What changes would you make to your profession?

Seeing as GW2 is mainly being made because Anet was limited with what they could do with GW1, I am expecting a lot of changes.

Hopefully, at least some of those changes include changes for professions.

What I am about to write is what I hope will happen with my profession of choice, the paragon.

Looks:
I think that Paragons, at least male Paras, bear a strong resemblance to Spartan Hoplites, except just a "little" more flamboyant. I have no problem whatsoever with skirts or anything, but if they were slightly more darker, I would be happy. I guess a larger variety of armor might help, and the ability to dye different parts of the armor as well.

Maybe if Paragons looked a little less like this...


And more like this(of course, not exactly like this)...


One of my biggest problems with Paragons, is that for head gear they have crests. If paragons had helmets, I think that alone would of added a lot more variety.

For example, the helmet that the leader in the above picture has, could be a helmet that would be very hard for paragons to get, and would be a symbol of wealth/skill to have one.

Attributes:
I would like an additional attribute for paragons, and well, every class in general. I think that every profession should have two different types of weapons available to them. Warriors would be the exception with their Axe, Hammer, and Swords.

For Paragons, their primary weapon would remain a spear, and their secondary would be a Xiphos.

From: Wikipedia
I think this weapon would be a great addition to a Paragon. As it is right now, paragons are only effective through the buffs they give to their allies. By themselves, they are barely a threat at all and are easily taken care of.
The Xiphos would be a solution to this problem. It will be one handed, but paragons will not be able to wield a shield with it. Therefore, it should do a significant amount of dps to make it worthwhile.



That about sums it up for what I am looking forward to about Paragons in GW2. Is some of it a little too over the top? Maybe, but I don't think so. Please do comment on my ideas, I don't really care if the comments are positive or negative, I think I will be able to handle it.

So now that you guys have heard about what I want from my profession, I hope you guys can tell me something about yours. If yours happens to be a paragon as well, please do post your ideas, I would love to hear everyone's opinions.

Secondary's are set in place to characters can utilize other weapons...

As for the headgear, and other armors, I wholeheartedly agree. I would like to see a paragon or a derv in something other than a skirt or dress...

True I suppose, but thats from other professions, would be much cooler to have a choice of weapons from your own profession.

And yeah, I agree with you. Paras and Dervs both could use more variety in their armor, hell, I think every profession should have more variety, the more the merrier.

Hate to be one of those downers in a thread but I believe I recall reading some info on classes (very limited obviously) but I believe they said something about most of the professions that are currently in the game probably won't make it into the next game atleast not at first.

I hope that is just a rumor. Anet could disappoint a lot of people by limiting the classes, me being one of them.

I guess there is a possibility of them merging some classes together, but its hard to believe that would work out well.

mm .. I would nerf Shadosteps for a start ~ ya rly


oh, you are talking about appearances~!

well, I'd love there to be more non-ninja assassins .. tho ofc give that option to the multitudes who'll want it
meh, am I the only one who thinks assassin=/=ninja~?! I'd never even heard o Naruto till I played GW, lulz

and less spikey costumes .. more normal, blend into the crowd type clothes ~ maybe even the ability to mimic the enemy (a la the TF2 Spy)

I like to think a specialised killer is good with all weapons, including ranged & unarmed, but would focus on one style (which changes from one assassin to another). A crit hit should do more regardless of weapon type, as conditions &/or +damage (as opposed to %damage), thus making small fast weapons more desirable


*But yes, as the posts above say, maybe NONE of the professions will make it to GW2 except in merged form (well, look at Diablo)

Well, appearance is something I really wanted to change when it came to my profession of choice, the paragon. But what you want from your profession isn't just limited to that. Im too lazy to get technical, but if you want to, go right ahead!

About assassins, yeah I have to agree with you, their a little bit too much "naruto-ish".

In general, I want to see Weapons, shields, ect be more widely used by different professions without the need to choose a secondary to do so. GW2 needs a lot more versatility in terms of weapons, and combat system. Right now it is boring as all hell, for PvE at least.

As for classes, and it's not -my- class, but I always thought it'd be interesting to play mesmers -completely- different then they are now, and play more of a "mindf*ck" roll and a psychic roll, much like fighting Psycho Mantis in MGS

but for those of you who don't get my reference, imagine blackout actually blacking your opponent's screen, some skills switching your opponent's skills, ect.

