Are there anymore Elite Specs on the way? Do you want more?

[SoulGuardian.6203]

Is Arena Net working on new Elite specs, or do you want more?

[Sobx.1758]

38 minutes ago, SoulGuardian.6203 said:

Is Arena Net working on new Elite specs

Why is this even a question when they told us they're not working on adding more especs for now?

[Nine Inch Snails.7963]

38 minutes ago, SoulGuardian.6203 said:

Is Arena Net working on new Elite specs

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/studio-update-spring-2023/

Quote

Q: The February Studio Update said that future expansions would include “combat features” and didn’t mention elite specializations at all. What does that mean?

In the current design and implementation of elite specializations, we feel that with every new expansion there’s been increasingly limited “design space” left to add new and differentiated roles for each profession. In other words, most of the playstyles that we’d like to see supported for each profession already exist or should exist within their existing elite specialization options.

With our next expansion, our goal is to further augment the combat options for each profession by adding new tools to their arsenal and by lifting constraints that will unlock an unprecedented number of playstyle customization options—while keeping the feel of Guild Wars 2 combat true to its origins. Theorycrafters are going to be very busy.

 

[draxynnic.3719]

Anyone who didn't answer 'I don't know' to the first question is lying, reading more into the studio update than was said, or breaking an NDA.

They've said that they're not making specs for the next expansion. That's fine, it's looking like they're aiming at an expansion every 1.5 years or so and that's probably too rapid a pace. But they could be workshopping a set for 2025.

They've said that they've covered most (but not all) of the roles and playstyles they'd want to cover with elite specialisations. That's probably fair. If, hypothetically, they were to introduce a set every 3 years or so, the game would be old enough to drive by the time they doubled the number of elite specialisations. So it's entirely possible that most of the elite specialisations have already been released.

Nothing they've said indicates that there won't be any more elite specialisations ever.

As for whether they SHOULD:

There are a lot of roles and playstyles that still aren't well catered for with existing elite specialisations, and probably can't be achieved just by tweaking those that already exist. Elementalist players want a ranged-oriented elite specialisation. Warriors lack a proper healer, especially given that shouts compete with banners. Ideally, warrior and ranger should both have quickness and alacrity respectfully moved to elite specialisations so they can get the other boon on different elite specialisations.

And that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Have Arenanet achieved most of what they want to do with elite specialisations? Believable. 3/4, or even 3/5, is a majority. But if they think they've done everything they should do with elite specialisations, they've got their heads buried in the sand.

[The Boz.2038]

Well this is surely a sane set of questions, aham.

[Ashen.2907]

3 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Nothing they've said indicates that there won't be any more elite specialisations ever.

The poll asks if more elite specs are being worked on not whether or not they will be worked on again at some point in the future.

[Fueki.4753]

At this point, I don't even want any more elite specializations.

I'm tired of other professions getting new niches to play in, while Warrior just gets more variants of melee power dps.

Edited May 9, 2023 by Fueki.4753

[draxynnic.3719]

6 hours ago, Ashen.2907 said:

The poll asks if more elite specs are being worked on not whether or not they will be worked on again at some point in the future.

And we don't know if they are working on ideas in the background even though they're not going to release next expansion. I'd even argue that the 'most' could indicate that they already have some ideas of what they need or want to do. 

It's worth keeping in mind that, in the past, there was evidence of at least some elite specs having been conceptualized well in advance. Marjory getting a greatsword before HoT was announced probably wasn't a coincidence. There were hints in datamines that Weaver and Holosmith were being worked on before PoF released. People pretty much immediately concluded that Almorra in IBS was hinting at a future guardian elite spec, and it was. So the 'don't know, and anyone who claims they DO know...' response stands.

There are also a few people I've seen claiming that the announcement means that ArenaNet is done with elite specialisations. They've said nothing so concrete. And if they are something that could possibly be in the future, they may be in the early stages now. They just won't be coming in the next expansion - something else will be instead.

[Dreamreaver.4908]

I'd like to see a light profession with physical utilities (namely punches and kicks) on an elite spec at some point. Preferably ele.

[draxynnic.3719]

4 hours ago, Dreamreaver.4908 said:

I'd like to see a light profession with physical utilities (namely punches and kicks) on an elite spec at some point. Preferably ele.

Last thing elementalist needs right now is melee-focused elite specialisation #4. I can see where you're coming from, but a Prefers Ranged profession deserves at least one elite specialisation that's actually designed to fight at range.

[Serephen.3420]

4 hours ago, Dreamreaver.4908 said:

I'd like to see a light profession with physical utilities (namely punches and kicks) on an elite spec at some point. Preferably ele.

