Jump to content
  • Sign Up

Guild Wars 2: The Celestial Tournament - Cantha expansion idea


Recommended Posts

Mysterious ships displaying exotic sails have been sighted all across the Sea of Sorrows. Processions hoisting exotic banners and playing eerie music have arrived to all major cities, and with them, a message of challenge.

An invitation to discover new lands, meet other cultures, face incredible trials, achieve victory, and claim what could be the most valuable prize ever seen. Signed by the emperor of Cantha himself.

This is The Celestial Tournament.

Journey to Cantha, and participate in this legendary competition. Discover what has been going on since the southern continent closed its borders. Fight guilds from all over the world, formed by other heroes or even villains. Old and new faces combine in this competition, and only the strongest will endure.

Be careful though. You will be alone, in a foreign country, surrounded by enemies and strangers. Also, some things sound too good to be true. Are there any hidden intentions behind the tournament? There is only one way to find out: Fight.

While the guilds of Tyria answer to the challenge, the tengu watch carefully, and prepare for war.


The Celestial Emperor has spoken.

New expansion pack: The Celestial Tournament

Click on the red links to go to the article.

  • Introduction
  • New continent: Cantha
    • Imperial City (city)
    • Kaineng Center (80)
    • Qinkaishi Mountains (80)
    • The Jade Sea (80)
    • Echovald Forest (80)
  • New PvP mode: Battlegrounds
    • Nahpui Quarter → Guild versus Guild
    • Monastery of the Thousand Daggers → Deathmatch
    • The Aurios Mines → Capture the Flag
    • Amatz Basin → King of the Hill
  • New skills and abilities
    • Six new weapon types
    • Nine new elite specializations
      • Elementalist - Dervish
      • Mesmer - Redemptor
      • Necromancer - Apothecary
      • Engineer - Golemancer
      • Ranger - Reaver
      • Thief - Assassin
      • Guardian - Forgemaster
      • Revenant - Ritualist
      • Warrior - Gladiator
    • New mounts
      • Stag
      • Serpent
    • Core professions upgrade
  • New activities
    • Bounty Hunter
    • Drilling
    • Musical Duel
    • Trials of the Tournament
  • New masteries

Map of the new expansion zones.

Larger resolution.


New race pack: Day of the Tengu

Click on the red links to go to the article.


Map of the new tengu starting zones.

Larger resolution.


Hope you liked it! :D

If you fancy music while reading, listen to this beautiful remix.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Xenophobic Cantha suddenly opens its borders to thousands-to-millions of foreigners... for a tournament?

Don't get me wrong, I like this idea, and the many of the concepts presented herein, but the premise is really, really weak. I would enjoy diving deeper to explore what these otherwise-random collection of words do and why we'd need them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

@"Trise.2865" said:Xenophobic Cantha suddenly opens its borders to thousands-to-millions of foreigners... for a tournament?

Don't get me wrong, I like this idea, and the many of the concepts presented herein, but the premise is really, really weak. I would enjoy diving deeper to explore what these otherwise-random collection of words do and why we'd need them.

Suddenly opening has nothing strange. The old emperor dies, and the new one changes the law. Funnily enough, that's exactly what happened a few decades before the events of GW1 Factions, where the isolation policies of the two previous emperors were revoked by a new emperor.

It's pretty ridiculous to think they've kept the same laws for 250 years. Our major problem with Cantha is not the empire itself, but the two dragons that made travel there way too dangerous. Zhaitan is gone, but Selbbub is still there somewhere. For all we know, the current status of isolation could be due to dragons. We've been getting Elonian refugees since forever, from Elona, a dictatorship ruled by an immortal lich, but we haven't gotten anything out from Cantha. Sounds like escaping Cantha should be easier, but we have no news at all. Again, I blame dragons.

And even then, we don't know the true intentions behind this tournament. It could all be a trap, a cry for help, or whatever. Maybe they're crazy cultists running out of sacrifices and need new victims, maybe they want to recruit heroes with dragon experience to kill Selbbub, or maybe the new emperor just wants to reopen trade in some spectacular way, but some nobles are against breaking the isolation and we'll have to deal with multiple political schemes at once.

