Hello guys, this is gonna be my first post in the forum, and today I want to explain a little of my theory for the new expansion, of course is not gonna be what we get in the end but I love to know if you would like an expansion like this.

Placement

Let's start with the big one for many people, where is the new expansion taking place?If we look at Hearth of Thorns and maguuma is clearly going for an earth theme, now we look at Path of Fire and you can see it in the name fire, so thinking in that way, the next entry of the expansions will take the water theme, and where is the water theme in guild wars, if maguuma is earth and the crystal desert is fire? Thanks for asking! And my choice will be CANTHA!

Why Cantha? Well let's see, Cantha is an island, a very big huge one! As you can see here

What better place for a water theme than an island! But wait, because there's more! You know what it's inside of Cantha? Yep! The Jade Sea. So we are not only in an island, but we have a huge jade SEA inside of it.

Story

Now that we know where the expansion is, how do we get there. Well I say we finally get the help of our feather friends the Tengu and of course what a better time to make them a playable race?

But why does the Tengu want to open their doors now? Why do they want to go to Cantha?

A messenger, arrived on a boat to lions arch, a Tengu, he headed directly for The Dominion of Winds, and after a few days, a big troop of Tengu arrives to lions arch demanding to speak with the commander (You!)

The Tengu starts explaining you, something happened in Cantha and the borders are open again, not buy choice but for necessity. The Jade Sea is melting and with it a terrible and ancient enemy has awoken. And yes, of course you know who I'm talking about The Deep Sea Dragon.

Now you might be thinking, but, wait, why is the Deep Sea Dragon in the Jade Sea? Shouldn't he/she be in...well.. the deep ocean? Yes! But of course we can't just go to an ocean to fight that dragon right? The ocean is too deep and too huge for players to go explore, maybe we could get a map or two but not all of them! So that's why I'm choosing the Jade Sea for this Dragon's place!

You could say, the jade sea is not melting, that's impossible. Well let' me place this here

"Over the past few years, life has begun to spring up in Echovald Forest as many areas have seen new growth take hold. Some even claim to have seen a change in the Jade Sea—small pools of water forming or even waves moving beneath the frozen surface—but these reports are unsubstantiated rumors at best." — The Guild Wars Eye of the North Manuscript

There you have it proof that the Jade Sea is not actually melting right now, but it was already melting in GW1!

Professions

Now we are going for the gameplay part. And of course all of the new specializations are going to be based on Water and Asian themes. This is me trying to think new ideas and fun gameplay for the game, it could make it into GW2 or not.

1. Guardian

The guardian is a very simple one to make. The name of the new specialization will be "Spellsword" and the new weapon will be sword off hand. We'll finally see some good Spirit weapon gameplay from this and it's going to be the whole theme for the spellsword. I imagine it being a very offensive class with a lot of CC. The virtues are going to change to invocations, and will indeed summon a weapon that is going to follow you for some time, casting different skills.

• Virtue of Justice is going to summon 5 swords that will follow you and constantly do damage for 10 seconds
• Virtue of Resolve is going to summon a staff that is going to cast Regeneration and aoe zones of water
• Virtue of Courage is going to summon two maces that are going to smash the ground and cause crippled and immobile to foes.

All the skills gained from this specialization will create or empower spirit weapons that you create with the Virtues or the skills themselves.

2. Revenant

This is an interesting one the revenant specialization will be called "Defender" and the new stance The Legendary Ritualist Stance and of course your new hero is going to be Master Togo itself. The new weapon Revenants are going to wield is the Scepter, yes, the scepter! And yes this is going to be a mid-range weapon that uses all the power of the mists! Remember, revenants are not warriors! Sure they can use something else than a melee weapon! The scepter will be a very defensive weapon, making use of aoe protections, retaliations and resistance for themselves and others!

The Ritualist Stance will summon a variety of ghosts, in a different way in how the Renegade uses them. They'll not be stationary and will be more like the necro minions, but with a more defensive set in mind.