Well, from what I have read, I heard some armor will not be profession-based in GW2. About mesmers, wow, that does sound f'ing amazing, but that would be way too overpowered, unless every profession was able to do something like that, but then that would be chaos.

My main is ele and heres some things i'd like to see changed. First and most important make eles do proper dmg. Atm eles do so crappy dmg in hm and afterall, eles are meant to do dmg. Another thing is to add more and change current attributes, not just the common fire, water, magic, earth but something more magic. Then, make all attributes useful. Atm only fire is useful in pve. Eles should also look more like magicians. So please add us skirts and dresses and like everything else, i want them to be more fantasy looking. And last thing, make eles do big crits. So ppl are like wow, that eles hits hard

I see what your trying to get at Limu Tolkki, but I thought Eles did fairly good damage, maybe Im wrong though. I guess they could infused Fire, Water, Earth into just one, Elemental magic, and then make two other types of magic go along with it.

i'd change my profession by having it playable in game.

profession: gamer
primary attribute: they see me rollin'
this attribute gives the gamer the ability to roll characters of whatever profession he wants to play at the time without becoming overly attached to one.

yeah, overall i think that'd be pretty sweet.

They're not going to limit your choice in the end. The new system is just going to be completely different, so no direct comparison is possible.

They're probably going for something similar to Age Of Conan. Mind you GW2 is being conceived as a mostly soloable adventure, so most of the professions will need to be completely reworked, even if they make it and retain their name and role in the new game.

Yeah, your right about that Gill Halendt. I guess that GW2 being mostly soloable is good in some aspects, but then whats the point of making it a MMORPG then? Why not stick with the current concept GW1 has now? I thought that Anet wanted GW2 to be a more social game, that would explain why they are going for persistent worlds instead of instanced.

I'd like to see mesmers able to control monsters, maybe turning them into allies for X amount of time or something...

Exactly. But, a persistent world also means you have to be able to play solo as much as you can play with other players around.

Yeah well in pvp and nm the dmg is quite good. But in hm foes have so massive armor (against elemental) that elemental dmg just isnt useful.

What would I change about Elementalists? Besides making them useful in HM damage-wise, I would really like to see earth magic made viable in GW2 if such a skill line even exists. At the moment earth magic itself lacks focus. It tries to nuke, spike, defend, and mess with your enemies' ability to move around or hit while at the same time trying to apply conditions with PROJECTILES. At the moment, earth magic fails at all of the above, except in very gimmicky situations and farming.

I would make Elementalist even more powerful, give them melee quarterstaves (like the hammers the bandits us in pre-Searing) and give them Elemental Forms.

Haha! the appearance u imagine is so stolen from the ancient "This is Spartaaa" dudes xD
and Xiphos is a sword... can't paragons just buy another sword?(also the picture of xiphos looks a lot like Quivering Blade(unique))
but your thoughts are good and i agree with some of them...

can u also explain this?: It will be one handed, but paragons will not be able to wield a shield with it.
one handed but no shield?

If we are lucky - there will be no paragons in GW2.
(I fully understand I am here spitting into my own soup since the same SHOULD be said about ritualists also and they ARE my favourite class. BUT the paragons just have much much much bigger problems then the bad outfits. )

awsum idea .. I mean, maybe not literally that (imba but cool), but the concept in general ~
it's only useful in PvP mind, don't think monsties are gonna be bothered with a blacked out screen .. so instead of imba buffed PvE skills, we could have a series of PvP-only skills that really f*ck up another player ..

like no more compass/ inability to target friends (think Binding Chains but for casters)/ "friendly fire" where the affected player gets hurt by friendly AoE / "broken weapon" where one wepset becomes unavailable for a period .. hum well this all prolly belongs in another thread but your post got me thinking ~

If this counts to all professions, delete Paragons, Ritualists, Dervs and Assassins.

If this counts to my Ranger and only him, I would make D-Shot disable for 3 years and have a recharge of 2.

Oh, and make recurves have a flight time of 0.000000001.

*Drops that useless shield and swings 2 huge double bladed axes/2 giant war hammers/an even greater 2 handed axe*

Really,this thing that you can't choose between using a weapon and a shield or two weapons or a 2 handed weapon makes me really laugh...And please, make also 2 handed swords and axes...By the way,2 weapon FTW.

