New Professions or Elite specializations.

[nobleboivin.4102]

New elites.  Give me something ronin themed.  Looking at you theif :3

I also would really really love an elementalist elite that rewards for using only one element

[Nash.2681]

On 4/28/2024 at 7:29 AM, Gop.8713 said:

Too many specs already. Balance is hopeless. I'd rather see them cut ten than add one . . .

This. And besides the balance mess we have, we already see massive streamlining of classes/specs and less and less class/spec diversity. I don't see how adding more specs would change this to the better.

[Dadnir.5038]

1 hour ago, nobleboivin.4102 said:

New elites.  Give me something ronin themed.

Bladesworn say "hi!"... Unfortunately... 😒

[VocalThought.9835]

Warrior: Weapon Master- These Warriors have 3 weapons sets instead of 2. Your normal weapon swap (~) will goto the next weapon where your F3 will toggle back to the previous weapon.  The adrenalin would be one bar and the F1 will still be the burst attack. An F2 ability will mark a combat area called "Battle Grounds" which will buff the Warrior when in it or attacking a foe that' in the marked area. The new weapon will be either Dual Focuses (Foci) or Main hand Shield. Their skills will be similar to Elementalist Augmentation, which will add buffs to the Warrior and additional buffs when their in or attack a foe that's in the Battle Grounds.

Guardian: Summoner- Guardians now have mystical mythical spirit animal companions that morphs based on the virtues the summoner attunes to. F1 will be Chimera, F2 will be a  Caladrius, and F3 will be a Spirit Fox. The Summoner will always attune to one virture when the animal spirit is active and only has the passive of the unattune and off cool down virtures.  The F1 - F3 will Summon the corresponding spirit animal and mark their destination. The spirit animal will attack in their area while also pulsing out their corresponding virtues. F4 will dismiss or re-summon the animal spirit if it dies and when it's not on cool down.  Their weapon will be the War Horn. Their skills would be similar to Necro's Punishment Skills.

Revenant: Remnant- These Revs use the F2 to  transform to an Avatar of the Mist. Like a necro shroud, it changes all their weapon skills and reducing the energy cost for using their right skill bar while loosing the ability to weapons swap while in this state. They're new legend could be the first master of the mist or a legend from the Future, since the mist knows not time. Their new weapon would be Focus. Their skills would be similar to Theif's Preparation Skills.

Rangers: Shapeshifter- Simply put, these Rangers can finally merge into their pet, opposite of the Soulbeast. The F5 will transform the Ranger into their pet and change the weapon skills to their pet skills, where while their in animal form, skill 1 will be the pets first attack,  2 will be the second, 3 will be the third, 4 will be the known beast ability, and 5 could be the soulbeast's archetype skill or a new skill altogether. Their new weapon would be the Shield. Their new skills will be Meditation Skills where they can call animals or plants to damage enemies or buff them and their allies. 

Engineer: Mastermind- These Engineers are master planners that professional mechanics change from "Tools" to "Tactics" against their enemies. Like the Thief's Steal ability, Engineers' F1 Surveys an enemy granting an engineer an F2 and F3 tactical skill based on the enemy surveyed. These Tactical ability can be an attack that damages/conditions foes (F2) or a buff for allies (F3) Their new weapon is the Focus. Their new skills would Traps.

Thief: Raider- These thieves have a new mechanic called Intuition, when 5 intuition points are maxed, generating a point/sec, they get Aegis, blocking the next incoming attack.  Their new weapon would be Torch. Their new skills will be Improvisations, similar to Engineer Exceed Skills, which would have a different intensity based on how much Initiative there is when cast.

Elementalist: Archemage- These Elementalist F5 skill is a Arcane, the 5th element, that relies on a energy bar that builds with Arcane magic as the Elementalist switch between the Core Attunements , and allows them to use the 5th element, "Arcane" to go into the Arcane Shroud. While in this Shroud they can't use any other skill, but when they attune to any other element, it goes on cool down. Their new weapon is the offhand Scepter. Their new skills are Mantras.

