Guardian elite spec theory

[draxynnic.3719]

Hrrrmn. Yeah, HoT had 1 gloves, 4 shoulders, and 4 heads. PoF had 2 gloves, 3 heads, and 4 shoulders. Going 1 shoulders, 2 heads, and 6 gloves would definitely make it feel like a box-ticking exercise, though.

 

Looking at the necromancer silhouette, though: that hat is really distinctive. Looking through my wardrobe, the only light armour headpiece that's similar is the Swaggering Hat, and that's a gemstore all-weights item. If they think the hat is an important enough part of the character for it to be on the silhouette, I doubt they'd make that look something that can only be acquired using the gemstore (that sort of thing tends to look bad). So it's likely that either there's going to be an EoD light set that incorporates a big hat, or the big hat will be the headpiece - and I suspect the latter is more likely.

 

At which point they'll have a precedent for using the same slot for the armour piece of two elite specialisations of one profession.

[Arken.3725]

Not sure which icon we're getting but it's probably a roamer spec. Probably off hand sword as well. Not sure what role the juggernaut had in gw1. 

[Kodama.6453]

I was looking a bit more into the icon designs for all classes and also think that there might be some common design rules for all classes in place.

Not talking about the motif of the icons, these seem to be highly inconsistent in my opinion, but the way how the icons are designed in shape and form.

 

Looking at the guardian icons, I noticed that all of them tend to have very broad top ends which narrow to the bottom.

The core guardian shield is a classic heater shield, broad at the top, but tapers towards the bottom end.

Dragonhunter has the arrowhead, with the point of the arrow being at the bottom.

Firebrand is possibly an axeblade, again, the broad blade is on top and the tapered  pointy end at the bottom.

 

Now looking at the icon designs we got shown, I think there are just 3 icons which would match this design:

2 ; 5 ; 8

 

I would rule out 2, since it seems pretty obvious that this one represents ranger. Which leaves me with 5 (the mempo) and 8 (the guy with the big arms and pauldrons).

 

Could be another hint that icon 8 belongs to guardian. Guardian didn't receive a tanky bruiser spec yet, which this icon indicates. And maybe I am right that the ankh symbol of the core guardian is hidden in there.

 

Anyway, just wanted to show that maybe we should also consider these shapes and forms while analysing the icons. Many other classes also seem to follow some design rules, which once again reinforced my opinion about which class gets which icon.

[draxynnic.3719]

Eh. I can see why people think #2 is ranger, but I don't think ranger has a monopoly on a 'tribal mask' look. I could see the spinning bullet being a ranger thing if we see ArenaNet acknowledging that pro-nature doesn't need to mean anti-technology, for instance.

[Kodama.6453]

2 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Eh. I can see why people think #2 is ranger, but I don't think ranger has a monopoly on a 'tribal mask' look. I could see the spinning bullet being a ranger thing if we see ArenaNet acknowledging that pro-nature doesn't need to mean anti-technology, for instance.

The icon is literally the head of an animal in my eyes... not making this ranger would be extremely confusing.

[draxynnic.3719]

1 hour ago, Kodama.6453 said:

The icon is literally the head of an animal in my eyes... not making this ranger would be extremely confusing.

Then you're seeing one thing and not seeing the other things it could be.

 

It could just be a fancy mask, or a totemic mask representing some culture that isn't necessarily all rangers. Heck, if we hadn't already had the mesmer be shown, I could point out that GW1 mesmer actually HAD an 'animal mask' armour piece.

 

It could also be a plant... which at initial glance you might think pushes to 'ranger', but you know one specific plant theme that shape reminds me of? The fleur-de-lis, a symbol often associated with, among other things, chivalry, which could therefore fit into a guardian elite.

 

Even if it is an animal mask, that doesn't necessarily mean it HAS to be ranger. We've seen animalistic themes used with other professions, such as some berserker effects. It could be some other profession taking inspiration from the animal world in some way. Rangers don't need to have a monopoly on naturalistic themes.

 

If it was a pawprint, sure, that would probably be a knockout. But it's not something that looks similar enough to a ranger icon that it'd be confusing if it wasn't a ranger icon, once people find out what it IS for.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think #2 is more likely to be ranger than anything else. But it could be something else, and there are certainly other symbols there that the ranger could be. Process of elimination is only a convincing argument if you're sure about your eliminations.

Edited July 31, 2021 by draxynnic.3719

[Xaylin.1860]

@Kodama.6453: While I agree that one can identify some "rules" for at least a hand full of classes, icon 8 is just not top heavy.  Sorry if this doesn't fit your EoD extravaganza alchemy fantasy 😅 

 

Regularities I see:

 

Elementalist is more abstract and mostly related to their elements/attunements (Fire, Storm, Double-Attunement). In this sentiment #4 seems most likely.

 

Engineer and Warrior are usually represented by their equipment or tools. It might be true for Guardian if one sees FB to be an axe blade. It is only partly true for Thief because of Daredevil.

 

Ranger is represented by nature. Indeed most likely to be #2.

 

Mesmer, Necro and Revenant are a bit all over the place but I think we all do know which one Revenant is. #1 seems weird for how Daggers look ingame, but it's reasonable to assume it's for the Virtuoso.

 

To me, there is no information or indication why #8 should be Guardian over Warrior or Engineer by any means. There are arguements for either. 

 

Now, if you are looking for a top heavy icon, imho, that would have to be #7. Although I'd find it more fitting for the set of icons Warrior has (Berserker and Spellbreaker being their weapon with some "backdrop"). Despite the swirls you have identified around the bullet.