out to 450 range, with skills that are PBAoE and a multitude of combo finishers. Possible example:
1-MH Auto Attack – lash up to 3 targets for damage, inflicting 1 stack of Confusion along with a random other condition such as Bleeding, Poison or Burning. 20% Projectile Finisher
2-MH Clone Skill – swing the weapon around extremely fast, generating a Lightning field that damages and blinds anyone entering and a clone who uses the auto attack
3-MH Gap Closer – teleport dash forward (can be used with or without a target), at the end whip the weapon around hitting up to five targets, Blast Finisher
4-OH Stealth – swing weapon and wrap it around yourself (ala Tygra from Thundercats) becoming invisible for a short period. When coming out of stealth cause Immobilize and Vulnerability to up to 5 nearby foes. Whirl Finisher (both entering and exiting of stealth)
5-OH Phantasm – summons a phantasm dual wielding whips that lashes a single target for minimal damage, but applies Confusion and Daze. AoE mode does no damage but applies Confusion and Daze to up to five targets per attack.
3. Signet of Inspiration – remove Swiftness from the list, grants a 25% movement speed buff Passively, along with the other boons.
I’m sure there are many other ways to improve, but it always struck me as odd that the Mesmer was seriously lacking in AoE, which multi target Phantasms and the Flail weapons could address.
Well from what I’ve played, tested, read and seen, it seems the caster professions are my style. I’ve got an Engineer, and while fun, just seems to slog through stuff without much synergy or strategy. I’ve tried to level both a warrior and guardian, and while initially amusing, melee combat in RPGs has never been my favorite. Even the Ele’s D/D playstyle, while at melee range, still feels like fighter pilot ACM compared to the melee classes. Granted, the melee professions including the Thief I haven’t leveled much past 20, but for some reason they just don’t seem to jive with my playstyle.
I’ll probably end up shelving the Engy alt for now, and level up a Necro and Mesmer.
Basically what the title says. I’ve tried a few alts to the low 20s (Thief, Guardian, Engineer) and while fun, they don’t seem to capture the flavour of the Elementalist.
I realize that the Ele is in a class of its own, with the high mobility and fun of D/D to the WvWvW carnage that Staff can cause, but I’m curious to get opinions on what the best alts for dedicated Ele players are? The way I quantify fun is how engaging the challenge of a class is.
Perhaps I should just roll a Mesmer and/or a Necromancer, as these classes seem to have a more engaging, tactical playstyle than the Adventurer or Soldier professions.
So I guess the question is, for dedicated Ele players, which professions overall are the most engaging and interesting as alts?
As has been said by many people in this forum, the nature of Attunement Swapping is counter-intuitive with trait lines that only affect Eles when they’re in that specific attunement.
This of course causes any Ele’s potential “trait efficiency” to be about 40% of the other classes, before tackling “meta” builds or the eventuality that certain traits will always be better than others (kind of like in GW1 how some skills just never saw use). An Ele that stays in only one or two attunements can make good use of traits, but this means half the class feature are basically irrelevant.
So I have a solution of sorts, and of course welcome criticism. Why not make the traits “theme” based instead of attunement based? What I mean by that is to make the traits always applicable regardless of attunement, and dependent on the target status. In addition, the traits would focus on the “flavor” of the element.
Examples:
Fire Traits would affect AoE size (of all Ele skills) so change Blasting Staff to Exploder, with the effect that ANY AoE skill has its radius increased. Damage increasing traits would hinge on whether the target(s) are Burning or not. Flame Barrier for example could offer a 20% to cause burning to all foes in the area if a burning foe hits you, regardless of attunement. A Master trait here would reduce CD on Staff skills across all attunements.
Air Traits would alter the range of all Ele skills, as well as adding Vulnerability effects to single target skills (like Cracked Armor from GW1). Thus, more Air Magic would make it easier to stack Vulnerability. Any speed increase traits would be located here and apply regardless of attunement. A Master trait here would reduce CD on Scepter skills across all attunements.
Earth Traits would add control effects like Knockdown and Knockback to all Blast projectiles and finishers regardless of which attunement. A Master trait here would reduce CD on Dagger skills across all attunements.
Water Traits would add extra damage to Vulnerable foes, with Vulnerability being inflicted by Air Magic (possible synergies). A Master trait here would reduce CD on Focus skills across all attunements.
Arcana would need some work, but it already pretty much applies for all Attunements. An alternative, and possibly easier solution to the above is to make traits from each line function like Elemental Attunement or Evasive Arcana, where the trait does something different depending on Attunement. For example, change Lava Tomb to Elemental Tomb, and it applies a different AoE effect on downed. Honestly, with all the variable skills and traits like Glyph of Storms and the Elementals, I’m surprised that ANet wasn’t better about making all traits applicable across all attunements.
I have the regular Digital Edition, and am interested in possibly getting the Deluxe Edition, but not for another $60.
When I go to the buy screen however, there is a yellow banner that says “Free Upgrade!” but when heading to purchase it still says $59.99.
Is there a way to activate the Free Upgrade, or is this just a marketing/sales thing to get people to pay more?