Kharrus.6015

Dragoons use only an offhand pistol because you need one hand on the reins to ride your mount, both IRL and in-game. ;) You'll need some serious citation for that, as dragoons were known to have used rifles from horseback along side pistols which were holstered with a right hand draw. Rifles and pistols would historically be used by the main hand for combat, none of this Hollywood stuff with offhand shooting, good luck hitting anything. Being that Anet is unlikely to use a mounted combat system, I would stand by my 'weapon master' comment, it will be both off hand and mainhand. This being said... I'm actually glad that you're not another 'staff warrior' speculator! haha. Warrior needs pistol, its going to provide it with the things its been missing for years. ah good points; i could see it going that route. To be honest, I didn't see them needing another ranged weapon for mainhand pistol since they already have rifle for regular damage and longbow for condi damage, and zerker got the torch offhand. It seemed redundant to add a mainhand pistol in that context. What the warrior lacks and is the only core class that never got, is a 1 handed ranged weapon. This will bridge that gap, both mainhand and offhand. Whit hits the weapon master mark and the missing weapon type. It will also allow a vast number of builds to come about as a result, offhand only would be tricky as it would need to offer a lot more than Torch, Shield and Axe for people to even consider it. If say offhand pistol is trash, you still have mainhand pistol to play with. (Better have two options than just one).Good point, but i was seeing it in terms of how much better it would pair with mainhand skills. I wouldn't be against the pistol itself being the mainhand weapon, but dual pistols always rub me the wrong way because of how impractical IRL they are, plus it just feeling...off...for warrior in general, since soldiers would be using a sidearm regardless, with dual-wielding pistols as more of a rogue/thief purview. As for what it offers, it's a good hybrid damage burst for the 4, and what basically amounts to a second attack skill for the 5 ability, raising their dps up a good margin. I could see it pairing with all the mainhand skills well. I think part of the reason why they limit warriors from 1 handed range weapons is because of how powerful their 1-handed weapon abilities are; proposing it as an offhand weapon keeps the potential power curve of the weapon down a bit, since running dual pistols or mainhand pistol seems like it could get out of hand pretty quickly IMO. And I do like what you have to say; it makes sense, but I'm mostly just being cautious about power creep concerns given how OP many of the elite specs have been on release day, and the subsequent nerf hell they go through before coming out to being better balanced. Best to try to avoid that at the start.

Dragoons use only an offhand pistol because you need one hand on the reins to ride your mount, both IRL and in-game. ;) You'll need some serious citation for that, as dragoons were known to have used rifles from horseback along side pistols which were holstered with a right hand draw. Rifles and pistols would historically be used by the main hand for combat, none of this Hollywood stuff with offhand shooting, good luck hitting anything. Being that Anet is unlikely to use a mounted combat system, I would stand by my 'weapon master' comment, it will be both off hand and mainhand. This being said... I'm actually glad that you're not another 'staff warrior' speculator! haha. Warrior needs pistol, its going to provide it with the things its been missing for years.ah good points; i could see it going that route. To be honest, I didn't see them needing another ranged weapon for mainhand pistol since they already have rifle for regular damage and longbow for condi damage, and zerker got the torch offhand. It seemed redundant to add a mainhand pistol in that context.

-Bladedancer doesn't steal at all; the class mechanic gets changed to a block that increases the damage of its next attack based on how much gets blocked.-sPvP doesn't even have need you to wear gear, and is essentially non-functional in the game anyway. Regardless, the pistol abilities are able to be used without a mount, so there would likely still be some combination of spec skills with the offhand weapon that make it viable.-Using the term "kits" for the monk was a loose analogy that I should have been more clear with, as the spec itself removes the ability for the guardian to use ANY weapon, including underwater weapons. That's a fair trade-off in my mind.-Good point, I'll update that. Couldn't place what it was missing.-Couldn't settle on viable belt skills for golem minions. Got any ideas?-Why not? Having them share their skill slots with conjure abilities is optional, and helps curb the power meditation skills would have for them. They could be further tuned by reducing or eliminating the stat bonuses you get from picking up conjure weapons. There's no good reason things should be off the table as long as they're reasonably balanced.-Dreamwalkers do not have a new shatter, although I wouldn't be opposed to it. Mes is flexible enough a different spec and ability set for their elite spec would be viable IMO, but any ideas would be welcome. They're the least clear spec idea here tbh.-TY; had Jhin from league in mind with the idea of making bullet economy central to their playstyle.-Wraiths don't have any free movement when leaving shroud; they ALWAYS have to return to the location of their body when they entered it, but the body itself acts like it's already "dead", so it can't be damaged. They are still vulnerable to reveals, and people can put traps on the body as a counter to it for pvp. Being mindful of your body location plays to the same mentality of being mindful to the teammates you're trying to heal as a support, so encouraging that mentality with environmental awareness is a major goal with this. With that said though, if it did actually come up as a significant issue for pvp, I could see allowing people to finish the body in pvp or wvw being allowed, since it's essentially a sitting duck.

I think power mesmer being lacking is more the fault of Chrono balance being where it is than anything else tbh. In any case, I don't have very much in mind as a central theme for the dreamwalker class, but condi seemed to make a bit more sense than power. Point taken, either way.

