Why do so many Thief players want an Assassin elite spec, when the core class pretty much does the same things already?

I think it's because GW2 ultimately is rather limited when it comes to enhancing class gameplay via elite specs.

I mean, imagine playing GW2 as a vet for many years already and you really really like this one class and spec and playstyle and you played it for many years and you know all the flaws and get annoyed and eventually bored.

And at the same time you know that what you have already, that's it, you wont get new legendaries that enhance or change your gameplay of that spec, you wont get a massive overhaul like in WoW for example with each xpac, with new skills and traits etc, you dont have class specific set bonusses coming every few months that change your gameplay.
You get a new elite spec every few years maybe. But that elite spec is incompatble with what you currently play and main and like. You would have to give up your current spec and go for the new elite spec.

So, many people that like to play assasin type of spec/build want more of that and want new gameplay aspects to what they currently already like.

And elite specs dont actually do that usually, since again, they are supposed to offer something different to the spec that you already have.
And I think you can see that with other classes too. People just like a playstyle of that class already and they want that playstyle to be expanded and enhanced and developed. So they want essentially the same thing, just a bit better and cooler.

You still have people that want a "true shapeshift ranger", because soulbeast is kind of already it but it only goes 70% there.

But the truth is probably that 70% is close enough for Anet to never implement a "true shapeshifter", since the goal is to give a wide variety of specs and not lots of spec that are just different iterations of each other.

/r/Guildwars2 Thread