Definitive Response: SOTO's Bad New Profession Class Weapon Choices & How They Can Be Improved.

[TheeBlackDeath.5692]

So going back to a few nights ago when I got word of this new expansion coming out while I was on a break from the game for a few months, I was enlightened about these new weapon choices for each base profession in the game, as well as shared elite spec options. But in regards to these new base profession weapon options, a lot of them seem bad fits or there's way better options for weapons for those specific professions, and I shall be listing some weapons that would suit better as brand new weapons for the base professions as a whole.

Instead of Dual Pistol for Guard, we should instead get Warhorn Offhand for Guard since it's the only offhand tool they don't have yet, and it would work perfectly for them to give early access to pre-lvl 80 Alacrity and an ability to turn conditions into boons or cause allies to inflict conditions somewhat as a possible way to add more GW1 Paragon-esque abilities to the class, as Guard was inspired by it somewhat.
Instead of Pistol for Ele, we should instead get Main-hand Focus for Ele, not only as a way to make the class more unique and standout from the other casters by giving them an option the others don't, but as another way to give them more combos to work with in terms of Focus-use, very much akin to the Offhand Focus skills for Ele.
Instead of Rifle for Mes, we should instead get Shortbow for Mes as a way to finally complete the Bard-style gameplay into the class once and for all, as this change has been long-awaited for given how many Mesmers I've spoken to that have wanted Shortbow for this exact reason.
Instead of Mainhand Axe for Thief, we should instead get Offhand Sword or Greatsword for Thief, typically I wouldn't imagine Thief getting a 2handed melee weapon years ago, but with more and more "ninja-esque" and or katana greatswords come out, I think it might be time to let people go all out with this potential and finally give Thief a melee 2handed wep. But even despite that, Dual Sword for Thief, or just Offhand Sword, is an option that people have been DYING FOR ever since the game released and is really a missed opportunity if they don't capitalize on this and give the players something they've been begging to be added. 
Instead of Scepter for Rev, we should instead get Focus or Offhand Dagger for Rev instead, while Scepter isn't completely terrible for Rev I must say, there's still much better options for it overall and it must be stated. Focus for Rev would add much more potential to the class that others may or may not expect, from loosely being inspired by GW1's Ritualist profession, with Offhand Focus for Rev we can possibly see the return of some the Ritualist's abilities or abilities very similar to those if not inspired by them, such as skills from Ritualist's Channeling & Restoration Magic abilities that can possible be used for ranged options, if not some options for CC as well for early Rev. However, while Focus may or may not be the better choice in regards for Rev, Offhand Dagger is another good option also as another way to bring back some Ritualist-flare to the profession, but also to add some potential Rogue or Thief-like abilities to the profession too, from being able to inflict conditions(such as weakness & bleeding) and CC abilities to early Rev as well. 

And lastly, instead of Dual Mace for Ranger, we should get Rifle for Ranger 100%.
While most people will tell you that Rifle for Ranger wouldn't make sense for "thematic purposes" or whatever, I honestly think they haven't paid attention to the game at all or it's story, and haven't seen the plant-based rifle/pistol skins in the game already, bad enough we're supposed to be getting DUAL PISTOL FOR GUARD & ELE lol. The reason Rifle for Ranger is because Ranger is still supposed to also fill that "Huntsman" or "Trapper" feel to the class and not just a "nature guardian" or "druid" role as many would argue, and everyone knows Guns are better than Bows thanks to their power and range in that regard. The only true argument you could make against Rifle for Ranger would be it's placement in Ranger's weaponset, as Longbow is already it's power-based and AOE-based ranged option and Shortbow is already it's condi-based and movement/position ranged option. But why not have it be based with both in mind but with more utility or CC in mind for it instead? While both do have some CC abilities, base Ranger doesn't have any access to sole CC options with their weapons or very many options to apply stuff like Vulnerability or Weakness in their current weaponset, so instead we can have Rifle Ranger be like a hybrid between Rifle Warrior and Rifle Deadeye. While not focused solely on conditions, Rifle Ranger could be slower in fire rate than both Long and Short Bows but hits a bit harder than Longbow as a high-impact power-based CC weapon, while also having an auto-attack 2 and 3 that inflict vulnerability, a skill 3 relying on crouching and positioning by making you crouch and granting you fury for a short time while making your attacks inflict weakness to a target you hit from the side or from behind while you are crouching akin to Deadeye mixed with Ranger Shortbow, having a skill 4 to roll backwards a short distance with a follow-up skill to fire at your target to inflict crippled on them, and having access to a rifle butt skill 5 similar to Rifle Warrior's skill 5 to allow the Ranger to knockback a foe away from you or stun them if used directly behind your target.
Ideally Rifle for Ranger would be based solely around focusing on a single target and positioning but heavily lacks in AOE and movement/escape skills compared to Longbow and Shortbow because of it.

