The ramp up to Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons is well underway, with plenty of details surrounding new features and elite specializations making the rounds. While Guild Wars 2 wasn't in the best place for many fans, details regarding the franchise's heavily anticipated return to Cantha have generated a notable amount of buzz within the community, and the upcoming elite specializations are unsurprisingly at the heart of it.
As with the previous expansions, Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons will introduce nine new elite specializations to the game that will make major changes to the playstyles of every class. While the expansion does include features like the long-awaited Siege Turtle mount, players are always most excited to play new classes in an MMO, and they are the most important feature to successfully deliver on. So, it's not surprising that a new mechanic like fishing has been outshined by the first round of three elite specializations to be revealed; the Mesmer's Virtuoso, the Necromancer's Harbinger, and the Guardian's Willbender. Prior to the beginning of the expansion's first beta, Screen Rant had the opportunity to sit down with developers from Arena Net to discuss the first three elite specializations available in End of Dragons.
When discussing the introduction of new elite specializations in Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons, the idea of breaking class rules is one that has permeated the discussion. Arena Net has referenced a desire to fundamentally change how these classes function and the first three elite specializations have displayed exactly that. The Mesmer's Virtuoso has replaced its core clone mechanic with illusionary daggers, the Harbinger sacrifices up to 50% of the Necromancer's overall health with the new Blight mechanic to drastically improve outgoing damage, and the Willbender encourages Guardians to be extremely aggressive in a much more self-sufficient, offensive role that replaces passive virtues with active combat abilities. These new elite specializations in Guild Wars 2 are designed to offer new ways to play each class and, so far, End of Dragons has taken that philosophy to a new level.
How ArenaNet Determines the Roles of Guild Wars 2 Elite Specializations
When designing a new elite specialization, Arena Net reviews all aspects of Guild Wars 2 to identify areas where a class may be lacking or underperforming. Whether it's the general open world and hardcore endgame PvE or structured PvP and World vs. World, classes are examined to determine if there is a gap in the roles they perform or if they may be under-represented in a particular facet of the game. Once the new elite specializations are handed over to the players, Arena Net will later evaluate their performance and adjust them as necessary. With the expansion's upcoming betas giving players complete access to the new elite specializations in Guild Wars 2, it should prove to be an effective way to balance all of the new mechanics coming into the game.
Speaking of betas, players won't have to wait long to check the new content out, as Guild Wars 2's first new End of Dragons beta is set to begin on Tuesday, August 17th. In this beta, players will be given full access to the Virtuoso, Harbinger and Willbender across the entire game with special demo character slots added to their accounts. The next two expansion betas, taking place in September and October, will feature the following two elite specialization trios. The fourth beta event takes place in November, giving players full access to all nine new elite specializations after they have been adjusted following their initial public testing phases. With Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons not set to release until 2022, these elite specialization betas will give players something to look forward to over the course of the next several months.