[Concept] Old weapons for future elite specs

[Me Games Ma.8426]

I've come up with this concept and I would love to hear your opinion on it:Some professions already have access to so many weapons that it would be hard to introduce new weapons in the future. (I personally don't want to see e.g. Rifle Mesmers, Hammer Thieves, Mace Necromancers, or Dagger Guardians)

On the example of Warrior let's say a new elite spec got released that gave warrior new Hammer skills (without making the old hammer skills unavailable) would you mind that it is not a new weapon?My idea in general is that you get the option to swap out your weapon skills when you're out of combat.Now there are two possible concepts on how this could be done.

Concept 1: Exchange the whole barThis would be the "more realistic" and the option that would be much easier to balance. If you change one skill on your weapon skills to the new set the whole weapon switches into the new weapon state.E.g: [b1][b2][b3][b4][b5] -> [E1][E2][E3][E4][E5] (B=Base, E=Elite)

Concept 2: Exchance skills as you want toThis would be much harder to balance but also much more fun as you can take what you want in every slot. (You would be able to chooseE.g: [b1][E2][E3][E4][b5] or [b1][b2][E3][E4][b5] or [E1][E2][b3][b4][E5] ....

On traits:Since old weapons already have traits associated to them the two easiest solutions I can think of are:

1. Make new skills work with the old traits. (and have one trait slot more for the elite spec)
2. Make a new trait that only affects the new skill set (and have the old one only affect the base skills)

What do you think of this idea?

[Crossaber.8934]

@"Me Games Ma.8426" said:I've come up with this concept and I would love to hear your opinion on it:Some professions already have access to so many weapons that it would be hard to introduce new weapons in the future. (I personally don't want to see e.g. Rifle Mesmers, Hammer Thieves, Mace Necromancers, or Dagger Guardians)

On the example of Warrior let's say a new elite spec got released that gave warrior new Hammer skills (without making the old hammer skills unavailable) would you mind that it is not a new weapon?My idea in general is that you get the option to swap out your weapon skills when you're out of combat.Now there are two possible concepts on how this could be done.

Concept 1: Exchange the whole barThis would be the "more realistic" and the option that would be much easier to balance. If you change one skill on your weapon skills to the new set the whole weapon switches into the new weapon state.E.g: [b1][b2][b3][b4][b5] -> [E1][E2][E3][E4][E5] (B=Base, E=Elite)

Concept 2: Exchance skills as you want toThis would be much harder to balance but also much more fun as you can take what you want in every slot. (You would be able to chooseE.g: [b1][E2][E3][E4][b5] or [b1][b2][E3][E4][b5] or [E1][E2][b3][b4][E5] ....

On traits:Since old weapons already have traits associated to them the two easiest solutions I can think of are:

1. Make new skills work with the old traits. (and have one trait slot more for the elite spec)
2. Make a new trait that only affects the new skill set (and have the old one only affect the base skills)

What do you think of this idea?

I like the idea, i have the same idea even before we have the trait reworked for elite spec right after the announcement of HoT.

But i can see if there is elite spec for existing weapon, a more practical way is whenever the elite spec is equipped, the weapon skills will always be the new skills. This will be easier for balance issue.

[Red Haired Savage.5430]

I'd love to see them do it for making under water weapons above ground, and maybe some of the above ground available under water. But at the same time I'd bet you'd have allot of players saying that Anet screwed them over not offering anything new (I know there were a few that weren't happy they didn't get a new profession or anything along that line), and I think the potential for power-creep might be higher if you're re-using the same weapons. If they re-used weapons they might have to give us something pretty sweet like a new playable race.

[Me Games Ma.8426]

@Crossaber.8934 said:

I like the idea, i have the same idea even before we have the trait reworked for elite spec right after the announcement of HoT.

But i can see if there is elite spec for existing weapon, a more practical way is whenever the elite spec is equipped, the weapon skills will always be the new skills. This will be easier for balance issue.

I thought about this option but I would really like to play stuff like a Staff Staff Mesmer for example with one staff being elite and one being core and i don't like being locked out of some skills.

[BrokenGlass.9356]

The other option here is to closely interweave the new utility skills with an old weapon, and make the whole spec synergize across those skills.

Say like:

• Signet of Something:
• passive: provide 180 bonus to a stat passive. If wielding a staff provide 180 to stat A and 180 to stat B.
• active: make your attacks unblock able and evade for 2 sec. If wielding a staff, also apply 10 sec of chaos armor to yourself, and retain the 180 stat A bonus while the signet is on CD.

If the new elite was designed this way, it could even have a second selectable trait in the grandmaster section of that specialization that buffs the weapon and changes some of its skills. Like the 'Sniper's cover' trait does for deadeye's kneel.

[ugrakarma.9416]

i would love it. i like GS warr, but dont like it current state and skillset.

And the idea is simple, if you use the elite skill "xx", the skill set of the "elite weapon" will be changed. If the players find bad skillset based on the elite, the anet may still try to place optional on a trait.

[Eclipse.6203]

This sounds like a good idea. Keeps specs thematic and old traits useful. Mix and matching skills on the same weapons sounds it could be a mess though.