Dragoons use only an offhand pistol because you need one hand on the reins to ride your mount, both IRL and in-game. ;)

Much of the focus for these elite spec ideas is for giving them specific niches to fill, or giving them roles for their class that aren't redundant. I have included descriptions for weapon, class, and skill abilities to give a better idea of what they're supposed to do. Thief - Bladedancer (Offhand Sword)New skill type: StancesEschewing steal for a melee block that charges their next attack, and focusing on honing their dueling skills, the Bladedancer thief is a dedicated anti-brawler that focuses on superiority of the blade above all else. Stance abilities grant different effects for attacks during the stance duration, allowing the Bladedancer to adapt to any situation they find themselves in.Sword skills:-Reflect (with pistol)Similar to Repost from warrior, but recharges Initiative if not hit by melee, and reflects ranged projectiles.-Execute (with dagger) large burst damage skill with high cost; does additional damage for foes under 50% health-Blade Dance (with sword) 8x fast chain attack, with each attack teleporting to the target, similar to Revenant's Unrelenting assault, but without the evade. Deals 8 stacks of vulnerability and bleeding.-Jab (offhand 4) leap forward 300 distance to inflict damage, activate in a short window again for additional initiative to evade backwards.-Parry (offhand 5) block briefly for 1.5 seconds; if a block is successful, you can attack with a heavy stab dealing 5 stacks of bleeding and heavy burst damage.Stances:-Duellist's renewal: heal yourself over 5 seconds for 33% of damage you deal. 25s cd-Fencer's agility:: Gain 20s of vigor, 20s of swiftness, and evade all attacks for for 3s. 20s cd (stunbreak)-Malicious footwork: For 10 seconds, every attack you do deals 2s of torment. 30s cd-Silent footfalls: Gain delayed stealth after 10 seconds. Every attack you deal within that timeframe gains you one extra second of stealth after shadowstepping back 600 distance from your target in stealth. 35s cd-Superiority: Gain Gain 10 seconds of quickness. Every melee attack you deal removes a boon, heals you, and gives you a stack of stability for 5 seconds. 90s cd Warrior - Dragoon (Offhand Pistol)New skill type: CommandDragoons have the unique distinction of being trained to use firearms during mounted combat, giving them unparalleled mobility in battle. A dragoon charge can rally or terrify depending on which side of the battlefield it's coming from. Commands are slotted skills able to be used while mounted, taking the form of coordinated attacks with their mounts(command abilities and animations are universal across all mounts. Possibly add ability to use Shouts while mounted).Offhand Pistol skills:-Suppressive fire: 6x burst attack, dealing moderate damage and 6 stacks of bleeding, 10s cd-Rider's Aim: single true damage shot, 2s cdCommands:-Healing charge: Your mount rushes with you at your target, healing and consuming up to 5 conditions for additional health.-Search and rescue (same as ranger skill): Your mount teleports to a downed ally, reviving them every pulse. Your mount becomes immobile during the revival. 30s cd-Feint: within 600 range, your mount rushes your enemy then evades back, taunting them. 20s cd-Rally: Gain 2 stacks of might for 20s per allied mount within 1200 range of you (stunbreak) 25s cd-Rider's Path: gain 5 stacks of stability, and rush an enemy from up to 2000 distance away, knocking aside and damaging enemies without defiance bars along the way. Deal heavy damage to your target, dealing 25% more damage if your mount's health is above 90% when you reach the target 60s cd Guardian - Monk (Unarmed, all weapon abilities removed)New skill type: PhysicalAbandoning force of arms, the Monk replaces a Guardian's virtues with four martial arts forms: Diving Sparrow, Rending Skelk, Enduring Mountain, and Cleaving Swordfish for underwater. Form swapping shares cooldown with virtues, and act similarly to kits by granting unique 'weapon' skills when activated.Physical skills:-Zen Renewal: gain 5 stacks of stability, and heal for a large amount. Consume stacks of might on you for additional healing.-Crane Kick: rush your enemy and strike them with a vicious upward kick. 10s cd-Monkey Paw: 6x flurry attack, stealing up to 6 boons from your enemy. 20s cd-Mantis Grasp: Latch onto your target for 5 seconds on their back, moving with them. Deal damage at the beginning, and 5 stacks of confusion with additional damage at the end.-Tiger's Ambush: Stealth for 20s. While stalking your foe, you can activate Tiger's Leap to jump from the shadows and knock them down, dealing 10 stacks of bleeding and heavy damage. Diving Sparrow Skills:-Diving spike: short range leap and chain skill, allows for good target tracking as long as they're in close range. 0.5s cd-Chakra block: short fist flurry at melee range, deals cripple and vulnerability. 8s cd-Swoop: Long range leap, evades, but has minimum range limitation. 6s cd-Eye Slash: Deal blind and two stacks of bleed at melee range. 3s cd-Birds of a Feather: You and nearby allies gain 8 seconds of fury, swiftness, and quickness. 25s cd. Rending Skelk Skills:-Tooth and Nail: Melee attack two stacks of bleeding if attacking from the front, one stack of torment from the side or behind. 1s cd-Bite: Summons spectral skelk around your head as you bite at the enemy, leeching health from them. 5s cd-Tail whip: Rapidly spin, dealing damage to foes around you: 3s cd-Tail smack: Rapidly spin, knocking foes back. 12s cd-Regenerate: Pulse heal over time. Additional pulses for every stack of Bite in the last 30s. 30s cd Enduring Mountain Skills:-Boulder punch: Slow, heavy damage punch dealing long-lasting vulnerability. 