@Alga.6498 said:I would love to see this for our next expansion! Cantha, a new playable race- the Tengu with their starter zones and their capital city, Ritualist, Assassin, Dervish and Gladiator(Paragon) elite specs! ❤

Gladiator is not paragon. I'm saving that for guardian, using transformation, trident, and wells, for another expansion idea :D.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"zerorogue.9410" said:I was always hoping we would get a recreation of the black ships in japan. Where we need chantha to help against the dragons they refuse and the pact then moves an armada of airships off the cost to force negotiations.

eg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Ships

That particular part of history is probably not something we want to emulate. Especially if we are sticking with the idea of the Pact being the "good guys". Not unless you want to annoy a decent of people. Forcing "negotiations" with military threats is somewhat less than ideal, especially when there is a dangerous enemy that is already known.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Zilong.1407 said:

@"zerorogue.9410" said:I was always hoping we would get a recreation of the black ships in japan. Where we need chantha to help against the dragons they refuse and the pact then moves an armada of airships off the cost to force negotiations.

eg:

That particular part of history is probably not something we want to emulate. Especially if we are sticking with the idea of the Pact being the "good guys". Not unless you want to annoy a decent of people. Forcing "negotiations" with military threats is somewhat less than ideal, especially when there is a dangerous enemy that is already known.The event marked a sign to the people of japan that their isolationism has caused the world to pass them by in technology. Nobody was annoyed by it, It was simply a showing that if japan wanted to survive they needed to end Isolationism. The same thing is happening now in Tyria, cantha has not been privy to the explosion of technology and advancements the rest of the world has benefited from. A simple show of power can stop a massacre in the future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All good, really but only issue with this is Dervish uses the gods for their power. Since the gods left they would have nothing to draw from. Let alone any race not human would be/could be restricted from the class lore wise. But I do love the dervish class, we just need a way to bring it up for all races a Dervish 2.0 , maybe instead of drawing from the human gods. Dervish 2.0 could draw from the Cantha Zodiac ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"hugo.4705" said:Golemancer!! Serpent!!! Awesome Idea but what about the new masteries? What should they add? Moutains Climbing? Swimming abilities? Fighting?

I guess you missed the link to the wiki article :I.

@"Fenom.9457" said:How do you make such good edits? Like how did you actually type an entry into the wiki, and how do you make such good pictures? When I draw in the map it’s sloppy lines and the writing isn’t ornate :(

Practice, mostly. Always loved theorycrafting and been writing stuff like this for years.

Few tips if you want to get into this sort of pastime:

Start with simple lists of features. For example, elite specializations would be just the new mechanic, weapon, and slot skills. I like giving them an aesthetic theme too, that makes it stand out from the core profession, but that's not really necessary. I really dislike how the official elite specializations feel so generic and bland. For example, look at Deadeye, it's just a boring guy with a rifle. Now, imagine if Deadeyes were these gambler bounty hunter guys, who use to stick around the Amnoon Casino and make bets and play dices, and the new mechanics and skills kinda reflect that aspect, so you feel you're one of them. I also like "balancing" ideas, so I don't run out of them. It's easy to make this awesome elite specialization by putting everything that is cool inside, but then you leave no room for future ideas. Instead of writing just one elite specialization idea, try writing three at a time, or try writing multiple professions at once. Right now, I have 27 solid elite specialization ideas, and they're all unique because I made sure to balance my resources so I don't run out of them. I feel like that gives them value, but isn't really necessary either.

Personally, I love limits, and I force myself into them on purpose. I made some tables to force me to distribute resources evenly. It's a sandbox and includes redesign ideas with various personal classifications, in case you're confused by some of the terms there. I like balancing everything mathematically, but that's just me, I'm sure there's other types of limits you can give yourself.

Don't get too specific nor technical. Continuing with elite specialization ideas, lot of people love to write down every single new skill and trait, but personally I believe that's just a waste of time. In my opinion, being ambiguous and defining a role and a theme rather than writing down numbers is much more effective. If you enjoy playing with numbers, don't stop doing it, but you should give the "new thing" much more importance. Only bother going into details if you have a really good idea that is worth elaborating on, because it's very unique, helps understand the bigger picture, etc. Leave the readers some breathing space so they can imagine the rest by themselves, and then engage in the discussion by adding new ideas on top of yours. If you have a very specific idea, post a simpler version and wait until there's a discussion before posting the full version, don't just jump to it from the very beginning or no one will care. There's a lot of threads with huge balance ideas and no replies, and I'm sure many of them are really good, but no one's going to bother talking about them when there's no room for discussion.

