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[[folder: Guild Wars 2 Theoretical Profession Guide]]
So in my quest to find the profession for me, I will post a quick summary of all the professions as a theoretical profession selection guide. Please note that I haven't actually played the game at all, so this is purely speculation. Also note that this will probably be a very rough summary. For in-depth information on the professions, check the [[http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Profession wiki]] or the [[http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ main site]].
I will be highlighting the general mechanics of the professions in comparison to each other and will focus on how they play. Note that due to the early state of the game, this information is subject to change.
Also, the [[http://guardiansoftyria.com/ Guardian]] and the [[http://www.necrobator.com/ Necromancer]] have their own fansites, so go there for analysises(?) on the related profession. They go in-depth on the intricacies of specific skills and the role of their prof much better than this post anyway.
* General information:
** All professions have a unique mechanic which will be the first sub bullet point.
** All professions have access to special skill types, some of which are profession specific. The ones listed are not profession specific, but are the ones shown on the main site: they show what the profession excels at. For example, most if not all professions actually have AoE skills, but the elementalist has a larger array of AoE spells than, say, the thief, hence why it is listed.
** The weapons you can equip in either hand are dependent of your profession. All professions except the elementalist and engineer: which have only one weapon set. This is made up for by their unique mechanic, which naturally gives them more skills.
** You have one profession per character, unlike GuildWars.
** Professions are based on armor-type. Professions in a specific armor class can only equip armor in that class. This is useful for those of you interested in how your character looks. Armor classes are seperated into heavy (Guardian,Warrior), medium (Ranger,Thief,Engineer), and light (Elementalist, Necromancer, 8th profession). Therefore, if you really, really like platemail/chainmail/leather armor/mage garbs, be sure to pick a profession in the right armor class. At this point, I like to think choosing using armor as a factor is purely for aesthetics, since I don't really know if, for instance, heavy armor is always better than light due to more defense, or anything. There are also some armor which is race-specific. All professions and races will be able to wear "civilian clothing" as well.
** Professions cannot be changed after character creation.
** All professions seem proficient in both long range and close range combat.
** No profession has a skill which ''directly'' targets a single ally. You will need to either aim your support skills or use them whil near allies. Therefore, no one can focus on a teammate for an entire fight.
** All professions will have an extra biographical choice in PvE. This choice is usually aesthetic and concerns a small accessory.
** All professions are independent of race. Race only has an effect on racial skills, which are intended as general skills to fill in holes that a specific profession may have. They are generally weaker than the proper profession related skill they are trying to mimic (e.g. the Charr trap racial skill is generally worse than the Ranger's traps.).
* '''The Warrior'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Adrenaline''
*** Warriors gain adrenaline per attack done to the enemy. Adrenaline is built up and can be used to activate burst skills (not a skillbar skill but a seperate skill dependant on your main-hand or two-handed weapon), which are more potent the more adrenaline you build up. This means that the warrior will mostly be focusing on constantly attacking the enemy and will be expected to play a very aggressive role.
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Banners: Creates a banner on the ground that allies (or the warrior) can use and place, granting an offensive aura buff at the placed location.
*** Shouts: Offensive aura buffs and debuffs
*** Stances: Self-based buffs
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
*** Charge skills: Attacks that can be charged.
** The warrior has the highest selection of weapons of all the classes, as well as being the profession the most chain and charge skills. This means that the warrior's versatility lies in mastering a large collection of weapon styles. Capable of close range fighting (duh) and long range fighting (rifles for single targets, longbow for aoe damage).
** All the warrior's main-hand/two-handed weapon skills focus on damaging the enemy.
** Biography choice is your helmet: None, face open, or fully covered.
** ''Prediction:'' Will probably be the BoringButPractical class: not relying on any fancy tricks. Just picking the right weapon for the job and attacking away, with the occasional buff here and there. Will probably be able to fit any role and will focus on attacking and building adrenaline and choosing the right time to blow it on their burst skill.
* '''The Guardian'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Virtues''
*** Guardians hold onto 3 buffs as shown below. At any point they can activate the virtue to have the effect transferred to every ally (including the guardian). Doing this disables the passive effect of the virtue for a while afterwards though. The Guardian will probably need to the right time to activate the virtues, needing to focus on the status of the entire team.
**** Courage: block an attack every 30 seconds
**** Justice: every 5th attack burns the enemy
**** Resolve: regenerates health (active also removes conditions from allies on active)
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Shouts: Defensive aura buffs
*** Spirit Weapons: Summons an invulnerable spirit weapon which automatically attack the enemy. They can be activated again to perform a special attack, but the attack immediately dismisses the spirit weapon.
*** Symbols: Places a symbol on the ground which damages foes and buffs allies.
*** Ward: Places obstacles for the enemy. This includes walls the enemy cannot pass to bubbles that protect allies.
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
** The Guardian has surprisingly(?) few healing spells. The closest are the ally regeneration buffs. Instead, they get a huge amount of condition removal.
** Generally, the guardian's weapon skills come both with an offensive component as well as a special utility/defensive component.
** Biography choice is between a cloak, mantle or a scarf.
** ''Prediction:'' This profession is all about making the right decisions at the right time. You need to use virtues, spirit weapon actives, symbols, and wards wisely; you can't just spam these skills. This class is about focusing on proper positioning and timing, hence the heavy armor. Your job will be to get to the center of action and wisely place your wards and symbols. Also has a load of condition removal and will definitely shine in condition heavy areas.
* '''The Ranger'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Pets!''
*** They're back! This time they are always active for each ranger and every ranger starts with one. A ranger can recruit up to 3 pets. They can be set to aggressive (attack my target), defensive (attack those who attack me), and passive (don't attack ever). You can also force them to attack (your target), heel (come to you), or stay (at their position). Pets can level up by fighting alongside the ranger. They start with 8 skills but can only equip 1-4 of them depending on their level. The ranger cannot directly activate these skills. Pets can be terrestrial (land-only), aquatic (water-only), or amphibious (both). The pet can directly revive the ranger like a normal ally or by killing an enemy as if the ranger killed the enemy. The pet can be knocked out in battle. The following pet species are confirmed:
**** Canines (amphibious)
**** Felines (amphibious)
**** Bears (amphibious)
**** Drakes (amphibious)
**** Armorfishes (aquatic)
**** Jellyfishes (aquatic)
**** Sharks (aquatic)
**** Devourers (terrestrial)
**** Raven (terrestrial)
**** Moa (terrestrial)
**** Spider (terrestrial)
**** Flamingo (terrestrial)
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Preparations: Grants an offensive buff to the ranger for a set number of attacks
*** Spirits: Summons a spirit which grants a large buff to all allies
*** Traps: Prepares a proximity trap at the ranger's current location which activates when an enemy gets in range.
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
** Some weapon skills and a lot of utility skills have effects on your pet.
** A lot of the ranger attacks concern proper positioning. This is probably intentional, promoting smart use of your pet to distract the enemy and have them turn the wrong way.