1.5s cd-Blunt attack: Strike with your palm to deal weakness; gain protection briefly if attacked during cast. 3s cd-Avalanche: Rush forward, successively knocking back multiple targets. Gain extra stability stacks per additional target. Similar to Surge of the Mists. 35s cd-Crush: Launch yourself, dealing area of affect damage where you land. 15s cd-Cliff face: Raise your fits, blocking attacks for the duration. 20s cd Cleaving Swordfish Skills:-Impale: thrust the tip of your hand forward, dealing damage. 0.5s cd-Slice: Cut in front of you, dealing vulnerability and bleeding damage to ever target not behind you. 8s cd-From the Depths: Surge forward with both hands into a point, knocking your foe back and dealing 5 stacks of vulnerability. 10s cd-Breach: Rise upwards, then down again to strike your target from above, stunning them briefly. 20s cd-Blinding scales: Twist in the water, avoiding attacks and inflicting blind on foes around you. 12s cd Revenant - Tidecaller (Harpoon Gun)New Legend: Arabella CroweCommanding the seas, the Tidecaller is an underwater specialist, focusing on mobility and ranged damage. Legend abilities can be used on land as well, but are enhanced underwater. This would take the form of an effectiveness penalty while on land, that can be removed with a grandmaster spec ability, akin to "eternal champion" removing the toughness penalty Berserkers gain for going Berserk.Class (F1/F2) abilities:-All for One: Copy the boons from every player or npc you kill in the last 5 seconds. 15s cd, 30 energy-One for All: Copy all boons on you to up to 5 allies within a 300 distance radius. 20s cd, 40 energyPirate Stance skills:-Down the Grog: heal for a small amount, dealing confusion to yourself and up to 10 enemies around you. Additional enemies deal additional stacks of confusion. 10s cd, 5 energy-Batten down the Hatches: Drop a protective field, blocking attacks for 5s. 20s cd, 40 energy-Walk the Plank: Fear your target for 5s. If the fear is not removed after 5s, deal 20s of chill and a large amount of damage. 15s cd, 30 energy-Arabella's Rage: Upkeep skill. Pulse retaliation to you and your allies, and deal burning damage to enemies that attack you, and that you attack. -7 energy upkeep-Broadside: Summon The Kraken's Pride from the mists, dealing a a devastating broadside of cannonfire that deals a massive amount of damage, with an additional 10 stacks of vulnerability and confusion. Costs 50 energy.Harpoon Gun skills:-Deadshot: Fire a ghostly harpoon, dealing poison damage for 4s. 1s cd-Mistfire Volley: 6x burst attack, dealing 1s burning each. 6s cd, 20 energy-Gold-Driven: Fire a golden harpoon that deals 4s of taunt with 4 stacks of torment. 8s cd, 10 energy-Fishing line: Shoots out a hook that deals successive stacks of bleeding every 2s, and can be activated again to reel your target back in towards you.-Drop the Anchor: Summons a ghostly anchor that drags your enemy downwards for 10 seconds, dealing a stack of torment for 10s for every second the anchor is active. Engineer - Golemancer (Staff)New skill type: MinionThe creation, research, and wielding of golems has long been the purview of the Asura, who with the creation of the Pact and greater cooperation between races have been more willing to share their technology and expertise, leading to the study and mastery of Golems by Tyria's more erudite individuals outside of their original makers.Staff Skills:-Zap: chain-damage skill, attacking up to 4 targets.-Overshield: Moderate barrier to protect up to 10 allies and golems. 20s cd-Repair: Small AoE heal for up to 10 allies and golems. 20s cd-Gamma Pulse: Deal Poison and Torment in a cone in front of you. 30s cd-Power cage: Refresh Golem skills in a large area. Shock enemies that attempt to cross in or out of the field., and briefly daze targets inside of it. 35s cd Golem Skills:-M-Series Golem: This medical golem burst heals targets near it every few seconds, dealing additional healing per unique boon on it.-T2-Series Golem: This Golem pulls conditions from allies to itself every few seconds, and can rush a nearby enemy to self-destruct, dealing conditions on it to enemies within the blast radius.-7B-Series Golem: Summon an attack Golem to follow you, doing a whirl attack against enemies, knocking them back and dealing damage.-K-Series Golem: Summon a large bomb golem that periodically fires projectiles at enemies. Detonate it to deal a large blast that knocks enemies backwards, dealing more damage per boon on it prior to its destruction.-Omega Golem: Summon a massive siege golem with an a vast amount of health, taunting nearby enemies. Active ability taunts again after firing a rocket fist at the target. Will successively attack targets in melee range, dealing slow but heavy damage, with a stack of vulnerability and weakness being applied. Toolbelt skills:-M-Series self-repair: Your golem repairs itself for 3s, putting its healing ability on cooldown.-T2-Series Radiation Leak: Apply 5 stacks of poison, torment, blind, and weakness to the your golem for 5 seconds, reducing the cooldown of summoning another one after it explodes.-7B-Series Terms of Service: Your 7B reiterates the terms of service of its original asura designer, taunting up to 5 foes within 600 distance of it and gaining protection for itself and you for 10s.-K-Series bluff: Your golem acts as if to arm itself to explode, fearing enemies for 1s in a distance of 600 around it.