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Weapon speculations for EoD elite specs


dou.7083

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@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

@Lan Deathrider.5910 said:^ Rule of cool. On the same rule of cool Pistol/Sword, sword/pistol, and pistol/warhorn are all so much cooler than staff or scepter/any.

Rule of cool, by nature, is subjective, especially when we're talking about weapons without considering their actual skills. There is potential for a staff or even scepter for warrior that others might find cool even if you don't.

Mind you, I can definitely see room for an engineer-light elite specialisation for warrior - might finally pin down what Canach is, even. But it's not the only thing that could possibly work.If you look at Canache's skill loadout it mirrors a warrior with Shield Mastery and Runes of the Guardian equipped. He even has an Endure Pain like ability and a superior Shield Bash. Bombs can be purchased by anyone in PvE to use. 100% certain he is a Warrior using PvE available consumables. But yeah if Warrior got a pistol/pistol engineer-esc e-spec Canache would definitely be the NPC to showcase it.

Canach's exact skill loadout varies depends on the instance. In Hearts and Minds, for instance, corrupted Canach mostly throws grenades, and regular Canach's shield behaves more like a Guardian's, or maybe an Engineer with a larger-than-normal magnetic bubble, than a Warrior's.

Warrior is probably still closest to him, but I don't think current Warrior really fully reflects him - he's more of a warrior/engineer cross. Holosmith probably comes closest out of what's currently available, but there's a lot of things that holosmith does that Canach doesn't. A warrior elite specialisation with explosive-related utility skills would probably be a fairly close fit.

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@"dou.7083" said:What weapon do you think each class will be able to use with the addition of the new elite specs in EoD?Let's speculate.

My guesses for the classes that I play are as follows:Mesmer - either daggers or a long/short bow. I think daggers are a safer bet, but I'd really love to see a bow. Daggers could be a power version of axe with a few additional twists, and bows would be something like pistol skill 1 and staff skill 3, that type of phantasm generation combined with 900/1200 rangeWarrior - staff. Something similar to revenant's staff, something support-esque probablyEle - greatsword would be lovely. Maybe even done in the faith of mesmer's greatsword or revenant's hammerRevenant - tough call because the use range of the existing weapons is so good, but I'll go with mh mace or oh warhorn

I've been trying to guess at this for a while and it honestly depends on what direction arena net wants to go with the elite specs. How much do they want to break the mold? I know they'll break the mold some, because they've done it each time, but I'm not quite sure HOW yet. If we see a major break we could see underwater weapons made into elite spec weapons and the specs that would get that might vary, as I don't think all would.

It will strongly depend on the theme of the elite spec too. Take scourge for example. the major themes of the elite spec are mummy movies and horror. Torches are often used by the heroes. We also see a theme with the torch as being used to guide lost spirits, which too is a common theme for ghost stories. Torches are also occasionally used to bring spirits to them to burn them for fuel. So the torch fits the spiritualistic and mummy movie theme that the scourge was going for. Or the deadeye's theme was around being a sniper. They ARE their weapon.

Mesmer

So, what are the themes the elite specs might fill? Well, the Bard or Siren elite spec concept, a general sound based elite spec, has been pushed for Mesmer since before PoF released so I would say its a safe assumption to make we could get a sound based mesmer. With that prediction my educated guess would be one of two. Either Trident, if say arena net are experimenting more and adding new land weapons, or what I think would be more likely, Warhorn!

Warrior

For warrior My guess would be staff or spear. If no other class gets a underwater weapon on land I think warrior would be the first for this to happen. Warrior's elite specs have been fairly safe so far. Nothing TOO crazy so my guess is they'll get something really really crazy. My guess would be a weapon master that weaponizes their weapon swap ability to be an attack or something similar. I also see the possibility of a burst skill or second burst skill that is dependent on your off set weapon giving you unique burst with your inactive weapon. There is also the possibility of an offhand burst ability as well, influenced by your offhand. So I Do think warrior will be given a really unique and complex elite spec with a lot of active weapon combos.

Elementalist

Elementalist I think they'll go in the opposite direction from warrior. Where as warrior has had simple elite specs the elementalist has only had added complexity elite specs. My speculation is they'll push for the idea of sticking in an attunment for a long period of time or prevent heavy attunment swapping entirely. And with this they'll give them a weapon that could give her, what I'm expecting is a 2 handed weapon. Longbow or greatsword. Or it might be axe if the GW1 anniversary is a clue...

