What I'd like to see for future class elites.

I'll go with my ideas first, but feel free to toss your own ideas in the mix!Necro:

• Hammer and become Executioners. Would be a more Power heavy sort of approach to the playstyle with less pulls and chill of Reaper, and more knockdown, cripple, fear, and a tethering similar to when you moved too away while tethered by spellbreaker and getting yanked back if it hadn't worn off yet.
• Mainhand Sword with Offhand Pistol and become Undead Hunters or Plague Liberators. Would be an anti drain, anti condi that works with basic melee and gunshot damage for power building, but the gun would be able to cause bleed and stuns, and the sword could combo and be built for life draining on stunned/interrupted foes with knockback to the combination effect, but have the natural ability of regaining health from inflicting damage on a target in combat within 2-3 seconds of you taking damage. The utilities will be an ammo based heal, and the pistol skills would be refilled on small amounts of life force with 5-6 shots by an F2 or F1, the 7-9 would be a selection of cleanses, timed immunity to certain condition ailments, and the elite being a Might raising/Vitality raising/cooldown decreasing, form for 8-15 seconds.Mesmer*Mainhand Mace and Offhand Dagger and become Thespian or Trickster. Could have a Copycat F5 ability for Thespian, with a 45 second cooldown more or less by gametype, that copies an enemy's attack effect on all active clones/illusion back at on the attacker and shatters the clones afterwards. For Trickster could be prank skills and F5 shatter to turn illusions into pranks. With Trickster, Illusions would be inflatables and called Dummies that pop when killed. Thespian could have a utility that makes a shield appear on them in a blocking manor. They could also have a utility that copies the ranger longbow 2 skill. As well as another iconic skill or two for utility selection and in PvP/WvW, this could be used to misdirect enemies as to where the actual thing is going about, and fighting. Tricksters with their prank abilities would have more dance like movements with evades. Both ideas with confusion, torment, and power in mind.
• Warhorn and become Hypnotist. Condi heavier in spec'ing, and makes Illusions appear more like different animals and only a couple being more real illusions vs ones an enemy will typically guess at, and if the more real illusions are broken, then the hypnotic fake ones are also broken. The fake ones could do no actual damage, but being there, causes confusion and torment. Maybe an Elite skill that makes normally allied creatures to the target work like they're also hostile to the target for a short period. where they'll be able to hurt each other. Using a Utility could use one form of hypnosis illusions effect, but put any other hypnosis utilities on cooldown for 12-25 seconds by gametype or perhaps limit amount of active hypnosis effects to 1 per target.
• Hammer as an alternative approach for Trickster. All of what was already suggested would work for this. For Trickster could be prank skills and F5 shatter to turn illusions into pranks. With Trickster, Illusions would be inflatables and called Dummies that pop when killed. Tricksters with their prank abilities would have more dance like movements with evades. Both ideas with confusion, torment, and power in mind.Engineer
• Mace with Torch and become Saboteur. Would be based on manipulating and greatly damaging minions and turrets as well granting ability to lay traps and corrupt enemy boons. Would be Bleed, Burn, and Poison with weapons being cc and condi based and promote indirect methods of fighting and maybe targets a bit better at more stability oriented opponents. Perhaps a skill for both mace and torch being knockback, but also getting a pull/immobilize skill. Stability could be great with this elite.

I can think of other suggestion ideas to the list, but I wanted to try more at less obvious ones as a start.

I don't know, honestly i'd like to see something different, when HoT came out there were a lot of cool new things. For example, Thief got another dodge and could specialize that however they wanted. Mesmer got to rewind time and get all their stuff back, druid got CA which completely changed ranger in an interesting and interactive way.

When PoF came out, it was just numbers and effects that were already there. Ele got two attunements, which was pretty cool, but it was still just different numbers and swapping attunements more often than normal ele, thief got a rifle which changed the playstyle too close to p/p thief to be called "new". Nothing from PoF really changed the feel of how classes were played like the ones from HoT did.

What I would love to see is something that changed the feel of a class, made you feel like it actually had an identity. For example if engineer could construct more things than turrets, like walls / usable cannons / etc. Or if thief could have a new F1 that makes them leap to a target, do some damage, then maybe an F2 to make them leap back (I know this exists on a lot of abilities already, but seeing the character literally leap into combat without an already existing animation would make them feel like something new instead of previously used), like an actual acrobat instead of an effect that says "You dodge more". Basically, what i'd like to see is something more than what currently exists, instead of "Oh they get this new specialization that lets them attack AND knockdown", stuff like that.

That's kind of what I picture being the case, and I also have done a little bit with each of the newer elites to at least see how they actually change things. Besides Reaper, Necro has mainly been medium to long range. With a hurt yourself to have ammo scenario, but get a melee mainhand balance with it, I figure people would probably get into the change of how Necro has always worked of no ammo based attacks minus the shroud stuff/shade placements. The idea was that it would be more in front confrontational and rear back as needed for a fight but aim for a combo style of combat for results.