** Biography choice is the pet you start with:
*** Asura can choose between moa(chocobo), stalker(panther), and drake.
*** Charr can choose between devourer(scorpion), stalker, and drake.
*** Humans can choose between dog, moa, and bear.
*** Norn can choose between bear, wolf, and snow leopard.
*** Sylvari can choose between moa, stalker, and fern mastiff(dog).
** ''Prediction:'' Pets, pets, pets! This profession is all about micro-managing another player on the battle in order to correctly position your attacks and strikes. Due to the large variety of pets, each with their own skillset, rangers can offer a surprising amount of variety.
* '''The Thief'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Initiative'' and ''Stealing''
*** In stark contrast with the other professions which have no cost except cooldowns, thieves have no cooldowns but all their skills use up a ressource called inititive. This allows the thief to either spread his attacks to deal a steady stream of damage or use them all at once to create a huge amount of burst damage/utility(?). Also note that this may compensate for the thief's lack of chain skills: giving the thief more flexible skill combination options.
*** Thieves are also the only profession that can steal. Stealing actually doesn't take anything from the opponent, but creates an opponent (profession in PvP) dependent environmental weapon (like a flamethrower from an engineer).
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Dual skills: a skill dependent on both main-hand and off-hand selection.
*** Shadow stepping: Teleportation. Like in GuildWars, you can only teleport to places you could walk to.
*** Stealth: Makes the thief invisible (ignores aggro in PvE)
*** Traps: Prepares a proximity trap at the thief's current location which activates when an enemy gets in range.
** The thief's dual skills are a good indicator of what you want your thief to do when picking weapon combinations (burst, rushdown, hit-n-run, etc.)
** The role of stealing is noticeably absent from the thief's weapon skills, but will probably increase the options of the thief.
** Biography choice is their respect for anonymity (gives a mask), determination (bandana), or subterfuge (cape).
** ''Prediction:'' It is far too early to judge the thief. It incorporates a lot of the more intricate mechanics (stealth and shadow step) which will have a steeper learning curve than the other professions. Stealing is also something that will need more testing to understand. All I know is, the thief is good if you want to carefully plan out your attack and escape for finishing enemies off or whittling them down using hit-n-run tactics.
* '''The Engineer'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Tool belt''
*** If you activate a turret, weapon, or backpack kit skill from your non-weapon skill, you can use the tool belt to activate a special ability according to the kit you use. This simply allows your utility (non-weapon specific/general) skills to have more variety and...well...utility.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Weapon kits: Changes the engineer's currently equipped weapon to the selected weapon kit weapon, effectively acting like a weapon switch fro a "normal" profession. Revealed weapon kits:
**** Flamethrower: short-range AoE damage
**** Elixir gun: support and utility gun
*** Backpack kit: Equips the engineer with a backpack kit. To set bombs, throw bombs, equip a wrench, or drop med kits.
*** Turrets: Sets a turret which either deals damage, shoots nets, or heals allies.
** This class doesn't rely on weapons as much and can't switch weapon sets like the other professions. It makes up for this for having a lot of different gadgets which help fill practically any role.
** This class can provide a ludicrous amount of utility, as well as being decent fighter as long as you prepare the appropriate utility skills.
** Biography choice is between an omni-tool, an iron mask, and a pair of goggles.
** ''Prediction:'' TF2 jokes aside, this profession is very versatile and looks like it is primarily focused on holding positions and pushing enemy lines. You will need to quickly move to where you're needed and adapt between a large variety of roles very quickly. The profession will need to do quite a bit of weapon switching and will need to react quickly to what a team needs quite often. A nice versatile and unique profession.
* '''The Elementalist'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Attunement''
*** The elementalist is always attuned to one of the four elements (fire, water, earth, air). Attunement changes all your weapon skills to change in order to fit a certain speciality of that element, as well as having a nice passive effect.
**** Fire: focuses on AoE damage spells and burning enemies. Active: Enemies touching you are set on fire.
**** Water: focuses on defensive enemy control, such as slows, as well as healing allies. Active: Nearby enemies are slowed, while allies are healed.
**** Earth: focuses on aggressive enemy control, such as conditions and knock-downs. Active: Elementalist gains magic resistance.
**** Aire: focuses on damage, disables, and movement. Active: Deals lightning damage to nearby foes.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** AoE skills: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin
*** Charge skills: Spells that can be charged.
*** Conjure spells: Summons environmental weapons that allies can pick up and use.
*** Glyphs: Special elementalist unique buffs which have general utility purposes
*** Signets: skills which have a passive ability when equipped and can be activated for a special effect.
** Most of the elementalist's spells have an offensive element to them: the attunements are for controlling exactly how you want to damage the opponents.
** Elementalists have some general utility as well, but most of it is centered around the elementalist him/herself and managing attunements and spells.
** Biography choice is their favorite element, which will affect the colour and visual effect of the circlet attached to their head.
** ''Prediction'': The elementalist will be a mostly aggressive profession with the ability to also do some utiliy. Unlike the Engineer who is focused on the position of the team, the elementalist focuses on the weaknesses of the enemy and adapts to the situation using attunements. Again, like the Engineer, the elementalist will need to master switching between attunements in order to have the right tools for destroying the enemy.
* '''The Necromancer'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Life Force'' and ''Death Shroud''
*** The necromancer will always have spells which increase a form of energy called life force. Life force is also gained when something dies nearby. With a certain amount of life force, you can enter a Death Shroud form. In Death Shroud form, you get a set of general Necromancer skills and your life force slowly drains. You also leave your body and will return to your initial position when Death Shroud ends. Damage you take will hurt your life force bar instead of your health. You enter this form automatically upon death, before you enter your downed state, if you have some life force.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Marks: Marks an area on the ground which hurts the enemy while providing support for allies.
*** Minions: Summons a minion (or many minions) to attack the enemy. The summon skill can be activated again for a special effect.
*** Well: Creates an area around the necromancer which hurts the enemy while supporting the allies.
** Many of the necromancer's skills focus on inflicting conditions on the opponents and stripping them of their boons. They are the only profession that can induce fear.
** They are actually very durable, with an alternative "life steal" component with their unique mechanic
** Biography choice is the tatoo on their face: trickster demon red, skull white, or ghostly wraith blue.
** ''Prediction'': This class is all about actively using spells to dominate the enemy with conditions while building up life force using debuffs. Because the necromancer also has some AoE buffs and debuff, he/she will need to properly position him/herself to make the most of their spells. Death Shroud acts as a very potent survival technique, making this profession quite capable of taking some damage in the front lines, where their wells and death shroud will be most effective. Kind of a reverse Guardian.
So that's my opinion, make of it what you will. I hope this little guide I made will help you choose a profession you want. I'll probably add the 8th profession as well.
[[/folder]]
So in my quest to find the profession for me, I will post a quick summary of all the professions as a theoretical profession selection guide. Please note that I haven't actually played the game at all, so this is purely speculation. Also note that this will probably be a very rough summary. For in-depth information on the professions, check the [[http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Profession wiki]] or the [[http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ main site]].
I will be highlighting the general mechanics of the professions in comparison to each other and will focus on how they play. Note that due to the early state of the game, this information is subject to change.
