sajah varel.9261

From how i read it, unless there is an explicit statement saying they'll continue adding elites spec (or at least adding a way to get more skills and weapons on classes), I understand that they won't add anything else to classes and will only add masteries (which sucks, especially for pvp). Which imo, is a bad move considering character gameplay additions are the number 1 expansion seller. I don't know about others, but if there is no gameplay addition in future expansions, that can make me stop playing the game.

Yeah but the elite spec doesn't look like it wants to cure someone, it's more like kill myself to kill someone else faster. If anything it's more like a junkie class that anything else.

WHile I'm good with occultist, plague doctor makes no sense, a plague doctor is a doctor, they cure afflictions, they don't inflict it. Witch doctor on the other hand...

Yeah like berserkers don't have any choice in the matter with the armor tradeoff of berserk mode. At least the willbender can actually choose where he's going to get hit. Plus the spec is pretty much designed around selfish play, so cutting out the support with a trait is actually a better choice than doing rebalacing on all the skills.

Personally I would like scepter + focus. No class has access to scepter + focus but not staff. Plus it would add choices to the weapon mix (base engineer only has 1 mainhand and it's ranged, so you can't just add an off hand).

Yes some weapon items count as staves. I'm pretty sure it's the case of tree branches.

The virtuoso actually does make sense (unlike the willbender), if you read the skilltypes. The blade skills are called bladesongs, so it's kind of like the elven spellsingers from D&D. So they should be summoning the blades through sound. You can also see that some of their traits are named after paragons' skills, like bladeturn refrain. So it's the bard side of the mesmer (don't forget that the mesmer is a performer, bard, dancer, actor, illusionist etc.). Willbender is stupid like all of the guardian names (even more so, at least the previous ones had a connection to the class, this one does not, zealot, warrior monk, martial artist or royal guard would have been a better choice). At that point I think they're just going with the meme. As for harbingers, it kind of works if you look at them as the harbingers of the blight, which they use. I guess alchemist would have been too easy.

Well with the right trait, that's pretty much becoming a full light armour glass canon smiting prayer monk, with the sword, the punch and kick moves and all that. They should have named it the monk.

The connection is with the blade skills, they're called bladesongs (I hope he's gonna sing the spells, like he chants the mantras, otherwise it would be a miss...). The virtuoso is basically the elven bladesinger & bladedancer you get in d&d fantasy. It's pretty much a mesmer/paragon from GW1 (a good chuck of the virtuoso skills and traits are actually named after paragon skills).

You know what it sounds like, it sounds like they put an actual valid chinese profession name into google translate and that's what they got..

Yeah, in PoF we had 3 pairs of weapons for elites... (warrior/ranger with daggers, mesmer/guardian with axes, engi/ele with swords), so swords are not off the table for any class. That said, I think they should stop with swords. If you look at the association table, the only class that doesn't wield a sword is the necromancer. Everyone else gets it as main weapon and 3 classes (now 4 with guardian's new elite) can dual wield them. In comparison almost no one uses pistols, maces, longbows, shortbows and rifles (with elite specs, it's 3 classes for each, max). Having some more diversity, like giving maces to 2 classes, one of each bow to 2 classes and same with pistols and rifles (that one looks like it's happening, necro is very likely to get pistols, and I like to think elementalists will get rifles, because they need a 2H weapon and that's the only weapon class they can't conjure with pistols).

What you're saying reveals a very big issue in gaming mentality these days. You're not saying it's not possible because they can't do the job (like if you try you're gonna wipe your team everytime and the only solution is to reroll), you're saying you can't play that build because people don't want you to, because some other class can do better. Better by how much ? Relative to content, what's the effectiveness coefficient ? Is there actually a ceiling where you're overperforming and having a "better" build doesn't actually improve your play ? You know kind of like the overkill analogy. Let's say I have a mob that has 1000 HP, and I have 2 builds, one that does 20000 dps and on that does 10000 dps. They are both going to oneshot the mob, so while they are on different power levels, effectively they are on the same power level because one has wasted resources. Maybe the problem of those builds isn't the build, it's the people not wanting to play differently. Maybe there is a different team formation where pairing a healing/X mesmer to one or 2 other classes will make a good synergy. But the only way to find out is to actually do this. I would actually recommend to actually play those builds, and find people that want to also play unorthodox builds, to break that barrier and find other possiblities to clear content and to actually get out of the somewhat stall meta gaming that has been going on for years now.

Yeah but there are limits to that concept. Like by that standard : Warrior scepter focus with spells. Why shouldn't they get it ? That should break with the whole melee warrior theme and add diversity. I'm pretty sure that's not happening though and we're most likely to get a melee staff or dual pistols or even a short bow. Same with a ranger, you're most likely to get a shield, mace or a hammer before you get a rifle or pistol.

I'm hoping for my bunny thumper to come back. There no feeling like having your pet maul an unfortunate soul while you lock them down on the ground with a good old hammer bash. That was so fun in GW1 pvp.

A dual wielding samurai theme that would forgo stealth attacks in favor of something else and use group support abilities, like shouts. That would be great. And the thief also have a ninja and monk theme, so a samurai theme here would fit right in.