Professions for GW2

Really, I hope that races are purely cosmetic. It's annoying enough creating multiple characters to PvE as different primary professions, but throw races into the mix, and the number of permutations increases quite a bit. I don't want to create a new character of the same primary profession just the try out a different racial ability

If you took the six core classes and multiplied that with the five races, there would be 30 combinations to experience. For 90% of the players that would make 28 designs developed for the dustbin right there. People would never get the full experience, or only at the expense of playing low level content over and over until the game is simply thrown into the corner.

I'd rather saw the game open up to the idea of simply choosing your primary the same way you choose your secondary class. That way, players can really experience all the classes while choosing their own pace and the pugging would become easier towards the end, since all you need are 8 people, not 8 people in a special combination. No more doing the starter area for the fifth time, leveling up sunspear to advance for the fifth time and so on...

At the same time the danger of racial abilities invalidating most of the 30 combinations is really big. People will make rather binary decisions if one class/race combination is good. Either they only want that special class/race combination for its power, or they will shun it for not being perfect.

In my reasoning that would make even race specific abilities available to everyone. Imagine it as if there was a Norn, Asura, Sylvari, Vanguard and Charr title track. By choosing your race, you start with one of these title tracks and accompanying PvE skills already at maximum. You have to grind up the rest EotN style to "learn the ways" of the other races.

Warrior should be taken out of the list.

my rational: every hero is a warrior, else they/we wouldn't be out fighting villians. hence warrior is something all profession should already have.

*waits*

I actually do like the cows. There are some interesting looks one could pull off. It wasn't pretty - but at least it was pretty darn visually stunning.
But that was kinda useless because the only reason why I wanted to try out WoW was to play it with some former GW guildies and they all decided to play for the Alliance. So it was either Alliance or bust.

The problem with releasing information is that a lot of it isn't final. However, what we do know is there's going to be, different playable races, a z-axis, Cantha/Elona cutoff, No more lux/kurz, and its 250 years ahead of GW1.

Probably learn more when it gets close to beta testing...

I hope they use the six core classes and simply make them deeper with each expansion.

Wow, I just bought Guild Wars Prophecies and there is a Guild Wars 2 in development? I missed something big here :/ as long as I can get at least 2 years on Prophecies, EotN when I get that, and the other two campaigns I will be cool

The six core classes should be moved on to Guild Wars 2. If they opt to make classes limited to certain races, that will upset a few people. Not everyone wants to be a race they hate to play as a class they like...Happened to me in WoW. Thats why I came here

I hope you don't have to make different characters of the same profession and different race to try everything.

Either they allow us to change primaries (make ONE of each race).
Or each profession can be made only by one race (make ONE of each profession)
Or the primary is the race and the secondary is the actual profession (make ONE each race again).

But I would HATE to have to make 5 rangers to try all possible combinations for rangers.

The way proffesions and charcaters now are fine by me

The only concern is the race=certain proffesion...

In any case i think that the core proffessions should be kept.. Assasin removed... Ritualist kept and Paragon and Derv combine into 1.. thats my dream.

My thougths
Assassin+Mesmer= Bard/thief
Rits are gonna be consumed by necros.
Paragon will be consumed by the warrior.
dervish and monk will merge.
elementalist are gonna stay elementalist.
Ranger is gonna stay ranger or added as a warrior varriaton.
And hopefully the Races are purely cosmetic.

Think about that for a second. Rangers/Archers/Rogues are completely different from warriors and fill completely different roles.

Even if the classes show up in completely different forms with different roles, and playstyles, having a whole new game to work in should allow them to completely redesign all 10 classes and allow them to show up in GW2, if Anet is willing to put in the effort.

However, now that I think about it allowing EVERY race to be allowed to be every profession will get incredibly messy. If they do bring back all 10 professions and have at least the 5 races we know about (humans, norn, charr, sylvari, asura)= a total of 50 different race/profession combos. Thats not even considering secondary professions, which Anet has stated they wish to keep the two-profession system.

So as much as I think restricting professions to certain races is a horrible idea, I don't see a better alternative and we can only hope they do it in a reasonable way.

Here is what I believe will happen with the professions if they unfortunately decide to go this route:

Monk and Dervish will merge (I don't like it, but its a very reasonable idea, considering GW2 will supposedly be mostly soloable). Will probably be called a Priest or Mystic.

Necros will consume most of the rits' abilities. Called a Spiritmancer?