For example, describing masteries can be interesting if those masteries help understand the activities and the interaction with the new environments. If your masteries are just a glorified checklist of unlocks (like PoF mount masteries) then it's not worth describing them at all, just put a line somewhere stating "you unlock new mount skills through masteries" and move on.

Don't write a giant wall of text. Assuming you want people to read your ideas, and discuss them with you. Make sure you focus on what you want to be discussed, and avoid filler, it's fine if things are short. For example, you could write a great elite specialization idea, with some pretty cool mechanics, and then describe some secondary skill or write down some numbers just because for some reason you want to add more content. What happens then is that people will skip the meat and go nitpick the secondary skills or the numbers, ignoring the core of the idea, and you will regret having gone into details because they have ruined the discussion. Typical reply example: "Your elite spec idea is bad because it's too powerful / weak". Another example is writing plot, the more you write the harder it is to get people to read the whole thing, and the easier it is to let readers nitpick dumb details over the big picture. You need to find balance.

In one of my old ideas, I described a whole new profession, but people nitpicked on a secondary line talking about stealth detection, ignoring the rest, which was annoying as hell, but hey, that's life. That's why nowadays I keep elite specializations and other ideas short and to the point.

Finally, go wild. It's easy to make assumptions about the game's development cycles. If two expansions include updates to a feature, everyone expects the third to include another update too. As humans we try to find patterns in everything, and then we pretend that's how things work. I was very conservative in the past, always trying to stick to what respected the original designs, but that led to dull results and lot of filler. I also restrained myself on many cool ideas "because there was no way they would make something like that" but then they did (I had ideas about something like masteries years before HoT). So now, I'm much more creative and go further with my ideas, and I don't care too much about our unwritten rules. As long as they don't break the basic design of the game, every idea can fit the game.

You are going to find a lot of stubborn people out there, who are just going to hate on you no matter what. It happened when people gave wardrobe suggestions years ago, and it happened when people gave mount ideas as well. Lot of people were just like "no way that happens", and some even got hostile about it. Lot of people hate the idea of change, unless it comes from ArenaNet themselves, then they love it. You can't fight that kind of people, you'll have to learn to just ignore them or call them out when they're just acting like blind zealots fighting against every suggestion or idea, because the game is perfect and you're questioning that perfection with your filthy opinion. Don't let haters get to you, and develop the ideas you like.

So yeah, that's it I guess. I don't know lol.

Think of writing game ideas as drawing fan art or writing stories.

@starhunter.6015 said:All good, really but only issue with this is Dervish uses the gods for their power. Since the gods left they would have nothing to draw from. Let alone any race not human would be/could be restricted from the class lore wise. But I do love the dervish class, we just need a way to bring it up for all races a Dervish 2.0 , maybe instead of drawing from the human gods. Dervish 2.0 could draw from the Cantha Zodiac ?

They no longer channel gods, they just channel elements now, transforming into djinns. To be fair, in GW1 their only god-related skills were the 5 avatars, the rest of the profession was pretty much an elemental shaman.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Lonami.2987 said:

@"hugo.4705" said:Golemancer!! Serpent!!! Awesome Idea but what about the new masteries? What should they add? Moutains Climbing? Swimming abilities? Fighting?

I guess you missed
:I.

@"Fenom.9457" said:How do you make such good edits? Like how did you actually type an entry into the wiki, and how do you make such good pictures? When I draw in the map it’s sloppy lines and the writing isn’t ornate :(

Practice, mostly. Always loved theorycrafting and been writing stuff like this for years.