-Omega Reinforcement: You and up to 10 nearby allies (or golems) gain protection for 20s. Elementalist - Sage (Conjures)New skill type: MeditationThe sage is an elementalist that has devoted themselves to the wielding of the elements, not simply their study or mastery over them. Sages can use conjures indefinitely akin to kits, but are penalized with greater attunement cooldowns when swapping off of them, and always swap off to the same type of element as their conjure, gaining related abilities and bonuses to this transition.Sage Meditation Skills:-Meditate on Water: Give yourself regeneration for 5s. Heal yourself and up to 10 targets around you affected by regeneration an additional amount, pulsing for up to 10 seconds. 25s cd.-Meditate on Air: Knock up to 10 targets back from you, dealing an additional 2 stacks of vulnerability to your enemies per target affected by this skill. 60s cd-Meditate on Earth: Cause an earthquake around you, affecting up to 10 targets with cripple and 5 stacks of bleeding. Give yourself and allies up to 10 stacks of stability for every enemy hit. 40s cd-Meditate on Fire:: Burn up to 10 targets around you, dealing up to 10 stacks of burning for every enemy affected. Give yourself and allies up to 10 stacks of might for every enemy hit. 50s cd-Meditation on Chakras: Convert up to 7 conditions on you into boons for 7 seconds. Convert conditions on up to 6 allies into boons as well, reducing the cooldown of this skill by 7 seconds per ally affected. Convert up to 7 boons on nearby enemies into 7 conditions each. 2m cd Mesmer - Dreamwalker (Dagger)New skill type: SpectralDreamwalkers are wizards who study the sleeping mind and the power of the subconscious. Bringing dreams to reality has long been the purview of visionaries and eccentrics, but the Dreamwalker can quite literally pull their enemy's worst nightmares and greatest fantasies from the recesses of their mind, giving them terrible power over friend and foe alike.Dagger Skills (Mainhand only)-Rend Mind: 2s of confusion, light damage. 0.25s cd-Dredge Memory: 1s fear, does additional damage per condition on foe. 20s cd-Mental Leap: 1200 range leap ability, daze foe, and deal 1 stack of torment per 100 distance traveled. 20s cd Spectral skills:-Lucid Dream: Heal yourself. For 8 seconds, any conditions applied to you are removed and converted into additional healing. 30s cd-Invasive Thoughts: Confuse your enemy, and convert up to 5 of their boons into confusion. If their confusion stacks are over 20, deal an additional 2.5 seconds of fear. 20s cd-Wakefulness: Remove all boons and conditions on yourself and your target. You gain a stack of stability for every condition removed from them (breaks stun). 15s cd-Dream Eater: Consume boons on your target. Every unique boon consumed reduces the cooldown of your phantasm skills by 1s. 12s cd.-Waking Nightmare: Tear open the veil between reality and the dream realm for 20s; Every enemy inside of the affected area gets its boons converted into torment every 2 seconds, and receives 1 stack of vulnerability every second. Targets with no boons get afflicted with 3 seconds of fear and get dealt damage for every pulse of Waking Nightmare. The Dreamwalker cannot move, cast skills, or be affected by damage, becoming invulnerable but removed from combat for the duration of this cast. 4m cd Ranger - Huntsman (Rifle)New skill type: VenomsThe Huntsman is the master tracker, possessed of a keen eye for running down their quarry as well for dispatching it at range. Unique marking abilities allow them to tag both friend and foe alike for persistent benefit or malediction, allowing them to track and support allies at extreme ranges, and tail their enemies across vast distances, or inflict them with deadly venoms to increase their susceptibility to certain conditions.Rifle Skills:Huntsmen have a magazine for their rifle special skills, with up to 10 charges before forcing a weapon swap.-Legshot: deal 4 stacks of bleeding and cripple your enemy for 8 seconds, dealing heavy damage. Does not auto-attack. 5s cd-Mark Prey: Homing dart that deals 2 stacks of poison, and keeps your target in combat for 60s, with an additional 10s per unique condition on them. 25s cd-Flare: Clear yourself and nearby allies of up to 5 conditions, but deal 2s of taunt for up to 10 targets within 1200 range of you. Enemies within 300 meters take 3 stacks of burning. 20s cd-Headshot: knockdown target for 6 seconds at up to 2400 range after channeling for 8 seconds as you crouch, remaining immobile. Deal significant damage and 10 stacks of confusion. 40s cd-Reload: Refill your rifle's magazine early, putting your weapon skills on a shortened 33% cd. Venom Skills:-Kirin Venom: Heal yourself, and an addition 5 times with every attack you deal, consuming stacks of Kirin Venom.-Nian Venom: Gain Fury and 8 charges of venom. Gain 1 stack of might per attack under this venom., 3 if the target has no boons.-Mantis Venom: 10 charges. Immobilize your target and deal bleeding damage each time.-Kappa Venom: 5 charges. Gain protection, and deal 2 stacks of vulnerability to your target,-Leviathan Venom: 12 charges: Gain stability, with each attack having a follow-up strike that deals weakness. Necromancer - Wraith (Hammer)New skill type: Spirit WeaponsWraiths are necromancers who can shed their material form, roaming the world as invisible ghosts for a period of time, feeding on the life force of their enemies to sustain their ghostly form. Centering around stealth and retaliatory abilities, the Wraith punishes the living for attempts to banish or reveal them, gaining follow up abilities for stunbreaks, and augmenting their Spectral skills even further. Accessing Wraith Shroud means the Necromancer leaves their body behind on the ground, appearing to die as their spirit leaves them, but always snap back to where their body was after running out of life force to sustain wraith shroud. Necromancers stay in stealth while in Wraith Shroud, only becoming visible when attacking or revealed, but have a 0.5-2s cast time where they are visible and vulnerable to targeted skills.Wraith shroud skills:-Haunt: 3 part chain attack, first dealing vulnerability and leeching health, second leeching life force and additional vulnerability, and the third dealing 3 stacks of torment with 1 second of fear, dealing damage but not leeching anything. Goes on 3s cd after 3rd attack.