Most of these Profession weapon choices have been in high demand for quite awhile among the playerbase and it'd honestly be a shame if these end up being missed opportunities down the road and never get added in the end, as these seem to be much better changes than the majority of new weapon options Anet has thought people really wanted for awhile now... With the last good thing they've added personally was Greatsword to Rev with Vind, as that had actually made me return to this game from around this same time in 2021, so these options really won't change too much for me personally but I'm thinking in terms of other players and what they'd prefer and what Anet has been overlooking for awhile now. If you happen to have any better ideas or like these potential options better than what Anet has planned, be sure to share your thoughts so that we can discuss this and possibly come up with even better ideas than these somehow.
Here's hoping people at Anet have been taking notes by the playerbase or come across this single post and consider what has been said here by some miracle.

[Randulf.7614]

What is coming is almost certainly now set in stone and locked in as they have announced it. I think it is realistic to expect more additions later for the next expac.

Double mace for ranger interests me though

Edited July 4, 2023 by Randulf.7614

[patton the great.7126]

Ya no thanks. More options for pistol is a good thing. The hype train for han helsing guard is real, has already brought the beer aboard. Just waiting for the signal to depart.

Warhorn is under represented too, as is mace and rifle but pistol was right there with em. I'm sure it's time will come. 

[EriskRedLemur.7153]

This is all subjective without knowing the details of what each weapon does... I LOVE dual pistols for Guardian - and you CAN make it fit for why; Mesmer rifles is idk, not my first choice, neither is SB lol nor is that what "everyone" wants this is all your opinions and granted, some interesting reasoning behind them, but willing to see what it does. Rifle Ranger was a dream, mace is meh to me BUT again not knowing how/what the skills do or animations or any potential lore behind choices, I am open. I don't think there's a "definitive response" except your opinion lol. But, fair enough, I agree with a bit of what you say but honestly ppl like to complain, so... I get it, Ele pistol MH while Guardian get both; ppl want a certain weapon, etc. If you have Mesmer SB ppl would still have issues, let's be real, until they show details of the weapons which prob wont for sometime I'm not gonna get too weird. The xpac weapon choices were met with similar posts so, just part of it, I get pistols rifles isnt a fav of some I personally love the weapon type.

[Mongk.2458]

10 years of GW2 and a you guys still didn't learn that this game open ups the possibilities of base archetypes? It should be normal at this point to see these different takes on them.

[Sigmoid.7082]

"bad and can be improved" and "I don't like this, change it to something I like" are two very different things people need to learn to distinguish between. 

Edited July 4, 2023 by Sigmoid.7082

[Lanz.7312]

Yeah, no to all of these. Been wanting more gun mages for ages and now we're getting 3 flavors. Likewise for a legitimate spellcaster revenant. The only thing I would have changed would be mesmer rifle to mainhand pistol because they fit a pistoleer better imo, but that's just flavor.

[Tachenon.5270]

I my own kitten self advocated for rifle on ranger ages ago. Even posted a picture of Daniel Boone looking all cool and rangery with a hound and a rifle, back when we could do that. Like the vast majority of my suggestions, it remains unrealized. Alas!

[Gotejjeken.1267]

11 hours ago, TheeBlackDeath.5692 said:

And lastly, instead of Dual Mace for Ranger, we should get Rifle for Ranger 100%.
<stuff>
Ideally Rifle for Ranger would be based solely around focusing on a single target and positioning but heavily lacks in AOE and movement/escape skills compared to Longbow and Shortbow because of it.

Firstly, Longbow has one AoE skill lol.

Secondly, hard no to worse rifle warrior--because in that giant paragraph that's exactly what you laid out.  

