Staff/Polearm for Warrior ...no... Bladesworn???

[Crimthan.9308]

Look, so I've been an avid Guild Wars fan since circa 2005.  Warrior/Paragon was a very fun and exciting "warrior" combination.

Yet I always felt it was odd that actual polearms, except for javelins, were absent from Guild Wars....a very staple and obvious weapon for a warrior.

 

Guild Wars 2 released.... and there were no polearms for warriors....unless they were....yes, underwater.  

I scratched my head at that, and held on that something would happen in a future release.

 

It did happen, sort of, in Heart of Thorns with the arrival of the Revenant class (not the warrior) who could wield a staff.  You just picked

a spear skin and done.  The warrior got berzerker.  Cool.  

 

Path of fire releases and warrior got....spellbreaker .... with dual wield dagger....  my suspension of disbelief was waning at this point....

 

Perhaps in a future release, perhaps with End of Dragons.  Perhaps a cool spin-off of the GW1 Paragon where the Warrior gets a hybrid of both

melee and ranged with the staff/polearm.  Or perhaps some cool staff and teleportation abilities or hybrid healing abilities with a staff.

Many warrior fans have been discussing staff/polearm as a great option (finally) for the warrior elite spec for a while now.  It's gotta be a sure thing, right?

 

Nope.  What do warriors get, who arguably haven't been getting much love anyway?

The freaking pistol.  Bladesworn....which frankly seems like a sword-wielding engineer who gets stuck channeling in one spot to do their big move, a real win for pvp/wvw...

 

Seriously arenanet - have you been deliberately resisting the staff for warriors, or what?  To even be able to wield one, a warrior has to....go underwater....

I've lost all sense of suspension of disbelief at this point.  I cannot even begin to describe my disappointment....

[Fueki.4753]

It's time to give up on Warrior.

All it gets will be reduced to banner slaves in endgame anyway.

And Bladesworn will just be a band-aid to cover up all the core issues, so Arenanet can continue pretending the issues don't exist.

[ASP.8093]

16 hours ago, Crimthan.9308 said:

I've lost all sense of suspension of disbelief at this point.

I don't think that phrase means what you think it means.

[Broxxgar.6801]

Paragon is on Guardian go take a look. I think there is even a achievment called Champion Paragon on one of the Guardians E-spec, I just don't remember which one.

[oscuro.9720]

3 hours ago, Broxxgar.6801 said:

Paragon is on Guardian go take a look. I think there is even a achievment called Champion Paragon on one of the Guardians E-spec, I just don't remember which one.

I believe champion paragon is the ranked arena win achievement for guardian. 

[Broxxgar.6801]

8 minutes ago, oscuro.9720 said:

I believe champion paragon is the ranked arena win achievement for guardian. 

So this almost answer his doubts about Paragon.

[draxynnic.3719]

There was also an old and now lost interview that specifies that part of the Watsonian explanation for where guardians came from was monks and paragons getting together.

 

However, this doesn't preclude warrior ever picking up paragon-like themes - the paragon itself, after all, was essentially an example of a martial support profession that mostly drew from warrior mechanics such as adrenaline and shouts, and warrior was probably the most common secondary profession used with paragon even before imbagons became a thing. So I don't think it would be too unfitting for warrior to get a paragon-like elite specialisation at some point. Spear seems an unlikely option for such a concept, though, both for technical issues, and because in modern Tyria the pistol might be viewed as being more suitable as an officer's weapon. Which might be the Doylist explanation for why bladesworn only got offhand pistol - they're saving mainhand pistol for the future.

 

Gunsaber does present a precedent for introducing a polearm through a similar mechanic, although I'd personally prefer if they just bit the bullet and made a new weapon type.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

18 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Gunsaber does present a precedent for introducing a polearm through a similar mechanic, although I'd personally prefer if they just bit the bullet and made a new weapon type.

You really just typed that last part huh?

[Fueki.4753]

3 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Gunsaber does present a precedent for introducing a polearm through a similar mechanic, although I'd personally prefer if they just bit the bullet and made a new weapon type.

They don't even need to create a new weapon category to have Javelins for a Paragon specialization.

Some Sceptres and Staves already look like spears, so Arenanet could reuse one of these types to give Warrior Javelins.

And while the others might look silly, Daredevil can also choose to use silly skins for their Staff, like Kasmeer's Staff.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Fueki.4753

[draxynnic.3719]

55 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

They don't even need to create a new weapon category to have Javelins for a Paragon specialization.