Mesmer: Doppelganger- These Mesmer have only one clone instead of three, that has a health bar and regenerates health every time a skill is used that summons an illusion, instead of summoning a new clone. The F1 causes damage around the clone and command the clone to attack a marked area, F2 causes confusion around the Mesmer and the clone and they swap places. F3 Dazes those around the Mesmer and clone. F4 causes Distortion around you and summons the clone back to your location. The clone will always use the same weapon as the Mesmer and will swap weapons either at the same time or after it lands it's last attack. If a Phantasm is summon, the clone will be replaced by the phantasm and will convert back to the clone after the last phantasm attack. If the clone dies, than the next clone skill will summon the next clone but at a low health. Their new weapon will be a main hand focus. Their new skills will be a new type of Illusion call Poltergeist or Phantom. Like minions, these are horrid illusions cause a range of conditions when they attack, while also, like the phantasm, replacing the clone when summoned.

Necromancer: Warlock- F1 is a Shroud that allows their life force to be used as a second health bar, but provides no new Shroud skills, but F2 is now a Burst ability where when the life force bar builds up they use energy to cause a major attack based on their offhand weapon or Two-Handed weapon. Their new weapon will be the Shield. Their new Skills will be Glyphs that change when their in Shroud.

Edited May 20 by VocalThought.9835
Updated information.

[Tobias.4975]

15 hours ago, VocalThought.9835 said:

Revenant: Remnant- These Revs use the F2 to  transform to an Avatar of the Mist. Like a necro shroud, it changes all their weapon skills and reducing the energy cost for using their right skill bar while loosing the ability to weapons swap while in this state. They're new legend could be the first master of the mist or a legend from the Future, since the mist knows not time. Their skills would be similar to Glyphs. 

I see it in my mind  a shroud made of the foggy-white-red Mistmagic around you. Make the shroud reduce incoming damage or condi-damage/-duration, etc, cause you don't get a real second lifebar, like necroshroud.

Making the Avatar-Skills realy strong Starting with 75% energy, but you can't regenerate Energy in Avatar, so you don't camp on it. Maybe the Avatar give you a timed Buff or an additional Effect on the Weaponskills  based on the Legend used.

Would suggest Razah, as a beeing from the mist,  as legend but also a custom one, who is ascended through the mists, should work too.

Weapon i suggest a Focus, give it an onslaugt-ability as a skill to charge, range 500-1200 depending how long you are loading befor pressing the flip-skill. Damaging up to 5 targets on your way. Self-Boons + additional effect, based on your current legend. Second skill, many will not be happy about this, but what about stealth. Make it a beam or a lightning, More hits, more stealth.

Glyphs could be work a bite like a Reverse-Druid. You get the supportiv aspect when out of Avatar.

Maybe the elite-one can summon a crystal for a few seconds, that debuffs your enemy or buffs your group, depending on if your in avatar or not.

Or you can buff the people around you, like thief-poison. So they can do barrier or boons per hit, In avatar a second strike or condi per hit.

Traitline might enhance  the Avatar, by increasing the starting energy to 100%, get boons per intervall, increasing attributes while in shroud, etc.

Or the "glyphs" by adding additional effects.

All in all, i realy like the Idea. Makes me a bit sad, that it will not come true. 

[draxynnic.3719]

Lord Odran continues to get no respect, I see.

Guardian proposal feels like it's basically catalyst, but guardian. Punishment-style skills would probably be better than augments, though. I'd probably go with things that are established in the setting rather than creating two never-seen-before entities, though.

A thief mechanic that relies on not spending initiative doesn't seem like it'd be fun to play.

The doppelganger seems like an interesting concept, but I'd probably avoid having the doppelganger change into phantasms. Instead, have the doppelganger copy the mesmer's skills at reduced effectiveness, and gain health when a phantasm or poltergeist expires.

[VocalThought.9835]

14 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Lord Odran continues to get no respect, I see.

