If the last profession is not a mesmer

[Minionman]

To go over again the information pointing towards mesmer, in case anyone isn't aware already:
1. After the ele, Necro, Ranger, and Warrior reveals, there was "at least one class returning, one based on a previous one but different, and one completely new class".
2. The thief was not called an "assassin" because that was considered too associated with Cantha, and the monk was removed/folded into the guardian to remove a class associated with dedicated healing, leaving a mesmer as the only non-announced Original Guild wars light armor profession.
3. This piece of concept art. When the elementalist was released, and warrior mentioned in a description, similar pieces of concept art led to correct predictions of all the other classes. (including the engineer, which had almost nothing else to point to it)
4. A somewhat recent announcement has said something along the lines of "mesmer lovers will have a home in guild wars 2".
5. Lots of equipment seems to resemble what Original Guild Wars mesmers had.

However, since speculation is always fun, Why not take some guesses on the off chance that Anet changed their minds/were confused/etc., in the above information, and the final class is not the mesmer?

I did have some more ideas in the past, but am blanking on them while writing this post, so for now:


Speculation # 1: Ritualist

Spoiler

Unique mechanic: Spawning power. In addition to carrying utility skills, ritualists could place certain permanent skills (spirits, ashes, infusions) into special skill slots, the amount of which would be determined by the "spawning points" the ritualist had. Once in this secondary bar, the skills would be a permanently active (infusions "on" all the time, ashes in use permanently, spirits constantly alive instead of on a time limit, etc.). The amount of slots taken up by skills would vary with the power of the skills when permanent (so, for example, an elite spirit might taken up all the spawning skills, as it would be extremely powerful when permanently on, while a quick cooldown infusion might only take up one slot.)

Skill types:
Spirits: Summoned creatures that do their own thing. Unlike GW1 spirits, these can move. They have a lot more functionality than creatures from other classes, being able to heal, apply a variety of conditions, etc., rather than just attacking.
Spirit Destruction: Like necromancer and guardian skills, ritualists would be able to destroy their spirits for additional effects. Skills like rupture soul, consume soul, etc. would come into play here. Other types of secondary summon based skills would also be available. Spirit destruction would either not be available when in a spawning slot, or would be usable on cooldown with the spirit itself respawning instantly, or staying alive through the use.
Ashes: Would replace weapon skills with powerful and/or unique abilities. These abilities would have limited amounts of uses if the ash skill were in a utility slot, but would be usable indefinitely if the ashes were in a spawning slot. Only one ash would be allowed in the spawning slots at a time, for obvious reasons (Though they would not take up all slots)
Spirit Infusions: Could be turned on and off. When "off" would provide minor buffs, chances for effects, etc. When on, would have more powerful buffs. Infusions in utility slots would have a cooldown longer than the "on" duration, infusions in the spawning slots would always be "on".

Weapons:
Two-hand: staff
One-hand: scepter, dagger, mace
Off-hand: focus, dagger

[sorudo]

the rit is already in GW2, only mechanical.

[Alaris]

You know what... I actually want them to make a mesmer, and make it so awesome that I'd feel compelled to make one.

So far, ANet has gotten me excited about many professions that I would have not been as excited about if not for how they innovated on the style.

Guardian is exciting, Paladins and Paragons, not so much.
Elementalist is exciting in GW2, even though I don't tend to care about nukers.
Engineer is awesome in GW2, though I did like the rit, the engineer offers so much more.
Even necro and ranger have improved from previous versions. Melee ranger? Cool. Minions you can explode to get some other effect? Nice.

I can see mesmer adding some new element to combat that'd be really cool, but at this point, I just don't know what.

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Chronomancer would be awesome.

Ritualist too, even though we already have engineer, I love those combo profs so more choices is a good thing.

[Gorani]

IMO, the Mesmer is too iconic for Guild Wars to be left out.
I would be disappointed if they class would be called Psioncist or something like that *sees Mind Flayers in front of his inner eye*.

I can not see a caster class that would fit the game mechanic of "hex" better than the Mesmer, even if we see hexes in a completely different form in GW2 than in GW1.

[djacob]

IMO, the Mesmer is too iconic for Guild Wars to be left out.
I would be disappointed if they class would be called Psioncist or something like that *sees Mind Flayers in front of his inner eye*.

I can not see a caster class that would fit the game mechanic of "hex" better than the Mesmer, even if we see hexes in a completely different form in GW2 than in GW1.