Few tips if you want to get into this sort of pastime:

Start with simple lists of features.
For example, elite specializations would be just the new mechanic, weapon, and slot skills. I like giving them an aesthetic theme too, that makes it stand out from the core profession, but that's not really necessary. I really dislike how the official elite specializations feel so generic and bland. For example, look at Deadeye, it's just a boring guy with a rifle. Now, imagine if Deadeyes were these gambler bounty hunter guys, who use to stick around the Amnoon Casino and make bets and play dices, and the new mechanics and skills kinda reflect that aspect, so you feel you're one of them. I also like "balancing" ideas, so I don't run out of them. It's easy to make this awesome elite specialization by putting everything that is cool inside, but then you leave no room for future ideas. Instead of writing just one elite specialization idea, try writing three at a time, or try writing multiple professions at once. Right now, I have 27 solid elite specialization ideas, and they're all unique because I made sure to balance my resources so I don't run out of them. I feel like that gives them value, but isn't really necessary either.

Personally, I love limits, and I force myself into them on purpose. I made
to force me to distribute resources evenly. It's a sandbox and includes redesign ideas with various personal classifications, in case you're confused by some of the terms there. I like balancing everything mathematically, but that's just me, I'm sure there's other types of limits you can give yourself.

Don't get too specific nor technical.
Continuing with elite specialization ideas, lot of people love to write down every single new skill and trait, but personally I believe that's just a waste of time. In my opinion, being ambiguous and defining a role and a theme rather than writing down numbers is much more effective. If you enjoy playing with numbers, don't stop doing it, but you should give the "new thing" much more importance. Only bother going into details if you have a really good idea that is worth elaborating on, because it's very unique, helps understand the bigger picture, etc. Leave the readers some breathing space so they can imagine the rest by themselves, and then engage in the discussion by adding new ideas on top of yours. If you have a very specific idea, post a simpler version and wait until there's a discussion before posting the full version, don't just jump to it from the very beginning or no one will care. There's a lot of threads with huge balance ideas and no replies, and I'm sure many of them are really good, but no one's going to bother talking about them when there's no room for discussion.

For example, describing masteries can be interesting if those masteries help understand the activities and the interaction with the new environments. If your masteries are just a glorified checklist of unlocks (like PoF mount masteries) then it's not worth describing them at all, just put a line somewhere stating "you unlock new mount skills through masteries" and move on.

Don't write a giant wall of text.
Assuming you want people to read your ideas, and discuss them with you. Make sure you focus on what you want to be discussed, and avoid filler, it's fine if things are short. For example, you could write a great elite specialization idea, with some pretty cool mechanics, and then describe some secondary skill or write down some numbers just because for some reason you want to add more content. What happens then is that people will skip the meat and go nitpick the secondary skills or the numbers, ignoring the core of the idea, and you will regret having gone into details because they have ruined the discussion. Typical reply example: "Your elite spec idea is bad because it's too powerful / weak". Another example is writing plot, the more you write the harder it is to get people to read the whole thing, and the easier it is to let readers nitpick dumb details over the big picture. You need to find balance.

In one of my old ideas, I described a whole new profession, but people nitpicked on a secondary line talking about stealth detection, ignoring the rest, which was annoying as hell, but hey, that's life. That's why nowadays I keep elite specializations and other ideas short and to the point.

Finally, go wild.
It's easy to make assumptions about the game's development cycles. If two expansions include updates to a feature, everyone expects the third to include another update too. As humans we try to find patterns in everything, and then we pretend that's how things work. I was very conservative
, always trying to stick to what respected the original designs, but that led to dull results and lot of filler. I also restrained myself on many cool ideas "because there was no way they would make something like that" but then they did (I had ideas about something like masteries years before HoT). So now, I'm much more creative and go further with my ideas, and I don't care too much about our unwritten rules. As long as they don't break the basic design of the game, every idea can fit the game.

You are going to find a lot of stubborn people out there, who are just going to hate on you no matter what. It happened when people gave wardrobe suggestions years ago, and it happened when people gave mount ideas as well. Lot of people were just like "no way that happens", and some even got hostile about it. Lot of people hate the idea of change, unless it comes from ArenaNet themselves, then they love it. You can't fight that kind of people, you'll have to learn to just ignore them or call them out when they're just acting like blind zealots fighting against every suggestion or idea, because the game is perfect and you're questioning that perfection with your filthy opinion. Don't let haters get to you, and develop the ideas you like.

So yeah, that's it I guess. I don't know lol.