EDIT: I had to dive in that wall of text to find it, but it was here:

11 hours ago, TheeBlackDeath.5692 said:

While both do have some CC abilities, base Ranger doesn't have any access to sole CC options with their weapons or very many options to apply stuff like Vulnerability or Weakness in their current weaponset, so instead we can have Rifle Ranger be like a hybrid between Rifle Warrior and Rifle Deadeye. 

Also, I don't know what 'sole CC options are' but you might want to look into lb #4, gs #4/5, sb #5, warhorn #5....literally all hard-CC options are on core ranger weapons and soon core can use hammer for the rest of them.  

Ranger ideally should get shield, and as a second option scepter.  Both for lore and gameplay purposes--both rifle and pistol are horribly spammy, which we really shouldn't be promoting.  

Edited July 4, 2023 by Gotejjeken.1267

[Polar.8634]

11 hours ago, TheeBlackDeath.5692 said:

So going back to a few nights ago when I got word of this new expansion coming out while I was on a break from the game for a few months, I was enlightened about these new weapon choices for each base profession in the game, as well as shared elite spec options. But in regards to these new base profession weapon options, a lot of them seem bad fits or there's way better options for weapons for those specific professions, and I shall be listing some weapons that would suit better as brand new weapons for the base professions as a whole.

Instead of Dual Pistol for Guard, we should instead get Warhorn Offhand for Guard since it's the only offhand tool they don't have yet, and it would work perfectly for them to give early access to pre-lvl 80 Alacrity and an ability to turn conditions into boons or cause allies to inflict conditions somewhat as a possible way to add more GW1 Paragon-esque abilities to the class, as Guard was inspired by it somewhat.
Instead of Pistol for Ele, we should instead get Main-hand Focus for Ele, not only as a way to make the class more unique and standout from the other casters by giving them an option the others don't, but as another way to give them more combos to work with in terms of Focus-use, very much akin to the Offhand Focus skills for Ele.
Instead of Rifle for Mes, we should instead get Shortbow for Mes as a way to finally complete the Bard-style gameplay into the class once and for all, as this change has been long-awaited for given how many Mesmers I've spoken to that have wanted Shortbow for this exact reason.
Instead of Mainhand Axe for Thief, we should instead get Offhand Sword or Greatsword for Thief, typically I wouldn't imagine Thief getting a 2handed melee weapon years ago, but with more and more "ninja-esque" and or katana greatswords come out, I think it might be time to let people go all out with this potential and finally give Thief a melee 2handed wep. But even despite that, Dual Sword for Thief, or just Offhand Sword, is an option that people have been DYING FOR ever since the game released and is really a missed opportunity if they don't capitalize on this and give the players something they've been begging to be added. 
Instead of Scepter for Rev, we should instead get Focus or Offhand Dagger for Rev instead, while Scepter isn't completely terrible for Rev I must say, there's still much better options for it overall and it must be stated. Focus for Rev would add much more potential to the class that others may or may not expect, from loosely being inspired by GW1's Ritualist profession, with Offhand Focus for Rev we can possibly see the return of some the Ritualist's abilities or abilities very similar to those if not inspired by them, such as skills from Ritualist's Channeling & Restoration Magic abilities that can possible be used for ranged options, if not some options for CC as well for early Rev. However, while Focus may or may not be the better choice in regards for Rev, Offhand Dagger is another good option also as another way to bring back some Ritualist-flare to the profession, but also to add some potential Rogue or Thief-like abilities to the profession too, from being able to inflict conditions(such as weakness & bleeding) and CC abilities to early Rev as well. 