Revenant

Revenant Has been given 2 support elite specs thus far. Which is a far cry from the supposedly loner class that does what they need for power to win. So I imagine they will get a selfish elite spec that focuses on DPS. Mainly Power DPS. And what better weapon for that than greatsword? Revnant is a heavily melee class and shines best at the front line. They have their "tank" spec and a condi support spec so a selfish power spec seems to fit. So my guess is a greatsword especially since Rev players really want that. Or they want scepter with no supporting off hand and to be a dedicated healer and support spec, but I don't see them getting a 3rd support spec.

Guardian

Guardian is probably the trickiest class for me to pin Down exactly what I expect them to get. They could get Warhorn. Which could make a lot of sense for them as a support class. Especially since they already have a hyper selfish elite spec in dragonhunter so I don't find it likely a heavily skewed support class would be pushed into another selfish spec, especially with so few options. A Tanking option makes sense for them, as I could see their virtues act more like moving aoe fields for the guardian. And if that's the Case a warhorn with a blast finisher makes a lot of sense. Given the Lore of Cantha too with the ministry of Purity I do think the guardian will be associated with them. SO I'm going to go out on a limb and say the guardian will get Boon strip. My second guess would be offhand sword. Overall I do think guardian will be far more control focused than previous elite specs but still be quite supportive and possibly tanky. So that's my best guess.

Thief

Thief I think they could go one of two ways. They could either lean into the assassin more heavily or they could push for something completely different. I Don't think assassin is at all likely for the fact that thief already does almost everything the assassin does but better. And deadeye basically IS everything the assassin is except with a Rifle. So there's very very little ground for the assassin to tread on that hasn't already been tread. With that said my prediction is a more caster type thief. Something more like a Ninja with a heavy focus on Shadow magic. With that I do think thief will get Scepter+focus. I think they'll get BOTH! its been a long while since thief got new duel skills, one of their defining features, so I think here is where Anet will do it especially since assassins of cantha are into mysticism and were followers of Lyss. I do see this elite spec as a more support and control elite spec with condition elements. A more unified steal skill as well without the randomness of the other's to allow for better field control.

Ranger

Ranger I do feel will focus more heavily on their pets. So with that a ranged weapon seems likely. I don't think ranger will get rifle or duel pistols so I'm expecting Scepter+focus again here as a caster master of beasts. They will defiantly be a support spec and use some form of beast tactics with FAR better command animal skills that allow you to act almost like you're playing an RTS. You'll have multiple pets out at once, likely dedicated to a pet family instead of 2 different pet species as a swap.

Engineer

Another tough one for me. Much like guardian, Engineer might have a difficult time finding the right theme. My best guess is a bow of some kind as either a sort of tech bow or a elixir bow to promote further synergies with alchemy. Engineer i really don't have much beyond that though.

Necromancer

And we come to my main. The last one. OF all the elite specs, Necromancer has some of the most obvious paths to go but also it means they can be the hardest to predict since no one would have predicted scourge if it wasn't leaked ahead of time. Their weapon was predicted long ago but as for scourge mechanically itself it wasn't. Necromancer has 4 possible weapons depending on what direction Arena net goes. If its Lovercraftian horror, Trident or Pistol+Pistol or shield. If its Vampire horror, Spear or sword. if its Zombie apocalypse minion master themed, Hammer or Shield. That's a lot of widely different options because Necromancer's theme is generally centered around Horror movie tropes. And Necromancer is really a class that is given top down design. Theme first and everything else designed to fit that theme. its true with reaper its true with scourge. So there is no reason to expect anything less from their elite spec. But I have to make some solid prediction so I'm actually going to say it'll be themed around the Yokai and more specifically the Oni. Not the Guild wars 2 assassin like Oni, but more the traditional man eating demon Yokai. With that guess I'm going to guess Hammer.

Those are my predictions for the weapons. However I must qualify this with saying that I have an absolute terrible track record for predicting elite specs so I'm probably wrong about EVERYTHING!

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Don't forget Anet has hinted elite specs before and still does.

There are many heavy armoured Charr and Norn NPC's using Pistol Pistol. This screams elite spec hint to me.I commited to Pistol for warrior quite a while back now. I honestly believe this is the weapon the Warrior will get, which is why I crafted HOPE for the day this goes live.To much screams that Pistol is the weapon. The weapon fulfils what the warrior has lacked for years. It provides a viable support weapon that isnt in the face of combat but mid line and providing support, be it shouts, banners or new skills. It provides a much larger choice of weapon combinations once again, we may see an end to axe shield for PvP as an example.