Some Sceptres and Staves already look like spears, so Arenanet could reuse one of these types to give Warrior Javelins.

And while the others might look silly, Daredevil can also choose to use silly skins for their Staff, like Kasmeer's Staff.

There are plenty of silly options for regular weapons as well. So as long as the spearlike examples aren't made prestige skins (which is the current problem I'd consider for staffs - spearlike staff skins like Sunspear exist, but ~9g is a bit steep just to avoid chucking caster staves as if they were spears), people who want serious weapons can get them, and people who are happy throwing something silly can do that too. I would note, though, that fully replicating the GW1 javelins would require it to be a one-handed weapon, which would map to sceptre rather than staff. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any scepter skins that really work as practical javelins - but that could be because I haven't looked.

 

Mostly, though, I do just want polearms outside of this specific discussion. There's concept art of them for some sets (even as far into development as some early Black Lion sets, I think), and it's a weapon type that would open things up for multiple professions. More martial professions could use them as designed (including giving ranger a staff-like weapon now that actual staves have already been used as a caster weapon for them) while spellcasters could use them as an alternative to a traditional staff as a spellcasting focus... or they could also use them as intended. One or the other.

 

4 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

You really just typed that last part huh?

Yeah, sometimes I go off half-cocked and unload some pretty bad puns without really aiming to.

[Fueki.4753]

1 hour ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

There are plenty of silly options for regular weapons as well. So as long as the spearlike examples aren't made prestige skins (which is the current problem I'd consider for staffs - spearlike staff skins like Sunspear exist, but ~9g is a bit steep just to avoid chucking caster staves as if they were spears), people who want serious weapons can get them, and people who are happy throwing something silly can do that too. I would note, though, that fully replicating the GW1 javelins would require it to be a one-handed weapon, which would map to sceptre rather than staff. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any scepter skins that really work as practical javelins - but that could be because I haven't looked.

In my opinion, skins like Coldsnap or Krait Wand would work well as Javelins.

And then there are skins like Icy Dragon Slayer Scepter or Orrian Scepter that are quite top heavy, but still end in pointy bits. Those could work alright as Javelins as well.

I don't think 9 gold is all that much for a skin though. I've spent over 250 gold on the Scientific Pistol skin for my Harmbinger.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Fueki.4753

[Broxxgar.6801]

For me is very strange that they already didn't put spears for Warrior. Like Spear and Javelins were the most common weapon on any Warrior in our Real History. And Paragons seems to fit exactly this spot on the game. I know that we have this on water. But I want it on the game so I can have my Hoplite with a Spear + Shield and really enable the Phalanx trait of Tatics.

[Vancho.8750]

It is quite strange they didn't do Gun spear instead of the nodachi gun , considering everyone writes spear this spear that but then again the Hollywood style samurai look has better market potential, even though samurai(and for that matter everyone) used spears for warfare.

[Cravex.5670]

On 9/19/2021 at 8:06 AM, Broxxgar.6801 said:

For me is very strange that they already didn't put spears for Warrior. Like Spear and Javelins were the most common weapon on any Warrior in our Real History. And Paragons seems to fit exactly this spot on the game. I know that we have this on water. But I want it on the game so I can have my Hoplite with a Spear + Shield and really enable the Phalanx trait of Tatics.

 

Ding Ding Ding -- EXACTLY!!!!!

To round that out -- They could have borrowed the Deadeye mechanic, and had the polearm (using bladed staff skins) as TWO Handed for offense, then press weapon 5 to switch to 1H staff (reduction to 1h dmg) or scepter (for specific 1h spear) and shield for both

A.  more defense

B.  JAVELIN

 

HOW could they NOT do that???  WHY would they NOT do that???

 

 

On 9/19/2021 at 1:50 AM, Fueki.4753 said:

They don't even need to create a new weapon category to have Javelins for a Paragon specialization.

Some Sceptres and Staves already look like spears, so Arenanet could reuse one of these types to give Warrior Javelins.

And while the others might look silly, Daredevil can also choose to use silly skins for their Staff, like Kasmeer's Staff.

 

Totally agree.

 

On 9/18/2021 at 3:13 PM, Fueki.4753 said:

It's time to give up on Warrior.

All it gets will be reduced to banner slaves in endgame anyway.

And Bladesworn will just be a band-aid to cover up all the core issues, so Arenanet can continue pretending the issues don't exist.

 

Agreed.

 

On 9/19/2021 at 9:08 AM, Vancho.8750 said:

It is quite strange they didn't do Gun spear instead of the nodachi gun , considering everyone writes spear this spear that but then again the Hollywood style samurai look has better market potential, even though samurai(and for that matter everyone) used spears for warfare.