Guardian proposal feels like it's basically catalyst, but guardian. Punishment-style skills would probably be better than augments, though. I'd probably go with things that are established in the setting rather than creating two never-seen-before entities, though.

A thief mechanic that relies on not spending initiative doesn't seem like it'd be fun to play.

The doppelganger seems like an interesting concept, but I'd probably avoid having the doppelganger change into phantasms. Instead, have the doppelganger copy the mesmer's skills at reduced effectiveness, and gain health when a phantasm or poltergeist expires.

Thanks for the feedback.  Guardian summons are intended to be more like minions or pets, not like jade spheres. So I need to add that language.

Theif's mechanics could have traits that supports increasing the use of intuition. Also, I meant to say Intuition gives Aegis, not evades.

I like your idea for Mesmer. It's definitely less complicated, but it takes away from the Mesmer only having one illusion active at a time.

 

[Verdict is Vengence.6912]

What was meant for warrior all along:

[VocalThought.9835]

2 hours ago, Verdict is Vengence.6912 said:

What was meant for warrior all along:

This was actually supposed to be Engineer, but the messed up... lol.

[VocalThought.9835]

On 5/14/2024 at 11:55 AM, VocalThought.9835 said:

Warrior: Weapon Master- These Warriors have 3 weapons sets instead of 2. Your normal weapon swap (~) will goto the next weapon where your F3 will toggle back to the previous weapon.  The adrenalin would be one bar and the F1 will still be the burst attack. An F2 ability will mark a combat area called "Battle Grounds" which will buff the Warrior when in it or attacking a foe that' in the marked area. The new weapon will be either Dual Focuses (Foci) or Main hand Shield. Their skills will be similar to Elementalist Augmentation, which will add buffs to the Warrior and additional buffs when their in or attack a foe that's in the Battle Grounds.

Guardian: Summoner- Guardians now have mystical mythical spirit animal companions that morphs based on the virtues the summoner attunes to. F1 will be Chimera, F2 will be a  Caladrius, and F3 will be a Spirit Fox. The Summoner will always attune to one virture when the animal spirit is active and only has the passive of the unattune and off cool down virtures.  The F1 - F3 will Summon the corresponding spirit animal and mark their destination. The spirit animal will attack in their area while also pulsing out their corresponding virtues. F4 will dismiss or re-summon the animal spirit if it dies and when it's not on cool down.  Their weapon will be the War Horn. Their skills would be similar to Necro's Punishment Skills.

Revenant: Remnant- These Revs use the F2 to  transform to an Avatar of the Mist. Like a necro shroud, it changes all their weapon skills and reducing the energy cost for using their right skill bar while loosing the ability to weapons swap while in this state. They're new legend could be the first master of the mist or a legend from the Future, since the mist knows not time. Their new weapon would be Focus. Their skills would be similar to Theif's Preparation Skills.

Rangers: Shapeshifter- Simply put, these Rangers can finally merge into their pet, opposite of the Soulbeast. The F5 will transform the Ranger into their pet and change the weapon skills to their pet skills, where while their in animal form, skill 1 will be the pets first attack,  2 will be the second, 3 will be the third, 4 will be the known beast ability, and 5 could be the soulbeast's archetype skill or a new skill altogether. Their new weapon would be the Shield. Their new skills will be Meditation Skills where they can call animals or plants to damage enemies or buff them and their allies. 

Engineer: Mastermind- These Engineers are master planners that professional mechanics change from "Tools" to "Tactics" against their enemies. Like the Thief's Steal ability, Engineers' F1 Surveys an enemy granting an engineer an F2 and F3 tactical skill based on the enemy surveyed. These Tactical ability can be an attack that damages/conditions (F2) foes or a buff for allies (F3) Their new weapon is the Focus. Their new skills would Traps.

Thief: Raider- These thieves have a new mechanic called Intuition, when 5 intuition points are maxed, generating a point/sec, they get Aegis, blocking the next incoming attack.  Their new weapon would be Torch. Their new skills will be Improvisations, similar to Engineer Exceed Skills, which would have a different intensity based on how much Initiative there is when cast.