I can not see many reasons why the warrior should get a staff or 'spear'. The only role that weapon would fulfil is 2h Condition damage... and oh boy we do NOT need that in the game. (Condition damage in my view is a very very boring play style). If its not melee and its ranged... what will it do that rifle doesnt already do? Or longbow to boot. Also forget the concept that they will make a 2h weapon 1h, you can be rest assured that Anet can not physically change the code on this weapon to do so, due to the limitations of the engine.

Short bow, please see reason above relating to rifle and longbow.

As for scepter, Can not see this even being remotely viable for warrior due to a massive lack of skins suited for melee or ranged physical combat.

Focus, is possible as a 1h melee... BUT! What will this bring that is new to the warrior? Axe does physical, dagger does physical and CC, mace does physical debuff and CC, sword does physical and condition damage. I would only expect to see warrior get this weapon once it has all of its damage types present.

So... this is why I strongly believe warrior is getting pistol as their next elite spec weapon.

As for skills, warrior currently lacks an ability to summon minions, gadgets/kits/turrets(deployables), the warrior can not use traps (please dont be traps, some of the most boring skills are traps (very cheap to use in pvp too)). The big skill type to me for warrior would be deployables and minions as these would change the way the class is played to an extent. However this being said, knowing Anet they will flip the table over and make a brand new skill type that doesnt have a single rune set for it... Like they did with Rage skills and Preperations for thief.

Time will tell what weapon the warrior will get, mark my words on this however, if for any reason warrior does get staff / spear. You'll be wishing you got another weapon as they will not change the way you play warrior in the slightest.

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@Smoosh.2718 said:Time will tell what weapon the warrior will get, mark my words on this however, if for any reason warrior does get staff / spear. You'll be wishing you got another weapon as they will not change the way you play warrior in the slightest.

While I largely agree with the rest on principle, this (and a similar statement earlier in your post, I disagree with. There's one role you haven't considered - melee support. May not be something you care for yourself, but it is something that others have proposed.

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@draxynnic.3719 said:

@Smoosh.2718 said:Time will tell what weapon the warrior will get, mark my words on this however, if for any reason warrior does get staff / spear. You'll be wishing you got another weapon as they will not change the way you play warrior in the slightest.

While I largely agree with the rest on principle, this (and a similar statement earlier in your post, I disagree with. There's one role you haven't considered - melee support. May not be something you care for yourself, but it is something that others have proposed.

Melee support could be rolled out with any of the weapons. However in the current possition of warrior, having another melee weapon will not bring anything new to the table that really changes the playstyle of the warrior which is different from the current weapons it has access to.

Realistically a support spec should be mid ranged, this allows the user to have a good clear view of the battle, who needs help, who needs to be attacked. In many ways you can argue we already do have a 'melee support' with the current getup of shoutbreaker.

But from a weapon only standpoint ( as i honestly have no clue to what skills they will give the class ) Pistol is the weapon which will change the way the class is played the most, which is what the class needs. Which means in PvP you'll never know if the warrior is going to be in your face or mid ranged (Mid range being 900, the standard for pistol), It will give the class a semi sort of unpredictability to how they will play.

We shall see how Anet rolls this out, but with the track record of Dragon Response Missions and last years Feb patch... I do not have very high hopes anymore.

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Pretty sure everyone's going to be raising eyebrows if pistol comes out as melee support. Or shortbow, for that matter. Which... doesn't really leave many options for warrior.

Existing support specs seem to be showing that ArenaNet disagrees with your idea that supports should be midrange. Revenant's support weapon is melee. Firebrands want to be fairly close to those they're supporting. Engineer and scrapper support is pretty much all melee or close range. What thief support there is relies on the thief being close to their allies. Tempest can support at range with staff, but wants to be in the middle of the group to get the most out of its abilities. Boon chrono works best sitting in the middle of the group too. Only support builds that I'd say are really oriented towards ranged support are druid and scourge, both of which can be quite fiddly to play in practice, and both of which still benefit from getting closer to those they want to support.

This is possibly a deliberate decision on ArenaNet's part - they WANT supports to need to be close to the action in order to properly support, so that they're in a position where the enemy can target them. And I suspect this goes double for professions that have high sustain or high mobility which can make them hard to kill even when they are in close.

Expecting a soldier profession to be an exception to that rule seems... unlikely. And a pistol, in context, is unlikely to be presented as a support weapon, beyond allowing warhorn skills to be used from a standoff position. Warhorn skills only have a 600 range, though, so you'd only want to be standing off so far.

Now, again, I'm not saying that pistol is bad. I'm fairly neutral here, and think both have things that they could bring to the table. It ultimately depends on what ArenaNet thinks that the game needs more. Support Warrior spec, or more ranged options for Warriors.