 

If anything, why didn't they at least go this route, have gun naginata;  to finally give polearm to the warrior???

Anet - I'm seriously disappointed.  You really missed an opportunity here.  Unless by some miracle you're already planning polearm (staff [2h] and/or scepter [1h javelin])  for a fourth major expansion?

 

Edited October 3, 2021 by Cravex.5670

[draxynnic.3719]

On 9/19/2021 at 6:58 PM, Fueki.4753 said:

In my opinion, skins like Coldsnap or Krait Wand would work well as Javelins.

And then there are skins like Icy Dragon Slayer Scepter or Orrian Scepter that are quite top heavy, but still end in pointy bits. Those could work alright as Javelins as well.

I don't think 9 gold is all that much for a skin though. I've spent over 250 gold on the Scientific Pistol skin for my Harmbinger.

That's a black lion skin, and you didn't wait for it to be available in black lion chests. Broadly speaking, though, I don't think you should need to spend a lot of money just to get "not ridiculous". Plain, sure, but you'd need a fairly cheap skin available that actually is the weapon it's supposed to be.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

One way i see this happening for real is with a new e-spec that would introduce warrior-blacksmith based e-spec.
Such as an Armsmaster. Other than profession weapon, such a spec could bring bundle weapons to field, much like core ele has conjured weapons. Only since it's warrior, the selection would be much more down to earth such as spears, polearms, 2h battle axes or maybe even crossbows.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

29 minutes ago, ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

One way i see this happening for real is with a new e-spec that would introduce warrior-blacksmith based e-spec.
Such as an Armsmaster. Other than profession weapon, such a spec could bring bundle weapons to field, much like core ele has conjured weapons. Only since it's warrior, the selection would be much more down to earth such as spears, polearms, 2h battle axes or maybe even crossbows.

That would be more fun that Dragon Trigger.

F1 - Gunsaber

F2 - Spear

F3 - Crossbow

F4 - Greataxe

F5 is a 'Burst' equivalent skill of the Function set you have equipped.

Gunsaber F5: Dragon Slash. Current Force verions.

Spear F5: Dragon's Decent. Copy past Vindicator dodge here, with evade frames.

Crossbow F5: Pinion Barrage. Something like Rapid Fire, but pierces and cripples the target.

Greataxe F5: All Consuming Swing. Cleaves in a 45 degree cone out to 300 range. Inflicts  25 vulnerability, weakness, and heavy damage.

 

Spear bar would be full of dashes, a 1200 range immobilize, fast attacks on AA along with weakness in the chain.

Crossbow bar would be 1200 range power based pew pew with Amber bolt that do spiffy things like weaken, chill, or slow the target.

Greataxe would be Greatsword and Hammer's love child.

Sadly we all come up with better ideas than Anet...

[Dawanarth.4601]

Oh Kit for Warrior:

Med Kit ? (Though the name/stuff need to change since the Engi already has that one)

Spear

Arbalest (Heavy Crossbow)

Giant Axe

And for elite: Cannon or Gatling Gun

[Grand Marshal.4098]

Fr screw the gunblade. Give me Spear, Staff or Gladiator Trident spec any day. 

[Crimthan.9308]

On 9/18/2021 at 4:23 PM, Broxxgar.6801 said:

Paragon is on Guardian go take a look. I think there is even a achievment called Champion Paragon on one of the Guardians E-spec, I just don't remember which one.

 

Was really wanting Warrior itself to have the polearm/spear/staff variant.  Would have a much more aggressive feel than the other classes that are using staff for melee.

 

On 9/19/2021 at 3:09 AM, draxynnic.3719 said:

There are plenty of silly options for regular weapons as well. So as long as the spearlike examples aren't made prestige skins (which is the current problem I'd consider for staffs - spearlike staff skins like Sunspear exist, but ~9g is a bit steep just to avoid chucking caster staves as if they were spears), people who want serious weapons can get them, and people who are happy throwing something silly can do that too. I would note, though, that fully replicating the GW1 javelins would require it to be a one-handed weapon, which would map to sceptre rather than staff. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any scepter skins that really work as practical javelins - but that could be because I haven't looked.

 

Mostly, though, I do just want polearms outside of this specific discussion. There's concept art of them for some sets (even as far into development as some early Black Lion sets, I think), and it's a weapon type that would open things up for multiple professions. More martial professions could use them as designed (including giving ranger a staff-like weapon now that actual staves have already been used as a caster weapon for them) while spellcasters could use them as an alternative to a traditional staff as a spellcasting focus... or they could also use them as intended. One or the other.