Sins will take the mesmer abilities. Thief or something along those lines.

Paras and warriors will become one class, but most IMBA para abilities will be lost. If it becomes a more para dominated class (to go with the soloablility of GW2) then it will a Bard. If more warriorish, Paladin.

The rest will be the same.
I think I essentially said it with my last post, but to reiterate... in order to fill up our HoMs, we had to put one of each weapon, daggers, spears, scythes, etc... so there will almost certainly be a class to wield each of these weapons, whether it is combined with another class or not.

I really hope they dont remove the "extra" classes like Assassin or Ritualist...Maybe a name change but not the way they are played(Like keep the chain system for Sins)

I wouldn't mind if they merged the 4 extra professions with the core ones, but I also wouldn't mind if they kept them separate.

I really hope certain professions go better with certain races or are only available for certain races, as that would suck. People would be too busy playing every single possible combination to actually enjoy the game.

As for profession changes, it would be cool to change your primary profession but I think they'll stick with changing secondary only. If you could change your primary profession that brings up the whole "this prof is better with this race" thing.

I don't want to get too off topic, but in WoW you will soon be able to change your character's faction between Horde and Alliance, which implies you could do it twice to change your race. Never thought they would ever allow that.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/18031...the-works.html

I would actually be happy if they combined a couple of the expansion classes into the core six; I especially like the idea of the Theif (Assassin/Mesmer) and a Necro/Rit hybrid.


As for racial traits, I think it would be a massive problem. I think we already see enough of the same profession combinations (A/E, W/Mo, Rt/N); tying these to races would only make the problem worse. I don't want to see only Norn Warriors and Asuran Elementalists, for instance.

The best route, in my opinion, would be like others have said here; make the race your "primary", character-locking decision; leave the "secondary" decision to your profession. Doing this would also fit in line with Anet's idea of making professionless armor sets and would hopefully unlock much more customization when it comes to first creating your character.

I would say this is the best route in my opinion, however (dont wanna pull out the interview) there was a statement that they wish to keep the 2-profession system, with the ability of changing your secondary at will. Now of course, that was just talk, and they might have scrapped the idea alltogether. OR they might come back and say "we didn't say race wouldn't count as profession, gotcha again!"

I would prefer the LoTRO approach that only certain races have certain classes available. Every race gets your basic holy trinity (healer, DPS, tank) but from there on it gets a bit diversified.

Glad we understand eachother ^^. If they are gonna merge i woulden't mind the mes/sin merge after all they share both god and their skill in illusion it could turn out to be one hell of a proffesion ^^. Possibly with the choice of either melee combat or mind bending magic. GO THIEF/BARD .

Another possibility I left out is the Chronomancer, which was essentially shelved after Utopia went bust.

Sins could take on a completely different aspect, and instead mesmers will "evolve" into Chronomancers. Really all we have to go on is speculation.

Race = visual appearance.
Racial abilities = small ability, just enough to make each race different from each other.
Proffesions = usable by all races.

Everyone's happy. If Arenanet does not follow at least two of those things, I'll hate GW2 more than I would have. But I'll still buy it. If arenanet does all of those things, I'll love GW2 more than I would have. I'll buy it. If Arenanet does the opposite of all those things, I'll hate GW2, and want to light it on fire. But I'll still buy it. And play it. For the rest of it's lifetime. And then wait for GW3. And buy it.

I figured that the reason why all weapons needed to end up in HoM wasn't because they will be used in GW2, but rather because they are available in GW1. I really don't see why this would give any info on what weapons will be used in GW2.

as long as any race bonuses and race skills etc are removed in PvP TOTALLY, i don't care.

I read in the PC Gamer edition all those years ago (okay so only 2 or 3 but it seems longer than that) that weapons placed in the HOM can be taken out in Guild Wars 2 for those characters to use. Same with mini pets and armor, perhaps titles too. Obviously not heroes as they'd be dead by then.

I want any race bonuses and race skills removed in PVE as well; that would totally screw up the game in my opinion. "Let's all play Norn because they're default health is 1k! No, let's play Asura because they have the 1k energy buff!"

The race bonuses would have to be more subtle than that, and the skills would have to be designed in a way that they could work for any class. For example, in Oblivion playing as a Spellsword (I think that was what it was called...) combining melee and magic was a very powerful build. However, in order for this to work, I think that we need to be able to take at least 10 skills in our skillbar.