Elementalist: Archemage- These Elementalist F5 skill is a Arcane, the 5th element, that relies on a energy bar that builds with Arcane magic as the Elementalist switch between the Core Attunements , and allows them to use the 5th element, "Arcane" to go into the Arcane Shroud. While in this Shroud they can't use any other skill, but when they attune to any other element, it goes on cool down. Their new weapon is the offhand Scepter. Their new skills are Mantras.

Mesmer: Doppelganger- These Mesmer have only one clone instead of three, that has a health bar and regenerates health every time a skill is used that summons an illusion, instead of summoning a new clone. The F1 causes damage around the clone and command the clone to attack a marked area, F2 causes confusion around the Mesmer and the clone and they swap places. F3 Dazes those around the Mesmer and clone. F4 causes Distortion around you and summons the clone back to your location. The clone will always use the same weapon as the Mesmer and will swap weapons either at the same time or after it lands it's last attack. If a Phantasm is summon, the clone will be replaced by the phantasm and will convert back to the clone after the last phantasm attack. If the clone dies, than the next clone skill will summon the next clone but at a low health. Their new weapon will be a main hand focus. Their new skills will be a new type of Illusion call Poltergeist or Phantom. Like minions, these are horrid illusions cause a range of conditions when they attack, while also, like the phantasm, replacing the clone when summoned.

Necromancer: Warlock- F1 is a Shroud that allows their life force to be used as a second health bar, but provides no new Shroud skills, but F2 is now a Burst ability where when the life force bar builds up they use energy to cause a major attack based on their offhand weapon or Two-Handed weapon. Their new weapon will be the Shield. Their new Skills will be Glyphs that change when their in Shroud.

I had to change these after a second thought. I think these changes would be more impactful to the concept and better cover what I think is missing from the Professions.

[Magmi.6723]

tbh,

I'd rather see them Rebalance / Rework Existing speccs then new speccs, when the vast majority of the playerbase are Only playing 2 classes, it highlights a Serious issue. It also gives them a Opportunity to Reduce distribution of Boons / Overlapping Roles and Role compression which would benefit Every game mode realistically. Instead everyones getting spears, which is cool sure. 

but lets face it, Its going to either go 1 of 2 ways

Every class in the game will Use a Spear in their Best builds, Or its going to be another super Low Impact addition to the game that will go un-noticed.

Changing Long term Parts of Classes would have been a FAR more exciting concept long term and encourages people to log on and physically engage with it, Instead of some Off meta weapon that may see some RP Value.

[ShadowInTheVoid.9183]

On 5/2/2024 at 4:39 PM, Panda.1967 said:

I still want to see Ritualist, Dervish, & Paragon added as new professions… and those three all line up quite well as Light, Medium, Heavy armor respectively. Monk would be nice to see returned too, but if I have to choose between Monk & Ritualist I will always choose Ritualist…

Monk feels like it should be a Guardian specialisation. It could drop your armor level but give you big boosts to healing and concerntraion and have a lot of support skills. Maybe something like how Spectre scepter works?
Paragon feels like a natural specialistaion for Warior, especially with how well the 2 profesions worked together in GW1. AOE damage reduction stuff and some AOE shout-like skills would be fun.

Dervish.............feel obvious that it should be Revenant as it's channeling the gods but also the gods ran away so can you really channel them?
I could see Dervish being a fit for Thief, make it replace stealth with something that gives big boosts to both offence and defence for short bursts and maybe give them another way to pump out quickness?

Ritualist actually feels like would be a fun specialition for Revenent. Channel Togo and give you spirits as utility skills with a choice of defence or offensive boosts to them by traits

[Panda.1967]

2 hours ago, ShadowInTheVoid.9183 said:

Monk feels like it should be a Guardian specialisation. It could drop your armor level but give you big boosts to healing and concerntraion and have a lot of support skills. Maybe something like how Spectre scepter works?
Paragon feels like a natural specialistaion for Warior, especially with how well the 2 profesions worked together in GW1. AOE damage reduction stuff and some AOE shout-like skills would be fun.