 

Yeah, sometimes I go off half-cocked and unload some pretty bad puns without really aiming to.

 

Very thoughtful.  Appreciate this feedback.

 

On 9/19/2021 at 8:06 AM, Broxxgar.6801 said:

For me is very strange that they already didn't put spears for Warrior. Like Spear and Javelins were the most common weapon on any Warrior in our Real History. And Paragons seems to fit exactly this spot on the game. I know that we have this on water. But I want it on the game so I can have my Hoplite with a Spear + Shield and really enable the Phalanx trait of Tatics.

 

This was exactly my reaction in both GW1 and GW2 with Warrior and polearm.  It's such an oversight that it had to be deliberate.  As far as GW2 goes -- polearms are far more widely used in war than 2H hammers.... and yet, here we are....

 

On 9/19/2021 at 9:08 AM, Vancho.8750 said:

It is quite strange they didn't do Gun spear instead of the nodachi gun , considering everyone writes spear this spear that but then again the Hollywood style samurai look has better market potential, even though samurai(and for that matter everyone) used spears for warfare.

 

While what you say is true, I have seen far more polearms in martial arts movies in the past 10 years - moreso than the previous decades.

 

On 10/3/2021 at 3:27 PM, Cravex.5670 said:

 

Ding Ding Ding -- EXACTLY!!!!!

To round that out -- They could have borrowed the Deadeye mechanic, and had the polearm (using bladed staff skins) as TWO Handed for offense, then press weapon 5 to switch to 1H staff (reduction to 1h dmg) or scepter (for specific 1h spear) and shield for both

A.  more defense

B.  JAVELIN

 

HOW could they NOT do that???  WHY would they NOT do that???

 

 

 

Totally agree.

 

 

Agreed.

 

 

If anything, why didn't they at least go this route, have gun naginata;  to finally give polearm to the warrior???

Anet - I'm seriously disappointed.  You really missed an opportunity here.  Unless by some miracle you're already planning polearm (staff [2h] and/or scepter [1h javelin])  for a fourth major expansion?

 

100% on Deadeye mechanic.

 

11 hours ago, Grand Marshal.4098 said:

Fr screw the gunblade. Give me Spear, Staff or Gladiator Trident spec any day. 

 

This makes for a great bottom line up front for my demeanor in creating this topic.   Thank you.

[jaif.3518]

I've been holding off on the expansion as I glance over the specs and wait for the WvW changes to roll out.

But if halberd suddenly showed up?  Insta-buy. 

They should re-do core warrior so that all the elite skills are superior weapons  (kits, I suppose)- halberd, xbow, etc.  That would be awesome.

[Smoosh.2718]

On 10/5/2021 at 12:21 AM, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

F1 - Gunsaber

F2 - Spear

F3 - Crossbow

F4 - Greataxe

This is what i was hoping for for warrior, Pistols as main weapons and kit weapons for the rest, this is what could remove weapon swap from warrior and people wouldnt complain about it.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

8 minutes ago, Smoosh.2718 said:

This is what i was hoping for for warrior, Pistols as main weapons and kit weapons for the rest, this is what could remove weapon swap from warrior and people wouldnt complain about it.

Yeah I agree.

[Crimthan.9308]

On 10/7/2021 at 5:37 PM, jaif.3518 said:

I've been holding off on the expansion as I glance over the specs and wait for the WvW changes to roll out.

But if halberd suddenly showed up?  Insta-buy. 

They should re-do core warrior so that all the elite skills are superior weapons  (kits, I suppose)- halberd, xbow, etc.  That would be awesome.

 

Totally agree - Halberd would have been the most inspiring weapon type for me to play as the warrior.  

[Kodama.6453]

On 10/8/2021 at 12:07 AM, Smoosh.2718 said:

This is what i was hoping for for warrior, Pistols as main weapons and kit weapons for the rest, this is what could remove weapon swap from warrior and people wouldnt complain about it.

2 kits, ok, I can see that happening. But 4 like in that suggestion are way too excessive.

That's adding 20 new skills to every build of that elite spec solely through the spec mechanic, no way in hell is Anet going to do something like this.

Funny enough... It's kinda what Anet has done with bladesworn. Bladesworn adds 2 weapon kits with gunsaber and dragon trigger. It's not thematically the same as having spears, greataxes and such, but mechanically, it's not that far away from that suggestion.