Yeah, necro has wells and some cloud poison aoe skills that I think are along the lines of what gw2's hexes will be like. I wouldn't be surprised if we see similar things with the mesmer (which yes, may as well be announced). Would be real cool if there were aoe debuff skills (would be conditions I guess) that would also effect enemies that get hit by arrows/bullets that were fired through the area it's applied to and/or apply more conditions if an enemy inside of one is hit with melee attacks.

The skills would also cause damage of course, don't want the mesmer to be a slouch at causing damage like it was in gw1 for so long (yes, I know it had some damage skills, but a lot of skills ignored the fact that damage is priority).

I expect there to be more to the mesmer as well, this is just one aspect I'm hoping for. I'm also hoping they have some way of getting attention off of themselves, like the necro's minions, engineer's turrets, ranger's pets, and thief's invisibility (btw, does the ele have a way to draw attention away from themselves?). Who knows, maybe they'll get they're own summons, rabbits that turn into ghosts and such, hehe.

[Alaris]

Ele has snares. Or he can switch to earth for armor.

I'd think mesmers can summon phantasms and illusions (that do real damage) and illusionary weapons that attack by themselves. That'd be cool.

[djacob]

Ele has snares. Or he can switch to earth for armor.

I'd think mesmers can summon phantasms and illusions (that do real damage) and illusionary weapons that attack by themselves. That'd be cool.

I was more interested if anyone knew of a mechanic eles had that would cause enemies to want to attack someone else (an aggro breaker if you will) even when the player is soloing. Snares keep an enemy from getting to them yes, but the enemies will still be going for the ele. Armor keeps them alive longer but still does not have this functionality.

I guess that the ele does not have this functionality though, and their big thing is being versatile with their multiple attunements. Which if I'm not incorrect anet recently mentioned swapping between all four in battle, as opposed to two attunements which I heard them say when the ele was first announced (again, if I recall correctly).

I like your thoughts on the mesmer ideas. Illusionary weapons might be a weapon spell instead of a guardian type summon though (I do hope there is a skill with that nod to gw1 no matter what it does).

[brunhild]

Ele has snares. Or he can switch to earth for armor.

I'd think mesmers can summon phantasms and illusions (that do real damage) and illusionary weapons that attack by themselves. That'd be cool.

That would be too similar to the ritualist, and duplicates a lot of functions of the engineer. So I don't think that will fly. If anything, Mesmers will have the summon ability that result in pure illusions, which would confuse the opposition and obfuscate reality in order to mess with their minds and game plan.

[Alaris]

@djacob:

There is no summon or aggro breaker that I know of for elementalist, unless of course you use racial summon skills.

As far as I remember, you could always swap between 4 elements with elementalist (as opposed to swapping between 2 weapons with most professions).

Guardian type summons would be nice, but I'd much rather a necro type summon. I generally like my squishies to have some form of summon to keep them company and to keep foes off their back.

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@brunhild:

I am not too concerned about duplicating functions, ANet seems to want a lot of overlap in function, and make the difference between professions more about gameplay style. Anyone can damage at a range, many can melee, many (or all) can support, etc.

Thought I can see mesmers having more punishing-like skills and disabling-like skills, some of that could be implemented in summons of the floating weapon or phantasm variety.

Pure illusions I think would not work well because (1) having a profession centered on AI is problematic in PvP, (2) having a profession who has low damage is generally problematic in PvE, and (3) doing damage is fun.

[Aoi Enishi]

Pure illusions I think would not work well because (1) having a profession centered on AI is problematic in PvP, (2) having a profession who has low damage is generally problematic in PvE, and (3) doing damage is fun.

One could ahve somethign in the likes of:

Summon 1..x phantasms that last for y seconds. These phantasms will act and look the same, but only one phantasm at a time will deal damage, the other two will attack but not deal any damage. Every time a phantasm takes damage, 50% of the damage is divided equally amoung all phantasms. Which phantasm deals the damage change randomly every z seconds. The phantasms all have a unique and powerful projectile attack with rechare a medium recharge and a flashy animation.

You would in reality only get one minion that could damage, but it would look like you have 4 or 5, attacking any of the 5 will harm the illusion but you would not know from which phantasm the damage hitting you will come next. The phantasms may file giant purple death rays all over the place which you may want to dodge because you dont know which of the death rays is real and which is an illusion. Attacking any of the phantasms will damage all of them and their total health would surmount to that of a single but powerful summon (i.e. each phantasm may be weak, but their total health is not)