Think of writing game ideas as drawing fan art or writing stories.

@starhunter.6015 said:All good, really but only issue with this is Dervish uses the gods for their power. Since the gods left they would have nothing to draw from. Let alone any race not human would be/could be restricted from the class lore wise. But I do love the dervish class, we just need a way to bring it up for all races a Dervish 2.0 , maybe instead of drawing from the human gods. Dervish 2.0 could draw from the Cantha Zodiac ?

They no longer channel gods, they just channel elements now, transforming into djinns. To be fair, in GW1 their only god-related skills were the 5 avatars, the rest of the profession was pretty much an elemental shaman.

Thanks for the advice! I have a lot of elite ideas myself, but I tend to get stuck on details that should really be left ambiguous. Anyway, I have another question for you (or anyone who wants to give their opinion): where do you think expansion 3 will be? Like did you write the cantha expansion just because it sounds great or because that’s what you think will happen?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Fenom.9457 said:

@"hugo.4705" said:Golemancer!! Serpent!!! Awesome Idea but what about the new masteries? What should they add? Moutains Climbing? Swimming abilities? Fighting?

I guess you missed
:I.

@Fenom.9457 said:How do you make such good edits? Like how did you actually type an entry into the wiki, and how do you make such good pictures? When I draw in the map it’s sloppy lines and the writing isn’t ornate :(

Practice, mostly. Always loved theorycrafting and been writing stuff like this for years.

Few tips if you want to get into this sort of pastime:

Start with simple lists of features.
For example, elite specializations would be just the new mechanic, weapon, and slot skills. I like giving them an aesthetic theme too, that makes it stand out from the core profession, but that's not really necessary. I really dislike how the official elite specializations feel so generic and bland. For example, look at Deadeye, it's just a boring guy with a rifle. Now, imagine if Deadeyes were these gambler bounty hunter guys, who use to stick around the Amnoon Casino and make bets and play dices, and the new mechanics and skills kinda reflect that aspect, so you feel you're one of them. I also like "balancing" ideas, so I don't run out of them. It's easy to make this awesome elite specialization by putting everything that is cool inside, but then you leave no room for future ideas. Instead of writing just one elite specialization idea, try writing three at a time, or try writing multiple professions at once. Right now, I have 27 solid elite specialization ideas, and they're all unique because I made sure to balance my resources so I don't run out of them. I feel like that gives them value, but isn't really necessary either.

Personally, I love limits, and I force myself into them on purpose. I made
to force me to distribute resources evenly. It's a sandbox and includes redesign ideas with various personal classifications, in case you're confused by some of the terms there. I like balancing everything mathematically, but that's just me, I'm sure there's other types of limits you can give yourself.

Don't get too specific nor technical.
Continuing with elite specialization ideas, lot of people love to write down every single new skill and trait, but personally I believe that's just a waste of time. In my opinion, being ambiguous and defining a role and a theme rather than writing down numbers is much more effective. If you enjoy playing with numbers, don't stop doing it, but you should give the "new thing" much more importance. Only bother going into details if you have a really good idea that is worth elaborating on, because it's very unique, helps understand the bigger picture, etc. Leave the readers some breathing space so they can imagine the rest by themselves, and then engage in the discussion by adding new ideas on top of yours. If you have a very specific idea, post a simpler version and wait until there's a discussion before posting the full version, don't just jump to it from the very beginning or no one will care. There's a lot of threads with huge balance ideas and no replies, and I'm sure many of them are really good, but no one's going to bother talking about them when there's no room for discussion.

For example, describing masteries can be interesting if those masteries help understand the activities and the interaction with the new environments. If your masteries are just a glorified checklist of unlocks (like PoF mount masteries) then it's not worth describing them at all, just put a line somewhere stating "you unlock new mount skills through masteries" and move on.

Don't write a giant wall of text.
Assuming you want people to read your ideas, and discuss them with you. Make sure you focus on what you want to be discussed, and avoid filler, it's fine if things are short. For example, you could write a great elite specialization idea, with some pretty cool mechanics, and then describe some secondary skill or write down some numbers just because for some reason you want to add more content. What happens then is that people will skip the meat and go nitpick the secondary skills or the numbers, ignoring the core of the idea, and you will regret having gone into details because they have ruined the discussion. Typical reply example: "Your elite spec idea is bad because it's too powerful / weak". Another example is writing plot, the more you write the harder it is to get people to read the whole thing, and the easier it is to let readers nitpick dumb details over the big picture. You need to find balance.