Also, the [[http://guardiansoftyria.com/ Guardian]] and the [[http://www.necrobator.com/ Necromancer]] have their own fansites, so go there for analysises(?) on the related profession. They go in-depth on the intricacies of specific skills and the role of their prof much better than this post anyway.
* General information:
** All professions have a unique mechanic which will be the first sub bullet point.
** All professions have access to special skill types, some of which are profession specific. The ones listed are not profession specific, but are the ones shown on the main site: they show what the profession excels at. For example, most if not all professions actually have AoE skills, but the elementalist has a larger array of AoE spells than, say, the thief, hence why it is listed.
** The weapons you can equip in either hand are dependent of your profession. All professions except the elementalist and engineer: which have only one weapon set. This is made up for by their unique mechanic, which naturally gives them more skills.
** You have one profession per character, unlike GuildWars.
** Professions are based on armor-type. Professions in a specific armor class can only equip armor in that class. This is useful for those of you interested in how your character looks. Armor classes are seperated into heavy (Guardian,Warrior), medium (Ranger,Thief,Engineer), and light (Elementalist, Necromancer, 8th profession). Therefore, if you really, really like platemail/chainmail/leather armor/mage garbs, be sure to pick a profession in the right armor class. At this point, I like to think choosing using armor as a factor is purely for aesthetics, since I don't really know if, for instance, heavy armor is always better than light due to more defense, or anything. There are also some armor which is race-specific. All professions and races will be able to wear "civilian clothing" as well.
** Professions cannot be changed after character creation.
** All professions seem proficient in both long range and close range combat.
** No profession has a skill which ''directly'' targets a single ally. You will need to either aim your support skills or use them whil near allies. Therefore, no one can focus on a teammate for an entire fight.
** All professions will have an extra biographical choice in PvE. This choice is usually aesthetic and concerns a small accessory.
** All professions are independent of race. Race only has an effect on racial skills, which are intended as general skills to fill in holes that a specific profession may have. They are generally weaker than the proper profession related skill they are trying to mimic (e.g. the Charr trap racial skill is generally worse than the Ranger's traps.).
* '''The Warrior'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Adrenaline''
*** Warriors gain adrenaline per attack done to the enemy. Adrenaline is built up and can be used to activate burst skills (not a skillbar skill but a seperate skill dependant on your main-hand or two-handed weapon), which are more potent the more adrenaline you build up. This means that the warrior will mostly be focusing on constantly attacking the enemy and will be expected to play a very aggressive role.
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Banners: Creates a banner on the ground that allies (or the warrior) can use and place, granting an offensive aura buff at the placed location.
*** Shouts: Offensive aura buffs and debuffs
*** Stances: Self-based buffs
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
*** Charge skills: Attacks that can be charged.
** The warrior has the highest selection of weapons of all the classes, as well as being the profession the most chain and charge skills. This means that the warrior's versatility lies in mastering a large collection of weapon styles. Capable of close range fighting (duh) and long range fighting (rifles for single targets, longbow for aoe damage).
** All the warrior's main-hand/two-handed weapon skills focus on damaging the enemy.
** Biography choice is your helmet: None, face open, or fully covered.
** ''Prediction:'' Will probably be the BoringButPractical class: not relying on any fancy tricks. Just picking the right weapon for the job and attacking away, with the occasional buff here and there. Will probably be able to fit any role and will focus on attacking and building adrenaline and choosing the right time to blow it on their burst skill.
* '''The Guardian'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Virtues''
*** Guardians hold onto 3 buffs as shown below. At any point they can activate the virtue to have the effect transferred to every ally (including the guardian). Doing this disables the passive effect of the virtue for a while afterwards though. The Guardian will probably need to the right time to activate the virtues, needing to focus on the status of the entire team.
**** Courage: block an attack every 30 seconds
**** Justice: every 5th attack burns the enemy
**** Resolve: regenerates health (active also removes conditions from allies on active)
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Shouts: Defensive aura buffs
*** Spirit Weapons: Summons an invulnerable spirit weapon which automatically attack the enemy. They can be activated again to perform a special attack, but the attack immediately dismisses the spirit weapon.
*** Symbols: Places a symbol on the ground which damages foes and buffs allies.
*** Ward: Places obstacles for the enemy. This includes walls the enemy cannot pass to bubbles that protect allies.
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
** The Guardian has surprisingly(?) few healing spells. The closest are the ally regeneration buffs. Instead, they get a huge amount of condition removal.
** Generally, the guardian's weapon skills come both with an offensive component as well as a special utility/defensive component.
** Biography choice is between a cloak, mantle or a scarf.
** ''Prediction:'' This profession is all about making the right decisions at the right time. You need to use virtues, spirit weapon actives, symbols, and wards wisely; you can't just spam these skills. This class is about focusing on proper positioning and timing, hence the heavy armor. Your job will be to get to the center of action and wisely place your wards and symbols. Also has a load of condition removal and will definitely shine in condition heavy areas.
* '''The Ranger'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Pets!''
*** They're back! This time they are always active for each ranger and every ranger starts with one. A ranger can recruit up to 3 pets. They can be set to aggressive (attack my target), defensive (attack those who attack me), and passive (don't attack ever). You can also force them to attack (your target), heel (come to you), or stay (at their position). Pets can level up by fighting alongside the ranger. They start with 8 skills but can only equip 1-4 of them depending on their level. The ranger cannot directly activate these skills. Pets can be terrestrial (land-only), aquatic (water-only), or amphibious (both). The pet can directly revive the ranger like a normal ally or by killing an enemy as if the ranger killed the enemy. The pet can be knocked out in battle. The following pet species are confirmed:
**** Canines (amphibious)
**** Felines (amphibious)
**** Bears (amphibious)
**** Drakes (amphibious)
**** Armorfishes (aquatic)
**** Jellyfishes (aquatic)
**** Sharks (aquatic)
**** Devourers (terrestrial)
**** Raven (terrestrial)
**** Moa (terrestrial)
**** Spider (terrestrial)
**** Flamingo (terrestrial)
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Preparations: Grants an offensive buff to the ranger for a set number of attacks
*** Spirits: Summons a spirit which grants a large buff to all allies
*** Traps: Prepares a proximity trap at the ranger's current location which activates when an enemy gets in range.
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
** Some weapon skills and a lot of utility skills have effects on your pet.
** A lot of the ranger attacks concern proper positioning. This is probably intentional, promoting smart use of your pet to distract the enemy and have them turn the wrong way.
** Biography choice is the pet you start with:
*** Asura can choose between moa(chocobo), stalker(panther), and drake.
*** Charr can choose between devourer(scorpion), stalker, and drake.
*** Humans can choose between dog, moa, and bear.
*** Norn can choose between bear, wolf, and snow leopard.
*** Sylvari can choose between moa, stalker, and fern mastiff(dog).
** ''Prediction:'' Pets, pets, pets! This profession is all about micro-managing another player on the battle in order to correctly position your attacks and strikes. Due to the large variety of pets, each with their own skillset, rangers can offer a surprising amount of variety.
