i already bought the expac as well coz i want to finish the story and the story has always been what drove me to play the most in this game as well as it being super casual friendly.
now about the elite spec weapons, path of fire has brought in my openion the best elite (MH sword) for the ele so far comparing it to hear of thorns. i have played ele with D/D setup throughout the core game as well as HOT, yes the off hand for hot was not to my liking by the mechanic of an auramancer made for a very good support class specially in water. path of fire's elite weapon was viable and made me finally leave my D/D setup to a Sword/Dagger which i throughly enjoy to this day. the mechanic is challenging a bit and has a bit of a learning curve but once you get used to it is enjoyable.
the point i am trying to make is and am sure many would agree is that its not the weapon only that makes a new elite spec awesome its the mechanic that comes with it (look at mesmer). in my case worse case senario i go back to D/D gameplay with the new mechanic and not use the new weapon.
here are my expectations:
- spear best choice as the combat style changes based on element from melee to mid and long range
- bow as many people speculated and is in much demand by the player base
- rifle is not bad making the attunments and utility abilities ammo based
- dual pistol (not single please) is an elaboration on the engineer pistol mechanic i guess
- tourch is the one i am dreading as it would end up purely depending on mechanic probably back to D/D for me (then again it might be cool like scourge).
these are my thoughts on the subject