Friday, June 11, 2010

Guild Wars 2: Profession Speculation (Part 3: Non-Scholars)

I've got several possibilities for medium-armor types, but I actually only have one solid idea for the second soldier class, so I'm going to combine them into one note.

Adventurer


We haven't gotten any glimpses of the medium-armor classes yet, but there's one that seems extremely likely, so let's start with that:

Probable: Ranger


There's a few things in evidence for there continuing to be a ranger profession: 1) The existence of concept art that is very clearly a nature-type medium-armor class wielding a bow, in the now-accepted green for rangers, 2) One of the main "iconic" characters (i.e., named characters that will appear as NPCs and are at least potentially important to the story) is a bow-wielding chick who apparently has a pet wolf, and animal pets were one of the hallmark of the rangers, 2.5) We know for a fact there will be a minimum of one pet using class (and from wording, it will probably be at least two), 2.75) There are now both bows and guns, which makes a ranged-weapon specialist even more likely, and 3) We've already got one variable range caster and one mostly-melee weapon user, and ranger would really fall somewhere in between. Also, the vast majority consensus is that not only will there be a ranger, it'll be the next profession revealed, so there's that.

I think the ranger will retain a fair number of things from the original version. I think it will primarily be a ranged weapon class as before, but since they gave the warrior some ranged ability, it probably will add a couple melee options. I suspect it will continue to spread status effects, and have a relatively robust pet, and probably do moderate damage. I'm less sure they'll keep interrupts for the Ranger, particularly if they happen to do that weird scholar monkmesmer mix I suggested, but it wouldn't at all surprise me if they kept it. Likewise, I'm not sure about traps, which were not necessarily a popular mechanic in PvE or competitive PvP (although they would probably be very useful in WvW). And while I'm not sure how much they'd add, it's possible they might get some better AoE damage, due to how the warrior bows work, and that they might add some debuffs that aren't status effects, possibly via the guns.

More than likely, they will have a weapon-switching mechanic. I know I keep saying that, but they did say it was the most likely. However, since they're likely to have a pet, it's possible they might have some sort of choice between all weapon skills and a mix of weapon and pet skills. I'm not sure.

For 2h weapons: long bow, short bow, and rifle. These pretty much seem like a given; the entire array of two-handed ranged weapons.

For main hand weapons: Sword and/or axe, pistol, maybe dagger. The pistol seems like a given, and giving them one or two melee weapons would make some sense for the same reason giving the warriors bows and guns makes sense to me.

For off-hand weapons: Shield to go with the melee weapon, pistol, and possibly the mysterious torch, which incidentally I've figured out at least one use for, and that's additional environmental weapon options, which could make some sense for the ranger from the perspective of them having once been good with traps.

Speculation: Engineer


This would be a raw environmental specialist; the devs have implied there will be at least one profession who is good with environmental weapons specifically. While I'm sure they won't be limited to only doing environmental weaponry, they would presumably get some interesting effects out of them, or maybe have the ability jury-rig them into new useable items, which would be kinda keen. They also might be able to create and use things such as turrets, siege weapons, or explosives.

I'm not sure what sort of hotswap ability they'd get... perhaps a standard set of additional options when they pick up an environmental object, like the ability to combine or modify them? Or perhaps they simply get the normal two weaponsets for combat purposes, which makes me wonder if this will actually be a hybrid class of some sort, which I'll get into below.

2h weapons: Rifle, because it seems likely this would be a gun user because of also being a techie type. Maybe hammer for the vague relation to sledgehammers.

Main hand weapons: Pistol, mace... for the same reasons as the above.

Off-hand weapons: Pistol, torch, maybe shield for extra protection.

Speculation: Assassin/SpecOps


There's at least one piece of character concept art that looks very much like an assasin, and medium-armor is more than likely where it would fit. Of course, if there's an assassin, it rules out my mesmer in medium armor or my just-environmental specialist, but there's still a way around that: the assassin could be the one given environmental weaponry extras.

So what would that mean? Something like a saboteur or a spec ops or spy sort, something that can use a mix of traps, spur-of-the-moment weapons, flank attacks, and hit-and-run attacks. Now, this would be a potentially somewhat complex type to play, but I don't know if it would be much more complex than the elementalist, with her mix of nuking and support, and maybe that would mean they'd give this character some special mode-switching as well of a related sort, perhaps a thing where they'd actually unequip their weapons rather than switch to a different set, with the option to use the torch for certain tasks.

So, for 2h weapons: Rifle, for sniping ability.

For main hand weapons: Sword, dagger. Dual daggers was the weaponry used by assassins in GW1, so it would make sense to continue that here, with a sword/dagger pair as a variant on that.

For off-hand items: Dagger, torch.

Now, that's not a lot of weaponry (really, it's less than the elementalist gets), but if the profession can actually have special skills like trap building when going weaponless, that would probably be okay. I might add pistol or longbow to their list, though (the pistol for those close-up head shots, the longbow for an alternate snipe).