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  • 2 months later...

I don't know much into speculation, but my hope is mesmer gets daggers or shortbow.

Although if we get daggers I could see it being a offhand. As we don't have many power damage based off hands currently.

Torch and pistol are both condi and focus is supportive.

While we do have main hand sword. Unless they will as OP says launch a double weapon elite.

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Engineer scepter - Controlling watchwork minions, echo to aetherblades, shown in EOD trailerWarrior - oh pistol based on condis and interupting, inflict blind and cripple, blowoutElementalist - longbow attune arrows with elements, inflicting different effects depending on element, ability are circle spells that boost the next attacksMesmer rifle - psychic bar mechanic, boosting bullets with mental force, illusionary ambushes to stun, dazes and stack weaknessesGuardian warhorn - imbue yourself with the strentgh of your ancestors, any skill have chance to give you might or fury based on giving good amount of fury and protectionRevenant Greatsword - ability to stay in the mist to be invulnerable for few moments to deal more damages once enough energy is accumulated, combosRanger Shield - Concentrate natural energies like ley line and store it, the more you have the more powerfull the next skill will be, use ability to increase it.Thief Torch - Any weapon skill inflict burning. Burning aoes. You can immolate yourself to gain stacks of might and Resistance boon for a good time. Using it too much can break you and inflict you weakness and slowness.Necromancer mh sword - Toxins on any weapons, the attacks inflicts bleeding, poison, slowness and torment. Using sword skills give quickness. The utilities can be poison aoe created by throwing around poison flasks. Walking in them will give boons to you, conditions to foes.

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Guardian: Either sword or mace OH, but mostly because I can't think of anything else they'd need.Warrior: Staff (oh sure, high health, heavy armored, frontline combatant using pistols? Really?).Revenant: Either GS or maybe rifle depending on whatever legend we get.Engineer: Thinking torch for hwacha gameplay (if not some oddball caster weapon).Ranger: Rifle. Almost seems weird that they haven't gotten this weapon yet.Thief: Either maces or axes, at least MH if not dual-wield.Elementalist: Either pistols or maces.Mesmer: Dagger, either as MH, OH or dual-wield.Necromancer: Mace or sword, likely MH only.

Important to note that it's not about what players think the class needs, but rather what fits the fantasy of whatever the elite spec is going to be.

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@Raarsi.6798 said:Ranger: Rifle. Almost seems weird that they haven't gotten this weapon yet.Rangers in GW2 are not hunters, so in my opinion it would be weirder if Ranger actually had access to it.

I'd rather have Ranger get Sceptre and/or Focus and deepen the Nature Magic aspect than them getting access to rifle and becoming Hunters.Although Bunny Thumper would still be the best for Ranger in my opinion.

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If Anet keeps their theme for Thief, we'll get Long Bow, they do not seem to like adding single hand weapons to us, as it has to be built out to include all previous weapons (S3)

So basically we are left with either Long Bow or Great Sword.I'd actually be fine with either, but just my speculation on it.

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Necromancer

  • What I want: Mace (dual?) a power/control weapon.
  • What I expect: Yeah no I expect mace Maybe they'll make it tanky? I can't stop seeing molag bal's mace from elderscrolls.

Elementalist

  • What I want: Pistol/pistol. Yeah I just wanna convince some people who played wildstar to come to gw2 :P
  • What I expect: Idk, pistol, rifle, and mace are the only untouched weapon types and I don't think they're going to tread over the summon weapons any time soon.

Mesmer

  • What I want: Dagger/dagger long to mid ranged power weapon, summoning hundreds of spectral blades with a combo filler move like scepter. I want a good, reliable, ranged option for mesmer in content (since the character creation straight up says the class prefers range, yet no real builds exist for them at range in content where build matters) and my favorite aesthetic is Too Many Knives.
  • What I expect: Short bow or warhorn pure support bard class, to 1, throw a bone to those of us who love the bard archetype, and 2, continue to have absolutely no idea what they want to do with mesmer support builds. :) I expect it to be turbo cursed.

Ranger

  • What I want: Scepter and/or focus, tanky. Maybe make the pet do more work. Reverse the expected roles of pet classes.
  • What I expect: Rifle. Rangers do range. Rangers aren't hunters, but elite specs are supposed to change the profession in drastic ways.

Thief

  • What I want: Ok stay with me here... Nothing. Throw a wrench in the works! I wanna see the dual wielding feature played with. Give them kits. for their cross profession utility gimmick.
  • What I expect: Sword offhand. We're going to cantha. Assassin is GOING to happen.