3. Warrior

Warrior is gonna be another one very easy to make for me because I really want this to become a reality. The warrior new specialization will be the "Corsair" and their new weapon will be pistol main hand. But this is not going to be a normal pistol, the range will be very, very short and will act like a shotgun, making sure the warrior stays right where it belongs, in the middle of the action!The new set of skills will be Tricks, you know them from the Thief skills, but this will be more on the... pirate sort of way, totally cool if you ask me.

The Adrenaline and burst attacks is going to change, instead of spending all the rage in one single attack, you'll fill the bar and activate the... let's call it "Yarrhg!!" mode. In this mode all your skills will change and you'll summon a dragon canon in your hands -> and you'll get access to a lot of canon abilities for the duration of the adrenaline bar till it's depleted.

4. Engineer

For the specialization of the engineer I want to give them a dagger on the main hand and going to call the specialization "Gunner" and if you call someone gunner, you know what is going to come BIG F... GUNS! Yep, I feel like the engineer, being the master of guns and powder is lacking in the guns and powder department. So with this new specialization I'm going to give them a new kit, the minigun, and yes, yes, before everyone is screaming that miniguns don't exist in GW2, I need you to carefully look at the Beastslayer Rifle Skin http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/gw2-beastslayer-rifle-skin-3_thumb.jpgThats a minigun in my book guys. So yeah! Big guns for engineers... they should have that by now. For the rest of the skills they're going to be a gadgets that helps the Gunner with their job of going crazy! And don't give it a 1 skill like the flamethrower, the minigun is not going to stop shooting till you move, that's the bad thing about it, the big gun can't be used while moving so better think where to stay before firing

5. Ranger

Another thing that I feel that Rangers need in their arsenal is a rifle, so I'm going to give them exactly that and name it "Marksman" Instead of the slow, steady aim of the deadeye, the marksman is going to be a crazy mobile shooter with their mobility and dash changes. Adding a new skills, Manipulations, the same as the mesmer's skills, the Marksman will be a very mobile dps specialization.

Of course all of that is going to cost something and the marksman trade all that mobility for almost no protections and something even worse! They are too focused in the battle to care for a pet so they lose it in the process! Because of that the Ranger will gain a new F1 named Focus that will make it posible to retain some focus and be able to summon new types of pets for a short duration of time, of course you'll choose the pet and their abilities

6. Thief

Another thing that I'm dying to see is a thief wielding a two handed sword! And that's exactly what the "Shinobi" will do! A very quick and elegant fighter, this will be a difficult specialization to use, because of the new type of skills named hand seals.

You'll have 4 hand seals the seal of fire, water, air and earth. The Steal shadowstep is going to change to the "Break Seal" skill. But how seals work? Well, any 3 combination of the 4 seals will act as a unique skill for the shinobi, that means that 3 seals of fire is not going to be the same as 2 seals of fire and one of earth and the "Break Seal" is the skill you'll use to activate the chain of seals. Of course you can activate just one seal for a quick skill, using only one seal of water, for example.

Every seal you use till add 5 seconds to the CD of the Break Seal skill, so it could vary from 8 seconds, using only one seal to 24 seconds using 3 seals. The actual skills could work somethinglike this:

1. Fire seal -> Inflict burning with your next attack
2. Fire / Fire / Fire -> Launch a big fireball that explodes on contact, burning the target and 5 enemies around it.
3. Fire / Fire / Water -> Launch a big ball of fire and water, burning the target and creating a field of water
4. Wind / Earth / Water -> Teleport to an enemy, inflict vulnerability and restore some health to yourself.