Also,change that idiot thing about NINJA 'sins 0==|::::::::::><::::::::::|==0 ...An assassin shouldn't wear an armour,just something to melt with the crowd and let them use some other weapons(even if you want to keep them "Ninja-Style", then let them use all ninja weapons[boo,blades,nunchaku,sai,...]). Didn't check if someone already said it,but I really don't mind...It should really be changed...

/sign about Paragons with helms instead of those ridiculous stones...

I'd like to see some more appealing head gear for Elementalists. I strongly dislike those wierd like stones that float a couple inches in front of your forehead. It looks dumb in my opinion, and that's why I always have my head pieces set to "hidden". I also didn't really like any of the EotN unique head gear.

I want to see classes become slightly more open ended but without losing their individuality.

An extension of the secondary class system could enable this.For example, in GW1 you can make a E/W if you intended to make some sort of meleementalist. however you soon find that they're not effective in combat, they have to take skills to defend themselves and then can't dish out enough damage without gimping their mana. I would like to see varied profession paths allowing different classes to play pretty different roles.

E.g
Elementalists could be:
Fire nukers, water CCers (crowd controllers for those who don't know WoW), Earth Warders, Earth Tanks, Air conditioners/spikers and Close Combat PBAOE casters.

Monks could be:
Healers, Protters, Ranged smiters or CC smiters with enchants (like a dervish)

This could allow facets of the 'new' professions to enter the game even if the class itself is not there. E.g. certain branches of classes would have similar skills:

Monk has a dervish like speciallisation
Necromancer has a ritualist like specialisation
Ranger has assassin-like specialisation
Warriors have a paragon like specialisation.

For my class, the elementalist, there's not so much I want to change. Rather I hope they keep the class open ended like the attributes are quite now, unlike the WoW design of mages deal damage and damage only. I like it that ele's can support or tank as well as damage.


Also, the assassin, if it's in GW2, will be an interesting class. Their skills should be more like the Sniper Support skill we now have, sometimes killing the foe instantly. Also, they should be more focused on avoiding combat (given that it will be a solo game) they ought to have skills that turn them invisible or disguise them as one of the enemy.

I want the Male Warriors to actually have good skins.

i want that ritu's finally get a buff on spawning power so it's of good use

There are two important things to most GW players:

1. Skill balance
2. Lookin' good

So I'd hire Ensign to help out Izzy to fix all of the classes' skills and invest more in the art department.

Dervs need some kind of 2ndary weapon, like a set of hooked blades

One of the kinds of ppl that annoy me. Your blatant bias prevents you from considering the obvious: Gw2 is a new game and there is no conceivable reason why any class should not make it to gw2 by being completely reworked.

This is a thread about gw2, not removing classes you dislike from gw1.

Back to the thread:

I think each class should in some way maintain the characteristic armor, or have its armor characteristics changed into something else just as particular. The Dervish hood and robes are very appropriate, and unless you are in doubt of your own masculinity, suit the class perfectly. For the record this is my fav class. I would, however, completely destroy the wind prayers' line and build it up to be useful for aoe enchantment and adding the "paladin" element via that skill line.

One more thing for the dervish... When you take the freaking headpiece off... The hood should just be pulled back, not GONE. This can be applied to almost any headpiece for a class, wars hold helms, etc...

Paragon skirts are also somewhat appropriate, taking from the Roman-influence. However, in accordance with this influence, I agree with the OP in the thought that paras should evolve to the use of helms in GW2 (leaving aside how the armor engine in gw2 may work).

Ritualist should maintain headpieces that cover their eyes. In addition, skulls and other shaman-like images should be preserved in their armor.

Sins need to have real assassin armor (ie. armor that blends in with others) This could be done via changable armor that will appear differently depending on your environment, "plainclothes" armors that could make them seem like commoners, or even armor that crosses the class-armor distinction, making it uncertain to tell what class or purpose a sin is at first. In terms of skills, shadowstepping needs to be moved from teleporting to giving the player undetectability and speed buff, which would achieve the same effect without them literally popping all over the map.

Wars...sigh...not much to say here. Armor is fine, it suits the genre. Maybe change adrenaline function and how skills work around it. Force wars to use less utility, or give them a disadvantage for having 3 weapons.

Rangers' vests should be changed design-wise. There are times ive confused a ranger with a vest for a dervish without a hood on. This should not be the case. Also limit elemental resistence. There is no reason a ranger should take less damage from a fire attack than a fire specced ele. In addition reduce versatility by making bows more appealing and changing their interaction w/ the environment so that they will not take advantage of every gimmick out there. Oh, and don't forget to rework pets and give them sophisticated controls.

