gw2: class speculation

[Karuro]

Imagine this.
You're a Tengu.
Your whole race gets kicked out of your homeland (Cantha) by a Human.
Do you really want to teach humans now the art of Assassination and Ritualism?
Doubt about teaching other races as well, since you'd be pretty peeved at that stage.

People can worship whoever they want, but they do draw their magical powers and strength from that professions God.
Like Monk's use the healing of Dwayna and the smiting powers of Balthazar. Aside from drawing those powers, they have the free will to follow a different god's teachings (Example Melandru, preserving nature and the like), just not use their powers (Because you can't go Mo/W/R).
Elementalists and Dervishes have free will in this. As they use powers from all the Gods.

I do not know which class will stay and which will go.
Some classes might merge into one. Like Assassin and Ranger into a Rogue-like type of profession.
If we look from a lore-only perspective, Paragons would be logical to still be around just not anymore in big numbers after Palawa Joko's conquest of Elona. Only the majority of his evil sunspear army and a few stray sunspears who have escaped his wrath. The rest were most likely killed. Same might go for Dervishes. However, the Norn might keep the Paragon class up and living, being hunters since birth and favoring psychical-damage-dealing weaponry.

Ritualists and Assassins will most likely survive. Since we recently discovered the Charr even use it. Assassins will still be a great asset to mankind's survival if they're still at war. Monks, Warriors and Elementalists are the "holy trinity" of every game. Necromancer might end up merged with Ritualist. The mesmer is even seen in Nightfall as a Performer-class. Like Bard's. I really have no idea what'll happen with them. Their originality of tricking the enemies mind might be key with them staying. I really have no idea.
In the end, it's all up to Arenanet anyways.

[Sir Jack]

And i think that assasins will be in GW2
because there are Xunlai agents and travelers from cantha that where ''cut off'' from there homeland (Cantha) because of the rising of Orr.
So assasins and Ritualist will be around in Tyria over 250 Years, but not as many as in Cantha, and the tengu are driven out of cantha so they can learn people the art of assasins two.

Not really. Xunlai Agents cut off from Cantha may just as have set up a Tyrian Branch, or the Canthan Emperor may have respected the neutrality of Xunlai as bankers and allowed them to continue their operations. After all, Xunlai economy would mean it improves the Canthan economy as well. Also, the presence of the Xunlai Agents in no way proves Sins will be in GW2. Xunlai Agents were in GW:P, but no Sins or Rits were available at the time.
I honestly doubt the Tengu would be willing to teach Assassin and Ritualist skills after getting pushed out of Cantha. The current peace between Humans and Tengu in Shing Jea is a very fragile one. Odds are that if any of the Angchu or Sensali survived getting pushed out and made it to Tyria/Elona, they'd be willing to be friends with them. They'll probably join forces with the local Tengu, all of which are (extremely) hostile towards humans.

As for classes worshipping other Gods, technically speaking, everyone worships every God. Dervishes and Eles are known to worship every one of them anyway. However, classes do have a God as a representative. Warriors bow to Balthazar. Rangers and Earth Eles bow to Melandru, etc. Kormir on the other hand represents no class as of yet. So, even though Kormir's teachings and knowledge may have been widespread by the time of GW2, it doesn't mean that Paragons (most likely class to be represented by them, mostly since they don't have a patron yet) are going to be available. Basically, if it's a Warrior worshipping Lyssa, he needs to change his profession, or is going from a roleplaying point of view, which isn't official lorewise.

As for everyone being an assassin, I'm gonna ignore that because I'd probaly flame too hard on that one...

Lore and financial reasons aside, I think Sins are the most likely class to get cut out of GW2. They're currently really bothersome balancewise (Shadowstepping, Glass Canon, ...). There's too many problems with Sins as is, without looking at the possible Racial benefits, and ANet has 2 decent reasons not to put them in GW2 directly (money+lore).

Let's also not forget that ANet may be "fusing" classes together into one. Although continuing with the current sets will be the most likely situation, safe a few revamps due to Balance (likely without an explanation lorewise...).

[Gorani]

From a lore point of view, there are esveral "sub-classes" availabe now, that could be re-worked for a GW2 character class:

Warrior => (Jade) Knight, (White Mantle) Crusaders, Axeman etc.
Monk => Cleric, Shaman, (AmFah) Healer

A "rogue" class could replace the Assassin or/and Ranger or be a "Corsair"

They either have to be very generic as in GW or very special (so they can not be compared to WoW, D&D etc.)

[Shinigami God]

I think that Anet will aim for a more unique character make-up when it comes to classes. For example, I believe WoW has some rather intense trees when it comes to what your character is able to do (never played it, just what I heard. I'm pretty sure they have tons of skills though.) So, they could split up Warriors into different types of wielders, or perhaps make new classes that would combine the old ones in new ways. But I do think that the basic concept of the classes will remain, as the lore is far too intertwined already with the profession system.