This could work perfectly. With only one seal you get a hit skill, with two seals of the same element you'll have the normal skill, and with three seals of the element you'll unlock the true skill of that element. Working like this:

1. Fire -> Big fireball that explodes on contact burning enemies

2. Air -> Teleport to the target and shadowstrike it

3. Earth -> Smash the ground making all enemies blind and inflicting vulnerability

4. Water -> Corrupt the enemies blood, granting health on hit for you and your group.

5. Elementalist

Well if the thief is going to have all that elemental power, what is going to have our friend elementalist? Well, something that they already have but it's not exploited in any way! The new weapon that the elementalist is going to use is the long bow. Yes, a super magick bow that is going to help the elementalist launch their spells even further and with greater accuracy, or should I call it "Arcanist"? Because our elementalist is going to mix all the elements they have to mage way for the more powerful and perfected element they have, Arcane.

Yes, the specialization you had since day one, that no one ever talked before, and Anet didn't use for anything? We are gonna use it here! So don't expect this Elementalist to use fire or water, because their arrows are pure arcane missiles, ready to pierce their target.

So of course this is going to mean that the Arcanist is not going to be able to change between elements and is stuck with one weapon with no switch mechanics right? WRONG! The Arcanist, like the holosmith will enter the "Archon" Mode will blast your bow into pieces and make way for the Arcanist to levitate and use their own hands as weapons, casting a mix of elemental and arcane spells while in this mode. But, how do you unlock the Archon mode? Well, thanks to their new consecrations the Arcanist will be able to charge the Archon bar to be able to explode in a powerful mess of spells and destruction.

8. Mesmer

Mesmers will be granted the main hand pistol weapon and their specialization is going to be "Anima" is going to use even more phantasms than before!

Using the power of the jade sea, the mesmer is going to be able to shoot from any angle and truly look like a suffering soul looking for revenge. Their new skills will be of course shouts, always looking to consume more and more souls, trying to restore their own lost one.

And that's the new mechanic, sometimes will hitting a target, a piece of their soul will break off, the mesmer can walk and collect those pieces of souls, granting them bonus like regeneration, might and swiftness and allowing the mesmer to use their new shattering skills, that, instead of breaking the illusions of the Anime, they will summon the souls of the death to claim vengeance on the living!

And prepare yourself, because the Anima can use their shouts to command those souls to do their bidding!

9. Necromancer

And last but not least the necromancer. They will become Augurs and wield their main hand swords to the field. But this time Augurs will focus on one specific thing, bones. Using, changing and even throwing their own bones as a deadly weapon against all enemies, even as far as controlling the bones of other living things.

As for their new skills those will become Conjures! Like the elementalist ones, but with a more twisted mind. Being able to summon weapons of bone from their own body and using them to destroy their enemies. From bows to axes of bone only being able to be used for a certain amount of time, the Augurs can even use the bodies of their party to make weapons for them too!

Final Note

If you are here, and you've read all of this, thank you, this is just me having a little fun with the GW2 universe as well as gameplay for the game, I know this is a looooong post, but thank you for sticking to the end! And don't forget to post your ideas about it, I love to talk about this things!

i knew after reading the opening paragraph that this wasn't gonna be good.

There's more than enough pointers out there that tells us we are NOT going to Cantha. There are also, unofficially, no more new races. classes, maybe, but races, probably not.

I would love to go to Cantha, but its not going to happen. Using the Tengu into the next expansion being based on Air or Water, sure. I can see that for sure.

@Ralistu.1965 said:There's more than enough pointers out there that tells us we are NOT going to Cantha. There are also, unofficially, no more new races. classes, maybe, but races, probably not.

I would love to go to Cantha, but its not going to happen.

I doubt you're right about that.

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@"Ralistu.1965" said:There's more than enough pointers out there that tells us we are NOT going to Cantha. There are also, unofficially, no more new races. classes, maybe, but races, probably not.

I would love to go to Cantha, but its not going to happen.

"There's more than enough pointers out there that tells us we are NOT going to Cantha"also"unofficially"

I appreciate all the comments, as I said this is just something I like to do, talk about those things, I thought that people will like to talk about those too.

@"derd.6413" said:i knew after reading the opening paragraph that this wasn't gonna be good.

