Guild Wars 2 Devs Discuss Path of Fire Specializations

Elite specializations in Guild Wars 2's first expansion were a bit of a mixed bag. They were flashy and powerful -- and perhaps a little too powerful, overshadowing the "normal" classes and becoming almost a must-have for builds.

Content creators Wooden Potatoes, Aurora Peachy, and Richie "Bog Otter" Procopio talked elite specs with three members of the dev team, who acknowledged that having more time to work on the specs for this expansion was beneficial. That said, all the prep time in the world can't completely prepare the devs for a feature let out into the wild. Asked, "Is it a fool's game to try and predict how the player base will apply what you've made?" the answer came back: "Possibly."

The thief's specialization, deadeye, is based around the "mark" mechanic, where he marks his target. "We themed him a little like the first-person-shooter sniper, but we didn't want to have that kind of gameplay," said ArenaNet's Robert Gee. "Obviously, Guild Wars 2 is a very different game, so we had to theme it in different ways. He's a little more patience based; he has to wait for some things, and we use that to meter out the counterplay."