-Shriek: Deal significant amounts of sonic damage, pulsing immobility and confusion for 5 seconds. 25s cd-Spiritwalk: Use 5% of your total life force to teleport up to 1200 distance away. 10s cd-Harrow: Mark your target, and gain 5 seconds of superspeed, dealing an additional second of superspeed per condition on your target. Activate again to deal 10% more damage per second of superspeed left on you. 30s cd-Cross Over: Convert 10% of your own health into life force, extending the duration of Wraith Shroud. Spirit Weapons:-Seeking daggers. Summon a pair of daggers that float around you, and can be launched twice at a target from 1200 range.-Sundering Mace: Summon a mace to follow you, attacking nearby enemies. Activate it to deal a high-damage knockdown that inflicts 5 seconds of chill and 5 stacks of vulnerability.-Guiding Torch: Summon a ghostly torch to burn your foes, and can drop a large fire field when needed.-Reaping Scythe: Summon a scythe that relentlessly attacks your foes. Activate it to remove boons from the enemy, dealing additional damage to them, and healing you for every boon removed. Hammer Skills:-Crush Spirit: 4-part chain attack, dealing basic true damage on the first swing, damage and vulnerability on the second, damage, two stacks of vulnerability and one stack of torment on the third, and heavy damage, 2 stacks of vulnerability and 2 stacks of torment on the fourth swing. Each swing is 1 second long, with the 4th taking 1.5 seconds to channel.-Hateful Maul: Deal heavy damage, increased by a percentage of your missing health. 8s cd.-Spirit Fissure: Briefly tear open a rift into the netherworld, chilling and damaging foes near it before inflicting 1s of fear. Affects up to 10 targets, giving 5% life force per target struck. 25s cd-Bell Toll: Summon a spectral bell to ring with your hammer, turning up to 3 boons into confusion. 12s cd-Death Knell: Can only be used at under 25% health. Summon another spectral bell down on your enemy, downing you but dealing your missing health in damage. Affected by ferocity. 60s cd.

Concept 1: In addition to heal skills (slot a), utility skills (slots b, c, d) and elite skills (slot e) add 3 new racial skill slots placed above utility slots, (slots f, g, h).Different races currently have a varied mix of 6 different racial skills with some having heals (human, sylvari), and others having legitimately powerful and useful abilities (Norn elites, Asura poison field & golems). This allows for maximizing the usage of the actual skills without buffing them to the same level of class skills, and regrouping them into a separate category means each race can have moderately useful backup abilities that supplement, rather than compete with, their chosen class. Having that backup heal in wvw as a human, powerful transform abilities as to use with stat buffs as norn, or free golem minions and a protective suit as an asura can be both fun and interesting, as it adds a different dynamic for how the meta balances things, without pigeonholing specific races into one or two classes.Pros: Ensures choice and balance with class and race abilities without fundamentally changing either, retains racial abilities' low power curve relative to class skills.Cons: Difficult to implement, unforseen balance issues, interracial power disparities leading to literal racist "meta". Concept 2: Instead of rebalancing specific racial skills or introducing new UI mechanics to support them, have them be one of a few (let's assume three to five) abilities that you "Attune" to in each of the race's home cities, akin to how you can attune to different standing stones in ESO (or Skyrim) one at a time. This would look like-Norn going to different lodges for Spirits of the Wild, and gaining transform abilities with some passive buffs based on the spirit they commune with.-Humans praying at shrines for the five (remaining) divines to receive a blessing related in some way to each of the Gods (extra healing power from Dwayna, convert a condition or two into Alacrity from Lyssa, etc).-Sylvari talk to the Mother Tree to care for several different trees that she grows and infuses with her power, with you gaining an aspect of that tree from sharing its sap (Toughness of Oak, minor fire resistance from Redwood, etc)-Asura can talk to the different Colleges in Rata Sum to field-test different "Prototypes" from them, giving a passive ability akin to what rune elites do, and a different kind of golem or suit that can be actively summoned from each one.-Charr can be outfitted with different sidearm kits that can act as secondary weapon abilities unique to each of the legions (Ash legion dagger, Iron legion pistol, Blood legion shortblade, Flame legion grimoire).Pros: Lore-friendly, flexible, and open-ended, leaving room for ideas like more race-specific quests and personalizing player home instances further.Cons: Difficult to justify specific abilities over others, nightmare to balance with class abilities, untested new content.