Speculation: Ranger/Engineer hybrid


I actually don't think this is very likely because of the fact that I'm fairly sure they're going to do pets for the ranger, although I suppose it's possible that they could make it so you could have your pet out while doing sneaky things, but this would be something that was basically a meld of all of the above concepts: a little assassination and sniping, some more typical GW1 ranger-style skills, and the jury-rigging of the engineer. I already speculated the ranger might be a profession that could get a few extra environmental weapon skills in any event, so it's not a huge stretch from that, but it probably piles too much onto one profession to be realistic.

From the weapons I assigned to the above professions, I'd say this version's would probably be the two types of bows, the rifle, the pistol, and maybe sword/dagger or dual daggers.

Speculation: Swashbuckling Mesmer


Pulling from my soft-armor version, this version would still have the illusionary status effects and damage, and possibly some spell-based interrupt and/or shutdown mechanics, and add some weapon-based interrupt/shutdown skills as well. I'm picturing something like distracting/disrupting actions or spell-casting with a sword slash, or blinding with a flash of blade, as well as some defensive maneuvers, including possibly some blocking/defending attacks made against allies.

A front-line spellcaster with a sword is not exactly a normal MMO choice, but since elementalists already have some close-range abilities, I don't think it should be ruled out. It really would also fit the artistic images we've had of mesmers in the past, and go along with their elegant swashbuckly costumes available in GW1 to add some weapon use to that.

2h weapons: Possibly none. Rifles might make sense as a long-range version of the pistol I think they'll have, and a staff might make sense for an alternate concentration on the spellcasting skills, however.

Main hand weapons: Sword and pistol are the most logical for the swashbuckling aspect; they might also have access to the scepter if they wanted to concentrate on their spellcasting skills, and maybe a dagger.

Off-hand weapons: Dagger, pistol, focus. I think sword-and-dagger is a good swashbucking set, and that would make dagger/dagger a reasonable choice as well. A second pistol, or a sword/pistol combo, would also fit the swashbuckler style. And to round out the ability to help with spellcasting, a focus would work nicely.

So which three?


I'm going to go with my pure ranger, my assassin/engineer hybrid, and the swashbuckly mesmer. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes to fold the assassin and the environmental weapon specialist together; the sort of quick hit-and-run or single-target burst that an assassin could do would let them dispatch enemies trying to interfere with the environmental weapon use; the ranger with the optional pet and the condition use seems like something they'd keep from the GW1 professions; the swashbuckling mesmer fits a lot of mesmer art and anyhow if I wish hard enough maybe they'll have added it.

Soldier


The versatile and hard-hitting warrior is the first of the two soldier classes. It has an array of available weapons, including some ranged weapons, and appears to be concentrated on heavy DPS and mainly offensive buffs, although with the ability to protect an ally in a tankish sort of way. And it fits one of the two heavy-armor concept arts we've seen. So what fits the other one?

Strong Speculation: Cleric/Knight


The art I'm drawing from for this concept uses the a blue shade given to monks in GW1 (and the ritualist used a different blue shade), and carries a mace and shield, so I'm guessing this is going to be something based off the idea of the frontline cleric or a knight type. For lore and mixed culture reasons, this won't be your traditional holy paladin sort, but it would have some similar theme to it: a strongly defensive-oriented front line melee style character.

This is the one place where I think a profession might share a couple of the mechanics of another, specifically in the use of battle standards and shouts, although they might take a page from GW1's paragon and use "songs" or "chants" or something similar so as to preserve the unique feel of the warrior. Alternately, they might have a set of aura-style spells, a PBAoE buff to nearby allies. In any event, through some mechanic, I envision them granting some sort of physical and magical resistance, possibly being able to remove status effects, and possibly share in the warrior's ability to put themselves between an enemy and an ally.

2h weapons: Rifle, longbow, hammer. I think they will reverse the warrior, having the rifle for doing distance damage, keeping enemies from getting up close by crippling them or frightening them with close-placed shots, and reserve the longbow for pulling and finishing off runners. The hammer is in line with the semi-traditional blunt-weapon use of a cleric/paladin type.

For main hand: Mace, sword, pistol. The blunt mace goes along with the hammer (and the artwork I'm basing this on), but because they would not be making a pure cleric type, a sword also makes sense as a good generic frontliner weapon. The addition of the pistol is based on the idea of being a rifle specialist allowing one to use a pistol in closer combat.

Off-hand items: A shield seems a necessity, and in addition to that, the ability to use a warhorn to bolster their allies' confidence and resolve. I do not envision this being a dual-wielding weapon specialist type. It's possibly they might add a focus that would give access to more magical protection style buffs.

Summary


So, here's the final list at my most hopeful:

Scholars: Elementalist (known), Protection/Shutdown Specialist, Summoner
Adventurers: Ranger, Assassin/Saboteur, Mesmer Swashbuckler
Soldiers: Warrior (known), Knight

Now we just need ANet to release more information. *watches clock*

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