I'd imagine an Asuran warrior would have less defense, and maybe less attack power, but would have access to some great pbAoE spells. Norn would obviously be the most powerful and have the most defense, but would be slower, and bigger, so there would be a greater % chance to hit them. Norn may be the obvious choice for Warriors, but I don't think Anet would be stupid and make it the only choice.

Respectfully but completely disagree. From a PvE perspective at least, I think that if they've learned anything from Guild Wars, it's that:

1. Players want to feel unique, not just from an aesthetic perspective
2. Players want their advancement through the game to feel like they are actually developing and improving their character, and again, not just from an aesthetic perspective.

I agree with the scrapping of classes in general. Let us have an typical character building system where we get to pick our wisdom, strength, dexterity, etc, and an alignment with a race that boosts some of those, and adds some special skills. For PvP, there can be preset, balanced builds. But PvE needs to stop being so cookie-cutter.

Perhaps racial bonuses will be different depending on your profession? Like the Charr spellcasters might have slight armor penetration on spells, but Warrior and Ranger Charr might have a little bit more armor?

Of course, that might just make the problem of balancing worse.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the problem of the Mesmer. If you really think about it, they don't fit in any more than the Ritualist, Dervish, Assassin, and Paragon. What do Mesmers do? They hex and interrupt people. In other words, they do what a Necromancer and a Ranger do. Heck, at least Dervishes offer melee AoE and avatars, which are unique to the profession. Mesmers are just as much a hybrid as the Ritualists.

They could do what WAR does (did, now its only gender restricted), and have race limited on what professions you can play.

I'm pretty sure this was said NOT to be the case, but all I can find is the wiki article (which I know is not the best source).

"...however players will not be able to migrate the exact items or titles they obtained in Guild Wars. Names will also be reserved through this system."

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2

I have two ideas how this will work:

1. You simply "trade" in one of your HoM weapons for another GW2 weapon of your choice...

OR

2. We'll have to have all 11 slots filled to get a weapon. I don't think this will be the case, as they added Tormented weapons which muddles the situation. (you could have MORE than 11 weapons "unlocked")


I would not expect EVERY weapon (scythe, spear, dagger, every bow, etc) to be present in GW2, plus there could be NEW weapons not currently used by any profession. What would be the point of making a new game if they were going to pigeon hole themselves like that?


I see races as perhaps being the new "primary" profession, that is, they give an inherent bonus like Elementalists, Monks, Rangers, Necros, etc. get now.
(Not that those bonuses will stay the same in GW2!)

Then your "profession" will give you the majority of your skills.

Armor could be much different, as I read somewhere they are thinking about allowing any class to wear any armor, with appropriate trade-offs of course.


I have to say, I really hated that. While in theory you have 16 different "classes" (each of the 4 races has their own version of 4 classes) in practice, many played too similar (mirror classes), and there was not enough difference between characters of a single class.... ie, all Witch Hunters looked the same, like all Mauraders looked the same.

To me, it was boring (and yes, I play the tabletop Warhammer, so I understand the Lore reasons behind the decision, I just don't think it works in a MMO when people want to make a character that feels UNIQUE to them).


As a Mesmer player, I can tell you this has been a complaint since the beginning. Mesmers have a real role in PvP, not so much in PvE.

I don't think they were ever properly implemented, and it has been discussed that some Necro spells probably should have been Mesmer spells.

While I hope the Mesmer survives, as long as the concept of a "denier" Profession is in GW2 I will be happy.

I'm not sure how racial benefits help this at all. It might for a while until someone discovers what combination is the best and everyone rolls that, then those not with that combination curse the game and want to quit. But really that's how every game is.

How frequently do "best" threads pop up on forums? Players just want their instant satisfaction.

That's pretty much impossible. The day PvE is balanced is the same day PvP is completely balanced.

If Anet is smart the races will be for aesthetic purposes only. PvE is already extremely class-biased as far as what is allowed in certain groups. Throwing race combination into that mix is almost a guaranteed recipe for disaster.

As far as PvP, giving each race a special power only makes balancing the game that much more challenging. The more complexity added into the game, the harder it is to balance. Giving races a kind of 'primary race ability' would be too much, and probably the nail in the coffin for GW2 if Anet decides to go that route.

I'm too lazy to quote everyone so I'll just address what I remember.