This x1000. A solid example for where this is applied in the core game is how Destroyers are immune to Burning and Hylek are immune to Poison. I was hoping at some point they would have had each of the dragon minions have an immunity to conditions related to their attributes, but weak to others be a thing but that hasn't been addressed due to the unwillingness to alter content in the sub-lvl 80 game areas. They at least have been consistent about updating dragon minion content in the living world; Branded provide a decent challenge, and it's one of the reasons I'm excited to see where they take the Icebrood in the upcoming Saga. As for the #4 suggestion, this is a direction they've been moving in and iterated on a lot since the introduction of HoT. This REALLY encourages group cooperation and play, since npcs like the Chak are well-designed for being hilariously unforgiving in their mechanics. There's a kind of bug they have where you have to bar-break it to do damage and kill it, so some more skill or even condi-specific methods of overcoming NPCs to make them challenging is a good direction to go for balance. Take when they first introduced the Silverwastes; Npcs like the Mordrem Teragriffs and Thrashers were terrors to fight, especially as elites or champions due to the damage scaling working with their new, and unheard of, abilities. Things like the corrosive lines dealt by the teragriffs or the grasping thorns from the thrashers would rip player groups to shreds because they didn't have any prior concept of it. This game is REALLY good at releasing new, challenging PVE content, so the backlash to power creep is especially confusing to me given how strong the evidence is in the direction of them going towards that way with new content, and class rebalances compensating for it already.

You dont need it in open world most mobs die if you sneeze their way. You don't NEED anything beyond masterwork or rare gear in open world to clear mobs, but most of what people work towards especially for gear is about wanting something, not needing it.

As I said, barring effects from certain instanced content is one example of content balance that can be used. We see that particularly in sPvP, since it's taken years for the team to figure out just how horrifyingly overpowered certain stat combos can be in close combat, and the effect that has on class balancing (which is why they release class balance changes as split between pvp and open world). If I'm reading your post correctly, you're asking what the point of introducing this if it doesn't affect group content in any meaningful way? So far any opinion against this has been BECAUSE it would affect content in a meaningful way, which is why I'm listing easy methods to implement this. That said, some good points have been made about how the backlash against this might be coming from how small and restricted the power curve for gear in this game is. Maybe increasing it in a way that's rewarding and fun like this might be healthy.

And that's a problem why exactly? Because of this? It sounds to me like you want this game to be something it's not nor was it ever advertised as such. There are plenty of other MMOs that have gear treadmills, including WoW classic which was just released. For a time I did briefly try others, but ultimately, no other MMO has the combat mechanics that GW2 offers. It's what I enjoy most about this game aside from the expanding universe and story. And before you or anyone else goes any further on this point, I have no interest in any other MMO that currently exists. For a long time I was happy with the GW2 status quo and I'm just tired of not having any real reason to pursue a goal(s) for so long. I'm basically just waiting for this Saga to roll out and hopefully hear news of an expack sometime in 2021. And lastly, why do my desires have to take any more of a backseat than the people saying no? I'm very invested into where GW2 goes in the future, but I feel like it has room to grow in certain dimensions and other people probably feel it can grow in other ways. If you are very invested into GW2 then you would understand that adding more gear grind would hurt GW2's future. The Ascended gear backlash was bad enough. Imagine the backlash if they did this. It would absolutely destroy what's left of WvW.I specifically mentioned in the post that the stat effects listed would be barred from pvp and wvw. I'm also certainly open to extending that to raids and fractals given people's concerns, but honestly I'm seeing that as a complete non-issue. So your group is led by someone refusing to admit people because they don't have the BEST possible gear to min/max the encounter? Great! That means they're an elitist whose only concern is the gold per hour they and their friends can make, and you should avoid them like the plague. The bar for being able to complete group content centers around organization and rotation, not hyper-optimizing gear, even if that completes if faster. People play this game because it's gorgeous and fun; it draws you in and wraps its technicolored wonder around you, immersing you in the kind of personalized high-fantasy world people only get to end up writing about. To me, and my experience gaming, Guild Wars 2 is unique because of how personal everything is in the game. You BECOME one of the lead characters, and are involved in the world's development intimately, even agonizingly in the case of Aurene. Everything from the dye system to the detail put into the writing in this game is deeply, unequivocally individual to the player. It's incredibly endearing because of this, and how easy it is to connect to the characters in-game just furthers this connection. So the culmination of everything the game should BE as personally-tailored as it is, SHOULD be legendary gear. I thought I made this clear in the original post, but I guess I needed to expand on the backround for it. So with that said, what exactly is the problem for increasing the power level of legendary gear given the amount of blood sweat and tears that goes into making them, if it doesn't affect group content in any meaningful way? And if it does, some very good points have been made about how stagnant game balance would benefit from it, as well find new ways to balance around them. Because in the end, what many people who focus on PVE end up grinding all that gold and time for IS end-game gear, which are the legendaries. They SHOULD be a focus for how game content is balanced, and more powerful for it.

