My Pitch for 9 new Elite Specialisations (and the rationale of why they would be amazing :D) [Suggestion/Concept thread]

[emablackread.7246]

Hi fellow fans of Tyria! 😄 Since my excitement over the fast-approaching EoD reveal has grown uncontainable, I'd like to present to your discerning perusal my pitch for 9 Elite Specialisations in a completed and organized format. The videos go into more detail (I'm no content creator genius, these are essentially just me geeking out about builds for 40 minutes), but I hope the text will provide a tl;dr version 🙂 I know people have their preferred weapons and ideas so we won't agree on everything, but I'd really appreciate your feedback or discussion! EoD HYPE train, all aboard!!!

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#1 Light Armour Elite Specialisations: 

 

Mesmer - Mindblade (let's get this out of the way since ANet basically gave it away already 😄)

Weapon: Dagger
Utility Skills: Spirit Weapons
Mechanic: Clones become floating illusionary dagger charges that will be used for Shatters in their stead

Rationale: Mesmer Ranged Power options are lacking, and there is an almost identical build in Elder Scrolls Online, generating spectral daggers and then sending them flying into an enemy. Spirit weapons would fit the "Enchanter with an Illusionary Arsenal" vibe, and we already have models for Mesmer Spirit weapons (the translucent pink ones that our phantasms wield and that we can buy off of the TP). 

 

Necromancer - Bloodletter

Weapon: Off-Hand Axe (the skin would be a Kama [which is a sickle-like Axe skin from real world Asia] fitting both Cantha and the Necromancer harvesting ... people 😄)
Utility Skills: Elixirs (for that Blood Alchemist vibe)
Mechanic: Life Force above a certain threshold triggers Blood Frenzy.

Rationale: Necromancers had Vampiric connections ever since GW1, and they already have a Blood Magic trait line and a Blood Siphon on Dagger2. Blood Frenzy would transform Life Force from something that exists only to be expended into a strategic resource (e.g. do you want to expend Life Force to hard-CC that mob right now with your F-Skills, or would you rather let your soft-CC tick for a couple more seconds because you'd be able to hit your Blood Frenzy threshold and then go ham). Elixirs could feed into that (hah!) such as "Sanguine Tonic" which heals you and gives you a thirst for blood making you gain Life Force faster for some time, or "Haemophilia" which would provide you with a flood of Life Force that would allow you to cast your F-Skills without dropping out of Blood Frenzy.

 

Elementalist - Arcanist (no surprises here I imagine)
Weapon: Main-Hand Focus (Eles don't actually need any weapon to cast spells, they often breathe fire or fling magical projectiles from their hand)

Utility Skills: Mantras (since they are just ammunition skills now, and most Arcane skills have charges too, they would fit each other nicely)
Mechanic: Arcane Attunement

Rationale: As the spellcaster archetype, Eles could use some actually viable long-range options. An "Arcane Reach" trait would extend the range and radius of Focus skills (which would then apply to Off-Hand Focus too). Since asking for a new Attunement for every weapon would be a big ask, Arcane Attunement would function like Celestial Avatar in that it provides the same Skills regardless of weapon, but it would still have the regular Attunement cooldown of Ele gameplay. This may even help round out other weapon sets, since the Ele would now have access to a versatile lineup of Skills regardless of their weapon. Ele Utilities are always thematically strong due to their 4 Elements, and I think there is room for Mantra of Water, Mantra of Fire, etc., and an Elite Arcane Mantra in the Ele's toolkit to bring Arcane up to par with its other themes.

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#2 Medium Armour Elite Specialisations: 

Ranger - Tamer
Weapon: Off-Hand Shield
Utility: Animal Minion Summons
Mechanic: Unbreakable Bond with their Pets (bonuses to Pet damage, and can instantly Rally if they are downed while their Pet is still alive)

Rationale: The fact that Necros can summon more Pets than the Ranger is a crime that needs to be remedied. 😛 Their Utility Skills will call upon Animal friends from the Canthan wilderness, who would perform an attack, then auto-attack for some time, then despawn (e.g. Turtle would Taunt its target, Crane would create a damaging whirling tornado with its wings, Crab would knock down enemies, Phoenix would heal, etc). The Elite Skill, Stampede, would summon a whole pack of animals, similar to Lich Form minion rush. Cantha's connection to the Luxon Giant Turtles is too good to pass up, so Rangers would get Shield (possibly with a Skill that has baked-in Retaliation since the boon itself was reworked, but the effect could still be added to select skills).

