As much as Anet has done to combine the holy trinity into each individual class there must a class(es) that are better at holding aggro/mitigating damage and likewise for healing party members. Will the current MMO mentality end up here where pug players/groups will only accept a particular class for a given role?

I think someone needs to link videos of what happens when someone tries to take the sole responsibility of "mitigating damage".  To sum it up, they DIE HORRIBLY.  Heals are also not powerful enough to sit back and cast them (with pretty long cooldowns at that) and not help damage mobs.  Most people already understand this, and for those who don't, well, they're going to be a minority and after a while the only options they'll have left is to migrate to a Trinity game or play the way the game is meant to be played.

Perhaps. But from what I've played, so far, these people will quickly realize that pidgeonholing themselves into a single function when the game promotes so much flexibility will only make life unnecessarily difficult for them.

Why would any Elementalist stay in Water 24/7 for some extra healing power, when he can do so when needed, then swap into a different element and do more damage, have more mobility ot Cowd Control?

Simply doesn't make any sense.

Originally posted by ev1lb0b

As much as Anet has done to combine the holy trinity into each individual class there must a class(es) that are better at holding aggro/mitigating damage and likewise for healing party members. Will the current MMO mentality end up here where pug players/groups will only accept a particular class for a given role?

There is no holding aggro.  It's mostly proximity based.  As far as mitigating damage and healing, yes there are classes that are better at it.  Keep in mind group healing is very weak in this game, on long cooldowns, so it's difficult to provide strong sustainability through healing (some roles actually have a decent amount of this that you might call them a healer).  Roles that heal also do damage too, so they aren't just healing. 

No particular profession should really be accepted over another.  Maybe particular ROLES, not professions.  Everyone can and should tank (you take turns so to speak).  As far as healing goes you can either set up for strong defensive support (protection buffs, reflect shields, blocking, etc.) or have a few people bring support heals, but you'll still need to rely on your primary heal to keep yourself alive more than a healer.

They really did do away with the trinity in that you can pretty much take any combination of professions (including something like 5 guardians) and do well while maintaining a uniqueness in each of the professions.

Originally posted by StrixMaxima

Perhaps. But from what I've played, so far, these people will quickly realize that pidgeonholing themselves into a single function when the game promotes so much flexibility will only make life unnecessarily difficult for them.

Why would any Elementalist stay in Water 24/7 for some extra healing power, when he can do so when needed, then swap into a different element and do more damage, have more mobility ot Cowd Control?

Simply doesn't make any sense.

That Elementalist wouldn't be able to keep everyone alive, it's impossible.  The amount of AOE damage in addition to the weak nature of healing spells in GW2 wouldn't permit it.  I tried out some heals and at best they fill up a less than a quarter of a full health pool and they come with 5 second or more cooldowns.  If you put a full healer class on your team in GW2, you'd be losing a vital damage dealer.

People coming into Guild Wars 2 with the old mindset of the holy Trinity will either adapt or die. Even if some people try to spec into certain specs, that group WILL fail. Everyone has to tank, everyone has to heal, and everyone does damage. Above all though, everyone needs to survive. This will be a huge shock for a lot of players to accept and learn, but hopefully they will try to learn it rather than coming to forums crying that their class sucks or is weak cause they die often.

There will always be some people who want specific classes for their dungeons (LFG. 2 more B/P rangers) but in most cases people rather have someone good than someone of a specific class. The exception is if you already have 2 of that class in the group, while you still can complete the dungeon the group tends to get less flexible then.

Originally posted by Loke666

There will always be some people who want specific classes for their dungeons (LFG. 2 more B/P rangers) but in most cases people rather have someone good than someone of a specific class. The exception is if you already have 2 of that class in the group, while you still can complete the dungeon the group tends to get less flexible then.

I disagree, 5 spirit rangers is the most OP thing ever.  You basically have 25 tanks, ridiculous amounts of boons, the absolute best sustained healing in the game, and crazy damage on top of that.  I can't even stress enough how much this profession needs a nerf right now.  There are several completely broken builds that basically trivialize the game on Ranger right now.