* '''The Thief'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Initiative'' and ''Stealing''
*** In stark contrast with the other professions which have no cost except cooldowns, thieves have no cooldowns but all their skills use up a ressource called inititive. This allows the thief to either spread his attacks to deal a steady stream of damage or use them all at once to create a huge amount of burst damage/utility(?). Also note that this may compensate for the thief's lack of chain skills: giving the thief more flexible skill combination options.
*** Thieves are also the only profession that can steal. Stealing actually doesn't take anything from the opponent, but creates an opponent (profession in PvP) dependent environmental weapon (like a flamethrower from an engineer).
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Dual skills: a skill dependent on both main-hand and off-hand selection.
*** Shadow stepping: Teleportation. Like in GuildWars, you can only teleport to places you could walk to.
*** Stealth: Makes the thief invisible (ignores aggro in PvE)
*** Traps: Prepares a proximity trap at the thief's current location which activates when an enemy gets in range.
** The thief's dual skills are a good indicator of what you want your thief to do when picking weapon combinations (burst, rushdown, hit-n-run, etc.)
** The role of stealing is noticeably absent from the thief's weapon skills, but will probably increase the options of the thief.
** Biography choice is their respect for anonymity (gives a mask), determination (bandana), or subterfuge (cape).
** ''Prediction:'' It is far too early to judge the thief. It incorporates a lot of the more intricate mechanics (stealth and shadow step) which will have a steeper learning curve than the other professions. Stealing is also something that will need more testing to understand. All I know is, the thief is good if you want to carefully plan out your attack and escape for finishing enemies off or whittling them down using hit-n-run tactics.
* '''The Engineer'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Tool belt''
*** If you activate a turret, weapon, or backpack kit skill from your non-weapon skill, you can use the tool belt to activate a special ability according to the kit you use. This simply allows your utility (non-weapon specific/general) skills to have more variety and...well...utility.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Weapon kits: Changes the engineer's currently equipped weapon to the selected weapon kit weapon, effectively acting like a weapon switch fro a "normal" profession. Revealed weapon kits:
**** Flamethrower: short-range AoE damage
**** Elixir gun: support and utility gun
*** Backpack kit: Equips the engineer with a backpack kit. To set bombs, throw bombs, equip a wrench, or drop med kits.
*** Turrets: Sets a turret which either deals damage, shoots nets, or heals allies.
** This class doesn't rely on weapons as much and can't switch weapon sets like the other professions. It makes up for this for having a lot of different gadgets which help fill practically any role.
** This class can provide a ludicrous amount of utility, as well as being decent fighter as long as you prepare the appropriate utility skills.
** Biography choice is between an omni-tool, an iron mask, and a pair of goggles.
** ''Prediction:'' TF2 jokes aside, this profession is very versatile and looks like it is primarily focused on holding positions and pushing enemy lines. You will need to quickly move to where you're needed and adapt between a large variety of roles very quickly. The profession will need to do quite a bit of weapon switching and will need to react quickly to what a team needs quite often. A nice versatile and unique profession.
* '''The Elementalist'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Attunement''
*** The elementalist is always attuned to one of the four elements (fire, water, earth, air). Attunement changes all your weapon skills to change in order to fit a certain speciality of that element, as well as having a nice passive effect.
**** Fire: focuses on AoE damage spells and burning enemies. Active: Enemies touching you are set on fire.
**** Water: focuses on defensive enemy control, such as slows, as well as healing allies. Active: Nearby enemies are slowed, while allies are healed.
**** Earth: focuses on aggressive enemy control, such as conditions and knock-downs. Active: Elementalist gains magic resistance.
**** Aire: focuses on damage, disables, and movement. Active: Deals lightning damage to nearby foes.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** AoE skills: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin
*** Charge skills: Spells that can be charged.
*** Conjure spells: Summons environmental weapons that allies can pick up and use.
*** Glyphs: Special elementalist unique buffs which have general utility purposes
*** Signets: skills which have a passive ability when equipped and can be activated for a special effect.
** Most of the elementalist's spells have an offensive element to them: the attunements are for controlling exactly how you want to damage the opponents.
** Elementalists have some general utility as well, but most of it is centered around the elementalist him/herself and managing attunements and spells.
** Biography choice is their favorite element, which will affect the colour and visual effect of the circlet attached to their head.
** ''Prediction'': The elementalist will be a mostly aggressive profession with the ability to also do some utiliy. Unlike the Engineer who is focused on the position of the team, the elementalist focuses on the weaknesses of the enemy and adapts to the situation using attunements. Again, like the Engineer, the elementalist will need to master switching between attunements in order to have the right tools for destroying the enemy.
* '''The Necromancer'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Life Force'' and ''Death Shroud''
*** The necromancer will always have spells which increase a form of energy called life force. Life force is also gained when something dies nearby. With a certain amount of life force, you can enter a Death Shroud form. In Death Shroud form, you get a set of general Necromancer skills and your life force slowly drains. You also leave your body and will return to your initial position when Death Shroud ends. Damage you take will hurt your life force bar instead of your health. You enter this form automatically upon death, before you enter your downed state, if you have some life force.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Marks: Marks an area on the ground which hurts the enemy while providing support for allies.
*** Minions: Summons a minion (or many minions) to attack the enemy. The summon skill can be activated again for a special effect.
*** Well: Creates an area around the necromancer which hurts the enemy while supporting the allies.
** Many of the necromancer's skills focus on inflicting conditions on the opponents and stripping them of their boons. They are the only profession that can induce fear.
** They are actually very durable, with an alternative "life steal" component with their unique mechanic
** Biography choice is the tatoo on their face: trickster demon red, skull white, or ghostly wraith blue.
** ''Prediction'': This class is all about actively using spells to dominate the enemy with conditions while building up life force using debuffs. Because the necromancer also has some AoE buffs and debuff, he/she will need to properly position him/herself to make the most of their spells. Death Shroud acts as a very potent survival technique, making this profession quite capable of taking some damage in the front lines, where their wells and death shroud will be most effective. Kind of a reverse Guardian.
So that's my opinion, make of it what you will. I hope this little guide I made will help you choose a profession you want. I'll probably add the 8th profession as well.
[[/folder]]
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So that's my opinion, make of it what you will. I hope this little guide I made will help you choose a profession you want. I'll probably add the 8th profession as well. For now, I think I'll leave a copy of this on my profile page. [[strike:Maybe that'll give it some views, but I doubt it.]]
to:
So that's my opinion, make of it what you will. I hope this little guide I made will help you choose a profession you want. I'll probably add the 8th profession as well. For now, I think I'll leave a copy of this on my profile page. [[strike:Maybe that'll give it some views, but I doubt it.]]
well.
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[[folder: Guild Wars 2 Theoretical Profession Guide]]
So in my quest to find the profession for me, I will post a quick summary of all the professions as a theoretical profession selection guide. Please note that I haven't actually played the game at all, so this is purely speculation. Also note that this will probably be a very rough summary. For in-depth information on the professions, check the [[http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Profession wiki]] or the [[http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ main site]].
I will be highlighting the general mechanics of the professions in comparison to each other and will focus on how they play. Note that due to the early state of the game, this information is subject to change.