Anyway, I did read about the weapon usage in the PC Gamer edition, but I'm not at home now so I can't look it up to be sure. It's possible I did read it wrong, but I'm almost positive it said that (weapons in HOM can be taken out and used in GW2).

I've also seen somewhere (probably even on Wiki) that in GW2, each race will have a primary and a secondary profession, so extra race benefits like primary attributes would be pretty useless in my opinion.

And while the Norn stronger than Asura theory makes sense, it would still imply they'd better be warriors or they're useless or whatever. I don't think that would make for a very good game.

As of right now, you can't even be the 'best' player in PvE. There is no such thing. The playing field is completely even, and 'skill over time' doesn't really work, because there isn't much skill involved in knowing how to use 8 spells/skills. There is absolutely no way to differentiate yourself in PvE.

I don't think there will be a clear cut 'best' build in PvE that everyone would want to follow. For example, someone might want to use a Norn Elementalist, who will have access to a few less spells but will be easier to keep alive, as opposed to an Asuran Elementalist, who has more energy at the cost of a worse defense.

Either the racial choice to complement a class will be fairly straightforward, in which case no one can complain if they feel their character is 'less powerful', or it isn't straightforward, in which case there probably isn't a clear cut 'winner' and you can play the game you want to play it, with your more unique character.

This all depends on how well Anet does things, of course. No one ever played as a Hydromancer in PvE, and I'd be wary to take one in a PUG. Hopefully the races will be balanced enough that someone would still want a Norn monk.

I'm imagining something like, the norn will add an attack skill and small health and defense bonuses, whereas the asuran bonus will be higher energy, pbaoe spell, and some resistance to magic. is there really a clear cut winner here?

Likewise, I don't think players ever want to feel like they rolled the "wrong race" for their class.

In a WoW sense (awesome link btw Giga, I had to do a double-take x D ) things got really painful for quite awhile. Each Priest in each race had a different one, but the best BAR NONE was Fear, which only a few races had.

Then there was the ability "Escape Artist" which can only be used by Gnomes, which is still bar none THE best War racial in the game since it is a 100% removes any immobilization or snaring effects.

Racial abilites/buffs are cool in theory, but generally cause nastiness further along the road. I don't want to be an Asuran Warrior knowing that I'd benefit more as a caster, I don't want to be a Norn Monk knowing I'd be better at dealing damage.

With such an annoying time with the racials in WoW, I should definitely hope ANet follows the more neutral road in not implementing racial abilities and buffs. While it will disappoint those who do want them, it at least makes balancing the playing field easier (sometimes by a lot).

I agree that things can get messy, I just don't understand the reasoning behind implementing playable races, without them having any actual difference from one another besides looks. It doesn't even make sense that a Norn elementalist would be exactly the same as an Asuran one. One should not be 'better' than the other, but they have to be different.

gw:en wouldn't have introduced that mechanic to do the 'shape shift' into a norn, with the increased health and damage, if that wasn't going to be part of GW2.

Restricting classes to a race is only good for lore, not gameplay. I don't think you want to shoot your gameplay in the foot by telling players they aren't allowed to have the race/profession look they want. There is almost no upside.

I am betting they will allow any combo, so the real question will be, what are the racial benefits? In EQ2, they did let you choose any race for any class, and there were some racial bonuses but they were so minor as to be unnoticeable (certainly nothing like WoW's differences). I think my barbarian Shadow Knight could create a beverage once a day or something like that. I'm a little worried by mentions of Norn turning into bears and the implication that racials might matter in GW2.

You essentially answered your question with the first seven words - i.e. balance is a bitch. ANet would only make the races based upon looks because they have the power to make balancing issues less of a pain in the ass.

This is, of course, assuming they care about the PvE balance in GW2 - because in GW1 they've pretty much given up all hope.

Hence why I'm /facepalming already.

Because you've now given all races a different sort of "perk", you must now balance all skills based upon that. For every race you develop that's another parameter you have to keep in mind when developing every skill and build.

If they actually implement racial bonuses in GW2, they had better be next to irrelevant in actual gameplay. I don't want it to turn out the way WoW has, where 90% of all top horde players are undead.

One rumour I've heard is that equipment will no longer be so tied to professions - any profession can wear any armour (although obviously some will be more useful to a given profession than others) and any profession can wield any weapon (although they may not have skills to go with that profession).