And lastly, instead of Dual Mace for Ranger, we should get Rifle for Ranger 100%.
While most people will tell you that Rifle for Ranger wouldn't make sense for "thematic purposes" or whatever, I honestly think they haven't paid attention to the game at all or it's story, and haven't seen the plant-based rifle/pistol skins in the game already, bad enough we're supposed to be getting DUAL PISTOL FOR GUARD & ELE lol. The reason Rifle for Ranger is because Ranger is still supposed to also fill that "Huntsman" or "Trapper" feel to the class and not just a "nature guardian" or "druid" role as many would argue, and everyone knows Guns are better than Bows thanks to their power and range in that regard. The only true argument you could make against Rifle for Ranger would be it's placement in Ranger's weaponset, as Longbow is already it's power-based and AOE-based ranged option and Shortbow is already it's condi-based and movement/position ranged option. But why not have it be based with both in mind but with more utility or CC in mind for it instead? While both do have some CC abilities, base Ranger doesn't have any access to sole CC options with their weapons or very many options to apply stuff like Vulnerability or Weakness in their current weaponset, so instead we can have Rifle Ranger be like a hybrid between Rifle Warrior and Rifle Deadeye. While not focused solely on conditions, Rifle Ranger could be slower in fire rate than both Long and Short Bows but hits a bit harder than Longbow as a high-impact power-based CC weapon, while also having an auto-attack 2 and 3 that inflict vulnerability, a skill 3 relying on crouching and positioning by making you crouch and granting you fury for a short time while making your attacks inflict weakness to a target you hit from the side or from behind while you are crouching akin to Deadeye mixed with Ranger Shortbow, having a skill 4 to roll backwards a short distance with a follow-up skill to fire at your target to inflict crippled on them, and having access to a rifle butt skill 5 similar to Rifle Warrior's skill 5 to allow the Ranger to knockback a foe away from you or stun them if used directly behind your target.
Ideally Rifle for Ranger would be based solely around focusing on a single target and positioning but heavily lacks in AOE and movement/escape skills compared to Longbow and Shortbow because of it.

Most of these Profession weapon choices have been in high demand for quite awhile among the playerbase and it'd honestly be a shame if these end up being missed opportunities down the road and never get added in the end, as these seem to be much better changes than the majority of new weapon options Anet has thought people really wanted for awhile now... With the last good thing they've added personally was Greatsword to Rev with Vind, as that had actually made me return to this game from around this same time in 2021, so these options really won't change too much for me personally but I'm thinking in terms of other players and what they'd prefer and what Anet has been overlooking for awhile now. If you happen to have any better ideas or like these potential options better than what Anet has planned, be sure to share your thoughts so that we can discuss this and possibly come up with even better ideas than these somehow.
Here's hoping people at Anet have been taking notes by the playerbase or come across this single post and consider what has been said here by some miracle.

why people write esseys, i physically cannot read so much plain text. My eyeballs become sore

Edited July 4, 2023 by Polar.8634
added state of my eyeballs

[Leo G.4501]

1 hour ago, Polar.8634 said:

why people write esseys, i physically cannot read so much plain text. My eyeballs become sore

https://speechify.com/?h_ad_id=627894926386&gc_id=12454333918

[Acheron.1580]

Honestly no strong opinions on any of the upcoming weapons because we know so little about them. Had a laugh at gun/gun guardian but hey why not? Pistol elementalist sounds very outlaw star / spellshot and that's kind of a neat idea to me. Mace/mace? Finally a use for the moot. Why the ranger, who knows?! I picture staff warrior as a bannerman, like the oldschool banner skills they used to have. Not really sure on necro sword, thief axe, or engi shortbow, but maybe it'll have a cool theme I just don't see.

Would a focus mainhand be cool? Why not, I'd love 2 binding of Ipos floating around. Why stop there, spear guardian (if you are that into paragon influence), warhorn mainhand ranger (no think about it, it would be like a pet whistle and it would be AWFUL, but you'd love it anyways).

But until I see what they have planned it's a bit silly to get into hating the weapons already. I haven't had any desire for a rifle ranger, but I can understand the appeal. Just not the way you sell it because that weapon sounds really clunky and people already complain about untamed. Thief is a grab bag, the scepter came out of left field for me but I love it, kind of surprised they didn't get a mace to be honest (I always think of a sap or a blackjack).

What I'm getting at is "Bad weapon choices and improvements" are very subjective. Let's see how they mess it up and THEN riot.

Edited July 5, 2023 by Acheron.1580

[Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497]

1 hour ago, Acheron.1580 said:

Honestly no strong opinions on any of the upcoming weapons because we know so little about them. Had a laugh at gun/gun guardian but hey why not? Pistol elementalist sounds very outlaw star / spellshot and that's kind of a neat idea to me. Mace/mace? Finally a use for the moot. Why the ranger, who knows?! I picture staff warrior as a bannerman, like the oldschool banner skills they used to have. Not really sure on necro sword, thief axe, or engi shortbow, but maybe it'll have a cool theme I just don't see.