I understand if you don't like it but, could you please say something more than just "This isn't good?" I'm actually interested in why you think it's not good

@RappsodyXVI.7865 said:I appreciate all the comments, as I said this is just something I like to do, talk about those things, I thought that people will like to talk about those too.

@"derd.6413" said:i knew after reading the opening paragraph that this wasn't gonna be good.

i'll spare you the nit picking but the main issue is that this is less a thought out concepts and more a wish list with the gaps filled in with the first thing that came to mind. a first draft if you will.

if you look at your fine map there we got 2½ cantha landmass of the tyria continent left to explore and enough of it is connected to the water.

Well In the end it is, I was just wanting to write my ideas, that's all... I'm sorry if they're really that bad...

@RappsodyXVI.7865 said:Well In the end it is, I was just wanting to write my ideas, that's all... I'm sorry if they're really that bad...

Some people tend to be killjoys.... Welcome to the forums? :) (Seriously though: welcome. I hope you're enjoying the game!)

I like your ideas. I'm not sure we'll ever go to Cantha, though - there was already a kerfluffle involving Canthan designs back before the game was released. Divinity's Reach was going to include a Canthan district (similar to the Elonian and Ascalonian ones), but the Asian market for this game objected to lumping Asian cultures together or...something like that. So the Canthan district was flattened/imploded into the Great Collapse, which has since been rebuilt into the Crown Pavilion.If there was that much of an outcry over a single city district, I have no idea how an entire expansion dedicated to Cantha would pass inspection.(But I do want offhand sword/spirit weapon specialization for guardian. That sounds awesome. :D )

I liked your lore but I absolutely hate all of your espec idea

I do thick we'll go back to Cantha eventually but don't think so for next expac (maybe expac 4 or 5), since we just had a human centered expac and two LW seasons. I would rather expect the Charr homelands/eastern Ascalon next since we haven't gotten much lore on Charr so far and based on the recent map updates and expansion in those regions.

Second most likely area for me would be the Unending Ocean if they decide to go for an underwater expac with Bubbles, since it makes sense storywise to deal with it next, but I would still expect a LW season or two before that, so maybe if that's what the next LW season is about.

I love how much imagination you've put into this. Bravo. As you said yourself, this isn't what it's going to be. You just asked what people thought of your concept, and I think it's great. The mesmer elite sounds a little too much like necro for me, but the rest is good fun. Keep writing and imagining!

a ritualist must be a whole new profession, not just a spec....I do not understand how one can even think about such a half-solution :/

@Silmariena.6205 said:a ritualist must be a whole new profession, not just a spec....I do not understand how one can even think about such a half-solution :/

Unlikely that there will be a new class, there are now three classes for every armor type and no need for a whole new class. A Ritualist spec would be totally fine and enough.

@RappsodyXVI.7865 said:Well In the end it is, I was just wanting to write my ideas, that's all... I'm sorry if they're really that bad...

i don't get why you're sorry, early drafts are never good. if you want future drafts to be better i recommend a few things:

• firstly look at other threads that have suggested things similar to yours and look at the feedback. (like the many issues with adding a new race)

• also check the wiki if you're gonna use something already in game as to prevent lore contradictions and get some ideas. (like the fact that all the tengu have been exiled from cantha over 2 centuries ago)

• for especs you have to check core traits and such to make sure your espec doesn't break them(ele has many traits and an entire skill type dependant on attunements so you can't just remove them)

• [this might be personal taste but i think it isn't] make sure you're not being dirivitive or make core stuff redundant. both thematicly and mechanicly (spellsword is a big offender to this)

@Batel.9206 said:

@RappsodyXVI.7865 said:Well In the end it is, I was just wanting to write my ideas, that's all... I'm sorry if they're really that bad...

now i feel attacked

The fact that they again derive from a normal cycle like every other company (i.e. "After LS4 we will go directly to LS5"), it will take ages until we see another expansion. I presume they just aren't ready to flesh out new elite specs.