 

Thief - Assassin (yes, yes, I'm such an original)
Weapon: Off-Hand Sword (or Fan)
Utility: Stances (e.g. Way of the Empty Palm reduces Initiative costs for some time, Way of Perfection heals you on crit [yes I'm aware how well this will scale with Thief traits 😄])
Mechanic: Steal becomes Parry

Rationale: An iconic Canthan profession, and Thieves have been salty that Mesmers got dual-swords decades before they did. Rather than an Evade and Stealth build, Assassins will go toe to toe with their enemies by utilizing an on-demand Block skill that unlocks powerful Riposte follow-ups (like Ranger GS4, Mesmer Sword4, etc, or Assassin combo sequences from GW1) rather than just spamming Steal skills off-cooldown; creating more reactive and strategic gameplay.

 

Engineer - Resonator
Weapon: Staff (skin would look like a Tuning Fork)
Utility: Preparations or Traps (but targetable at range since we have too many close-range Kits and Gadgets already)
Mechanic: Optimal Acoustics

Rationale: Engineer could use a Ranged option after Holo and Scrapper. Dredge technology is based on sound, it is well-established in lore, has several sonic attacks by Dredge Reverberators and such mobs already. For utility skills, ranged Preparations would be preferable to ranged Traps, because Preparations would offer more precise control. The Engineer could prepare a "Faulty Boombox" at then remote-activate it when they choose, dazing all enemies in range with static; they could set up an "Out-of-tune Gong" then trigger it to taunt enemies to attack it (since it would sound so bad they'd want it to stop [yes Engineer is a child of chaos, embrace it 😄]). "Optimal Acoustics" would work with the 'Ping - red - orange - green' treasure finding bundle principle, in that upon Pinging the Engi would get a random nearby position to move to - if they stand on this optimal spot, they get a damage bonus to their sonic attacks (yes I'm aware this is a bit bonkers).

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#3 Heavy Armour Elite Specialisations: 

Guardian - Monk
Weapon: Main-Hand Focus (several Foci look more like Fist-weapons than magical accessories, so this is the closest thing we'll get to Unarmed)
Utility: Glyphs (interacting with the Mechanic)
Mechanic: Virtues become Upkeep skills (hear me out on this).

Rationale: Guardian has already cannibalised most of the conceptual attributes (and colour, lol) of GW1's Monk, so let's double down on that. Using the focus as a spiritbending Fist Weapon (we already have unarmed animations), the Last Airb- *cough* the Monk Guardian would combine martial arts with magic. Their abilities could include Punches and Sweeps, but also sending out a spirit palm strike that damages enemies on its path and pulls them on its return (like Chronimancer's Shield bounce), or even punching into the air to cause a giant spectral fist to slam down, stun enemies in an area, and leave behind a symbol. Their Virtues would have to be toggled on, and only one could be active at a time, but would provide bonuses to their Glyphs similarly to Ele Attunements and Druid CA. With Virtue of Justice enabled, you get the passive burn from it as normal, but your Healing Glyph would grant you Might, your Damaging Glyph would apply extra Burning; while if you choose Virtue of Courage your Healing Glyph would add Protection, and your Damaging Glyph would apply Blind (etc.) 

