Three “New” Guild Wars Professions

If you'll remember from here, I said that the new classes (Sorry, professions, have to get used to calling them that again.) in Nightfall were eerily similar to ones that I had been working on in my spare time even before Factions came out. Not so much in the details as in the concept. So, I figured I should dig out my notes and post what I had for everyone to see.

Because, I don't know how ArenaNet goes about designing new professions but, for me, it all starts conceptually. Top down rather than bottom up. Look at the game, look at where it's at, and look to what it's lacking. That's where you can find niches for new characters to fill. And in a game like Guild Wars where players can switch their skills and attributes and even professions there are a lot of different things they can do. Each profession, then, has to be more than narrowly focused on doing just one or two things well. They need to be broad enough to encompass a lot of different roles and tasks – and to mix well with all the existing professions.

For me, the way to do that is not to focus so much on the profession but on the skill lines. What each profession has is a theme on which to bolt interconnected skill lines and a primary attribute and armor and energy.

The key thing in designing skill lines is synergy. Nothing works in isolation, it always has at least seven other skills on the bar to interact with (Or more if you're in a team situation.). And it's in the interplay between seemingly unrelated skills that they can reveal their real power. Take, for instance, the Protection line for Monks. It wasn't all that remarkable until someone figured out that Divine Boon supercharged any prot Monk into an effective healer and an effective damage mitigator. That's skill's under the Divine Favor line which most Monks were already investing heavily into but that's far from the only example. So, rather than having a rigid definition of each skill line – boundaries they can't cross – what I think each skill line needs is a theme. All the skills in a line should belong in that line, flavor-wise, no matter what exactly they're doing. Because they're going to get all mixed up with other skills, too. Where the real restrictions come into play is in the profession itself. You don't want Warriors turning into casting machines so you don't give them any spells, for instance.

Anyhow, let me list my professions before I'll detail them further. And, believe me, I worked these things up in rather frightening detail. I didn't consciously use them but it's interesting to see just how many of these ideas showed up in ClotH (the fictional game I developed for my NaNo novel. Don't worry, I know exactly what I'm going to be adding there for any expansions). Anyhow, I just never bothered to get them fully fleshed out and posted anywhere for other people to see. It was just something I'd think about while traipsing through the game or slugging it out in the Arena or whatever. Because I knew each expansion was going to have two new professions so I figured it might be interesting to see what they could be. Other people like to play around with making builds and using the existing toys but, me, I like to play around with what's yet to be, I guess. Anyhow, I started out trying to come up with two but after a while it branched out into three. A melee type, a caster type, and a ranged type. And, well, here they are:

• Ascetic: Pressure based offensive casters who'd kick out low to medium damage rapidly and cheaply. They'd also manipulate and shunt energy around groups. And avoid energy issues altogether with a focus on signets or no-energy cost skills. In place of their standard attack they'd be able to use buffs that would let them deal damage directly.
• Champion: Melee fighters with an anti-Warrior slant through overloading conditions. Defensive buffing and offensive, party-wide support. And a focus on restricting or controlling movement in their opponent's while increasing their own. They'd use spears – longer ranged two-handed melee weapons.
• Tinkerer: Ranged, pet-using characters who'd use their summons as tanks. They'd have a heavy magical focus and throw out a lot of enchantments and hexes with a focus on weakening their opponents. Also, they'd use a new type of skill which I called “item skills” to deal damage directly. They'd use crossbows – a heavy, ranged weapon with a slow rate of fire but a lot of damage.

Next time, we'll delve deeper into one of these professions. It's going to go long, trust me on this one. Once I clean my notes up a bit so other people can actually read them, of course.