Dervish.............feel obvious that it should be Revenant as it's channeling the gods but also the gods ran away so can you really channel them?
I could see Dervish being a fit for Thief, make it replace stealth with something that gives big boosts to both offence and defence for short bursts and maybe give them another way to pump out quickness?

Ritualist actually feels like would be a fun specialition for Revenent. Channel Togo and give you spirits as utility skills with a choice of defence or offensive boosts to them by traits

At one point in time I would have agreed that they could all have worked as especs… but that time has gone and passed…

Monk could still work as a Guardian espec, though picking a weapon may prove difficult.

Paragon just lost its last hope of being an espec with Janthir Wilds… unless they surprise us all with a new set of especs between now and august 20…

Dervish has never fit as an espec in my opinion… it has a fairly solid identity that doesn’t really blend with the existing professions enough to work as an espec… currently the closest we have is Spellbreaker Warrior with Staff. (Which I still find hilarious since I had a Warrior/Dervish in GW1 named Varsh Spellbreaker who played almost exactly how the Spellbreaker does, staff funny enough added in the missing pieces)

I have been asking for Ritualist as a Revenant espec since the Revenant came out… Revenat was originally announced as the spiritual successor to the Ritualist… one of ANets biggest lies ever… over the years my hope for it has died… first the class mechanic of Revenant really holds things back… then in PoF we got Renegade as a psudo-Ritualist whose got the worst spirit skills every conceived… then in EoD they gave us the Vindicator ruining the only opportunity we’ll likely ever see of getting Ritualist in a thematically accurate expac… Vindicator had every opportunity to bring some real ritualist skills to Revenant too… then SotO took out the last ritualist viable weapon choice with Sceptre and made it into a complete joke of a weapon… also, EoD added actual Ritualist NPCs who use actual proper Ritualist skills…

[draxynnic.3719]

3 hours ago, Panda.1967 said:

At one point in time I would have agreed that they could all have worked as especs… but that time has gone and passed…

Monk could still work as a Guardian espec, though picking a weapon may prove difficult.

Paragon just lost its last hope of being an espec with Janthir Wilds… unless they surprise us all with a new set of especs between now and august 20…

Dervish has never fit as an espec in my opinion… it has a fairly solid identity that doesn’t really blend with the existing professions enough to work as an espec… currently the closest we have is Spellbreaker Warrior with Staff. (Which I still find hilarious since I had a Warrior/Dervish in GW1 named Varsh Spellbreaker who played almost exactly how the Spellbreaker does, staff funny enough added in the missing pieces)

I have been asking for Ritualist as a Revenant espec since the Revenant came out… Revenat was originally announced as the spiritual successor to the Ritualist… one of ANets biggest lies ever… over the years my hope for it has died… first the class mechanic of Revenant really holds things back… then in PoF we got Renegade as a psudo-Ritualist whose got the worst spirit skills every conceived… then in EoD they gave us the Vindicator ruining the only opportunity we’ll likely ever see of getting Ritualist in a thematically accurate expac… Vindicator had every opportunity to bring some real ritualist skills to Revenant too… then SotO took out the last ritualist viable weapon choice with Sceptre and made it into a complete joke of a weapon… also, EoD added actual Ritualist NPCs who use actual proper Ritualist skills…

ArenaNet have explicitly said that elite specialisations are still on the table. They're just not crazy enough to commit to a new set every year.

A bit of a historical note: The most popular request for a new profession pre-HoT was 'spirit warrior' - the idea being to have something like dervish's avatar mechanic, but since the gods were human-specific, they'd instead draw on ritualist-like techniques to channel powerful spirits through their bodies. That's pretty much exactly what revenant is. I don't recall Arenanet ever calling revenant a spiritual successor to ritualist - that title actually went to engineer (you can see how many engineer skill types match to ritualist skill types, converted to GW2 mechanics, although turrets being nerfed to death and then abandoned put a pretty massive caveat on engineers being ritualist successors).