In one of my old ideas, I described a whole new profession, but people nitpicked on a secondary line talking about stealth detection, ignoring the rest, which was annoying as hell, but hey, that's life. That's why nowadays I keep elite specializations and other ideas short and to the point.

Finally, go wild.
It's easy to make assumptions about the game's development cycles. If two expansions include updates to a feature, everyone expects the third to include another update too. As humans we try to find patterns in everything, and then we pretend that's how things work. I was very conservative
, always trying to stick to what respected the original designs, but that led to dull results and lot of filler. I also restrained myself on many cool ideas "because there was no way they would make something like that" but then they did (I had ideas about something like masteries years before HoT). So now, I'm much more creative and go further with my ideas, and I don't care too much about our unwritten rules. As long as they don't break the basic design of the game, every idea can fit the game.

You are going to find a lot of stubborn people out there, who are just going to hate on you no matter what. It happened when people gave wardrobe suggestions years ago, and it happened when people gave mount ideas as well. Lot of people were just like "no way that happens", and some even got hostile about it. Lot of people hate the idea of change, unless it comes from ArenaNet themselves, then they love it. You can't fight that kind of people, you'll have to learn to just ignore them or call them out when they're just acting like blind zealots fighting against every suggestion or idea, because the game is perfect and you're questioning that perfection with your filthy opinion. Don't let haters get to you, and develop the ideas you like.

So yeah, that's it I guess. I don't know lol.

Think of writing game ideas as drawing fan art or writing stories.

@"starhunter.6015" said:All good, really but only issue with this is Dervish uses the gods for their power. Since the gods left they would have nothing to draw from. Let alone any race not human would be/could be restricted from the class lore wise. But I do love the dervish class, we just need a way to bring it up for all races a Dervish 2.0 , maybe instead of drawing from the human gods. Dervish 2.0 could draw from the Cantha Zodiac ?

They no longer channel gods, they just channel elements now, transforming into djinns. To be fair, in GW1 their only god-related skills were the 5 avatars, the rest of the profession was pretty much an elemental shaman.

Thanks for the advice! I have a lot of elite ideas myself, but I tend to get stuck on details that should really be left ambiguous. Anyway, I have another question for you (or anyone who wants to give their opinion): where do you think expansion 3 will be? Like did you write the cantha expansion just because it sounds great or because that’s what you think will happen?

My current bet is that we will have 3 more expansions:

  • Cantha: Plot could be anything, but the Deep Sea Dragon will be involved in some way, probably with a secondary role (much like Kralkatorrik during PoF).
  • Plains of Golghein: Charr homelands east of Ascalon. Expansion plot will be a charr civil war.
  • Depths of Tyria: The 5th and final expansion, we'll deal with Jormag and Primordus at the same time. Will include parts of northern Tyria too. GW2 will probably end around here, the setting has been unable to expand properly (One of ArenaNet's mistake, we barely have any plots to work with for the future), and the engine is too old to evolve and implement new game-changing features.

The next expansion is either Cantha or the Plains of Golghein. Everything so far points to the second. I still think Cantha should come first, because it has more "shocking power" and we need to ride the momentum of Elona. Unfortunately, PoF was sort of a flop, so there's no momentum at all (such a huge wasted opportunity, I still can't believe it). Still, I don't think a charr expansion would sell well enough. We need Cantha now, to get people interested and engaged, and then be able to sell future exotic ideas better. A charr expansion won't sell well from an aesthetic point of view, and it might even get bad press from how similar it could like to WoW's controversial Warlords of Draenor, which also featured lot of warlike elements, specially the machines.