So the majority of dissenting opinions AGAINST this have been regards to power creep in pve content such as fractals and raids.Would there be any possibility of finding this acceptable if these changes were made JUST to open world, as to avoid the problems associated with gear elitism outlined? People should be able to enjoy the fruits of their (very hard earned) labor beyond just cosmetics and a stat switch IMO, and as FrigginPaco pointed out, there's no reason why they can't alter existing content in settings where it doesn't realistically affect other platers, given how low the gear ceiling in this game is.

Hello all! First a note about myself: I've been an avid fan of this game since i got it in 2013, and have enjoyed all of the content from open world to spvp for years, but it's only recently I've decided to venture into the forums. I haven't really had a larger issue with the game I've been passionate enough to make a post detailing any ideas for solutions i've had, so here's my first. If there's a similar discussion thread about it I might have missed, let me know please. Let's get into it! So I've seen a great deal of discussion around the purpose of legendary gear, particularly since the introduction of legendary armor a few years ago and the recent introduction of legendary runes. Given the intimidating level of effort and cost that goes into crafting these, it's a very personal feeling of accomplishment to finally get all of those items together in mystic forge and pop out that shiniest of gear.So an idea I've had for awhile about the weapons I've also expanded to include the armor and runes, and would like to share it since I feel that it would be warranted given the difficulty that goes into acquiring the most elite of gear. -All Legendary-tier items should be uniquely powerful compared to ascended and exotic-tier items, but not game-breaking.-All Legendary-tier items should have an attribute rating of 10% higher than ascended gear beneath it.-All Legendary Weapons should have an individual ability unique to it, which must be self-specific and pve-specific as to avoid unbalancing groups. For armor, there are two things that need to be looked at, which are stat increases and armor rating.If we look at the comparison between each tier of gear going down all the way to common, the difference in stat levels at 80 is actually really haphazard, ranging anywhere from a 4% increase to a whopping 25% with stat and defense ratings. So for armor rating where it matters (pve/wvw), having an 8% increase in defense rating would be ideal, given that there is a mere 4% increase in the next tier below with exotic to ascended-tier armor, referencing the defense rating table: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armor#Defense_rating For runes, since there are no ascended-tier runes to mind the gap between exotic and legendary tier, the simplest and most logical option would be to add (7) slot attribute that can be slotted into back items. Even though they don't get a defensive rating, they technically count as part of the armor ensemble as they are a visible part of it. This bonus would simply be the #2 attribute of the rune at the same amount as the next lowest #1 attribute. Now for weapons, we're going to get into a whole new area of abilities since each of them are acquired in such dramtically different and wide-reaching kinds of achievements and mats to acquire them. As stated above, each legendary weapon should have an inherent ability entirely unique to such a weapon, both involving the lore behind it and type of weapon it actually is. These should be relevant ONLY to the player, so as to not make any one particular legendary weapon useful to something giving buffs to allies or enhancing group gameplay in such a way as to make it essential for the well-to-do commander. So with that said, I have put considerable thought over the years into what those abilities should look like. I have no idea to the coding difficulty of implementing this, but I at least attempted to make it reasonable.Note: ALL of these abilities are PVE-only, and transmutation charges in no way change the effects.For your consideration, all of the legendary weapon unique abilities: -The Bifrost:20% chance to summon a friendly water Djinn as a follower to aid you in battle for 60s on critical hit.(Zomorros is a water Djinn, and it's his staff) -Bolt:Deal a chain-lightning attack to up to 3 enemies upon critically striking a foe every every 2s.(same as https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lightning_Strike_(Sigil), but graphic chain-strikes up to 2 more targets) -The Dreamer20% chance for any enemy you kill to drop a random holiday/celebration consumable food item.(It's a polychromatic unicorn bow firing polychromatic unicorns. It at least has to be consistent.) -The Flameseeker PropheciesGain Aegis after delivering a critical strike (with the shield) every 1s. Aegis base cd is 20s.(armor formula of 8% increase in defensive rating applies here) -Frenzy:Gain a 50% increase to gold gains from killing hostile npcs(Underwater NPC farming isn't very common, but this is a nice touch for the shiniest underwater weapon IMO) -Frostfang:Deal 3 seconds of Chill upon critically striking an enemy every 2s(chill effect scales with expertise. Useful for bar-breaking and reapers.) -Howler:Summons a friendly spirit wolf follower to aid you in battle for 60s on critical hit every 1s.