At this moment, are only disorienting combat is animation effects of attacks, clones, and shuffling, so I figure having a Thespian sort that can mimic other iconic class attacks as a change of pace could be interesting. Then my idea with the Trickster pranks is a cross between traps and mirrors as an idea where an enemy could think they're going after what they should be, but instead activate an equivalent to Mirage mirror breaking, but to possibly different effects as a result and it might just be a more "watch their buffs and halt your attacks as needed" sort of methods needed to win without issue from a PvP perspective.

From a PvP perspective, what makes certain classes more frowned upon to face is the lacking of ability to do much against them. Often times Anet tries to balance them by changing how stats, buffs, stacks work or slight mechanics. What I think is more needed is combat diversity to readjust the balance into more of a food chain to an extent. What made Spellbreaker so upsetting to many is that warrior was already quite amazing and suddenly gained the ability to counter most abilities and efforts. If you liked boons to outlast this kind of thing normally, that's no longer viable. So I figure consistent AoE condi infliction of higher dps and counter moves would be the only reliable strategies to fight as attacks that wait to be struck are effective to anything hitting them just about and don't take much to do with buffs and would outlast cc attempts in a block like fashion. So personally, I think we'd need something that can break control patterns or just be effective on them like a secondary sabotage method for a class, or even traps. So I think the idea for a saboteur elite would become respectable as to anything more ordinary it would be susceptible against things like a condi Scourge or Firebrand.

Why people don't like fighting Scourges too much in PvP is because the base class is already modest condi cleanse and surviving, and just gets more survivability with it's great condi delivering value, so if we got something more counter plain to condi with comboing control and power based effectiveness, would be able to balance it out without having to fiddle with the build details to everything too much. Besides that the Undead Hunters/Plague Liberators idea would still be openly modest susceptible to cc while having this edge against conditions of many sorts with a more activating play style of being able to accidentally down itself in a pinch of health should it try to reload on life force that it lacks.

i would not like to see a hammer being used for a necro, it would make absolutely no sense, a longbow is a better option.

@sorudo.9054 said:i would not like to see a hammer being used for a necro, it would make absolutely no sense, a longbow is a better option.

With hammer I could cosplay morgoth, a longbow would make sylannas possible.Tbh, I would be fine with either of them.^^

gib me dual wielding shields on warriors!

@Lord Trejgon.2809 said:gib me dual wielding shields on warriors!

no do that on Guardian it will be awesome

@Sylli.3891 said:

@Lord Trejgon.2809 said:gib me dual wielding shields on warriors!

WHY NOT BOTH!

I'd love to see the elementalist get a greatsword! Though I guess it'd be a challenge to come up with skills that are different than the Fiery Greatsword skill and still keep both options (elite spec greatsword and Fiery Greatsword) relevant...

@Batel.9206 said:I'd love to see the elementalist get a greatsword! Though I guess it'd be a challenge to come up with skills that are different than the Fiery Greatsword skill and still keep both options (elite spec greatsword and Fiery Greatsword) relevant...

I was thinking pistol for Ele with reloading being attunement based by the clip or the bullet. Maybe a Trait would dictate which for bullet or clip. Then you could fine tune that usage for what you're expecting to be doing. I was also thinking that if out of ammo, you still fire basic shots with 1 with a more melee range effectiveness zone or mid range. Perhaps 3 skill could be an unload clip shot skill.

I'm thinking about an ele with a shortbow or a longbow. Something like an arcane archer like in Skyrim

I'd like to add an idea for Mesmer to have another sort of ranged weapon option and become Dream Rippers. I was thinking differing enemy targets could get different dream ripped manifests and maybe you could get boon related ones also to take form off of allies or yourself, but ones off enemies are nightmares. Maybe having a greater Nightmares in ratio than the other dream manifests with a Wake Up or Cold Sweat F5 shatter inflicts greater nastiness on foes, but the Nightmares being out leave you more vulnerable without counter survival with the regular dream manifests. I was thinking maybe dream manifests made you faster, but setting nightmare manifests made you slower.

mesmer doesn't do tricks, they use illusions.also isn't trickery a core thief spec?

Vampire spec for necromancer.

@trixantea.1230 said:Vampire spec for necromancer.

Ugh, no thank you. Vampires are so 90's.

Something magic based for thief, depending on the weapon:

Scepter: power damage focusedTorch: condi damage focusedFocus: support focused

Shield on Ranger

Off hand sword on ranger

Personally I'm just scared to think about the new possible OP elite specs (because the new ones will be obviously OP at the beginning) and all the following balance patches. But if we're here just to speculate and have fun...

Engineer: 5 weapons are too many. So no new weapon, but instead put a second belt strap, say... underarm, where you can store additional ammos to double your ammo-based skills or reduce the cooldown of turrets and such. You can activate them by pressing SHIFT+F1 ~ F4 (one for each utility skill but the elite one). Since we already have the scrapper, this one will be called "strapper".

Elementalist: add a second weapon slot (no new weapon though). When you swap weapon, the current attunement will change to the following one (so if you were using fire with the staff and you swap weapon to dagger, the dagger will be in water). It can also be used to change attunements if you keep the same weapon in both slots. It will be called "importuner".