Ritualist as a revenant elite spec ain't happening... or to be more precise, it's already happened and renegade showed the limits of what they could do with that. Despite having the common theme of drawing on the power of entities in the Mists, revs and rits are actually polar opposites in many ways. Rit was a ranged caster, rev is almost obliged to spend at least some of its time in melee range (you might just about get away with a full ranged rev if you run Shiro/Kalla - running Ventari immediately runs into the problem of having no ranged support weapon). Ritualist was possibly the most versatile and customisable profession in GW1, with multiple different combinations of skill types and synergies between skill types you can use to generate a wide range of playstyles and roles. Rev, meanwhile, is one of the least customisable, since instead of picking utility skills individually, you just choose two legends, and your legend choice often constrains which weapon and trait choices are practical.

If they were to try a ritualist elite spec, it'd probably work better on some other magic-using profession that has ritualist-like themes like necromancer (if scourge isn't already it...), guardian, or ranger. 

[Panda.1967]

2 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

I don't recall Arenanet ever calling revenant a spiritual successor to ritualist - that title actually went to engineer (you can see how many engineer skill types match to ritualist skill types, converted to GW2 mechanics, although turrets being nerfed to death and then abandoned put a pretty massive caveat on engineers being ritualist successors).

The first announcements from ANet about the Revenant, they explicitly called it a spiritual successor to the Ritualist. Every claim of the Engineer being the spiritual successor of the Ritualist has cone from players, ANet has only ever called Engineer “a new addition to the professions lineup”. You and I have had this discussion several times over the years. You will never convince me of your claim, I know what they said back then.

[draxynnic.3719]

3 hours ago, Panda.1967 said:

The first announcements from ANet about the Revenant, they explicitly called it a spiritual successor to the Ritualist. Every claim of the Engineer being the spiritual successor of the Ritualist has cone from players, ANet has only ever called Engineer “a new addition to the professions lineup”. You and I have had this discussion several times over the years. You will never convince me of your claim, I know what they said back then.

I don't recall if they did use exactly the same words for the Engineer, but they did say right back with Factions that they made the ritualist because they wanted to make an engineer playstyle, but Tyria didn't have the technology level at the time so they figured out a way to make a magical profession with a similar playstyle. While Revenant has never attempted to be an actual ritualist playstyle in its entirety, even though Kalla can allow you to dip into it.

I know they did make the comparison between ritualist and revenant lorewise (they both draw from entities in the Mists after all), but it's very clearly not intended to have the same role and playstyle. Some of the very things you're complaining about - such as traditional ritualist weapons like staff and scepter being made into melee weapons - are only driving that home even further. 

[draxynnic.3719]

13 hours ago, Panda.1967 said:

Every claim of the Engineer being the spiritual successor of the Ritualist has cone from players, ANet has only ever called Engineer “a new addition to the professions lineup”. 

"Arena Net's designers suggest that the engineer profession resembles the ritualist profession, which was introduced in the Factions add-on for the original Guild Wars. Like the ritualist, whose ability to summon spirit creatures acted as a powerful pre-battle strategy, the engineer has a clear-cut strength in planning ahead of battles. Specifically, the engineer can swap in the proper kit skills and establish a defensive perimeter with turrets."

This preview article, paragraph 5.

I've shown a citation (not the one I was originally thinking of, because third-party articles from 2006 are hard to find if they're even still up), that unless the Gamespot author of that article was lying - and why would they - ArenaNet absolutely made the comparison around the time they announced the Engineer.

