Dual class is such a great idea. Not sure why they ditched that concept for gw2. I also liked the idea of "skill hunting" except without needing a capture signet. Basically I just want gw1 in unreal engine 5.
Duel classing was a balancing nightmare and it made it so the classes couldn't diverge from each other too much otherwise they'd become incompatible. As cool as it is, there are issues in that regard. Another issue is how the traits cross professions would work. Like the necromancer has a lot of traits which only function with shroud and a few do nothing without it. Elementalist is another issue in this especially with their glyphs. What element are they going to be? They to have a lot of traits that care specifically about what attunment they're in or swapping attunments which is something other professions can't do. The mechanical issue of duel classes in GW2 isn't an impossible issue to overcome but you'd need to build an entirely new mechanic for each possible class combo. Each would have 8 new unique profession mechanics and of those a Ranger/Warrior and Warrior/Ranger for example could share the same profession mechanic but you're still talking about 36 new profession mechanics that would need to be developed.
I really like the idea of adding more core specs to help broaden the amount of builds for each class and I think they could definitely add more weapons to core classes like warhorn on guardian. They could also finally let us use water weapons on land. The idea of being a spartan like warrior with a spear is definitely a fan favorite. A new race would also be awesome, with tengu having a lot of variety in the way they look, they probably wouldn't have to add much for character customization. Only problem I see for adding a new race is they would have to add either race change or a free character slot for people with max rosters and they'd have to add a whole new leveling experience for that race. A mastery a lot of people have been asking for would be legit player housing, with the commander's quarters in arborstone being oddly empty and having two locked doors connected, I think it's not too far of a stretch to predict that'll be the player house and the doors will open up with further mastery levels just like the arborstone mastery.
tbh soon as the roadmap dropped I pointed out to a friend that the absence of any mention of elite spec's was weird as normally they would be speaking about it alot which I suspected to be a deliberate move and my friend said I was "just reading too much into it, they probably just forgot to put it in" which still seemed odd, tbh while it sucks I'm still gonna stick around to see what the expansion offers, I'd rather see them make core viable in expansions, improving what we already have, see classes get new weapon choices (such as ranger with a rifle) or maybe even just a few new utility skills per class. tbh they don't even need to release elite spec's every year, 1 elite spec per class every 3-4 years would be more than enough (though personally I feel we already have enough) but I can understand the people who do look forward to them.
One thing we've learned from the new management at anet is you DONT read between the lines and MUST take them literally. If they didnt say elite spec its 100% because we arent getting them. They deliver what they say they will and only say what they will deliver, no more no less.
Nike not actually being the black pill person is an side I've never seen as a new player I think would definitely be interesting thanks for the video :D
Something I think is reasonable is an added trait line, discoverable through masteries, that adds features and flavor. Make it a single trait line that spans all professions. That’s a 1 to 27 ratio, so it’s scalable. Then, create multiple archetypes every X-pac. Call it the Archetype Trait Line. Example trait might be: Call ancient spirits to aid you during battle when you use an elite skill. And it blinds foes in an area around you. Or whatever. Not tied to specific profession abilities, but basic game mechanics. It can be new utilities or might modify types of weapon sigils. Maybe it gives you mounted combat options.
The time travel thing is the exact opposite of what they should do. Massive demands on asset creation, asset loading, beta testing, possibly server load and stability, and if they can't pull off all of it with player-specific phasing tech it will split a dwindling playerbase across even more instances as each map innately comes with 2-3 copies to hide in. Instead of dual specs they could start by turning racial skills into specs, with the appropriate buffs of course. That should give them a decent pool of already functioning skills to start with for testing the framework and acquisition mechanics, then they can add lines such as Jade Tech, Norn Hunter (petless ranger), Iron Legionnaire (turret engi) and sometime later Dervish or whatever once the system is mature enough.
Great ideas. Something that makes core classes more viable would be really appreciated, for many classes I actually like the core gameplay and they aren't worth using except for niche WvW stuff.
Time-shifting on a map sounds awesome, and like something they could absolutely pull off. The Mists seem like a limitless supply of options for future stories that is underutilized right now.
to expand on new profession...new armor type CHAIN ARMOR!... then that opens 3 new classes and 3 specs each possible and new legendary even for vet players to craft and they can add the armor and classes/spec for it as slowly as they want so noone is "missing out"
Another with the new core profession idea would be new weapon types coming out at the same time that they can use which can be added to future elite specializations. This might take another decade to successfully implement so I know it’s probably impossible but hey, looking forward to the future
I think there's room for /one/ more set of elite specs to fill in a few roles and RP/class fantasies (ie a Bard Mesmer or something). But honestly I don't blame them if they end up never doing any more just because of the existing work they need to do to implement their new balance philosophy/paradigm, which is probably going to take at least another year or two of reworks and balance updates. I don't know how they would fit it in though, it's so much work. Maybe one new elite spec per expac? i'll add to my comment, it would be nice if thief got another off-hand weapon. A feature of the class is dual skills that change the 3rd weapon skill depending on main and off-hand weapons, and in 10 years, there's only ever been two choices for off-hand weapons!!
