Unrevealed professions

[Ruse]

I'd call that more becoming a turret, not a healbot.

But we're on the same page about why they're no longer fun to play there.

[PriestessLara]

Well maybe I am just mad over AoC right now. Put so much effort into my PoM and the community there, and it's been systematically degraded. So I won't just believe ArenaNet on blind faith that omg our healers will be awesome and everyone will have a role. Because Funcom tried that and failed. Well actually they didn't fail at first. They lost the plot after patch 1.05.5.

Making a Fallout New Vegas mod in the meantime. Maybe Ruse can be an NPC.

[Ruse]

Nah, I understand the skepticism. I'm bitter about what they did to the PoM too.

And the GW community has proven it's both snobbish and unimaginative when it comes to the "elite" areas. You are typically expected to run an extremely specific build on a select few classes, and sometimes have max or near max of a certain reputation. Otherwise you only get in with friends/guildmates.

I remember back when nobody knew quite what to do with paragons...they could fill SO many roles but nobody wanted them because they didn't know where to pigeonhole them.

I do think that'll be somewhat less of an issue...you're not stuck with a build in GW2, so you can always run whatever you want when you get there xD; And the open world objectives mean people don't have to "approve" your builds before they'll let you help them.

And I get the bonus that I was going to play an elementalist anyhow. Adding a support-option facet to that class makes it all the better for me.

EDIT: And do eeeeet on the mod.

[PriestessLara]

I do like that each class will have support options. My fear is that there will be a single class that will be better at support, because that will make that class a required option for many people.

I remember an article I think I read in PC Gamer where they were describing a boss fight and how they had one elementalist be *the* party healer. I hope healing roles are diverse so instead of "looking for healer" it does not become "looking for elementalist". That could very well happen if people decide to pigeon hole classes arbitrarily, which is a danger given what you said about how the community approaches these things.

So at this stage I am still wary. On the info released, I could easily read into it as "you won't be required to have a healer class, but half the classes are only designed to fill in support healer roles temporarily in a pinch where there is no water elementalist". That's my biggest concern.

But I will be playing a mesmer anyway. I much prefer active and alternative methods of support than healing. Plus, that concept art of the mesmer looks as if she is dominant and into women. The mesmer is the ultimate kinky erp class.

[Ruse]

Yeah, I really do understand what you mean about pigeonholing. I'm staying optimistic because they said outside heals will never be as strong as your self-heals.

To be fair about Guild Wars 1 though...ritualists are an oddity. People are pleased to let them heal, if they show up and say "I'm resto." If they want to spirit spam, that's awesome too. Or run a channeling build (to be a nuker), fine. They CAN heal, and have a ton of support options (from reducing incoming damage to blinding enemies/helping out allies all kinds of ways with weapon spells), but they can do other things well and people understand that.

I'm going to guess that's what they're aiming for with ALL the classes to some degree. I think we have necros being able to give lifesteal abilities to allies, for instance. And lots of CC options for all classes. GW rangers have a "healing spring" ability, I wouldn't be surprised to see that make a return, etc.

Now, as you said...remains to be seen if they can do it. But I think they can.

[Shattercity]

I think you are all missing the point. There are no "supporting professions". The Elementalist is going to have just as many buffs and healing spells as the warrior. They are just going to have different ways of performing those things. A warrior might be yelling things, where an elementalist can just point at someone. Then they can both switch over to attacking and dealing large amounts of damage.

When forming a group all you will need is a large group and trust EVERY profession to take a moment to heal themselves and others. There will be no tanks healers or dps. NONE. The only difference of professions is the kind of tanking healing and dps EACH profession does. They will all be proficient at doing all of those things.

I understand that there will be a learning curve and a lot of players who can't evolve will be shouting orders and telling people that a warrior HAS to tank and a elementalist HAS to heal. Hopefully people will leave his/her party and join a group or guild that understands that EVERYONE can do anything. You are not restricted by these professions... only by your lack of imagination.

[ComplexNuber]

I think you are all missing the point. There are no "supporting professions". The Elementalist is going to have just as many buffs and healing spells as the warrior. They are just going to have different ways of performing those things. A warrior might be yelling things, where an elementalist can just point at someone. Then they can both switch over to attacking and dealing large amounts of damage.

When forming a group all you will need is a large group and trust EVERY profession to take a moment to heal themselves and others. There will be no tanks healers or dps. NONE. The only difference of professions is the kind of tanking healing and dps EACH profession does. They will all be proficient at doing all of those things.

I understand that there will be a learning curve and a lot of players who can't evolve will be shouting orders and telling people that a warrior HAS to tank and a elementalist HAS to heal. Hopefully people will leave his/her party and join a group or guild that understands that EVERYONE can do anything. You are not restricted by these professions... only by your lack of imagination.

Good point, it's easy to forget necro wells/orders, warrior shouts/banners and whatever rangers have (haven't read up much on them to be fair). I think this argument came about simply because the demo was either a) unknowingly biased in what they showed/discussed or b) support options weren't available in the demo to the same extent as ele support (remember the demo we saw is a LONG way from a completed GW2)

[Centaur]

There are no support "professions", but each profession will have options so it can be played as a support character. There are players who don't like to have to pay attention to their own health all the time (let alone someone else's); they just like to tank, jump into the fray and let someone else keep them alive. And there are players who are exactly the opposite; they don't like to be in the middle of the battle, they prefer to stay in the background and support those who do the actual fighting, by keeping them alive, protecting them from harm, or removing conditions, hexes etc.

And they have made it clear that players who prefer a supporting role, can still do so, whichever profession they choose. And I think that's what Ruse was referring to: hopefully each profession will be just as good in that supporting role, so that those players who prefer to play support characters, don't all choose the elementalist, and we basically end up with a similar situation than we have now. I'm pretty sure though, that, if ANet see that happening, they will quickly rebalance the support skills of those professions. So yes, players who like to be in a support role should be able to find something to their liking, no matter which profession they choose.

[Psyklone]

I don't think there will be pigeonholling. But I do think that a lot of people will do things like trying to tank and end up dying cause they expect to stand toe to toe with elite mobs and get by. When really they should be dodging, and possibly running away at times etc. Others might try and just heal, making them only half as useful. Sometimes this may rob them of participation, and theyll blame you for stealing the loot (which is impossible).
I hope they limit the number of instances where a certain ele stance isnt good (eg fire vs fire elementals or something). Cause you know people won't change attunements.

[Ruse]

I hope they limit the number of instances where a certain ele stance isnt good (eg fire vs fire elementals or something). Cause you know people won't change attunements.

I dunno. I think that's sort of just...natural selection, lol. I mean you'd have to be truly awful to insist on staying in an ineffective attunement.