 

Revenant - Ritualist (if Ritualist wasn't the whole point of the Blindfolded-Spirit-summoning-Mist-Profession of Rev, then I don't even know anything anymore... 😛 )
Weapon: Scepter + Focus (needing 5 weapon Skills is still on par with Spellbreaker or any 2-handed wep elite spec, and far less than Weaver)
Utility: Spirits
Mechanic: Ashes

Rationale: The ranged options of Rev are limited compared to its number of melee weapons (RIP Staff), and the Ritualist is a strong thematic match for both the Revenant and Cantha. We'd learn to channel the Legendary Master Togo (or Xandra if they'd like a female Legend), and gain access to Spirits. These would function more like Turrets or Ranger Spirits, unlike the short-term AoE Charr. We would also gain access to Ashes, allowing us to expend part of our energy to store it in an Urn, and then drop that somewhere. The Ashes of Naomei for example could throw an Urn of Resurrection to Rally downed party members, similarly to other downed-ally-rally skills.

 

Warrior - Paragon (another 'how is this not a thing yet???' one 😄)
Weapon: Staff (many Staves look like Spears, and many professions use Staves from range, so it works perfectly)
Utility: Chants
Mechanic: Echoing Bursts
Rationale: Paragons already exist in the game, the NPCs have Spear-throwing animations, they have Paragon Chants with proper animations, so I'm not sure why they didn't add Paragons in PoF. Paragon would offer Warrior a viable ranged option after the melee Berserker and Spellbreaker, also complementing its core Banners and Shouts with Paragon Chants and Echoes. Chants could essentially be Mantras pre-change, in that they would be an effect channeled over 2 seconds or so (remember "Choice, Freedom, Liberation!" "Agony, Torment, Pain!" etc). The Paragon mechanic would allow the Warrior to hold up to 5 Adrenalin at any time, but Burst skills would still only stack to Stage 3. Instead, casting a Burst with excess Adrenalin would add an Echo to that Burst (so in 10 units of time you'd be able to do a Rank 3 burst 3 times for its usual damage, or do a Rank 5 burst twice that would add a bonus effect that may make it worth the slower and fewer bursts (e.g. leaves behind an Echoing Brand that pulses burning to enemies around your target, Echoing Shellshock that pulses stacking confusion). Since the Berserker fulfils the Burst-fast-Burst-a-lot build, the Paragon has room to be the slow-burning warr build in which you could choose Burst strategies reactively based on the situation.

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So, thanks for reading this far if you did! 🙂 My hype levels are over 9000 in anticipation of the livestream (and I guess I'll play Bingo checking if I got any of them right lol). Do you have any feedback or ideas? If ANet don't make any of these for EoD, I think some do have enough thematic and gameplay potential to be future Elite Specs. Though perhaps your opinion differs entirely, that's also fine, I'd like to read that too, I love geeky discussions!

Some notes: You'll notice there are no Aquatic Weapon conversions here, because I'm not sure it's going to happen. But I would enjoy that a lot if ANet are willing to push the envelope so far - Trident-wielding Ele would be an excellent long-range option (I'm sadge because Staff is so sub-par). I also very clearly drew inspiration from GW1 classes, because I think ANet would be doing themselves (and the game, and the players) a disservice if they discarded the pre-made thematic potential of old professions. They have incorporated many GW1 skills into GW2 professions, but there are still enough niches left here and there to add up to elite specs at least. I thought it made sense to capitalise on that to not have to develop skills or concept art from scratch, especially when even GW2 has existing assets (e.g. Paragon Spear animations or Mesmer-themed Spirit Weapons).

I hope you'll be as excitedly counting down until the livestream as I, and that EoD will make all our hopes and dreams come true! 😊 Unless you're one of the people asking for Rifle/Pistol Ele... then... just no. 😛 (Jk, jk) Thanks for making it this far, and have a nice EoD-livestream-countdown day ✨🎈🎉

 

[Kodama.6453]

1 hour ago, emablackread.7246 said:

Engineer - Resonator
Weapon: Staff (skin would look like a Tuning Fork)
Utility: Preparations or Traps (but targetable at range since we have too many close-range Kits and Gadgets already)
Mechanic: Optimal Acoustics