Please be joking and please no🥲

Longbow ranged ele is one of the most common requests on the ele forums.

[Dreamreaver.4908]

.

Edited May 10, 2023 by Dreamreaver.4908
Duplicate post.

[Dreamreaver.4908]

3 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Last thing elementalist needs right now is melee-focused elite specialisation #4. I can see where you're coming from, but a Prefers Ranged profession deserves at least one elite specialisation that's actually designed to fight at range.

Why not both? Elite specs and corresponding weapons should be multifaceted. Just slap on some other optional traits that would make staff and other ranged options not terrible, and if a longbow is that needed (the new weapon can be whatever; we have greatswords shooting energy beams and hammers shooting ... hammers in the game), that has nothing to do with the utility skills.

 

EDIT: Actually, in thinking over things while driving, ele has some of its utilities change behavior based on attunement, so there's easy room for versatility! Imagine a kick that creates a 1,200 range explosion in Fire Attunement yet causes float and deals rapidly striking damage at close range in Air Attunement. Etc.

 

Though I mentioned ele, I wouldn't mind them for mesmer or necro either. Just any light class for animations-sake.

Edited May 10, 2023 by Dreamreaver.4908

[Beddo.1907]

I prefer Anet to focus on balancing everything and reworking unused stuff. We still didn't recover from EoD especs balance wise, so adding more is not a wise choice.

[draxynnic.3719]

On 5/10/2023 at 5:20 PM, Dreamreaver.4908 said:

Why not both? Elite specs and corresponding weapons should be multifaceted. Just slap on some other optional traits that would make staff and other ranged options not terrible, and if a longbow is that needed (the new weapon can be whatever; we have greatswords shooting energy beams and hammers shooting ... hammers in the game), that has nothing to do with the utility skills.

 

EDIT: Actually, in thinking over things while driving, ele has some of its utilities change behavior based on attunement, so there's easy room for versatility! Imagine a kick that creates a 1,200 range explosion in Fire Attunement yet causes float and deals rapidly striking damage at close range in Air Attunement. Etc.

 

Though I mentioned ele, I wouldn't mind them for mesmer or necro either. Just any light class for animations-sake.

Impurity of purpose. Weaver is already something of a 'least bad' for a ranged spec because its mechanic doesn't require melee range, but the reason it's 'least bad' rather than good is that the utilities and at least some of the traits are optimised for a melee playstyle. Which contrasts with, say, virtuoso, where while there are some things it can do in close, it's mostly oriented towards greater range.

If a hypothetical elite has a bunch of 'magic martial arts' skills a la Willbender, then every concession they make to that being normally thought of as a melee combat style is that much design space that isn't going to making the best ranged combat elite specialisation they can.

Ele deserves one specialisation that commits to ranged combat the way virtuoso does for mesmer.

Necromancer I could possibly see - physical-type skills could work well for a vampiric theme.

Edited May 11, 2023 by draxynnic.3719

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

I want them to overhaul most of the existing classes (especially core classes) instead. Major, sweeping changes designed to address many, many complaints about them over the years instead of band-aids.

[Dreamreaver.4908]

1 hour ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Impurity of purpose. Weaver is already something of a 'least bad' for a ranged spec because its mechanic doesn't require melee range, but the reason it's 'least bad' rather than good is that the utilities and at least some of the traits are optimised for a melee playstyle. Which contrasts with, say, virtuoso, where while there are some things it can do in close, it's mostly oriented towards greater range.

If a hypothetical elite has a bunch of 'magic martial arts' skills a la Willbender, then every concession they make to that being normally thought of as a melee combat style is that much design space that isn't going to making the best ranged combat elite specialisation they can.

Ele deserves one specialisation that commits to ranged combat the way virtuoso does for mesmer.

Necromancer I could possibly see - physical-type skills could work well for a vampiric theme.

I see. A preference for pure (or mostly) ranged versus a preference for a spec with varied options. That's fine. I mainly picked ele to be it as I find it to be the most visually pleasing class to add animations to of the three to me, and beyond that just would like to see them on a light class, any of them, period.

Anything else about perceived playstyles, ya'll have fun talking about that. As long as we remember A.net could code anything to do whatever.

[RadiantWolf.2058]

I am fine with skipping elite specs for a round or two if it means polishing and expanding on the ones we have.

[Hashberry.4510]

Especs are the best thing I had enjoyed in the last two expansions. I can see they can’t push out another set, but the next expansion won’t have much to interest me if they add some silly mastery or some such instead. 

