"Focused Specializations"

I had an idea. It sounds like a lot of work, will need some balance but here it is anyway. It's intent is to introduce more diversity but make it easier to balance and add some flavor to gameplay.

Anet introduces new F2P specializations called Focused Specializations. These specializations may only be active when its counterpart is active. See the example:

ElementalistLava Specialization (new) can only be activated if Fire Specialization is already active.

Ice Specialization (new) can only be activated if Water Specialization is active.

MesmerInsight Specialization (new) can only be activated if Inspiration Specialization is active.

Enigma Specialization (new) can only be activated if Chaos Specialization is active...

...and so forth.

All classes will have Focused Specs for each core spec, so 5 per class. However, it's up to Anet. 3 Focused Specs per class works too.

Balance: I think this makes it easier for Anet to balance classes. If a Focused Spec breaks something, just nerf the Focused Spec. You see, having a Focused Spec guarantees that you can only have 1 other unrelated spec (say, running Arcane Specialization while having Lava and Fire active) which limits how much synergy the Focused Spec can utilize.

^- In other words, it should be easier to balance Focused Specs since there is less potential (broken) trait synergy. Plus, Focused Specs are always balanced around the prerequisite spec.

That's pretty much it! What are your thoughts?

(There will still be 3 specializations per character)

I would speak from an ele POV:

The core specializations aren't that good already to allow ele to use their 4 attunements, eles tend to camp the 1/2 attunement(s) they traited for because the trait lines provide almost nothing to other attunements making ele go for a do-or-die situation because they can't have an in between solid ground, they either go all in when going for damage or dance around with no pressure when support. If you picked air trait line for example, all your damage is packed into air attunement, the focused spec from my understanding would be bad for ele since there is nothing such as a universal trait line except Arcane which is an awful trait line imo because it provides almost nothing that worthy to leave Fire/Air trait lines, especially that last update killed the line as a damage dealer, but ele has no choice because the so called Fire/Air provide no defense and Arcane is the only in between yet shaky ground, so now given that ele picks Air/Arcane/xAir, they will be held into Air forever unless Air provides utility/defense or ANet introduce base stats that change as attunements change, at least Air/x/Fire would allow ele to rotate between 2 attunements without the fear of major losses. Ele can't go for say S tier damage and B tier defense/utility, they sacrifice everything in the sake of either because the damaging trait lines prevent going for water/earth and same implies for support/utility trait lines as well as utilities that mostly have nothing but damage with no boons/effects/etc. It may work on some/other classes because you can have a certain effect if a condition is met, like hitting something, stacking somthing, etc, but on ele the condition that is to be met is attuning for a so called element, it will make them chained even more into camping a single attunement imho.

For ele, weapon swapping is the attunements, if for any class you took that ability from them by locking them into one weapon only, things would turn out as bad as picking staff on ele knowing that you can only use Fire attunement because you only picked fire specialization, leaving out other skills out of reach and with useless effects.

This is only from ele's POV, same can imply to any/all class(es)

that's not a good idea. it wouldn't make things easier to balance since you can still run the old builds with their synergies, it'd only give anet more to balance

@derd.6413 said:that's not a good idea. it wouldn't make things easier to balance since you can still run the old builds with their synergies, it'd only give anet more to balance

This.

@derd.6413 said:that's not a good idea. it wouldn't make things easier to balance since you can still run the old builds with their synergies, it'd only give anet more to balance

Which old builds? Curious. Changed the first paragraph to reflect the intent of my suggestion.

So, what I'm saying is that if you want to use a Focused Spec (I'll use xSpec to make it easier) you'll be locked into 2 of the same Specializations. You can slot a random specialization in the third slot. So if you go DPS Weaver you'll need to sacrifice Air or Arcane if you go xFire, or if you go xAir you sacrifice Fire and Arcane. It depends on what you're aiming for. So, old build synergy will still exist but trust me, the builds will be different.

@Abelisk.4527 said:

@derd.6413 said:that's not a good idea. it wouldn't make things easier to balance since you can still run the old builds with their synergies, it'd only give anet more to balance

i understood what you were saying. just because you add new restricted stuff doesn't mean that all of a sudden the builds we have right now disappear and don't require balancing unless your new specs add ludicrous amounts of powercreep (which isn't a good thing either).

Focused specializations?

Uh... Isnt that just a fancier term for traits?