Also, the [[http://guardiansoftyria.com/ Guardian]] and the [[http://www.necrobator.com/ Necromancer]] have their own fansites, so go there for analysises(?) on the related profession. They go in-depth on the intricacies of specific skills and the role of their prof much better than this post anyway.
* General information:
** All professions have a unique mechanic which will be the first sub bullet point.
** All professions have access to special skill types, some of which are profession specific. The ones listed are not profession specific, but are the ones shown on the main site: they show what the profession excels at. For example, most if not all professions actually have AoE skills, but the elementalist has a larger array of AoE spells than, say, the thief, hence why it is listed.
** The weapons you can equip in either hand are dependent of your profession. All professions except the elementalist and engineer: which have only one weapon set. This is made up for by their unique mechanic, which naturally gives them more skills.
** You have one profession per character, unlike GuildWars.
** Professions are based on armor-type. Professions in a specific armor class can only equip armor in that class. This is useful for those of you interested in how your character looks. Armor classes are seperated into heavy (Guardian,Warrior), medium (Ranger,Thief,Engineer), and light (Elementalist, Necromancer, 8th profession). Therefore, if you really, really like platemail/chainmail/leather armor/mage garbs, be sure to pick a profession in the right armor class. At this point, I like to think choosing using armor as a factor is purely for aesthetics, since I don't really know if, for instance, heavy armor is always better than light due to more defense, or anything. There are also some armor which is race-specific. All professions and races will be able to wear "civilian clothing" as well.
** Professions cannot be changed after character creation.
** All professions seem proficient in both long range and close range combat.
** No profession has a skill which ''directly'' targets a single ally. You will need to either aim your support skills or use them whil near allies. Therefore, no one can focus on a teammate for an entire fight.
** All professions will have an extra biographical choice in PvE. This choice is usually aesthetic and concerns a small accessory.
** All professions are independent of race. Race only has an effect on racial skills, which are intended as general skills to fill in holes that a specific profession may have. They are generally weaker than the proper profession related skill they are trying to mimic (e.g. the Charr trap racial skill is generally worse than the Ranger's traps.).
* '''The Warrior'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Adrenaline''
*** Warriors gain adrenaline per attack done to the enemy. Adrenaline is built up and can be used to activate burst skills (not a skillbar skill but a seperate skill dependant on your main-hand or two-handed weapon), which are more potent the more adrenaline you build up. This means that the warrior will mostly be focusing on constantly attacking the enemy and will be expected to play a very aggressive role.
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Banners: Creates a banner on the ground that allies (or the warrior) can use and place, granting an offensive aura buff at the placed location.
*** Shouts: Offensive aura buffs and debuffs
*** Stances: Self-based buffs
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
*** Charge skills: Attacks that can be charged.
** The warrior has the highest selection of weapons of all the classes, as well as being the profession the most chain and charge skills. This means that the warrior's versatility lies in mastering a large collection of weapon styles. Capable of close range fighting (duh) and long range fighting (rifles for single targets, longbow for aoe damage).
** All the warrior's main-hand/two-handed weapon skills focus on damaging the enemy.
** Biography choice is your helmet: None, face open, or fully covered.
** ''Prediction:'' Will probably be the BoringButPractical class: not relying on any fancy tricks. Just picking the right weapon for the job and attacking away, with the occasional buff here and there. Will probably be able to fit any role and will focus on attacking and building adrenaline and choosing the right time to blow it on their burst skill.
* '''The Guardian'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Virtues''
*** Guardians hold onto 3 buffs as shown below. At any point they can activate the virtue to have the effect transferred to every ally (including the guardian). Doing this disables the passive effect of the virtue for a while afterwards though. The Guardian will probably need to the right time to activate the virtues, needing to focus on the status of the entire team.
**** Courage: block an attack every 30 seconds
**** Justice: every 5th attack burns the enemy
**** Resolve: regenerates health (active also removes conditions from allies on active)
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Shouts: Defensive aura buffs
*** Spirit Weapons: Summons an invulnerable spirit weapon which automatically attack the enemy. They can be activated again to perform a special attack, but the attack immediately dismisses the spirit weapon.
*** Symbols: Places a symbol on the ground which damages foes and buffs allies.
*** Ward: Places obstacles for the enemy. This includes walls the enemy cannot pass to bubbles that protect allies.
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
** The Guardian has surprisingly(?) few healing spells. The closest are the ally regeneration buffs. Instead, they get a huge amount of condition removal.
** Generally, the guardian's weapon skills come both with an offensive component as well as a special utility/defensive component.
** Biography choice is between a cloak, mantle or a scarf.
** ''Prediction:'' This profession is all about making the right decisions at the right time. You need to use virtues, spirit weapon actives, symbols, and wards wisely; you can't just spam these skills. This class is about focusing on proper positioning and timing, hence the heavy armor. Your job will be to get to the center of action and wisely place your wards and symbols. Also has a load of condition removal and will definitely shine in condition heavy areas.
* '''The Ranger'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Pets!''
*** They're back! This time they are always active for each ranger and every ranger starts with one. A ranger can recruit up to 3 pets. They can be set to aggressive (attack my target), defensive (attack those who attack me), and passive (don't attack ever). You can also force them to attack (your target), heel (come to you), or stay (at their position). Pets can level up by fighting alongside the ranger. They start with 8 skills but can only equip 1-4 of them depending on their level. The ranger cannot directly activate these skills. Pets can be terrestrial (land-only), aquatic (water-only), or amphibious (both). The pet can directly revive the ranger like a normal ally or by killing an enemy as if the ranger killed the enemy. The pet can be knocked out in battle. The following pet species are confirmed:
**** Canines (amphibious)
**** Felines (amphibious)
**** Bears (amphibious)
**** Drakes (amphibious)
**** Armorfishes (aquatic)
**** Jellyfishes (aquatic)
**** Sharks (aquatic)
**** Devourers (terrestrial)
**** Raven (terrestrial)
**** Moa (terrestrial)
**** Spider (terrestrial)
**** Flamingo (terrestrial)
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Preparations: Grants an offensive buff to the ranger for a set number of attacks
*** Spirits: Summons a spirit which grants a large buff to all allies
*** Traps: Prepares a proximity trap at the ranger's current location which activates when an enemy gets in range.
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
** Some weapon skills and a lot of utility skills have effects on your pet.
** A lot of the ranger attacks concern proper positioning. This is probably intentional, promoting smart use of your pet to distract the enemy and have them turn the wrong way.
** Biography choice is the pet you start with:
*** Asura can choose between moa(chocobo), stalker(panther), and drake.
*** Charr can choose between devourer(scorpion), stalker, and drake.
*** Humans can choose between dog, moa, and bear.
*** Norn can choose between bear, wolf, and snow leopard.
*** Sylvari can choose between moa, stalker, and fern mastiff(dog).
** ''Prediction:'' Pets, pets, pets! This profession is all about micro-managing another player on the battle in order to correctly position your attacks and strikes. Due to the large variety of pets, each with their own skillset, rangers can offer a surprising amount of variety.