[draxynnic.3719]

16 hours ago, Dreamreaver.4908 said:

I see. A preference for pure (or mostly) ranged versus a preference for a spec with varied options. That's fine. I mainly picked ele to be it as I find it to be the most visually pleasing class to add animations to of the three to me, and beyond that just would like to see them on a light class, any of them, period.

Anything else about perceived playstyles, ya'll have fun talking about that. As long as we remember A.net could code anything to do whatever.

At least being designed that way without making compromises, yeah. There's enough in the core kit that it'd be likely that a virtuoso-style specialisation will still have the option to grab dagger and go melee, but the specialisation itself should be entirely stuff that supports a ranged build.

Like I said, I get where you're coming from. In a vacuum, an elementalist martial artist could be awesome. I'd even proposed a Zephyrite- themed elite spec in the past myself (but that was pre-Weaver). When elementalist is 3 for 3 on melee-oriented elite specialisations, though, elementalist needs its equivalent of virtuoso and deadeye - something that goes all in or nearly all in on ranged capability.

[Lily.1935]

On 5/8/2023 at 8:40 PM, SoulGuardian.6203 said:

Is Arena Net working on new Elite specs, or do you want more?

1. Are new Elite Specs being worked on?
Maybe? That's a hard question to really answer because its possible they are for a few expansions down the road but we can't know for certain. My gut says "No". But I'm not going to say that with certainty.

2. Do you want more Elite Specs?
God Yes. I don't feel that what we've got really fills all of the desires player's want for themes. I know that's the case for me. None of the necromancer's life force mechanics fill that Minion master niche, or a blood sacrifice niche with high life steal and burst. None of the Engineer specs or core engineer utility fill that armorour niche. We still haven't gotten that 5th attunment elementalist people have been salivating for. Mesmer doesn't have a Bard spec with songs and healing. There's still a lot of space we could see that trying to fit all of these themes on the existing elite specs would be a challenge, possibly more challenging than creating new elite specs.

3. What will new ES bring?
I responded with "Oh dear" because I don't know. I want to believe it'll be something like more core traits in existing specializations or new weapons. But its hard to really say definitively. Arena Net effectively told us almost nothing.

[VocalThought.9835]

I think ANet has space for two more elites, if they'd followed the same format they have been.  I too am trying to think what new things they could do with the profession mechanics for each Profession if they'd have new elites. If ANet ran out of elite specialization ideas, I'd be fine with that. I'd love to see them add a cultural specialization that boost racial skills and add more races and racial skills to the game instead of adding a new profession. 

 

I really don't see the point of adding new weapons since they can make weapon skins and skills look and function however they want. I could see them adding an additional unlocked weapon to each Elite Specialization.  I also would like to see new combat mechanics either associated with masteries or personalities, making those have more benefits in pve or wvw. 

[Logos.3042]

On 5/8/2023 at 8:40 PM, SoulGuardian.6203 said:

Is Arena Net working on new Elite specs, or do you want more?

I feel like many of the professions were waiting for an especially that they never got:

warrior wanted support or at least not power dps

Ele wanted more hit points and less piano & glass style 

I could go on, but the point is that this round of elites felt like a big miss.

[Dadnir.5038]

4 hours ago, Logos.3042 said:

warrior wanted support or at least not power dps

It is both true and false at the same time. The thing being that warrior was confined to playing support for the vast majority of the game's life. What warrior mains wanted was an e-spec that felt like it was designed for support opposed to the e-specs that felt like they were designed for dps yet were better off used for support.

What the devs probably want is for each e-spec to have a wide variety of roles. Unfortunately I do believe that they failed due to the trait system's inability to really offer a trade-off between support and other roles.

5 hours ago, Logos.3042 said:

Ele wanted more hit points and less piano & glass style

Ele got more hit points with both weaver (Master's fortitude) and catalyst (elemental empowerment).

As for less piano/glassy, this is always a matter of point of view. Let's just say that the average player's eagerness to reach the maximum potential of the elementalist is what lead them to their downfall. You can play LI rotations on elementalist and achieve good results.

[SRMorgan.6124]

I may be biased, since Elite Specs are my favourite part of a new expansion, but I am definitely hoping we will see another set in a few expansions.

While I don't think it is reasonable to expect them to make new ones every year-year and a half, once every four years as they've done in the past feels like a good pace. Also, expecting us to play the same specs/builds (and I do mean builds, plural) indefinitely is just not sustainable. If you're a veteran player, sooner or later you will get tired of the same old-same old. 

So new specs every third mini expansion feels like a reasonable solution/expectation/request.

But that's just my opinion!