(the point of offhand legendaries having a 1s internal CD for their ability is that it is tied to the weapon skill's cd since they don't have a normal attack. Howl is also unique with being able to summon a small pack of ghost wolves over the duration of combat depending the cooldown of your warhorn skill) -Incinerator:-20% chance to inflict Burning for 5s every second.(Burning scales with expertise. Since daggers have the highest attack speed on average of any weapon, the burning rate on this seems reasonable enough) -The Juggernaut:20% chance to summon a friendly chromatic ooze follower to aid you in battle for 60s.(Do you think you'd be rid of the ooze that easily?) -Kudzu:20% chance to heal yourself upon critically striking an enemy every 2s.(Heal amount is 370 with 0.15x modifier, same as superior sigil of water) -Kraitkin:Deal 3 seconds of torment upon critically striking an enemy every 2s.(Combat scaling for underwater legendaries tends to be a little higher due to underwater combat restrictions) -Kamohoali'i Kotaki:Deal 3 seconds of bleeding upon critically striking an enemy every 2s.(Same reasoning as previously stated) -Meteorlogicus:20% chance to deal 10s of vulnerability on a critical hit(No matter how bad a day you're having, poor weather can always make it worse. Same with vulnerability). -The Bard:Gain Vigor after delivering a critical strike (with the focus) every 1s. Vigor base cd is 10s.(I feel like dancing. Do you feel like dancing?) -The Moot:20% chance to inflict Blind for 5s every critical hit.(Prolonged exposure to Disco may cause blindness and possible fever conditions) -The Predator:20% chance to gain Fury for 5s every critical hit.(I mean, it DOES have a very nice scope) -Quip:20% chance to inflict Confusion for 5s every critical hit.(You build Chaos gun from performing a lot of pranks, so it's fitting it deals confusion) -Rotgort:Every time you inflict burning, inflict another stack of burning for 1s.(Compliments Incinerator, and burn-heavy condi builds get that extra oomph) -Sunrise:Deal 10% more damage during daylight.(does what it says on the tin) -Twilight:Deal 10% more damage during the night.(squints) -Eternity:You deal 10% more damage.(I don't know what else you would have expected) -Astralaria:20% chance to gain 2s of Alacrity on a critical hit.(With all the time making it, you should be able to make up for it during fights) -The Binding of Ipos:Every time you inflict torment, inflict another stack of torment for 1s.(Demonic lore tome is evil, but not evil enough to be used by revenants) -Chuka and Champawat:20% chance to deal 5s of bleeding on critical hit.(Shortbows tend to be almost exclusively condi-focused weapons, so this fits pretty snugly) -Claw of the Khan-ur:20% chance to summon a friendly Charr legionnaire follower to aid you in battle for 60s on critical hit.(As gen 2 legendary can only be made once and are account-bound, it is impossible to make a 2nd claw for yourself to use on the offhand to stack the bonus) -Eureka:20% chance to deal 5s of cripple on critical hit.(I wouldn't want to step on it or the trail it leaves) -Exordium:20% chance to gain a random boon for 5s on critical hit.(Considering its properties, random boon variability made the most sense to me, since inflicting random conditions would introduce some weird stacking issues in combat) -Flames of War:Kills empower Flames of War. At 25 stacks, any critical hit done with the torch does 200x damage.(This is a bit iffy with the multiplier, but the basic idea is that after accruing stacks, you can instantly drop any elite or lower level hostile npc of your choosing) -The HMS Divinity:10% chance to knock down your enemy on a critical hit(It's literally a hand-cannon) -HOPE:Kills empower HOPE. At 25 stacks, your next critical attack turns you invulnerable for 4 seconds.(Being able to time attacks at max stacks introduces a lot of options for boss content, especially in raids. The time you're invulnerable is definitely up for debate, though as it is very, very powerful.) -Nervermore:20% chance to inflict 5 seconds of poison on a critical hit.(As with other condi-crit legendaries, the staff has a wide application range, but sees pretty even usage between power and condition abilities. Poison dealing fits especially well on every class for it, since the classes that use staffs and are condi-focused have skills that also deal poison (necro, mesmer,), while classes that feature power-focused abilities aren't necessarily going to using that particular weapon for dealing primarily condi damage (druid, dardevil, guardian, elementalist). -Pharus:20% chance to inflict 5 seconds of blind on a critical hit.(assists well with all longbow abilities) -Sharur:Kills empower Sharur. At 25 stacks, inflict AoE fear for 5s up to 20 targets.(for real tho; Orr is scary) -The Shining Blade:20% chance on critical hit for you to deal a follow-up strike.(seems a bit underwhelming, but that bonus is for every strike, and so there's a hefty dps increase potential given available sword abilities) -Shooshadoo:Gain regeneration after a critical strike (with the shield) ever 1s. Regeneration cd is 10s.(good little bit of healing for tank and support classes) -Verdarach:Each critical hit deals 3s of immobilize with 1s cd, up to 20 targets.(Being on the business end of this doom tuba is terrifying enough as it is) -Xiuquatl:20% chance on kill to summon a friendly snake spirit to aid you in battle for 30s.(same snake spirit currently summoned by the scepter when you use it) Please discuss, and let me know what you think of the legendary weapon abilities, especially how they'd balance out in open world.