* '''The Thief'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Initiative'' and ''Stealing''
*** In stark contrast with the other professions which have no cost except cooldowns, thieves have no cooldowns but all their skills use up a ressource called inititive. This allows the thief to either spread his attacks to deal a steady stream of damage or use them all at once to create a huge amount of burst damage/utility(?). Also note that this may compensate for the thief's lack of chain skills: giving the thief more flexible skill combination options.
*** Thieves are also the only profession that can steal. Stealing actually doesn't take anything from the opponent, but creates an opponent (profession in PvP) dependent environmental weapon (like a flamethrower from an engineer).
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Dual skills: a skill dependent on both main-hand and off-hand selection.
*** Shadow stepping: Teleportation. Like in GuildWars, you can only teleport to places you could walk to.
*** Stealth: Makes the thief invisible (ignores aggro in PvE)
*** Traps: Prepares a proximity trap at the thief's current location which activates when an enemy gets in range.
** The thief's dual skills are a good indicator of what you want your thief to do when picking weapon combinations (burst, rushdown, hit-n-run, etc.)
** The role of stealing is noticeably absent from the thief's weapon skills, but will probably increase the options of the thief.
** Biography choice is their respect for anonymity (gives a mask), determination (bandana), or subterfuge (cape).
** ''Prediction:'' It is far too early to judge the thief. It incorporates a lot of the more intricate mechanics (stealth and shadow step) which will have a steeper learning curve than the other professions. Stealing is also something that will need more testing to understand. All I know is, the thief is good if you want to carefully plan out your attack and escape for finishing enemies off or whittling them down using hit-n-run tactics.
* '''The Engineer'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Tool belt''
*** If you activate a turret, weapon, or backpack kit skill from your non-weapon skill, you can use the tool belt to activate a special ability according to the kit you use. This simply allows your utility (non-weapon specific/general) skills to have more variety and...well...utility.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Weapon kits: Changes the engineer's currently equipped weapon to the selected weapon kit weapon, effectively acting like a weapon switch fro a "normal" profession. Revealed weapon kits:
**** Flamethrower: short-range AoE damage
**** Elixir gun: support and utility gun
*** Backpack kit: Equips the engineer with a backpack kit. To set bombs, throw bombs, equip a wrench, or drop med kits.
*** Turrets: Sets a turret which either deals damage, shoots nets, or heals allies.
** This class doesn't rely on weapons as much and can't switch weapon sets like the other professions. It makes up for this for having a lot of different gadgets which help fill practically any role.
** This class can provide a ludicrous amount of utility, as well as being decent fighter as long as you prepare the appropriate utility skills.
** Biography choice is between an omni-tool, an iron mask, and a pair of goggles.
** ''Prediction:'' TF2 jokes aside, this profession is very versatile and looks like it is primarily focused on holding positions and pushing enemy lines. You will need to quickly move to where you're needed and adapt between a large variety of roles very quickly. The profession will need to do quite a bit of weapon switching and will need to react quickly to what a team needs quite often. A nice versatile and unique profession.
* '''The Elementalist'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Attunement''
*** The elementalist is always attuned to one of the four elements (fire, water, earth, air). Attunement changes all your weapon skills to change in order to fit a certain speciality of that element, as well as having a nice passive effect.
**** Fire: focuses on AoE damage spells and burning enemies. Active: Enemies touching you are set on fire.
**** Water: focuses on defensive enemy control, such as slows, as well as healing allies. Active: Nearby enemies are slowed, while allies are healed.
**** Earth: focuses on aggressive enemy control, such as conditions and knock-downs. Active: Elementalist gains magic resistance.
**** Aire: focuses on damage, disables, and movement. Active: Deals lightning damage to nearby foes.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** AoE skills: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin
*** Charge skills: Spells that can be charged.
*** Conjure spells: Summons environmental weapons that allies can pick up and use.
*** Glyphs: Special elementalist unique buffs which have general utility purposes
*** Signets: skills which have a passive ability when equipped and can be activated for a special effect.
** Most of the elementalist's spells have an offensive element to them: the attunements are for controlling exactly how you want to damage the opponents.
** Elementalists have some general utility as well, but most of it is centered around the elementalist him/herself and managing attunements and spells.
** Biography choice is their favorite element, which will affect the colour and visual effect of the circlet attached to their head.
**''Prediction'': The elementalist will be a mostly aggressive profession with the ability to also do some utiliy. Unlike the Engineer who is focused on the position of the team, the elementalist focuses on the weaknesses of the enemy and adapts to the situation using attunements. Again, like the Engineer, the elementalist will need to master switching between attunements in order to have the right tools for destroying the enemy.
* '''The Necromancer'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Life Force'' and ''Death Shroud''
*** The necromancer will always have spells which increase a form of energy called life force. Life force is also gained when something dies nearby. With a certain amount of life force, you can enter a Death Shroud form. In Death Shroud form, you get a set of general Necromancer skills and your life force slowly drains. You also leave your body and will return to your initial position when Death Shroud ends. Damage you take will hurt your life force bar instead of your health. You enter this form automatically upon death, before you enter your downed state, if you have some life force.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Marks: Marks an area on the ground which hurts the enemy while providing support for allies.
*** Minions: Summons a minion (or many minions) to attack the enemy. The summon skill can be activated again for a special effect.
*** Well: Creates an area around the necromancer which hurts the enemy while supporting the allies.
** Many of the necromancer's skills focus on inflicting conditions on the opponents and stripping them of their boons. They are the only profession that can induce fear.
** They are actually very durable, with an alternative "life steal" component with their unique mechanic
** Biography choice is the tatoo on their face: trickster demon red, skull white, or ghostly wraith blue.
** ''Prediction'': This class is all about actively using spells to dominate the enemy with conditions while building up life force using debuffs. Because the necromancer also has some AoE buffs and debuff, he/she will need to properly position him/herself to make the most of their spells. Death Shroud acts as a very potent survival technique, making this profession quite capable of taking some damage in the front lines, where their wells and death shroud will be most effective. Kind of a reverse Guardian.
So that's my opinion, make of it what you will. I hope this little guide I made will help you choose a profession you want. I'll probably add the 8th profession as well. For now, I think I'll leave a copy of this on my profile page. [[strike:Maybe that'll give it some views, but I doubt it.]]
[[/folder]]
So in my quest to find the profession for me, I will post a quick summary of all the professions as a theoretical profession selection guide. Please note that I haven't actually played the game at all, so this is purely speculation. Also note that this will probably be a very rough summary. For in-depth information on the professions, check the [[http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Profession wiki]] or the [[http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ main site]].
I will be highlighting the general mechanics of the professions in comparison to each other and will focus on how they play. Note that due to the early state of the game, this information is subject to change.
Also, the [[http://guardiansoftyria.com/ Guardian]] and the [[http://www.necrobator.com/ Necromancer]] have their own fansites, so go there for analysises(?) on the related profession. They go in-depth on the intricacies of specific skills and the role of their prof much better than this post anyway.