Would a focus mainhand be cool? Why not, I'd love 2 binding of Ipos floating around. Why stop there, spear guardian (if you are that into paragon influence), warhorn mainhand ranger (no think about it, it would be like a pet whistle and it would be AWFUL, but you'd love it anyways).

But until I see what they have planned it's a bit silly to get into hating the weapons already. I haven't had any desire for a rifle ranger, but I can understand the appeal. Just not the way you sell it because that weapon sounds really clunky and people already complain about untamed. Thief is a grab bag, the scepter came out of left field for me but I love it, kind of surprised they didn't get a mace to be honest (I always think of a sap or a blackjack).

What I'm getting at is "Bad weapon choices and improvements" are very subjective. Let's see how they mess it up and THEN riot.

Thieves STILL have only 2 off hands. So adding just a singular mainhand doesn't really add anything to the class - unless those skills are UBER amazing. And lets face it. This is ANET. Those skills are gonna miss the mark for years.

[Acheron.1580]

4 minutes ago, Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497 said:

Thieves STILL have only 2 off hands. So adding just a singular mainhand doesn't really add anything to the class - unless those skills are UBER amazing. And lets face it. This is ANET. Those skills are gonna miss the mark for years.

Very fair, I think they are afraid to make more offhands because of the interaction between 2 weapons for thieves. I mean obviously they will need to make more dual skills for those 2 weapons anyways, but it's still "less" work, balance aside.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Staff for warrior needs to do a lot of heavy lifting for it to be good.

[Acheron.1580]

Most staff weapons are support, so it might be a healing warrior / boon support weapon. Fills a niche without trying to compete with GS or axe/axe, dagger/axe. Hence why I think it's going to be like the older banners.

[Batalix.2873]

Generally agree with this. The new weapon choices really kill profession flavor/identity for me, and the fact that I, a person that prefers support mages, got precisely nothing with a warhorn, focus, or shield--all of which have been ignored since at least 2014.

Let's just give everyone a bazooka-chainsaw while we are at it, since apparently all the devs and the playerbase cares about are guns and offensive weapons. Unimaginative, narrow-minded game design and reception.

[minimoi.8195]

As to me some of the weapon choices make sense and some don't.

-Warrior with a staff will probably go support and maybe have a viable healing option with some trait reworks.

-Mesmer with rifle will probably do the same (at least i hope so !) because they wanted it for chronomancer instead of shield in the first place. It would be as paradoxal and funny as the ranged greatsword to have a rifle for support. Peace-of-mind-bullets ^^

-Axe for thief sound to me like a condi melee option. Could have been two axes, more style.

-Rev with scepter makes so much sense to me but i'm so frustrated that they won't be any new legend to channel (Gwen T_T). Focus would have been a plus because rev needs a ranged off hand weapon.

-Ranger with maces, i don't really see where it goes. Maybe more defensive and cc options, but ranger already has it all in melee. I would have loved a focus, with raw magical power dps and control to go with the brand new sword.

-Feeling lukewarm for ele. Many asked for gs torch or longbow but i don't really see any of it fitting either. Maybe ele could be more condi oriented so the pistol could be an answer. There is something shifting in the profession identity and that's a bit disturbing.

-I'm also troubled for engi, using a bow while you can use guns? I expect it to be an alchemic condi/support weapon at least. I think engi could have been better with a offhand weapon, a power dps one.

-Guardian has the same problem of lore fitting, it feels like the most awkward choice to me. Warhorn, shortbow, off hand mace or axe, even daggers would have been more fitting options. I'm guessing range condi for main hand but i don't see what the offhand will do as it already has torch. Control maybe.

-Necro... I felt nice that mesmer was the only caster to use both swords and gs, it gave it something special. Not anymore. Swords are cool and necro is the only of the 9 who cannot use it so i guess it felt a bit unfair, but here too i see other options that could fit more. Will this be a broken melee aoe condi creep?

Edited July 6, 2023 by minimoi.8195

[DeanBB.4268]

Did I miss the part where Anet revealed what all these new weapon skills will be? Otherwise, isn't this rather pointless? How can a weapon be declared "bad" when skills are unknown?