Originally posted by ev1lb0b

As much as Anet has done to combine the holy trinity into each individual class there must a class(es) that are better at holding aggro/mitigating damage and likewise for healing party members. Will the current MMO mentality end up here where pug players/groups will only accept a particular class for a given role?

warrior axe and shield and a water spec'd elementalist with a staff we were doing just fine

My Mace and Shield Guardian could "tank" as much as I played it. The one caveat was you had to dodge to get out of the way of the big hits. Granted I haven't had time to play as much as I'd like. I did feel like a tank while playing it though.

The margins for error definitely feel smaller though. You could get away with more on a traditional tank in a traditional mmo.

First everyone must keep in mind that the skills you have can literally be swapped before each spawn.  So while you have 3 utility and an elite for that fight.  You have 30 some odd skills to actually chose from for the dungon.

Second what is role?  If you going against a spawn that is ranged heavy you want to have a guardian or mesmer use their shield that stops projectiles.  That will be FAR more usefull than simply healing through the damage.

There is really "role" you use the appropriate skills for each situation.  With a good spread of classes in a 5 man you should be able to come up with a strategy that will work ok. 

In most MMOs you simply heal through whatever it is and possibly do some long duration mezzes to make the fight easier.  GW2 is different you need to execute a much more fine grained strategy and may be swapping your skills around 3 or 4 times in a dungeon.

Originally posted by Atlan99

My Mace and Shield Guardian could "tank" as much as I played it. The one caveat was you had to dodge to get out of the way of the big hits. Granted I haven't had time to play as much as I'd like. I did feel like a tank while playing it though.

The margins for error definitely feel smaller though. You could get away with more on a traditional tank in a traditional mmo.

That all stops when you do exploration dungeons were you literally can be one shoted by most bosses, you need all 5 of the memebers to be swaping agroo every 15 or so secs otherwise it just doesnt work. Bosses at minimum deal 30% hp per hit even for the classes with most endurance like warrior.

Originally posted by austriacus

Originally posted by Atlan99

My Mace and Shield Guardian could "tank" as much as I played it. The one caveat was you had to dodge to get out of the way of the big hits. Granted I haven't had time to play as much as I'd like. I did feel like a tank while playing it though.

The margins for error definitely feel smaller though. You could get away with more on a traditional tank in a traditional mmo.

That all stops when you do exploration dungeons were you literally can be one shoted by most bosses, you need all 5 of the memebers to be swaping agroo every 15 or so secs otherwise it just doesnt work. Bosses at minimum take 30% hp per hit even for the classes with most endurance like warrior.

GW2 is not made such that any type of character can just "take it".  You need a strategy to minimize how often you get hit.  Not just attempt to take it like a man.  No one can take aggro that long.  You need to be smart about things.  There are alot of ways to do it.  You can have a mesmer put up an invisible field to let people swap aggro.  You can have Guardian shield people.  You can use spot healing.  You can use cripples or impassable walls.  But in the end if any one person is getting 80% of the aggro and is not kiting the living crap out of that boss they probably will die. 

Now a guardiand with certain traits and really nice armour and alot of toughness will probably be able to go toe to toe for double the time of an elementalist.  That is true.  But the guardian still needs to get away and may have less options to do so.

Guild Wars 2 teaches hard lessons.  I have been playing ol genration mmos for the last 3 weeks.  I cut on guidl wars 2, and i died 4 times in the first 20 minutes. Took me a bit ot realize that i have to actually play this game as if it were a different game than the others. 

Oh, a thread created on an assumption that already has tons of videos, interviews and posts that prove it wrong.

And people started replying seriously to this thread...why?

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

Oh, a thread created on an assumption that already has tons of videos, interviews and posts that prove it wrong.

And people started replying seriously to this thread...why?

Guilty as charged.  I just found the "well it KIND of feels like tanking and healing" posts to be irritating.  Yeah, if no aggro, weak heals on long cooldowns and hardly any damage mitagation making it impossible to win without switching out with other people = tanking and healing, then I suppose it does.