I also think player housing will be coming soon, and I'm not sure I like that. There's other big features they should be focusing at first, and player housing as an expansion seller won't work too well if we don't have more gameplay options established before it, so we can build the player housing idea on top of other content (kinda like WoW's garrisons). Player housing needs to have lot of minigames and secondary activities to work well, and those need to be introduced months/years in advance. For example, introduce fishing, and then expand fishing through the player housing. If they pretend to just release a better version of home instances with decorations, it will be a disaster, worse than guild halls. Player housing can't be a feature on its own, its purpose should be expanding and enriching existing features. If you mix that with a charr expansion as the third, then it's even worse, so I really hope it's Cantha next, even if I'm pretty sure at the moment it won't, and it's probably the 4th instead of the 3rd, sadly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I miss Cantha pretty badly. You've done an amazing job with your writeup. If Anet actually brought Cantha to GW2, I'd be over the moon.

My only critique is that I would rather Dervish be its own class rather than an elite specialization for elementalists. Also, ritualists were light armor as opposed to heavy. By making both of these GW1 classes into elite specializations, I feel like you'd lose out on a lot of customization and armor/weapon options.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@starhunter.6015 said:@Lonami.2987 Oh nice I must of over looked that in PoF, So a Dervish could easily be a new Elite spec for Ele then. imo

They don't say anything about dervishes in GW2, it's something I assumed. People really overrate the dervishes' connection to the Six Gods, in truth they're just half-shaman half-priest wanderers, blessed by the gods, pretty much like every other GW1 profession (the ranger can channel Melandru, the monk can channel Dwayna, the necromancer can channel Grenth, mesmers can channel Lyssa, etc). The avatars are a secondary mechanic, flashy and impacting, but still secondary. Most of their skills are earth and wind prayers. Take that angle, and make it cover all elements, and you get a god-less dervish focusing exclusively on elemental magic instead.

The same mistake is made with tengu and Cantha. There's always been tengu in Kryta, the Maguuma Jungle, and Southern Shiverpeaks, long before Cantha was introduced, yet people keep pretending tengu are exclusive to Cantha for some reason.

@"shadowpass.4236" said:I miss Cantha pretty badly. You've done an amazing job with your writeup. If Anet actually brought Cantha to GW2, I'd be over the moon.

My only critique is that I would rather Dervish be its own class rather than an elite specialization for elementalists. Also, ritualists were light armor as opposed to heavy. By making both of these GW1 classes into elite specializations, I feel like you'd lose out on a lot of customization and armor/weapon options.

I don't think we need more professions (from the game's perspective), but that doesn't mean I don't agree with you. I too would have preferred for elite specializations to be just "new skill unlocks" (that's pretty much what they are now anyway), and get a new profession each expansion. In fact, if you're interested, here's some 2012 ideas for four, before revenant and elite specializations were a thing:

  • Watcher: Soldier, heavy ranger theme similar to those from Lord of the Rings. Bit of martial arts. Good with swords, bows, and spears. Shamanistic connection to nature, instead of the druidic and beastmaster themes you see on the ranger. Can transform into animal spirits.
  • Ritualist: Scholar, pretty similar to GW1's ritualist, with some occult touches. Doesn't wield weapons, instead they float by his sides, moving when the ritualist moves his hands. Can use occult magic from Abaddon's minions (Flame Legion, Shiro'ken, and Margonites).
  • Duelist: Fencer-like adventurer, with time-travel and sand themes. His mechanic is the echo, two copies follow him, repeating his actions. The gameplay is about doing combos with your "delayed time" versions.
  • Priest: Soldier, combines themes from GW1's dervish and monk. Dwarven origin, runic magic, he's a religious blacksmith of sorts.

Allowing equipping different weight of armors to all professions could be a nice addition. That way, your warrior can switch between medium and heavy armor, depending on the situation. It could also allow new weights, specially for priest/dervish, who would need some tunic-like armor badly.

That said, even if I like the idea of elite specializations, they need to be much more than what they are now, they're pretty lackluster for the kind of upgrade they're supposed to represent. We're now in a limbo where new professions don't make sense, but elite specializations aren't doing their job at properly filling that space either.

If you're interested, here's some redesign threads for all the core professions:

Elementalist - Mesmer - Necromancer - Engineer - Ranger - Thief - Guardian - Revenant - Warrior

They include ideas to redesign elite specializations too, which is the current way to go, in my opinion.

@"Wakthor Thorwak.2819" said:what are gladiator kind of elite spec im curious

There's links above to the complete article, click here to read about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...