Edited July 6, 2023 by DeanBB.4268

[Batalix.2873]

@minimoi.8195

I feel the same way. I generally think that professions should have a priority system for new weapons based on (a) how well they fit the profession's identity and (b) how they add/remove from other professions' uniqueness.

OH Weapons and the Erasure of Support OHs

I think Guardian pistols, Ranger OH mace, and Necro OH sword utterly fail this system. Doubly so since we haven't have a shield/warhorn (or focus) espec since HoT and those support weapons are massively underrepresented. I also just generally don't see why Thief and Rev, both of which could really use a third OH core weapons, don't get one but those other classes do. I also agree that Engi could use an OH weapon more than a third ranged weapon.

In general, what I would have much preferred to see as a more well-rounded system that respected the full profession and weapon spectra:

* Guardian - pistol + WH

* Revenant - scepter + focus

* Ranger - mace + focus (maybe shield)

* Thief - axe + axe (maybe sword)

* Necro - sword + shield

* Engi - maybe axe + torch (maybe warhorn) (less committed to Engi since most weapons are fairly low-tech and Engi is designed to rely on kits more than weapons)

Other Meh Choices

I also think putting pistol on Ele is just an empty addition with Scepter now being a mid-range DPS weapon. Plus Ele really wants a big blasty weapon to compliment staff, would much rather have had magic cannoneer rifle Ele.

And rifle on Mesmer is....fine, but (a) it's not Ele or even Ranger and (b) shortbow is a much better fit for Mesmer on several levels.

I am actually fine with staff on Warrior, but after this most recent balance patch and the overpowering/consolidation of boonDPS in Berserker/BS being able to provide full boon uptime with no concentration and the deletion of banners...I feel like this is just going to add to the problem. Imo alac and quickness should be moved back to banners and just let support warriors do that, staff or otherwise.

Conclusion

Gotta be honest, these weapon choices were what made me skip on buying SotO. It kills my interest in the game so much to see active development put into new core weapons and then have nearly all of them be such poor choices. The sheer disappointment and low-key anxiety to be playing any of these classes in the future knowing you could have had shield Necro or focus Rev or rifle Ele and instead you just get...*gestures broadly*. To be given only the appearance of choice when the options are just irrelevant garbage.

Nope. Not interested. Maybe in a year or two when they add the weapons they should have added this expac, I will invest. As it stands this is a lot of dumb spectacle that erodes class fantasy more than it builds it up. And as a matter of appealing to me personally, it was the one thing in the entire expac that could have compelled me to buy (since all of the other features are recycled assets/mechanics I don't really need) and frankly all I got was a single scepter on Rev. A single MH weapon out of nine professions is so low a success rate I could argue it was totally random chance and these weapon choices might as well have been selected with a dartboard. Except it clearly wasn't, because they totally avoided adding any OH weapon with a support or magical flavor, an important facet of the game that maintains broader appeal.

Not intentional or well-considered design, not design that appeals to me, not buying.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Batalix.2873

[minimoi.8195]

Honestly i don't know where it goes with these new weapons, but i guess if they already told about it then they already have a quite precise idea of what they want to bring to each profession. The choice of some weapons is still confusing for some professions' identity because there is no new elite spec anymore and it's about core profession. I understand that there is a problem : we run out of lore fitting options to bring new weapons to complete the gameplay of professions but can't you find better for the actual set-up  you announced?

-Elementalist (Main hand) : Axe with ranged skills could be more fitting than pistol no?

-Ranger (Main + off hand) : run out of option for MH (scepter or mace), but off hand is more flexible (sword, focus...). You want to put dual mace for an adventurer who has already hammer while most of soldiers can't even have dual mace, there is a loss of meaning here.

-Necromancer (Main + off hand) : Remains Mace and Sword only for MH, and i think here mace is more fitting. I like the idea that a caster especially necro could use a mace for once. For offhand, mace and axe are still available.

-Guardian (Main + off hand) : here too we run out of ranged options if you want a new main hand. That being said i believe that pistol remains a big lore mistake while some other weapons make way more sense : shortbow, warhorn, off hand mace / axe...

-For the 5 others it feels okay, and i look forward to discover it, but a ranged off hand for revenant would have been necessary (focus with the scepter) and another off hand for thief too.