I guess we could get a memely hard difficulty setting on some content like CM+ but it also would allow us to slot it a 4th trait line for that content only.
Not much to add about the elite spec talk but it was a pretty balanced and fair talk. Your expansion idea sounds crazy - nice tie in with game mechanics and actual lore there too. Could even do some "utopia" / Chronomancer explanation. This would be pretty incredible if Anet could pull it off, the idea of phase shifting on the fly could cause a bunch of grief though im sure. How often you have to do it could potentailly have performance issues (which sadly Anet had to consider people on low end rigs). I could see this mechanic in general w orking in smaller scale things, maybe not a whole map. They have made major strides over the years with their client side phasing but also stuff like festival layers. Also seen some cool gimmicks like the joko story step where you have illusions showing different things. They could add new past / future layers to the older maps too. Quite an interesting concept. Or maybe, even just the odd few "phase shift puzzles" in older maps, not having to actually make a full layer of the map. So its not "just 2 maps" theyre layered as they have time versions. Thats a pretty good pay off for people who are worried about amount of maps over quality. Though...."1 map with 2 time periods" fis the hot "3 biomes thing" all over again
I like the combat feature that woodenpotatoes suggested, super powered core specs in place of elites. Then you have a buffed fire trait line for a “pyromancer” spec (maybe an extra tier of talent choices on top of core, slap on a new elite utility or gimmick, e.g. disabling some other elements and allowing weapon swap or adding pyromancer variant staff skills. Would be fun to play with and change the ele class, yet not require as much dev work to conceptualise and design a unique spec with utilities and skills and traits. And revamping core specs are conceptually more interesting than the new concepts of “catalyst”, etc. they have to come up with because all the traditional wizard archetypes have been represented (weakly) in the core class. Imagine for ele you could play with frost mage, geomancer, air sniper, Arcanist, etc. The fantasies are there from core, just not fleshed out.
What about incremental new elite specs? Say 2 new elite specs every expansion? That way we keep the specs coming but without putting a stop to them or flooding with them.
The next set of horizontal progress could be the ability to change primary profession or the ability add a trait line and utility of a secondary profession.
They should utilize underwater weapons for land (with different skills on them obv.); they see almost no use now and they're already in game. Have been wanting Spear for warrior for years now - like a Paragon spec from gw1
The time travel thing sounds really interesting actually. I would like a new class personally as I am not a fan of most of the ones in the game, also let people use underwater weapons on land with new skills! A fun new class would be something without weapon skills that plays more like GW1.
I don't mind not having more elite specs, but I would like them to add more core weapons to base specs instead that all the other elite specs could use.
some ppl are throwing trash because we dont longer get new elite specs what? ppl think is good to have 9 new elites every 1-2 years? how they cant see that and wtf they never tell us they are done with elite specs, so stupid man to me the better options is creating new classes, you can even create a new race/class locked, every expansion 1 new class sound way more healthy
Would love to see them take the opportunity to jump off the dragon story + 9 elites hamster wheel. Hopefully now they can add a new race now with its own class and gear, now that you don’t need it to work alongside 9 elite specs in an expansion. The problem was always about “animations” and armour retuning for new races, but you could circumvent this if a mini expansion was focused on that race. Unique class with unique cosmetic options and maybe flesh out an ascended item collection for racial armour across the quarterly patches, and you can spend a yearly expansion cycle gearing up a Tengu for example.
Hey man your ideas sound interesting, fun and doable it'd be nice if ANET actually came across ur vid and introduced some of them in the next Expac.......
I'm horribly biased, so I don't care if we do or don't get new elites as much as i want more classes to have pew pew. More dual-pistol and rifle fun! Give mesmer illusionary gunslinger!
NikeDNT proves once again the only good ANet partner is an ex-ANet partner. Great video. Elite specs in EoD were so bad who cares if they don't make new ones yearly. They had 5 years to dream up the nonsense we got. In no way do EoD specs achieve the quality of HoT or PoF specs, not even close. There are loads of great ideas in other mmos even NCSoft's now deleted Wildstar that would work perfectly in GW2. If I was ANet I would introduce new elite specs every 2 years with a new raid, and do other stuff like alternative Elite Skills for core traits for the mini expansions.
A great idea would be to expand the rune system. After all there are many skills in common which could add diversity. But that said. I personally do not think the ESPEC system is complete and warrior needs a support ESPEC. Sadly, this seems like yet again ANET abandoning old systems. And it is quite possibly the single most important one in the game.
