Four unknown professions remain. We have a few official facts for all those speculating on the final Guild Wars 2 classes.
1. From the official site, we know there are three splats of professions: scholar, adventurer, and soldier. There will be three scholars, three adventurers, and two soldiers.
2. From an ArenaNet tweet: “Remaining four professions: at least one is a returning profession, at least one is similar with a different name, and at least one is new.”
3. Finally, ArenaNet gave us a little extra holiday gift when a community mananger announced the next profession reveal would be in January.
That’s it. Those are just the facts, ma’am. Now we have a lot of supporting bits and pieces, such as the use of the term “mesmer” in the Ghosts of Ascalon book. We also have three pieces of concept art, which many believe to be tied to the remaining professions. There is “the mesmer,” “the assassin,” and the “blue macy lady.” Since the announced professions also contain their own similar concept art, it is not a far stretch to think these three pieces will tie into a profession reveal.
Going back to the facts. There is one scholar, two adventurers, and a soldier remaining. Here’s my look in to my crystal ball.
The last scholar is going to be analogous to the mesmer. The name of that profession has been said in the first Guild Wars 2 novel, and the concept art is too strong a hint to deny. Still, I am not quite sure whether this will be the returning profession, or the similar one. On one hand, the mesmer is iconic to Guild Wars. It is a very unique class concept unlike any other in the MMO world. On the other hand, it is a tough class to understand, and Guild Wars 2 is taking away hexes, which are the bread and butter of the mesmer class. They seem to be also taking away the opponent’s skill monitor so players can’t watch the UI to determine when to interrupt. Are these mechanical changes in Guild Wars 2 enough to warrant a break from the Guild Wars mesmer?
The other profession on the same block is the assassin, but the only evidence in support of this profession’s return is the concept art. I believe that this class concept will be integrated in to the professions of Guild Wars 2, but like the mesmer, I am unsure whether this will be the returning profession, or the similar one. Unlike the mesmer, the assassin is a pretty common class in MMOs, which gives ArenaNet more room to go a little crazy and apply their unique twist on to the glass-jaw buggers. If I had to bet, I would guess that this would be the next reveal based only on the fact that we have two remaining adventurer professions.
The final piece of concept art is the “blue mace lady.” I think that this will be the other soldier profession to accompany the announced warrior. Let’s call it the “knight.” Sadly, I do not think the Guild Wars paragon (the holy knight or paladin-ish class) will return. Warriors got rifles for ranged, single-target damage, and clearly the world has moved beyond spear chucking. Warriors always had shouts, but I think a bit more of the paragon’s aggressive part of the pie went to the Guild Wars 2 warrior’s shouts and banners. Anyway, I think the Guild Wars 2 “knight” will get the remainder of the paragon, meaning support, and a bit of the dervish’s survivability. (Scythes, and believably dervishes, are not returning to Guild Wars 2.) Yet, I have an uneasy feeling about this class. What is going to be the twist? For now, I have my eyes heavily on the Warrior Priest class of Warhammer Online, but honestly, it seems a little too banal for Guild Wars 2. Regardless, I do not think the “knight” is going to be the “new” profession so much as an amalgamation of unused professions (namely the Nightfall ones).
The new profession, in my mind, is going to be something like an engineer or alchemist to fill out the adventurer splat of professions. It’s going to be the new world profession that could not have really existed in Guild Wars. Asuran technology and charr engineering will give this class turrets, grenades, golems, and all sorts of fun battlefield-changing devices. Sadly, I think this class will replace my beloved ritualists. Honored ancestral spirit turrets will now give way to technology created by the soulless races. I have very few facts to back up any of this. Sure, I could point to Clagg in Ghosts of Ascalon, and the need to have a turret class. But, I don’t want to believe that this will be the final class because, once again, Warhammer Online has this exact class. Izzy has been playing Warhammer Online so I hope he at least is finding ways to better/differentiate if ArenaNet is taking this route.
That’s it. My speculations are now put in place. We’ll see in January how close or far off I will be. Hopefully, once the profession kick-off starts in January we will get on track for a rhythmic profession reveal. Feel free to add your speculations below.