Engineer

  • What I want: Staff. Golemancer. I just really like pet management ok?
  • What I expect: Probably mace or dagger. maybe focusing on tricks and traps?

Warrior

  • What I want: Staff. offensive Monk.
  • What I expect: Yeah, no staff monk seems plausible.

Guardian

  • What I want: Ok here me out. Focus mainhand. Support monk. a chanter.
  • What I expect: god I don't know, probably warhorn, maybe they can be the skald.

Revanent

  • What I want: Arkk, pistol/pistol. Revenant needs some asura representation and I want some psychedelic fractal nonsense.
  • What I expect: Snaff scepter. The golemancer is gonna go here.
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@Xovian.8572 said:If Anet keeps their theme for Thief, we'll get Long Bow, they do not seem to like adding single hand weapons to us, as it has to be built out to include all previous weapons (S3)

So basically we are left with either Long Bow or Great Sword.I'd actually be fine with either, but just my speculation on it.

You forgot about Hammer.

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@Fueki.4753 said:I'd rather have Ranger get Sceptre and/or Focus and deepen the Nature Magic aspect than them getting access to rifle and becoming Hunters.Although Bunny Thumper would still be the best for Ranger in my opinion.

Actually the nature magic thing would seem weirder to me since Druid is still a thing last I checked.

I do agree with the Bunny Thumper though.

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@Xovian.8572 said:If Anet keeps their theme for Thief, we'll get Long Bow, they do not seem to like adding single hand weapons to us, as it has to be built out to include all previous weapons (S3)

So basically we are left with either Long Bow or Great Sword.I'd actually be fine with either, but just my speculation on it.

They added dual skills for all elementalist weapons across 6 attunement combinations. I don't see why they would not be willing to add some extra skills for one hand weapon combinations.

Sure, they have only added two handed weapons to thief so far, but a sample size of 2 is really a way too small to establish precedent. This is especially true since sniper thief was something that many players wanted to see and Anet just went with it. Despite it being an obviously terrible idea to pair high stealth and mobility with a sniper concept.

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@Xovian.8572 said:If Anet keeps their theme for Thief, we'll get Long Bow, they do not seem to like adding single hand weapons to us, as it has to be built out to include all previous weapons (S3)

So basically we are left with either Long Bow or Great Sword.I'd actually be fine with either, but just my speculation on it.

I'm a bit confused by this. Single hand weapons don't require any more skills than 2-h weapons do, right?

Off-hand: (2 skills for slots 4 and 5) + (3 DW skills for s,d,p) = 5.Main-hand: (2 skills for slots 2 and 3 w/o OH) + (2 DW skills for d,p) + (Skill 1, technically 3 skills if chain) + (Stealth attack) = 6 or 8.2-hand: (4 skills for slots 2, 3, 4, and 5) + (Skill 1, technically 3 skills if chain) + (Stealth attack) = 6 or 8.

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@Fueki.4753 said:

@Raarsi.6798 said:Actually the nature magic thing would seem weirder to me since Druid is still a thing last I checked.Druid is mostly space-themed, not nature magic.

Space and the stars are part of nature, tho.And even without this nitpick, druid is kinda both.Their staff is definitely themed for nature magic, same goes for many traits. Or some animations of glyphs, like the elite one which creates a druidic circle.

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I'm a bit confused by this. Single hand weapons don't require any more skills than 2-h weapons do, right?

Off-hand: (2 skills for slots 4 and 5) + (3 DW skills for s,d,p) = 5.Main-hand: (2 skills for slots 2 and 3 w/o OH) + (2 DW skills for d,p) + (Skill 1, technically 3 skills if chain) + (Stealth attack) = 6 or 8.2-hand: (4 skills for slots 2, 3, 4, and 5) + (Skill 1, technically 3 skills if chain) + (Stealth attack) = 6 or 8.

For thief adding main hand or off hand adds more then just a single skill set.It also changes the 3rd skill depending on the combination being used, as each specific combination is unique.So it means adding a skill for each weapon that already exists, so they would add another skill for dagger, sword, pistol.In short they wont just add the weapon and one set of 3 skills for primary or one set of 2 skills for OH.

Simply put, while there may be no precedence as another poster put it, adding a single weapon for thief is "more work", thus i conclude them adding a 2h weapon as they have done in the past. I did forget the war hammer, so there are still 3 they could add (not 2). I personally think this is more likely to happen over them adding a single handed weapon.

Again, this is my speculation, i could care less if people agree with it or not.

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