I'd say "your turn", but on further consideration, it's absolutely the sort of puntastic thing they'd have said, even though the Revenant is if anything a complete inversion of a spiritual successor to the Ritualist. The term is normally used in cases where something has a similar gameplay and feel to the original, but does not have the same lore because the makings of the spiritual successor do not own the IP and can only make a game that is similar but legally distinct. As a relatively recent example, Songs of Conquest is commonly cited as a spiritual successor to the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise. Revenant compared to ritualist shares the lore, but that's pretty much all it shares: while hammer existed, revenant was pretty much always presented as a soldier profession that generally wanted to get into the thick of the action, all of the DPS-oriented legends on HoT release had at least one skill that assumed you were going to be in melee while a healer would also want to be in melee to use staff, and one of the legend elites is an avatar mechanic with the serial number filed off, and the only summon present in the core legends was Ventari's tablet. That's not exactly going to be the Guild Wars 2 adaptation of a full caster that mostly focused on summoning and on supporting allies with healing, cleansing, and offensive buffs. 

You can, if you like, claim that you were lied to on the basis of a statement that may or may not have been said and was probably a joke if it was, but ArenaNet was pretty upfront about what they were making with revenant, and it was never ritualist. You have an elite specialisation legend that can summon spirits... which have been debased to be even more of a short-term summon then they were on release, following a trend that has been applying to pretty much every summon skill that hasn't had its damage nerfed to almost nothing because ArenaNet can't balance long-term summons that actually do worthwhile damage. You were never promised more than that.

Edited June 6 by draxynnic.3719

[Anthony.8056]

I feel like they missed the opportunity to add a Bard spec to Mesmer. Considering it is a unique class just like Mesmer and rare in other games. It would have fit the support and inspiration theme well in this game with the boons. I just like the musical aspect of the bard and would have a been great to see musical notes shatter.

[VocalThought.9835]

On 6/12/2024 at 12:10 AM, Anthony.8056 said:

I feel like they missed the opportunity to add a Bard spec to Mesmer. Considering it is a unique class just like Mesmer and rare in other games. It would have fit the support and inspiration theme well in this game with the boons. I just like the musical aspect of the bard and would have a been great to see musical notes shatter.

I think "Bard" is already captured in Mesmer.  I don't know what's missing. You can already add instrumental skins the weapons. Mantras, in my opinion is just like songs.  They even added Virtuoso to the game... all you need if a way to turn Daggers into musical notes.

Edited June 13 by VocalThought.9835

[draxynnic.3719]

14 hours ago, VocalThought.9835 said:

I think "Bard" is already captured in Mesmer.  I don't know what's missing. You can already add instrumental skins the weapons. Mantras, in my opinion is just like songs.  They even added Virtuoso to the game... all you need if a way to turn Daggers into musical notes.

Virtuoso is horribly misnamed - there's nothing bard-like in that elite specialisation. Chronomancer is, if anything, closer, just think of the wells as magical percussion instruments rather than clocks.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

On 5/2/2024 at 11:39 AM, Panda.1967 said:

I still want to see Ritualist, Dervish, & Paragon added as new professions…

Well, you almost got what you wanted. Scourges are close to be ritualists in their playstyle...maybe a bit of a stretch but you can do it. If you give a warrior a scythe skin on their staff (I know I did) then they're basically a dervish, and the new spear they're getting is specifically a reference to paragons.

[Magmi.6723]

On 6/13/2024 at 6:27 PM, VocalThought.9835 said:

I think "Bard" is already captured in Mesmer.  I don't know what's missing. You can already add instrumental skins the weapons. Mantras, in my opinion is just like songs.  They even added Virtuoso to the game... all you need if a way to turn Daggers into musical notes.

I’d disagree, 

Everything bardish about the class is pretty much RP. 

I miss a good bard class tbh, EverQuest 1 bard was amazing. Unfortunately not many modern games adopt this class anymore. 
 