Edited July 11, 2023 by minimoi.8195

[Darklord Roy.2514]

On 7/4/2023 at 5:29 AM, TheeBlackDeath.5692 said:

So going back to a few nights ago when I got word of this new expansion coming out while I was on a break from the game for a few months, I was enlightened about these new weapon choices for each base profession in the game, as well as shared elite spec options. But in regards to these new base profession weapon options, a lot of them seem bad fits or there's way better options for weapons for those specific professions, and I shall be listing some weapons that would suit better as brand new weapons for the base professions as a whole.

Instead of Dual Pistol for Guard, we should instead get Warhorn Offhand for Guard since it's the only offhand tool they don't have yet, and it would work perfectly for them to give early access to pre-lvl 80 Alacrity and an ability to turn conditions into boons or cause allies to inflict conditions somewhat as a possible way to add more GW1 Paragon-esque abilities to the class, as Guard was inspired by it somewhat.
Instead of Pistol for Ele, we should instead get Main-hand Focus for Ele, not only as a way to make the class more unique and standout from the other casters by giving them an option the others don't, but as another way to give them more combos to work with in terms of Focus-use, very much akin to the Offhand Focus skills for Ele.
Instead of Rifle for Mes, we should instead get Shortbow for Mes as a way to finally complete the Bard-style gameplay into the class once and for all, as this change has been long-awaited for given how many Mesmers I've spoken to that have wanted Shortbow for this exact reason.
Instead of Mainhand Axe for Thief, we should instead get Offhand Sword or Greatsword for Thief, typically I wouldn't imagine Thief getting a 2handed melee weapon years ago, but with more and more "ninja-esque" and or katana greatswords come out, I think it might be time to let people go all out with this potential and finally give Thief a melee 2handed wep. But even despite that, Dual Sword for Thief, or just Offhand Sword, is an option that people have been DYING FOR ever since the game released and is really a missed opportunity if they don't capitalize on this and give the players something they've been begging to be added. 
Instead of Scepter for Rev, we should instead get Focus or Offhand Dagger for Rev instead, while Scepter isn't completely terrible for Rev I must say, there's still much better options for it overall and it must be stated. Focus for Rev would add much more potential to the class that others may or may not expect, from loosely being inspired by GW1's Ritualist profession, with Offhand Focus for Rev we can possibly see the return of some the Ritualist's abilities or abilities very similar to those if not inspired by them, such as skills from Ritualist's Channeling & Restoration Magic abilities that can possible be used for ranged options, if not some options for CC as well for early Rev. However, while Focus may or may not be the better choice in regards for Rev, Offhand Dagger is another good option also as another way to bring back some Ritualist-flare to the profession, but also to add some potential Rogue or Thief-like abilities to the profession too, from being able to inflict conditions(such as weakness & bleeding) and CC abilities to early Rev as well. 

And lastly, instead of Dual Mace for Ranger, we should get Rifle for Ranger 100%.
While most people will tell you that Rifle for Ranger wouldn't make sense for "thematic purposes" or whatever, I honestly think they haven't paid attention to the game at all or it's story, and haven't seen the plant-based rifle/pistol skins in the game already, bad enough we're supposed to be getting DUAL PISTOL FOR GUARD & ELE lol. The reason Rifle for Ranger is because Ranger is still supposed to also fill that "Huntsman" or "Trapper" feel to the class and not just a "nature guardian" or "druid" role as many would argue, and everyone knows Guns are better than Bows thanks to their power and range in that regard. The only true argument you could make against Rifle for Ranger would be it's placement in Ranger's weaponset, as Longbow is already it's power-based and AOE-based ranged option and Shortbow is already it's condi-based and movement/position ranged option. But why not have it be based with both in mind but with more utility or CC in mind for it instead? While both do have some CC abilities, base Ranger doesn't have any access to sole CC options with their weapons or very many options to apply stuff like Vulnerability or Weakness in their current weaponset, so instead we can have Rifle Ranger be like a hybrid between Rifle Warrior and Rifle Deadeye. While not focused solely on conditions, Rifle Ranger could be slower in fire rate than both Long and Short Bows but hits a bit harder than Longbow as a high-impact power-based CC weapon, while also having an auto-attack 2 and 3 that inflict vulnerability, a skill 3 relying on crouching and positioning by making you crouch and granting you fury for a short time while making your attacks inflict weakness to a target you hit from the side or from behind while you are crouching akin to Deadeye mixed with Ranger Shortbow, having a skill 4 to roll backwards a short distance with a follow-up skill to fire at your target to inflict crippled on them, and having access to a rifle butt skill 5 similar to Rifle Warrior's skill 5 to allow the Ranger to knockback a foe away from you or stun them if used directly behind your target.
Ideally Rifle for Ranger would be based solely around focusing on a single target and positioning but heavily lacks in AOE and movement/escape skills compared to Longbow and Shortbow because of it.