This does mean that some professions may well be able to be merged while still allowing the same range of options and concepts. For instance, what exactly is the difference between a Warrior and a Paragon? Both use adrenaline, heavy(ish) armour, shouts, and so on. If a GW2 Warrior has the option to trade their close-combat armour and weapon in exchange for spears and an armour that grants more energy to use shouts to make the character more of a war leader, do you really need a Paragon?

In fact, such a melding would make soloing much more viable to "Paragons" - they can simply revert to being Warriors and go kick some posterior.

Similar arguments could be made for other professions. One of the Shing Jea quests described Assassins as the Rangers of the city... there are certainly a lot of parallels (both are lightly-armoured, crafty fighters), so what if the Assassin and Ranger was merged, giving the Ranger a melee option and the Assassin a sniping option? Some of the Assassin abilities may be a little too overtly magical for the Ranger, but this could be substituted for with, say, a Mesmer secondary if that's where the power goes... or maybe the fluff might be reworked so that the Ranger/Assassin does have a few minor magical tricks up their sleeve.

The Ritualists, with their focus over the dead, could easily be folded into Necromancers. You could even let them keep the healing - Necromancers have a bit of that already, and having a viable alternative to Monks probably won't be a bad thing (especially considering, with GW2 apparently to have a greater focus on solo play, Monks probably will be getting better offensive capabilities in exchange - especially if, as I hope, ANet uses GW2 as an opportunity to sharpen up the fuzzy boundary between the Mesmer and Necromancer, which in my estimation is likely to benefit the Mesmer more).

The Dervish is the stickiest one, but on the whole, it's largely a cross between a point-blank Elementalist and a smiting Monk... with a melee weapon thrown in to keep it in close contact with the enemy. So if Dervish-like skills are folded into the Elementalist or Monk, and if primary Monks and Elementalists have the option to wear heavier armour at the cost of spellcasting capability, the Dervish-like playstyle could easily be created by running a combination of a magical profession with PBAOEs and a melee weapon...

...just like it was before Nightfall.

Where the scythe might end up in this scenario, though, I have no idea...

Personally, though, I wouldn't mind if they kept all the professions or if they merged them, as long as all the playstyles are both doable and reasonably viable.

The only Charr dervish that exists in the game is Pyre...if you give him a Dervish secondary, and that may be because it wasn't worth the effort on the dev's part to remove that option. But when you think about the lore of the GW1 Derv, it doesn't make sense for the Charr to be able to become Dervishes... or, at least, it doesn't make sense for them to be able to use god avatars.

They'd have to be careful, though, that Race X's racial spell choices aren't much better for Profession A than Race Y's, or... well. It only requires a small difference in effectiveness, and you never know what initially obscure combination will turn out to be a must-have.

Avatar forms and other abilities drawing from the Six Gods? The other races all have different cultural practises, so the humans might gain the blessings of the Gods to make up for other races' innate abilities.

This idea has potential... as long as the grind isn't too onerous (no more than it would take to make a new character of the appropriate race). Means your race choice matters, but you can 'undo' the mechanical effects without having to recreate the character entirely.

Oh so very AGREED.

They'd better not turn my mind-magic specialist into some silly rogue-type!

(I'm happy for some Mesmers to be bards, thieves, and similar vagabonds, but for ALL of them to be that way is stereotyping. You could just as easily have, for instance, the professional soldier Mesmer who uses magic as just another weapon, or the Mesmer that's just your typical wizard with a focus on subtler magics than the Elementalist.

And if the Assassin and Mesmer get merged, it'd better not play as an Assassin with just a few more magical tricks! )

My second character was a Warrior/Elementalist for just this. It worked well enough, although of course you're making compromises... and then of course the Dervish came out, which is at least in theory all about combining magic with sw...scytheplay.

*takes a deep breath* Okay, you've just hit one of my triggers. Some of this I've alluded to, but to summarise:

1) There are plenty of games that have mesmer-like abilities as a complete magic type from which inspiration can be drawn. Magic:The Gathering has Blue magic. Master of Magic has Sorcery. Heroes of Might and Magic 5 has the ironically named Order Magic. Spellforce has Mental Magic. There are probably many more I'm not familiar with. While some of the effects that are associated with those magic types in those games may not work so well in Guild Wars, or at least the PvP side of the game (outright mind control, for instance, which in Guild Wars is implemented in a reasonably soft manner with hexes like Mistrust) there are other things that could be implemented. Teleportation, as one piece of evidence for a possible Mesmer/Assassin merge. Time control... hello Chronomancer. Actual illusions that act as a kind of summons to distract opponents from more valuable targets. If I was to actually go and do some research, this list could grow even longer.