Rationale: Engineer could use a Ranged option after Holo and Scrapper. Dredge technology is based on sound, it is well-established in lore, has several sonic attacks by Dredge Reverberators and such mobs already. For utility skills, ranged Preparations would be preferable to ranged Traps, because Preparations would offer more precise control. The Engineer could prepare a "Faulty Boombox" at then remote-activate it when they choose, dazing all enemies in range with static; they could set up an "Out-of-tune Gong" then trigger it to taunt enemies to attack it (since it would sound so bad they'd want it to stop [yes Engineer is a child of chaos, embrace it 😄]). "Optimal Acoustics" would work with the 'Ping - red - orange - green' treasure finding bundle principle, in that upon Pinging the Engi would get a random nearby position to move to - if they stand on this optimal spot, they get a damage bonus to their sonic attacks (yes I'm aware this is a bit bonkers).

I would prefer a spec which focuses on the alchemical thematics of engineer (acids, poison gases, etc.), especially since our next elite spec should be a condition spec (both scrapper and holosmith have been power damage).

 

But I can get behind the idea of a dredge technology engineer elite spec, since the dredge also have been part of Cantha in Guild Wars 1 as refugees.

 

Preparations alre also a utility skill type I would like to see for engineer and making them ranged as an unique feat for engineer sounds good.

 

The only big problem I have with your suggestion is the class mechanic. While it might sound fun at first, this class mechanic would just be absolutely unusable in so much content of the game.

 

Standing still on a single point to maximize your damage doesn't work for PvP or WvW at all, since this would just mean that you will die in seconds or forced to abandon the mechanic, which means that you are entirely robbed of a class mechanic there.

 

In high end PvE content, like raids and strike missions, it is also extremely awkward since these spots (at least how I understood you) would be randomly located anywhere around you. Which could mean that if it is placed outside of the boon ball, it hinders your gameplay once again. And if you could select the region which amplifies your damage yourself, then it trivialises the entire mechanic in PvE (since it will just be permanently up without any gameplay), while still being unusable in PvP and WvW.

 

I see no way for this mechanic to work out well.

[emablackread.7246]

17 minutes ago, Kodama.6453 said:

The only big problem I have with your suggestion is the class mechanic. While it might sound fun at first, this class mechanic would just be absolutely unusable in so much content of the game.

 

Standing still on a single point to maximize your damage doesn't work for PvP or WvW at all, since this would just mean that you will die in seconds or forced to abandon the mechanic, which means that you are entirely robbed of a class mechanic there.

 

In high end PvE content, like raids and strike missions, it is also extremely awkward since these spots (at least how I understood you) would be randomly located anywhere around you. Which could mean that if it is placed outside of the boon ball, it hinders your gameplay once again. And if you could select the region which amplifies your damage yourself, then it trivialises the entire mechanic in PvE (since it will just be permanently up without any gameplay), while still being unusable in PvP and WvW.

 

I see no way for this mechanic to work out well.

Yes, that's fair! The Engi idea was definitely quite out there! There are many other details I'm quite hazy on - how would Blood Frenzy inherit traits that trigger upon Shroud, and would it perhaps result in degenerate gameplay like Necros trying to flip in and out of their threshold to trigger enter/exit Shroud traits? Certainly  the practical implementation  of these would have to be questioned! 😃

 

Regarding the Engi skill, it was suggested to me by others that it may be a bonus you pick up by walking over it, like the Herald orbs or the Dragonhunter trap shards. That way you wouldn't have to stand still for it. That said, there are many skills that don't work if you move out of them so this may be a high-risk/high-reward addition too (presuming that the mechanics of how and where the 'buff area' would spawn could be worked out. 

 

Sonic attacks could incorporate Confusion ("what's that sound???") and Torment ("make it stop, make it stop, it sounds terrible!") and even Bleeding (ruptured ear-drums) 😆 that could work if you'd like a Condi-based build, for example! Anyhow, this is a long way of saying I absolutely agree with you, the Engi idea is a wacky concept based on insane Trinkets and such from WoW (there was a trinket that spawned 4 dance partners in a random configuration and you had to dance with all of them - my moving to them - to get a buff, and it was a bit of a meme as everybody hated it. 😬

[Dadnir.5038]

Some names are unlikely to be used due to them already being given in some professions specific titles. For example, Guardian is titled as a "paragon" in sPvP which would make warrior getting the "Paragon" e-spec pretty awkward.