Most of these Profession weapon choices have been in high demand for quite awhile among the playerbase and it'd honestly be a shame if these end up being missed opportunities down the road and never get added in the end, as these seem to be much better changes than the majority of new weapon options Anet has thought people really wanted for awhile now... With the last good thing they've added personally was Greatsword to Rev with Vind, as that had actually made me return to this game from around this same time in 2021, so these options really won't change too much for me personally but I'm thinking in terms of other players and what they'd prefer and what Anet has been overlooking for awhile now. If you happen to have any better ideas or like these potential options better than what Anet has planned, be sure to share your thoughts so that we can discuss this and possibly come up with even better ideas than these somehow.
Here's hoping people at Anet have been taking notes by the playerbase or come across this single post and consider what has been said here by some miracle.

Look, I understand that you have your preferences on what you would like the new weapons to be. It's completely fine for everyone to have their own tastes for different build flavors and how they would like their characters to look when playing certain builds.

What I don't get, however, is calling these weapon selections bad *when we know actually 0 information about the skills that will be on them.* How are we gonna say "they should use THIS weapon for this class instead because it opens up all of these possibilities" when we don't even know what the current possibilities are? Why does a guardian need to have warhorn specifically in order to get alacrity?

At the end of the day, your post can only realistically be interpreted as a complaint about *aesthetic* reasons for not liking the weapon choices. It makes 0 sense to bring up any sort of mechanical or design changes for these weapons until we actually know what the new weapon skills are gonna be.

[Doctor Hide.6345]

     I am honestly happy with some of them while others don't make sense to me. Granted, I will say I am bias to guns more, but even in that bias I prefer pistols more even if rifles can work.(I just prefer the aesthetics of pistols more even if rifles are more effective because of the range.) So, for me this is just my take:

Guardians: I am loving the fact they get P/P, and I think it matches the holy warrior theme too. Times evolve along with weapons. If holy warriors existed today, you bet they would use guns as well. Just look at all the media with holy fighters using pistols, so for me, it makes sense to add P/P to Guardian.

Elementalist: Arcane Gunners exist in media as well, so adding pistol to Eles I am fine with because it matches the theme of them. I get why no dual pistols because of  Ele's innate attunement switching and the work involved.

Mesmer: I am 50/50 on the rifle. I would have preferred MH pistol instead, so I could P/P with their offhand as a Void Gunner.

Revenant: I don't play this one much, so I guess scepter is fine. 

Warrior: I would have added a MH pistol just so I could P/P with their off-hand even if it is melee range.

Engineer: I don't care for bows that much to be honest, but I am not sure what they could have added, so it works I guess.

Thief: I would have preferred GS on them just to match anime themes more. 

Necromancer: I would preferred off-hand pistol, so again I could P/P as a necro with Harbi's main hand pistol.

Ranger: I would have preferred Rifle to be honest because I think it fits them better.

     Overall though as you can tell I prefer theme/Aesthetics over actual gameplay reasoning. Sure, they could have added off-hand warhorn or focus to some for functionality, but for me, that is a boring reason to do it. I just hope in time I will get what I want with the weapons being added each new expansion. 

Edited July 11, 2023 by Doctor Hide.6345

[Eekasqueak.7850]

Ranger I'm neutral on, thief I would have wanted torch and meaner I would have preferred hammer the rest though I'm looking forward to and we still haven't seen the skills yet so. 

[minimoi.8195]

On 7/12/2023 at 12:34 AM, Doctor Hide.6345 said:

  Guardians: I am loving the fact they get P/P, and I think it matches the holy warrior theme too. Times evolve along with weapons. If holy warriors existed today, you bet they would use guns as well. Just look at all the media with holy fighters using pistols, so for me, it makes sense to add P/P to Guardian.

Yay Law and Order Super Cop incoming