2) As Mordakai said, and I said earlier in this post: the line between the Mesmer and the Necromancer is nowhere near as well-defined as it should be. As just one example, before gaining elite skills the Mesmer seems to be the king of punishment hexes (Empathy, Backfire), but once elite skills become available the Necromancer immediately wins that contest with Spiteful Spirit and Spoil Victor. Apart from the name of the first, there is nothing about either skill that suggests they should be a Necromancer skill instead of a Mesmer skill. I could go on - in fact, if you really want me to, somewhere I have a list of Necromancer skills that possibly should go in the Mesmer line, and some the other way - but to summarise, I would say that, to emphasise the 'mind-control-light' nature of Mesmer abilities, the Mesmer should be the king of hexes that present the target with a choice (do I keep hitting the target despite the damage I take from Empathy or do I hold off until my friendly hex-remover gets rid of it for me?), while Necromancer hexes should hurt the enemy the same amount almost regardless of what you do (the only way to stop taking damage from Barbs is not to get hit - and that's something the target would like to avoid anyway, the hex just makes it a little more urgent). The line can still be a little blurry, but it can be made a lot more favourable to the Mesmer than it currently is, especially if the Necro cribs from the Ritualist to compensate.

3) Why is the Ranger seen as better at the anti-caster role than the Mesmer? Well, I'd dispute this (Mesmers do seem to be more effective at locking down multiple spellcasters, especially with AI reflexes), but on the whole it probably comes down to Daze. There's no reason why a profession that specialises in messing with people's minds shouldn't be able to produce a similar effect. Heck, Arcane Conundrum and similar effects are halfway there!

In similar vein, why is the Elementalist, on the whole, better at shutting down physicals than a Mesmer? Because Blinding Surge ENERGY GOREDs on Ineptitude, Clumsiness, and Wandering Eye combined as a method of preventing hits, and that's without getting into the nonelite options such as Blurred Vision and Blinding Flash. There is no reason why a line that specialises in messing with people's perceptions shouldn't be able to blind or hinder an opponent's vision at least as easily.

Finally, a common theme in Mesmer-like magic lines is that it's the best magic not only for disrupting hostile magic, but in removing it once it's in place. In Guild Wars, lacking an ability to deal with 'zone' effects like DotAoEs and wards (but maybe that can come for the Mesmer in GW2?), this largely comes in the form of enchantment and hex removal, but in Guild Wars these roles largely fall to Necromancers and Monks respectively. Why? Well, in the former, it's partly because the group is more likely to have a Necro in the first place, but it probably helps that Rend Enchantments is probably the best skill out there for quickly removing a lot of enchantments from a single target (and, oh, look! Pain of Disenchantment! It's like an elite version of Shatter Enchantment... but in the wrong profession! Again!). In the latter case, it's probably because, with the exception of Expel Hexes, which is a little too elite for most uses, Mesmer hex removal is all lumped in with additional effects of often dubious value that, when balanced by higher energy costs and/or longer recharges, make them less effective at the simple role of removing hexes than the Monk's simple, no-attribute-investment-required Remove Hex... let alone Monk elite hex removal effects.

So, tl;dr on the Mesmer:
1) Look to other games that use similar magic structures (Life, Death, Violence and Control, Nature optional) to find other ideas for Mesmeric abilities. They're not that uncommon, they just don't appear so often in MMOs.

2) Move some of the Mesmer-like capabilities out of the Necromancer and put them in the Mesmer.

3) Look at the things that Mesmers should be able to do, but that other professions do better. Consider why the other professions do those jobs better, and improve the Mesmer in those fields to be a more even match with the competition.

That actually sounds cool. I'd love to be able to wear any armor regardless of race and profession, but the downside would be so much temptation to buy 50 armor sets. I started this game determined to have just one set of non-elite max armor. Then I fell in love with an elite armor set and bought it. Then I got more and more, and then GWEN basically encouraged multiple armor and weapon sets with the HOM.

So while that would be cool, I think I'd prefer the armor going only for a particular class. But this brings something else up about appearance - I wonder if each race will also have certain looks for certain professions. I can't imagine them doing that, but right now you choose your character's appearance based on their profession. Maybe Guild Wars 2 will have, for example, different Norn appearances for different professions. Just a thought but I don't think the profession should effect what the character looks like.