I don't get why they have the feeling to try out new things all the time. Many features are now obsolete or old and never touched again. One thinks they should learn from their mistakes. Check out guild missions, dungeons, fractal leader board, the whole LS1 etc - obsolete and untouched content for years. It's a shame.

Everything I think for the classes is based on what I think the class needs for me to get interesting again, or what I think it could be cool if it works differently.

For guardian are the spirit weapons, so much potential, so cool but in the end they are almost useless, so why not make them cool, I think they are one of the most amazing skills of the game. Revenants are really nice right now for me, but they don't feel like a heavy class, more like a leather one, so I think they should get something more "tanky" but nothing close to a warrior, so using ghosts and boons to make not only them but the whole group more "tanky". The warriors are a personal choice, for me, warriors needs a bad ass weapon, like the greatsword, and what is more bad ass than a shotgun, a mid range/close range weapon have some AOE, which I think the warrior needs in a weapon skill, at least with the 1 skill. For the engineer is clear what they did, the first specialization is char based, and the second one is asura based, so the third one should be neutral, or based on another race, also engineers need more shooting, all they do now is press 1 and drop bombs, it's really boring, they need something cool and nice to use. The ranger goes the same rute, first specialization is nature based, and the second one is animal based, now they need some weapon based one, and being a ranger why not a quick rifle one?.

The thief is the one I guess it's going to be more difficult to do next, we had a "monk"? based one and a sniper, next time is going to be either something like a ninja or some kind of trick fighter, and I voted for the ninja one, they could of course go for the dervish route for that too, but now that elona is out and there's no dervish I don't think they'll do that . As for the elementalist, I do think that air/water/fire/earth is ok, but arcane is there as a specialization and nothing is done with it, just a few skills and that's it, so much potential wasted, arcane could be very cool and different, also what do you think they're going to do next with the elements. They let you upgrade them and mix them, now what? I don't think it's a bad idea to get rid of them and allow you to use arcane instead.

Mesmer is the only one that I do feel it sounds really more like a necromancer than a mesmer, but the fact that they're using phantasms and not real undead gives them a ritualist vibe that I'll love to see return to the game. And the Necromancer is another personal thing, I love necromancer, but their weapon skills are reaaaaally boring, specially the staff and the scepter, so why don't make them use bone weapons as conjures to have even more weapons, I do think it's would be a cool idea.

That's what I thought while doing all this, it's not perfect of course, but as I said this is just me trying to imagine a nice new expansion to play with.

i'll give you some general critisisms with the especs suggestions

For guardian :if you want to make spirit weapons cool then improve the core spirit weapons, don't add a spiritweapon espec that makes the core ones redundant.

the engineer :this is barely an espec, more of a kit concept with gadgets mentioned.

Revenants :AI issues (should tell you enough) and another summon ghost themed spec after renegade isn't a good idea. (redundancy and all)

The warrior:yarrgh mode is basicly berserk mixed with deathshroud and the general theme (pirates) seems more fiting for thief. tricks but more piaty is like saying tortoise but more sea turtle (also one handed shotgun sounds kinda silly)

The ranger :soulbeast is the petless ranger spec and what you're suggesting causes of traits annd skills issues from removing pets

the elementalist:why do you need to remove attunments from ele to make an arcane ele and also what about all the ele traits that directly depend on attunements. also bit of a redundant theme.

Mesmer and thief:the issue with your mesmer is it's focus on soul eating which is what the necro's class mechanic basicly is. use something more mesmery like dreams or memories. same goes for the thief's seals : use something more thiefy(also the lost his soul part just sounds like edgelord nonsens)

necromancer:at the very least do something to differentiate these conjures from ele conjures (on a mechanical level) other then that it's not bad

if somebody could clear something up but doesn't china have a big issue with bones

the reason i say this isn't because i'm trying to be a killjoy, but because i think that part of the fun of espec making is improving them after initial drafts.

am i mad because i think that?i probably am

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@"Ralistu.1965" said:There's more than enough pointers out there that tells us we are NOT going to Cantha. There are also, unofficially, no more new races. classes, maybe, but races, probably not.