Mesmer: they almost have everything already; they need only a healing spec now. Since they are a quite graceful class, a light shortbow could fit the purpose. It will shot healing darts to the team-mates. But that would be too easy, so they'll have an additional shatter in F5 to shatter the darts at mid-air, like the cluster bomb for the thieves, to provide less healings to more players rather than 1 bigger to a single target. It will be named "Cupid-de-Locke".

Necromancer: they need more pets. And they need to create them, not just summon them. Also they need to be hated a bit more in PvP. So they will be able to hit their foe (players included) and take the control of them for few seconds (more in PvE, less in PvP). When they have the control over other living forms, they can execute 3 standard actions: attack (to let them attack other mobs/players around using their autoattack), stop (to just immobilize them), die already (to deplenish their HP bar of the 40%). Only 1 action will be possible, so you can't use the autoattack and then let them die. The weapon that can be used for such filthy action would be one of the most hated and infamous weapon: the rifle. So the necro will also have a good single target spec: the nyerkro (for the ones who played Aion, so they can easily insult him).

Thief: we can use dual daggers and dual pistols, but not dual swords, so sword off-hand be it. With it, the thief will become a cutthroats. It will gain the F2 key that will teleport/leap to the enemy's back and automatically stealth us. The off-hand sword will have a powerful backstab that will make our victim scream in pain, so we will be revealed afterward. We can still use the F1 to steal his belongings before killing him though. The backstab will deal a lot of damage (like 50% of the HP bar) but it will give no option to re-apply stealth for 10 seconds, so it will be (another) potential 1-shotter in PvP with a butter defense. The "cutthroats" will be utterly nerfed in PvP and made useless in PvE after 3 months of the release.

Guardian: it will gain a torch main hand, to have a real condi build for dps. With it, the guardian can lit himself like a blue burning match and provide auras to both enemies and allies. Burning auras to enemies and healings/boons to allies. The 3 virtues will be replaced with identical virtues but they will be target-area based, including Justice, just to waste more time. It will also access to 4 new utility skills: auras. It will be called "Match Maker".

Ranger: using the warhorn in his main hand, the ranger will be able to merge with his pet (the opposite of the Soulbeast). The skills 1-3 will be based on the warhorn on the main hand (to avoid too much work in creating different skills for every pet) and will be animal-based skills: bite (power), charge (cc) and cut (bleeding). F1 is the key to merge/unmerge, while F2 will have a special action based on the pet, like "purr" (to reduce the enimity/apply vulnerability) or "stink" (a hard cc like launch). Visually, the "Bodybeast" will play as their beast.

Warrior: another new weapon will be part of the warrio'rs huge arsenal: the staff. With this, the warrior will become a "Monk": his HP will be reduced of the 25% and his base movement speed will be the 25%. This pole dancer will be able to use the baton to leap, smash foes' head to stun them or bash their body to launch them. The F1 will become a strong single target hit with the point of the baton. He won't have AoE though, to differentiate it from the DareDevil.

Revenant: they can call the legend of Optimus Caliph, becoming a magic spec with powerful dark spells. They will be able to wield a scepter, to finally have a decent ranged weapon, mainly condi based for personal dps. The skills could obviously have some reference with the Mursaat elementalist. The name could be "Dark Lord".

@AzureTerra.1642 said:Shield on Ranger

+1This is why I play dragonhunter. Longbow and sword/shield. It's what I wanted the ranger to be.

@Topher.5631 said:I don't know, honestly i'd like to see something different, when HoT came out there were a lot of cool new things. For example, Thief got another dodge and could specialize that however they wanted. Mesmer got to rewind time and get all their stuff back, druid got CA which completely changed ranger in an interesting and interactive way.

When PoF came out, it was just numbers and effects that were already there. Ele got two attunements, which was pretty cool, but it was still just different numbers and swapping attunements more often than normal ele, thief got a rifle which changed the playstyle too close to p/p thief to be called "new". Nothing from PoF really changed the feel of how classes were played like the ones from HoT did.

What I would love to see is something that changed the feel of a class, made you feel like it actually had an identity. For example if engineer could construct more things than turrets, like walls / usable cannons / etc. Or if thief could have a new F1 that makes them leap to a target, do some damage, then maybe an F2 to make them leap back (I know this exists on a lot of abilities already, but seeing the character literally leap into combat without an already existing animation would make them feel like something new instead of previously used), like an actual acrobat instead of an effect that says "You dodge more". Basically, what i'd like to see is something more than what currently exists, instead of "Oh they get this new specialization that lets them attack AND knockdown", stuff like that.

THIS! SO MUCH THIS!

I started playing the game as an Elementalist and I've considered it my main for the longest time, but two expansions have been released now and, compared to other specs (Chrono, Druid etc), I feel beyond disappointed with the elite specs that the Ele's got, so now I have a class identity "crisis".

I agree with @Topher.5631 that we need more playstyle-changing elite specs and I hope that the reason they're doing LS5 is so that they can release beyond amazing elite specs, like they've done with certain classes.