Would you buy a new profession for 2000 gems?

With the newest episode of the Living World and all the talk about dervishes and paragons, a lot has been said about the impracticability of adding a new profession to GW2; and how, if ArenaNet were to add anything similar to the old Nightfall professions, they would have done so in the Crystal Desert expansion.

However, there may be a way around that - what if players could buy a new profession? It would have more or less the same number of skills as the current ones, plus two elite specializations, but of course it would have to be expensive, at least 2000 gems. It's not completely unprecedented; Blizzard has given players the option of buying a new class, the necromancer, for Diablo; and while Diablo isn't a MMORPG, it would be the same kind of reasoning.

What do you think?

Depends on the profession

Nahhh... for something like a profession, I would rather it be a cash only sale.

@STIHL.2489 said:Nahhh... for something like a profession, I would rather it be a cash only sale.

This, and

@Game of Bones.8975 said:Depends on the profession

This:

Maybe via an XPac.

It's not a good idea. There's never been content like that on the gem store so it'll stir up a lot of controversy. But I think mostly important is that atm the general consensus is that the balance between classes atm is quite poor. And indeed that's true, on my main (Warrior) some of the trait lines are just laughable (Arms and Tactics), and I don't know how they can have just left them like that.

I can't pick one of those. The reality is, I might, but not reliably. For one thing, I would NEED to have a full trial experience with the new class. I would need to be able to play it fully unlocked on an open world map and get an idea of how the class feels. Several of the PoF classes that I liked the pitch for, ended up being very disappointing in practice. The only one I actually enjoy at this point is the Mirage. And so even then, I imagine that most of the classes they threw out, I wouldn't care to play, much less pay extra to play.

Also, when I first read this, I thought it meant a new spec for an existing class, but then realized you meant a complete class? I don't think the game needs any more classes or should have any more. I think that the variety currently available, combined with the flexibility of the elite specs, allows them to make any player experience they might want to make. I can't think of any theoretical "class" that could not fit as an elite spec of an existing class, and focusing on elite specs just keeps everything more manageable for both developers and players.

I would personally buy it, but it would be a major p2w type model I would think based on balance in the game so it would never happen with this game.

Thanks to everyone else buying all the fluff to keep this game going, there's no need to ever buy a profession. Which btw is totally daft anyway. The devs will keep making great content and that includes any future profs or races included in another xpac. But selling a prof by itself wont happen LOL....too many people would complain with the right to do so imo. So this is a big NO on your poll :)

@Ohoni.6057 said:I can't pick one of those. The reality is, I might, but not reliably. For one thing, I would NEED to have a full trial experience with the new class. I would need to be able to play it fully unlocked on an open world map and get an idea of how the class feels. Several of the PoF classes that I liked the pitch for, ended up being very disappointing in practice.

This exactly. I MIGHT pay directly (not gems) for a class on two conditions.

1. There was a maybe week or two trial run period with everything fully unlocked so I can see exactly what I'd be buying.
2. If I decide not to buy the class because I personally don't like it then I'm not penalised in any way for not getting it. It should be on the same playing field as every other class and should not be a 'required' class for raids, dungeons etc. I should not feel guilt tripped into getting it if I don't want it.

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:

@STIHL.2489 said:Nahhh... for something like a profession, I would rather it be a cash only sale.

@Game of Bones.8975 said:Depends on the profession

This, exactly.

Depending on the profession I might really want it, or I might be largely indifferent. And I think it would have to be cash-only to be worth Anet's time to make.

Depends, but probably no, I'm thinking it would be underpowered to avoid P2W claims.

Most ppl payed for the new elite spec but it was money only if you could use in game gold for gems to get them ppl would do it in a hart bet.

Yes I would... with gold. Also it depends on what profession it is. I've recently checked a certain class that a lot of people have been mentioning called Dervish and I wouldn't mind paying for that... with gold.

Depending on the profession but likely buying it anyway. Also surprised so many yes votes.

Anet is pretty bad at balancing. It would be either "omg anet now you sell op profession for money so much p2w" or "omg anet refund now this sux so much".

Definitely not.Fortunately we have already reached the max number of professions... phew...

Also, ANET does not care about gems.Your question should have been more like

Would you like to pay 25 € ( which is 2000 gems ) in order to play a new profession?

But don't worry, the answer would have been the same.

Unless it is a Heavy profession, I probably wouldn't even bother to begin with.

However, even if it was there is no way I'd pay 25 bucks for a single profession like that.

Why do you have horrible choices?Either way, only if it's:

1. A shaman type class where I can throw magic without a weapon in my hand (you can make new weapons if you have to and just reskin some animations from the game around it, like some of the staff animations on Elementalist or Necro where one hand throws an attack out... just keep that part and change the right hand to not be in the "holding a staff" position.

2. It's a ranged based class.

I'd rather see them work a bit more on the current professions (all of them badly need work) than have a few other "revenant" introduced in the game.

No. Also, not only would I not personally buy it, I would think it out of place and a bad choice on ANet side. Not because of the pricetag you chose, but because gemstore should stay convenience and cosmetics.We don't need an entirely new class anyway, elite specs will be giving us the variety and new gameplay instead. And elite specs coming with new expansions is the best way imo.

No, even it it would be free. I play single character only. (Yes, I have multiple chars, but only to unlock some character/race based story steps or achievement points)

Dervish and Paragon maybe ? :)

if it didnt effect game balancing and if i like how the new profession plays. i would buy

Hmm, I can't say that I would or that I wouldn't. It really depends.

To me, I consider that content and I am not against purchasing content outright (with cash, not gems). Looking back at City of Heroes' store, they also sold power sets and even Archetypes in their latter years. If you were a VIP (paying a monthly sub), you get free points that accumulate so by the time new sets arrived, you could get the new sets that way.

I think the problem is that it could be considered P2W. With the way CoH did it, you could play for free and buy the content you wanted but everyone had to pay to get access to it making it closer to P2P.

I'd personally rather pay 5000 gems for a new race. But that's just me. It'd be purely cosmetic and lore, not much else.

@Erasculio.2914 said:With the newest episode of the Living World and all the talk about dervishes and paragons, a lot has been said about the impracticability of adding a new profession to GW2; and how, if ArenaNet were to add anything similar to the old Nightfall professions, they would have done so in the Crystal Desert expansion.

However, there may be a way around that - what if players could buy a new profession? It would have more or less the same number of skills as the current ones, plus two elite specializations, but of course it would have to be expensive, at least 2000 gems. It's not completely unprecedented; Blizzard has given players the option of buying a new class, the necromancer, for Diablo; and while Diablo isn't a MMORPG, it would be the same kind of reasoning.

I don't think the OP has addressed the reasons that new professions weren't added in the last two expansions

• Elite specializations serve a similar purpose: they add some progression, gated by the buy-to-play wall, and they are game-changing for many players.
• New profs require a lot more design, implementation, & maintenance. Especially for balancing, including sPvP, WvW, and party comp in PvE

Allowing folks to choose whether to pay is going to make things more expensive, not less. Allowing folks to pay with gems instead of cash will also hurt.

Thus, the OP's proposal addresses none of the current reasons we don't see new profs in the game and adds some new issues.