I would love to go to Cantha, but its not going to happen.

One of the problem that GW2 is starting to face now since PoF is how spread out the map is becoming. Cantha would be going further south on the map if I remember correctly. And in the past ArenaNet have not really been very open to the idea of Cantha in GW2. That can change but it's not an unfair assumption of him/her to make.

I would like Cantha but I am also worried that if it is, what that will do to the game already starting with the world map. During GW1's heyday it was decided to build GW2 and one of the arguments was that people were getting too spread out as the world had grown so much. And there we even had to teleport to Elona and Cantha because they weren't on the regular Tyria map.

There is, however, unused map space still on the current GW2 map looking at places like the Far Shiverpeaks and Isle of Janthir. I have no idea, so it's also pure speculation but it is also possible we go that way. I mean look at this map https://huntersinsight.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/tyriaworldmap.jpgIt basically overlays GW1 and the core GW2 areas. And see all that space on the north that we saw particularly in Eye of the North. Again, I'm not saying that this is going to be it, but it is a plausible alternative especially because it's already on the Tyria map of GW2.

As much as I'd like Cantha, I fear that it would create that exact issue of the world map going too big and places becoming too remote.

Great imagination, I do admire that.

Unlike some, I am not going to say one or all of your ideas are not going to happen.Because, they just might, if not now, maybe later.All things are possible, just not probable.

Good job on writing your ideas down and then having the cajones to actually ask a very knowledgeable community to critique your concept.Not everyone is brave enough to do that.

You did ask the community for feedback and boy howdy, did you get some.Albeit, some of it you really did not like, which, in all honesty, is normal.Now that you have some feedback, instead of arguing the points, do the research, know the lore cold.Although Derd seems to be harsh and blunt, he would do what any proofreader or editor would do.Tear it down, if there are inconsistency's.

Don't stop the imagination, keep moving forward, you have an epic idea in your head, you just need to finesse it.Who knows, maybe you can write a spin off book, kind of like, a "what if" kinda thing.

I did kind of like the Jade Sea angle, which made me think that the deep sea dragon was stuck in the jade and it was melting.And then of course, we need to go kill it or something...

@"Jenstone.6891" said:Great imagination, I do admire that.

Unlike some, I am not going to say one or all of your ideas are not going to happen.Because, they just might, if not now, maybe later.All things are possible, just not probable.

Good job on writing your ideas down and then having the cajones to actually ask a very knowledgeable community to critique your concept.Not everyone is brave enough to do that.

You did ask the community for feedback and boy howdy, did you get some.Albeit, some of it you really did not like, which, in all honesty, is normal.Now that you have some feedback, instead of arguing the points, do the research, know the lore cold.Although Derd seems to be harsh and blunt, he would do what any proofreader or editor would do.Tear it down, if there are inconsistency's.

Don't stop the imagination, keep moving forward, you have an epic idea in your head, you just need to finesse it.Who knows, maybe you can write a spin off book, kind of like, a "what if" kinda thing.

I did kind of like the Jade Sea angle, which made me think that the deep sea dragon was stuck in the jade and it was melting.And then of course, we need to go kill it or something...

thx for the nice words

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@Ralistu.1965 said:There's more than enough pointers out there that tells us we are NOT going to Cantha. There are also, unofficially, no more new races. classes, maybe, but races, probably not.

I would love to go to Cantha, but its not going to happen.

Exactly. No one knows. ;)

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@Ralistu.1965 said:There's more than enough pointers out there that tells us we are NOT going to Cantha. There are also, unofficially, no more new races. classes, maybe, but races, probably not.

I would love to go to Cantha, but its not going to happen.

hehe, that is indeed the case :)