[Treetoptrickster.4205]

Elite Specs were and are a huge draw of the first three expansions. Losing that will always feel bad. I kind of wish we'd still get new toys so I can make new toons for them and everything too. That was a really fun part of the game. I can sympathize with Anet about putting an end to that though. First and foremost, the more you add to the class, balancing gets exponentially more complicated. Also, there are only so many niches that you can invent an Espec for. I don't think they've exhausted all of them yet, but in a hypothetical future where every few years the classes strictly grow instead of develop, a healer necro would have to be weighed against scourge, an internal class minmax issue. Rifle Guardian would bleed into Dragonhunter territory, a thematic redundancy that leaves both options feeling less unique. Medic engineer would start butting heads with druid for who pumps out the most heals, a niche redundancy that becomes a minmax issue where whichever one is just better at the job is the one people will take.

There are people who don't give a crap about that stuff though. They're in it for the fantasy. I'm in that group too. I'd have both a druid and a medic and happily play both. I think for the health and sustainability of the game though it's worth pursuing other options for what an expansion can bring to the table.  Even the current plan of adding new weapons or allowing mixing and matching between existing class content can't last forever before it starts creating the same issues. Still some room to spread into. I think an expansion that focuses on utility skills could be cool. Being able to use Mirage's deceptions on a virtuoso and the like with all classes could be fun. Getting a new set of utilities for every profession that are usable across all especs would rock too. I'd love some other source of stealth on ranger to synergize with spear. They can't indefinitely bloat the classes without running into a lot of issues that would make a large portion of the player base angry though, so I think it was smart move. 

[draxynnic.3719]

I'd hope that they don't open up elite spec utility skills for all specs. It might work for some, but there are some elite spec utility skills that are specific enough to the elite spec that they wouldn't work for the core spec or other elite specs, and some that are probably the main drawcard to playing the spec and making them generally available could pretty much destroy the elite spec. It'd probably have winners and losers even more extreme than weaponmaster training did.

[VocalThought.9835]

16 hours ago, Treetoptrickster.4205 said:

Elite Specs were and are a huge draw of the first three expansions. Losing that will always feel bad. I kind of wish we'd still get new toys so I can make new toons for them and everything too. That was a really fun part of the game. I can sympathize with Anet about putting an end to that though. First and foremost, the more you add to the class, balancing gets exponentially more complicated. Also, there are only so many niches that you can invent an Espec for. I don't think they've exhausted all of them yet, but in a hypothetical future where every few years the classes strictly grow instead of develop, a healer necro would have to be weighed against scourge, an internal class minmax issue. Rifle Guardian would bleed into Dragonhunter territory, a thematic redundancy that leaves both options feeling less unique. Medic engineer would start butting heads with druid for who pumps out the most heals, a niche redundancy that becomes a minmax issue where whichever one is just better at the job is the one people will take.

There are people who don't give a crap about that stuff though. They're in it for the fantasy. I'm in that group too. I'd have both a druid and a medic and happily play both. I think for the health and sustainability of the game though it's worth pursuing other options for what an expansion can bring to the table.  Even the current plan of adding new weapons or allowing mixing and matching between existing class content can't last forever before it starts creating the same issues. Still some room to spread into. I think an expansion that focuses on utility skills could be cool. Being able to use Mirage's deceptions on a virtuoso and the like with all classes could be fun. Getting a new set of utilities for every profession that are usable across all especs would rock too. I'd love some other source of stealth on ranger to synergize with spear. They can't indefinitely bloat the classes without running into a lot of issues that would make a large portion of the player base angry though, so I think it was smart move. 

Hence, my earlier suggestion, I think there is truely room for one more elite specialization along with another weapon for each profession. I think adding my specializations ideas would give the opportunity for players to create all the classical tropes we've seen in fantasy fiction.  I hope they do this in the 6th expansion. 

As far as later expansions go, they could definitely add to other systems in the game, aside from creating new weapon or utility skills. I believe if they add a new elite specializations along with a new weapon they should be done with that. They can add new mount skills and new races. I would love to see them reintroduce the personality system for futur expansions. They can also add new PvP and WvW maps and gameplay, like King of the Hill or a Battle Royale. They could add more rpg elements where Guild's can create their own missions or adventures, setting the difficulty.

There is so much that they could do with this game moving forward. This game can surely last for another 10 years.