[ShadowReapr]

I concur with the possibility of Assassins getting the cut. While the Ebon Vanguard is a very Assassin-style organisation, it's quite possible they will have dissolved and/or been driven away by GW2 (after all, very little is left of Ascalon).

I'm not sure about the Dervish. They were meant to be wandering acolytes of the gods, which might work with the Order of Whispers, but as a complete profession, I'm not sure they'll survive.

The ritualist, on the other hand, I feel is rather likely to stay, at least in some form. The concept of appealing to spirits isn't too specifically Canthan (albeit more Canthan than either of the other two continents), so it could easily be mashed into the studies of other professions.

Of course, the problem - delving out of lore for a moment - is that we have no idea on the GW2 mechanics. As such, the concept of professions may change utterly and completely - they may even take the non-permanent choice concept of GW further and completely do away with them (but hordes of choices and such).

I'm not too sure the lore is too ingrained, to be honest. After all, it seems strange enough that every being in the known universe, with a few minor exceptions, fits the bounds of a profession. In contrast, to change "a powerful elementalist" to "a powerful mage of the elements" doesn't seem that major.

I personally think we'll see a move towards more allegiance-like choices - pledging allegiance to Kormir, for instance, and recieving more Paragon-like abilities - over the currently confined system. From a lore perspective, we're shown that monks, for example, get blessings from Dwayna through commitment and training, over being born fated into that role.

[The Thing]

Let's not forget that, in GW2, it seems the only ones actually worshipping the Six Gods are the humans. The charr, asura and norn acknowledge their existence and powers, but follow their own beliefs on the matter. So I doubt they'd recieve the Gods' blessings, or that their profession choice would stem from them.

In fact, I theorize that the human racial skills might revolve on their interaction with divine powers, but that isn't the subject here.

I believe we shall see all professions return in some form, either as a class in and of itself, or 'merged' into another one. Lore-wise, we know there are populations of canthan and elonan refugees living in kryta, so humans would have access to some of their knowledge and culture.

Charr, as stated in the pc gamer article, have their classes seperated between legions. Blood legion has warriors, Iron legion focuses on rangers and mechanical weapons (engineer class?), Ash legion trains 'assassins and stalkers' (we all know the charr like playing dirty) , and finally the Flame (or Gold) legion comprises of the magic-users.

Norn seem to be mostly warriors and rangers, however we know norn like using shouts to bolster themselves, so we may see the return of paragons or perhaps a change into a skaald class (storyteller/bard). Norn are also a spiritual race, so there is potential for ritualists there.

Asura, well I'd have thought them to be mostly spellcasters, but we've seen warriors and rangers in eotn, so... unsure there.

And the sylvari are still mostly an enigma, but we do know they have a connection to spirits and plants, so they seem like the perfect candidate for ritualists.

[Lobo Saleem]

I think from a lore point of view it wouldn't be that hard to change current classes to something new... afterall... many years have passed and some classes just might have evolved into something new...
With the new races being introduced new classes might pop up aswell or variations of older classes with slightly different mechanics.

I guess we will have to wait and see...still getting very curious... can't wait for more concrete info and screenies of Guild Wars 2.

What could also happen is there won't be that many new classes ... but much more skill trees making characters more flexible in their playstyle like let's say for example.. they might make 1 mage class that could use the 4 elemental trees + the mesmer trees with domination illusion etc ... Necros using spirits too seems a possibility and maybe rangers or warriors inheriting a few of the assassin skill trees.

Also they were working apperently on a chronomancer class on their Utopia project wich i assume is tied down with time because of the name ... maybe a little bit like the mesmer Fast casting attribute concept ... so those 2 could merge together aswell.

Just a thought.

[keroshinigami]

i was under the impression that palawa joko turned some paragons bad, they had a specific name, to hunt down remaining sunspears. meaning there are still sunspears around and that means paragons and dervishes doesn't it? while these guys are scrambling around they certainly might recruit more and teach others their styles to fight against palawa.

i dont see why assassins should be cut out, since the ebonvangaurd does seem to have them, even summoning one by a skill. id assume people found the assassin skills very valuable in escaping, in a time of a dwindling race, knowing how and when to escape is crucial to surviving.

i also believe ive seen more spear wielding norn then ranger norn. but i could be wrong.

[Giggles]

There's also the possibility that there will me more profs in GW2. The current ones we have now may be avail in a similar form only to humans. The other races may have completely different skill lines. They all have different backgrounds and therefore may have access to totally different professions then the humans do.

[Derked]

I think that we will have some new professions, and maybe merged classes too. I really hope that GW2 will include some kind of racial classes would be fun.
And there is no reason to cut out neither Paragon or Assassin. There was some time before the dragons awakened, so all more special classes have proboably spread to Tyria.