* General information:
** All professions have a unique mechanic which will be the first sub bullet point.
** All professions have access to special skill types, some of which are profession specific. The ones listed are not profession specific, but are the ones shown on the main site: they show what the profession excels at. For example, most if not all professions actually have AoE skills, but the elementalist has a larger array of AoE spells than, say, the thief, hence why it is listed.
** The weapons you can equip in either hand are dependent of your profession. All professions except the elementalist and engineer: which have only one weapon set. This is made up for by their unique mechanic, which naturally gives them more skills.
** You have one profession per character, unlike GuildWars.
** Professions are based on armor-type. Professions in a specific armor class can only equip armor in that class. This is useful for those of you interested in how your character looks. Armor classes are seperated into heavy (Guardian,Warrior), medium (Ranger,Thief,Engineer), and light (Elementalist, Necromancer, 8th profession). Therefore, if you really, really like platemail/chainmail/leather armor/mage garbs, be sure to pick a profession in the right armor class. At this point, I like to think choosing using armor as a factor is purely for aesthetics, since I don't really know if, for instance, heavy armor is always better than light due to more defense, or anything. There are also some armor which is race-specific. All professions and races will be able to wear "civilian clothing" as well.
** Professions cannot be changed after character creation.
** All professions seem proficient in both long range and close range combat.
** No profession has a skill which ''directly'' targets a single ally. You will need to either aim your support skills or use them whil near allies. Therefore, no one can focus on a teammate for an entire fight.
** All professions will have an extra biographical choice in PvE. This choice is usually aesthetic and concerns a small accessory.
** All professions are independent of race. Race only has an effect on racial skills, which are intended as general skills to fill in holes that a specific profession may have. They are generally weaker than the proper profession related skill they are trying to mimic (e.g. the Charr trap racial skill is generally worse than the Ranger's traps.).
* '''The Warrior'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Adrenaline''
*** Warriors gain adrenaline per attack done to the enemy. Adrenaline is built up and can be used to activate burst skills (not a skillbar skill but a seperate skill dependant on your main-hand or two-handed weapon), which are more potent the more adrenaline you build up. This means that the warrior will mostly be focusing on constantly attacking the enemy and will be expected to play a very aggressive role.
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Banners: Creates a banner on the ground that allies (or the warrior) can use and place, granting an offensive aura buff at the placed location.
*** Shouts: Offensive aura buffs and debuffs
*** Stances: Self-based buffs
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
*** Charge skills: Attacks that can be charged.
** The warrior has the highest selection of weapons of all the classes, as well as being the profession the most chain and charge skills. This means that the warrior's versatility lies in mastering a large collection of weapon styles. Capable of close range fighting (duh) and long range fighting (rifles for single targets, longbow for aoe damage).
** All the warrior's main-hand/two-handed weapon skills focus on damaging the enemy.
** Biography choice is your helmet: None, face open, or fully covered.
** ''Prediction:'' Will probably be the BoringButPractical class: not relying on any fancy tricks. Just picking the right weapon for the job and attacking away, with the occasional buff here and there. Will probably be able to fit any role and will focus on attacking and building adrenaline and choosing the right time to blow it on their burst skill.
* '''The Guardian'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Virtues''
*** Guardians hold onto 3 buffs as shown below. At any point they can activate the virtue to have the effect transferred to every ally (including the guardian). Doing this disables the passive effect of the virtue for a while afterwards though. The Guardian will probably need to the right time to activate the virtues, needing to focus on the status of the entire team.
**** Courage: block an attack every 30 seconds
**** Justice: every 5th attack burns the enemy
**** Resolve: regenerates health (active also removes conditions from allies on active)
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Shouts: Defensive aura buffs
*** Spirit Weapons: Summons an invulnerable spirit weapon which automatically attack the enemy. They can be activated again to perform a special attack, but the attack immediately dismisses the spirit weapon.
*** Symbols: Places a symbol on the ground which damages foes and buffs allies.
*** Ward: Places obstacles for the enemy. This includes walls the enemy cannot pass to bubbles that protect allies.
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
** The Guardian has surprisingly(?) few healing spells. The closest are the ally regeneration buffs. Instead, they get a huge amount of condition removal.
** Generally, the guardian's weapon skills come both with an offensive component as well as a special utility/defensive component.
** Biography choice is between a cloak, mantle or a scarf.
** ''Prediction:'' This profession is all about making the right decisions at the right time. You need to use virtues, spirit weapon actives, symbols, and wards wisely; you can't just spam these skills. This class is about focusing on proper positioning and timing, hence the heavy armor. Your job will be to get to the center of action and wisely place your wards and symbols. Also has a load of condition removal and will definitely shine in condition heavy areas.
* '''The Ranger'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Pets!''
*** They're back! This time they are always active for each ranger and every ranger starts with one. A ranger can recruit up to 3 pets. They can be set to aggressive (attack my target), defensive (attack those who attack me), and passive (don't attack ever). You can also force them to attack (your target), heel (come to you), or stay (at their position). Pets can level up by fighting alongside the ranger. They start with 8 skills but can only equip 1-4 of them depending on their level. The ranger cannot directly activate these skills. Pets can be terrestrial (land-only), aquatic (water-only), or amphibious (both). The pet can directly revive the ranger like a normal ally or by killing an enemy as if the ranger killed the enemy. The pet can be knocked out in battle. The following pet species are confirmed:
**** Canines (amphibious)
**** Felines (amphibious)
**** Bears (amphibious)
**** Drakes (amphibious)
**** Armorfishes (aquatic)
**** Jellyfishes (aquatic)
**** Sharks (aquatic)
**** Devourers (terrestrial)
**** Raven (terrestrial)
**** Moa (terrestrial)
**** Spider (terrestrial)
**** Flamingo (terrestrial)
** ''Special skill types:''
*** Preparations: Grants an offensive buff to the ranger for a set number of attacks
*** Spirits: Summons a spirit which grants a large buff to all allies
*** Traps: Prepares a proximity trap at the ranger's current location which activates when an enemy gets in range.
*** Chain skills: "Combo skills". Activating the skill in succession causes a series of different attacks and effects.
** Some weapon skills and a lot of utility skills have effects on your pet.
** A lot of the ranger attacks concern proper positioning. This is probably intentional, promoting smart use of your pet to distract the enemy and have them turn the wrong way.
** Biography choice is the pet you start with:
*** Asura can choose between moa(chocobo), stalker(panther), and drake.
*** Charr can choose between devourer(scorpion), stalker, and drake.
*** Humans can choose between dog, moa, and bear.
*** Norn can choose between bear, wolf, and snow leopard.
*** Sylvari can choose between moa, stalker, and fern mastiff(dog).
** ''Prediction:'' Pets, pets, pets! This profession is all about micro-managing another player on the battle in order to correctly position your attacks and strikes. Due to the large variety of pets, each with their own skillset, rangers can offer a surprising amount of variety.
* '''The Thief'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Initiative'' and ''Stealing''
*** In stark contrast with the other professions which have no cost except cooldowns, thieves have no cooldowns but all their skills use up a ressource called inititive. This allows the thief to either spread his attacks to deal a steady stream of damage or use them all at once to create a huge amount of burst damage/utility(?). Also note that this may compensate for the thief's lack of chain skills: giving the thief more flexible skill combination options.
