I just want to quickly revisit my Guild Wars 2 profession speculations in light of the Edge of Destiny book that has released with plenty of yummy profession hints. There might be spoilers to the book so press on with forewarning.
In the KTR Ghosts of Ascalon follow up interview, Jeff Grubb said that categorization of magic user is pretty easy. In Edge of Destiny, the human queen, Queen Jennah, is a mesmer. Not only is she a mesmer, but she is one of the most powerful able to conjure up a dragon if necessary. Many postulate that she also bewitched Logan Thackeray. I am now fairly certain that this profession will be returning without a change to it’s name. I hope this will be the January reveal because I really want to see how they dealt with such a hex heavy profession.
I am also fairly certain that the assassin profession will be the one that is similar, but with a different name. Many think that “rogue” will be the new moniker. I am hopeful it is not. The term “rogue” has a ton of baggage from Dungeons and Dragons and World of Warcraft. Still, the sylvari Caithe in Edge of Destiny seems to fit the bill. She seems to have a love for “weak spots” in her foes, but Caithe seems to have no knowledge of shadow stepping. The supposed loss of the ninjitsu side of the assassin profession may be what is prompting the name change.
Logan Thackeray is clearly of the “blue mace lady” ilk. He defends, he heals, and he wields a non-bladed weapon of his own for most of the book. One line in the book tells tale of his “guardian” powers, and the book’s description calls Logan a “valiant human guardian.” Could this be the term for the “blue mace lady” profession? I do admit that my preferred “knight” term does carry some cultural baggage, but the term “guardian” carries some holy-trinity baggage. We will see how ArenaNet chooses to describe their other soldier profession. (EDIT: Hunters Insight put up a fantastic break down of this after this was posted.)
Finally, there is still little shown for the last profession. There is plenty of gadgeteering in Edge of Destiny, but it’s hard to know when to separate asura inventor from all-race profession. I still think it will be a profession iconic of the new age.
We will find out at least one profession in less than four weeks.
–Ravious
it’s judgment that defeats us
I am really excited! I didnt think there would be another “assasin” class and I thought that the concept art of the supposed assasin could just be a ranger dual-wielding daggers… if you look at the mask i wasnt far off! Would be really interesting to see how they make this inventor/engineer class work… maybe this class also incorporates the mysterious gun-wielding class (ala Hellgate London)
Cant wait for the next reveal!
yay for mesmers! :)
i think you may be right – the demand for mesmers and the fact that it’s in the book means they can’t postpone it any more, so the january release may well be the mesmer profession.
i hope assassins don’t become “rogue” although it’s surprisingly hard to come up with a decent alternative.
“inventor” sounds rather good to me in regard to the techie asura/charr profession. more loose in definition than “alchemist”.
“guardian” seems likely, i agree. all in all – i just can’t wait :)
As I’ve said on Guru2, I think the inventor, while a likely choice for many reasons, poses some real problems for ANet in terms of seating it firmly in the world.
Any inventor/gadget class will likely need to draw from both Asura and Charr technology in terms of lore as well as art assets. Further, there are other cultures which simply have no industrial base and no concept of “inventor”, such as the Norn. And furthermore, can we easily imagine a human character has had enough access to Charr technology and industry to learn what they need to know? If each culture has its own gadgets, will the Sylvari be building turrets out of leaves and sticks?
Obviously you can handwave all this in the name of game design – story is clearly mutable. But it just feels awkward to me without some other context.
As to the Mesmer, I find the quote about Queen Jennah very evocative: The best ideas from the community regarding how to bring the Mesmer back in GW2 all revolve around illusory creatures and effects – such as imagined burden being an actual phantom, summoned onto a character, which then applies cripple and perhaps does damage.
This also allows for a lot of very visual, interactive play, such as your ally coming over and whacking off the phantom to free you (as can be done with the Oak Heart’s root spell). it just makes a ton of sense, and would be a very cool and unique profession.
A sylvari inventor is “extreme,” but what about a sylvari warrior holding a rifle? Because that is confirmed. Is a turret so much more extreme?
If they do an inventor, I think they will try and merge all the racial concepts. There might be plant potions and plant pets used by all races, as well as charr bombs and asuran lightning mines. Why would an inventor have to use inventions along racial lines?
Someone much more observant than I once corrected me, pointing out that the Sylvari would actually make great inventors, due to their inherent curiosity. So I don’t really have a problem with a Sylvari with a gun or as an inventor.
Nor do I think each culture should be limited to its own racial inventions – I think it much more likely in the relatively cosmopolitan world of GW2, that the cultures would share inventions and knowledge. At least to a degree – the Charr and humans, for example, are still not exactly buddy-buddy with each other, thus why I find it hard to imagine the Charr would welcome a human inventor into their industrial cities to learn about their technology.
I think it’s definitely most interesting to imagine a world where racial “traits” are blurred – Sylvari using technology, Charr being attuned with nature, etc. But in terms of the lore of the world, and the animosities held by some cultures for each other, there are still a lot of barriers to cultural interaction.
I think a Sylvari with a Charr-themed turret makes total sense (Sylvari are travelers, thinkers, and the Charr have little reason to distrust them). I think a Charr with nature-themed potions makes total sense. If I saw a human with a Charr-themed turret, however, I’d scratch my head and wonder where she learned to use it – and why the Charr secret service isn’t trying to stick her with a poison umbrella. If I saw a Norn relying on a turret at all, I might be even more skeptical, although maybe it would make sense in practice. And an Asura using tech from any other culture? That would be very hard to swallow indeed… :) What Asura would willingly admit that another culture’s technology was superior to their own?
It’s all very doable, don’t get me wrong. I just have these niggling gripes with how a tinkerer or engineer profession would fit within the lore, given how some of the races have been described so far. But then again, this is a game, not a novel, so the lore can always be massaged.
Although I admit the assassin may have it’s name changed, I’m still holding out for it to keep it’s name. There’s not much solid evidence for the change aside from a single achievement named “assassin”, convincing people that therefore the assassin is no longer named the assassin.
As for logan, i’d put money on guardian at this point. just makes too much sense.
As long as they dont call it a Rougue!!!
Assassin does have kind of a negative connotation. Maybe” ninja” is better. Or maybe” freebooter”. Ooooo… can we have ninjas and freebooters and finally have the “pirates vs ninjas” throwdown we have always dreamed of?
After reading the book I agree that Logan /BML will be likely named a “Guardian”. As for the name of the inventor/gadget class I would guess “Engineer” would be suitable. Lastly for Caithe’s class I have a bit of mixed feelings about the name. Assassin seems like it carries some baggage from GW1 that would be hard to leave behind so another name would be appropriate. I’m guessing something like “Scout”.
Scout seems to refer too much to the Ranger Profession.. I do understand that Warrior, Elementalist, Necromancer and Ranger are pretty generic names… but why not just keep it Assasin… unless the class has totally new functions… we can easily argue the point that elementalist should be Mage… Obviously I’m not saying you are wrong Loxone :) merely my 20cents
Initially, I thought Caithe’s profession was more of a rogue than an assassin, as we never “see” her shadowstep, nor do we really see her move quickly and quietly. Then I realized, all we “see” in the book, is that one moment she’s next to her allies, and then the next moment, she’s gotten behind the enemy and is going in for the kill. Sounds to me like she could’ve been shadowstepping.