 

As for Engineer, my wild guess is that he will get the equivalent of mantra as utility skills, except that it will be "bundles". The F5 will extract the essence skill of your opponent like thief's F1.

- F5: Essence extractor: Scan your foe making it vulnerable and copy it's essence skills. Range: 1200. CD: 20s.

- Healing skill: Griffon egg x2 (x3 when traited) / Tool belt skill: seed pod.

- Utility#1: exploding venom sac x2 (x3 when traited) / Tool belt skill: Gunk

- Utility#2: Rusty scrap x2 (x3 when traited) / Tool belt skill: axe

- Utility#3: Rock (daze) x2 (x3 when traited) / Tool belt skill: Rock (stun)

- Utility#4: Bone x2 (x3 when traited) / Tool belt skill: Ancient cursed skull.

- Elite: Consume plasma x1 (x2 when traited)

 

The concept is birthed from the idea of elixir X reproduce a skill from other professions. So this spec would specialize in extracting environmental effect and foes skills. 2 utilities can be said to focus on condition damage while the other 2 focus on control. The elite is the always welcome consume plasma (because among the bundles he really deserve the elite spot!)

[Kodama.6453]

1 hour ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

Some names are unlikely to be used due to them already being given in some professions specific titles. For example, Guardian is titled as a "paragon" in sPvP which would make warrior getting the "Paragon" e-spec pretty awkward.

 

As for Engineer, my wild guess is that he will get the equivalent of mantra as utility skills, except that it will be "bundles". The F5 will extract the essence skill of your opponent like thief's F1.

- F5: Essence extractor: Scan your foe making it vulnerable and copy it's essence skills. Range: 1200. CD: 20s.

- Healing skill: Griffon egg x2 (x3 when traited) / Tool belt skill: seed pod.

- Utility#1: exploding venom sac x2 (x3 when traited) / Tool belt skill: Gunk

- Utility#2: Rusty scrap x2 (x3 when traited) / Tool belt skill: axe

- Utility#3: Rock (daze) x2 (x3 when traited) / Tool belt skill: Rock (stun)

- Utility#4: Bone x2 (x3 when traited) / Tool belt skill: Ancient cursed skull.

- Elite: Consume plasma x1 (x2 when traited)

 

The concept is birthed from the idea of elixir X reproduce a skill from other professions. So this spec would specialize in extracting environmental effect and foes skills. 2 utilities can be said to focus on condition damage while the other 2 focus on control. The elite is the always welcome consume plasma (because among the bundles he really deserve the elite spot!)

I am sorry, but this is literally the most boring elite spec idea I ever read, simply because it doesn't add much new to the game but just recycles stuff which is already there. X__X

[Grand Marshal.4098]

Very well made! Interesting weapon choices too. A bit unique compared to the majority of stuff I listen from people in the forums. 

 

Interesting stuff for warrior. How much would chants clash with the idea of shouts? Probably a bit. Interesting idea nonetheless? Definitely. It truly brings paragon over GW2. 

 

Then again, here I am waiting for something more groundbreaking for warrior. I am not a fun of supporting as a warrior outside might, shouts and banners (which can all be improved in the core kit and allow core, SpB, Brzkr and the new spec to have some form of support option) so all I am up for is the staff as a weapon. 

 

My list of stuff I want to see:

 

1) Useful burst mechanic, counting up to T3 Bursts since both current especs use t1 offensive bursts. 

2)A more dueling oriented warrior playstyle with 1 selfish line, 1 offensive line and 1 utility/fake support line.

3)Spectral skills are the best skill types I got in mind for a demon Slayer idea to work. Entirely new utilities are welcome though. 

4)I just hope it will look cool and feel cool to play even with core stuff. 

 

 

[Lazze.9870]

Not to be that person, but nothing about shield and minion utilites scream exiting to me. Playing it sounds more like a nightmare tbh.