*** Thieves are also the only profession that can steal. Stealing actually doesn't take anything from the opponent, but creates an opponent (profession in PvP) dependent environmental weapon (like a flamethrower from an engineer).
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Dual skills: a skill dependent on both main-hand and off-hand selection.
*** Shadow stepping: Teleportation. Like in GuildWars, you can only teleport to places you could walk to.
*** Stealth: Makes the thief invisible (ignores aggro in PvE)
*** Traps: Prepares a proximity trap at the thief's current location which activates when an enemy gets in range.
** The thief's dual skills are a good indicator of what you want your thief to do when picking weapon combinations (burst, rushdown, hit-n-run, etc.)
** The role of stealing is noticeably absent from the thief's weapon skills, but will probably increase the options of the thief.
** Biography choice is their respect for anonymity (gives a mask), determination (bandana), or subterfuge (cape).
** ''Prediction:'' It is far too early to judge the thief. It incorporates a lot of the more intricate mechanics (stealth and shadow step) which will have a steeper learning curve than the other professions. Stealing is also something that will need more testing to understand. All I know is, the thief is good if you want to carefully plan out your attack and escape for finishing enemies off or whittling them down using hit-n-run tactics.
* '''The Engineer'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Tool belt''
*** If you activate a turret, weapon, or backpack kit skill from your non-weapon skill, you can use the tool belt to activate a special ability according to the kit you use. This simply allows your utility (non-weapon specific/general) skills to have more variety and...well...utility.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Weapon kits: Changes the engineer's currently equipped weapon to the selected weapon kit weapon, effectively acting like a weapon switch fro a "normal" profession. Revealed weapon kits:
**** Flamethrower: short-range AoE damage
**** Elixir gun: support and utility gun
*** Backpack kit: Equips the engineer with a backpack kit. To set bombs, throw bombs, equip a wrench, or drop med kits.
*** Turrets: Sets a turret which either deals damage, shoots nets, or heals allies.
** This class doesn't rely on weapons as much and can't switch weapon sets like the other professions. It makes up for this for having a lot of different gadgets which help fill practically any role.
** This class can provide a ludicrous amount of utility, as well as being decent fighter as long as you prepare the appropriate utility skills.
** Biography choice is between an omni-tool, an iron mask, and a pair of goggles.
** ''Prediction:'' TF2 jokes aside, this profession is very versatile and looks like it is primarily focused on holding positions and pushing enemy lines. You will need to quickly move to where you're needed and adapt between a large variety of roles very quickly. The profession will need to do quite a bit of weapon switching and will need to react quickly to what a team needs quite often. A nice versatile and unique profession.
* '''The Elementalist'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Attunement''
*** The elementalist is always attuned to one of the four elements (fire, water, earth, air). Attunement changes all your weapon skills to change in order to fit a certain speciality of that element, as well as having a nice passive effect.
**** Fire: focuses on AoE damage spells and burning enemies. Active: Enemies touching you are set on fire.
**** Water: focuses on defensive enemy control, such as slows, as well as healing allies. Active: Nearby enemies are slowed, while allies are healed.
**** Earth: focuses on aggressive enemy control, such as conditions and knock-downs. Active: Elementalist gains magic resistance.
**** Aire: focuses on damage, disables, and movement. Active: Deals lightning damage to nearby foes.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** AoE skills: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin
*** Charge skills: Spells that can be charged.
*** Conjure spells: Summons environmental weapons that allies can pick up and use.
*** Glyphs: Special elementalist unique buffs which have general utility purposes
*** Signets: skills which have a passive ability when equipped and can be activated for a special effect.
** Most of the elementalist's spells have an offensive element to them: the attunements are for controlling exactly how you want to damage the opponents.
** Elementalists have some general utility as well, but most of it is centered around the elementalist him/herself and managing attunements and spells.
** Biography choice is their favorite element, which will affect the colour and visual effect of the circlet attached to their head.
**''Prediction'': The elementalist will be a mostly aggressive profession with the ability to also do some utiliy. Unlike the Engineer who is focused on the position of the team, the elementalist focuses on the weaknesses of the enemy and adapts to the situation using attunements. Again, like the Engineer, the elementalist will need to master switching between attunements in order to have the right tools for destroying the enemy.
* '''The Necromancer'''
** Unique mechanic: ''Life Force'' and ''Death Shroud''
*** The necromancer will always have spells which increase a form of energy called life force. Life force is also gained when something dies nearby. With a certain amount of life force, you can enter a Death Shroud form. In Death Shroud form, you get a set of general Necromancer skills and your life force slowly drains. You also leave your body and will return to your initial position when Death Shroud ends. Damage you take will hurt your life force bar instead of your health. You enter this form automatically upon death, before you enter your downed state, if you have some life force.
** ''Special skill types'':
*** Marks: Marks an area on the ground which hurts the enemy while providing support for allies.
*** Minions: Summons a minion (or many minions) to attack the enemy. The summon skill can be activated again for a special effect.
*** Well: Creates an area around the necromancer which hurts the enemy while supporting the allies.
** Many of the necromancer's skills focus on inflicting conditions on the opponents and stripping them of their boons. They are the only profession that can induce fear.
** They are actually very durable, with an alternative "life steal" component with their unique mechanic
** Biography choice is the tatoo on their face: trickster demon red, skull white, or ghostly wraith blue.
** ''Prediction'': This class is all about actively using spells to dominate the enemy with conditions while building up life force using debuffs. Because the necromancer also has some AoE buffs and debuff, he/she will need to properly position him/herself to make the most of their spells. Death Shroud acts as a very potent survival technique, making this profession quite capable of taking some damage in the front lines, where their wells and death shroud will be most effective. Kind of a reverse Guardian.
So that's my opinion, make of it what you will. I hope this little guide I made will help you choose a profession you want. I'll probably add the 8th profession as well. For now, I think I'll leave a copy of this on my profile page. [[strike:Maybe that'll give it some views, but I doubt it.]]
[[/folder]]
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** Sorry for the late reply, but thanks! I really need to check my own page now and again. :/
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HOWDY THERE! Theres a new AsurasWrath Trailer out now! ^.^ Thought you should know ~ {{Tropers/Demongodofchaos}}
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* HOWDY THERE! Theres a new AsurasWrath Trailer out now! ^.^ Thought you should know ~ {{Tropers/Demongodofchaos}}
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HOWDY THERE! Theres a new AsurasWrath Trailer out now! ^.^ Thought you should know ~ {{Tropers/Demongodofchaos}}
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[[spoiler: I'm currently hiding. Shhhh....]]
Apparently this is enough for me to be blue instead of red. Huh.
Apparently this is enough for me to be blue instead of red. Huh.
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Apparently this is enough for me
A troper with no sense of taste, and trying to
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Apparently this is enough for me to be blue instead of red. Huh.
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* It's a little unfortunate you lost your kite. I guess that means you're a "victim of coicumstance". Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk! - {{Tropers/AlBundyFan365}}