I played the game sense launch… without new elite specs or talent trees… I just won’t play.. it’s the only selling point for me. I mean, I don’t even care about a new story.. just elite specs. I mean without something to work for my class then why? I mean think about it… sure you can add more things to do but if you’re bored or the gameplay through the story then what’s the point. I do however agree, more weapons is also good and they need to unlock them as in not specific on an elite spec. I want a rifle daredevil build for instance.. or a longbow guardian? You know?
Dual Classing like in GW1 is impossible (imo).. due to how unique Class mechanics actually work. What would be possible is to allow the use of certain utility skills of other classes (they already did that in WvW as an event... was fun) ... but to actually make a true dual class it would need extensive balancing, coding and developing/chaning of how interactions between traits and class mechanics work.. imagine any class with mesmer shatters, but without the traits for shatters -> would be garbage. same with just giving certain traitlines of mesmer to another class, without the class mechanic, half of the traitlines are useless.
they have space to do atleast 1 more set of elite specs, if not 2, then after that they can give us new wvw maps/spvp maps as something to make up for no elite specs...
Another idea I think woodenpotatoes suggested like a year or so ago is a "core elite spec" i.e. you get extra benefit/mechanics putting a core traitline in the third spot. I do also like the idea of core weapons or dual classing though depending on how it's done. Would love to have another offhand like focus or torch for thief.
you could do that but you still need new stuff each expansion, and that requires dev time, the same devs who will make the elite specs that take a year to make by themselves.
@@NikeonaBike And that's what you have in the mean time when elite specs are not in expansion (and maybe have minimal content when elite specs are in expansion, like a map and 1 mastery line) in other words having the team work on 3 elite specs each expansion on the side without releasing them).
@@Gurukay Sounds like a really bad idea from a business perspective ngl. They are far better making every expansion good than doing some roller coaster good-bad cycle of expansions.
Here's my view of things, Guild Wars 2 is Kinda like a Dungeons and Dragon's game, for where Warriors use martial type weapons, but think of an Elementalist which is a Wizard, wizard use Staff. Daggers and wands or scepter. But niw you got them using a 2 hand hammer, really, it doesn't make sense, Rangers and druids. Rangers ahouls be using Long and short bows, daggers short and long swords Druids should be using quaterstaff not bows. Areanet has been slowly moving a Dungeons and Dragon's type game and changing it into something totally different, not cool
New weapons ... hell yeah... dual classes... hell no... it wil be a nightmare to balance. It will kill Anet momentum for new content with so many problems it is better off... May be new core skills and traits... Less complicated thing will do better and take less time to develop and maintain in the long run...
Dual classing would create more balance nightmares than elite specs ever have imo. Touch rangers Iway pet warriors and all the old favs from gw1 comes to mind lol N/Rt healer ect. Lets be real if you aren't going to make elite specs anymore then you also eliminate game-play goals. Why make this leggy if i can never use it on my main character why even waste the time/resources ect. I would like to see the combo system be revamped to be more like genshin impact tbh after all these years they're so boring and never felt good outside boon spam and stealth. Actual Housing is still something that maybe they'll do since it can generate them money which every xpack has always been about adding a feature they profit off of at the end of the day. I would still like to play as a tengu someday but i know that isnt gonna happen either. I'd like to be proven wrong in time but i'm far too jaded to have any faith in them which is why i play the game less and less these days. Legendary gathering tools that can use more than 1 glyph for instance is something i could see being churned out as a "good idea" i hope they really surprise me but i just have a hard time believing that "less" will be "more" from them.
@@NikeonaBike i did and i just feel like for the non meta dual spec combos it would be akin to racial skills a lot of flavor but not a lot of substance. I think if you took your idea and also applied it in a way where you could modify the left side of the bars in some way too that could be interesting. Like for open world metas maybe i wanna have lava font/meteor shower on my necro along with wells ect, but i just don't feel like they would let us really enjoy a dual system with any amount of depth. The more i mulled it over the more i think new professions would be the most desirable to me personally if i wouldn't get elite specs anymore as it would be something i could still get excited about. I'd like them to detach the weapons from the elite specs once you fully unlocked an elite spec. The new weapon is added into your core of your class but able to be enhanced in the specs just for pve game-play. Anyway I slice it i just feel like anet wont do the work needed to really make any of these things special but id love them to surprise me.
thats still too much work since its 80% the same design work as an elite spec and new core traitlines are hella power creep if they can be used alongside elite specs.
These changes are all dictated by the sales and marketing department. The planned "expansions" are designed to raise revenue at a faster rate. They already said these will be sold at the price of an expansion but a slightly lower price. NCSoft have revealed their medium-term plans and it's mostly about new MMOs (one slated to be released this year) and partnerships to produce more. At the back of my mind, there itches a thought that GW2 is in its last phase