Mesmers- Real illusionment, I wanna see my freaking screen shake like I got hit by the worst virus out there when a mesmer interrupts me. Mesmer armor should take on a darker role, their masks should create the feeling of fear. Make mesmers affect the way an enemy sees the environment on his screen.

IE: Mesmer hits me with a hex that makes me see 10 random enemies on the screen. I can even attack them, but everyone else on the team looks at you and goes "wtf are you attacking"? Another example would be getting hit by a hex that makes you think you are standing on a column with a chasm all around you that you will fall into if you move. If you move and fall into it, you come out of the hex, but suffer a condition and are damaged. Mesmers should have the most mesmerizing skills, put plainly.

Necros- Keep the sadistic image, make blood magic skills slightly more graphic and more minion variety, and BASIC controls.

Eles-Give them robes similar to the dervish, minus the symbolic hood. Leave the female ele stripper thing, it works.

Monk- Can't do much, Id say, though, to just remove tats. Give them a mace option for all those leeroy monks out there.

Ok i got lots of ideas. Firstly, warriors i think should have a choice to either deal massive damage with medium armor or very little damage but be an ultimate tank , more than they are now. Have an attribute called like defense or something. Now ive never played an assassin but i think they should look like the guys in assassin creed. Kinda like dervishs. rits are gone because they are gay. eles do massive damage but at high costs. mesmers illusion attribute actually physically changes things on screen to psych u out. kinda like the blackout idea. dervs can dual wield sickles also have dual wielding a possibility for all melee professions. and thats about it.


im hoping this world pvp is like AB×15 with no capture points just all out war!!!!!!!!

There is already a stickied thread based on GW2, plus the fact I wouldn't like to see the 4 mentioned professions in that game. Why? Balance. Either that, or they come up with some miracle which will make all of them balanced and not imbalanced. Oh, and if they are completely reworked they aren't exactly the same class are they?

It's not bias, it's a concern for balance.

Dude...in case you haven't noticed...Paragons are pretty heavily based off of Spartan Hoplites, I even stated it in my original post

Alright, well the Xiphos is said to be extremely heavy, and its short, so you have to go very close to your opponent. Plus, Spartans basically go in rage mode when they drop their spear and shields, they want to do as much damage as possible with that sword, and a shield would just get in their way.

Kind of hypocritical much? Can you please explain why you would not want Paragons in this game?

Again, why??? Why do you hate these professions so much? If you would rather go back to just the six core professions that have been reused in so many other MMO's, thats fine, but please do explain your reasoning.

Shoyon456, wow, great post, I agree with 99% of the stuff you say.

Only thing I would change is the Necro's appearance. In my post on the GW Inc forums Sorudo mentioned he/she would like the Necromancers to look somewhat like this:


I think that instead of the frail weak almost anorexic look that the Necros have now, something like that might look better.

So far guys, this is a great discussion that is going on. I like all(well most) opinions stated on this topic, and even the ones I don't like, I can kind of see where you are coming from.

Because the aforementioned professions screwed balance. Well, maybe except for the Ritualist.

Dervs and Paragons are currently imbalanced, while 'Sins are so broken they got nerfed to hell and back. The only good thing 'Sins are good for now is ganking idiots. Ritualists were basically the only one of these which had a viable design scheme that was balancable.

I just want balance, and if there is a complete reroll of them, they aren't their former professions so it's the same as removing them and creating something else from scratch.

I am guessing the main reason this balance was "screwed" was because those professions were implemented later on in the game. If all 8 professions were released in GW prophecies, things probably would have been much different.

I think this is what will happen in GW2, all the professions will be available, but each and everyone of them will have had a makeover, so that balance is restored

Not really. If they caused problems when they were implimented later, they would cause problems before and after aswell. And as I said, they won't be the same professions if they were to be given a full balance.

Fix'd that part.

Anyway I would buff the skill reapers sweep so it was actually of good use.

You make it sound as if you want 100% balance. There will never be a perfect balance in GW, or in any game for that matter. Some professions have to be good in their certain areas, while inferior in others. Thats the main reasons there are professions. If you want balance, might as well delete all professions and make a no-class system.

I do want 100% balance and I'm aware that that will never happen.

But guess what? They went over the line in imbalance.