Guild Wars 2

Spirits are so close to, I think, being useful in a reasonably balanced fashion, but they are simply too squishy. I am frustrated and upset with how, even having the double health and mobile spirits trait, they die -immediately- upon entering any kind of combat because the slightest AoE shreds their nearly nonexistent health and resummoning them is burdened by minute long cooldowns and three-second cast times for individual spirits.

I want this spirit build to work. It’s so close. But they can’t actually survive right now, no matter what they’re up against; they drop like flies from what seems like the most accidental stray fire.

Help me out here, guys? I want to enjoy this. I really do.

Edit: I’ll add that no need to buff the elite skill health. The elite skill health seems to be fine where it is (reasonably tough untraited, very tough traited). It’s the utility spirits that are frustratingly near-useless due to their squish.

I’d second this as a) I think they’re just a bit too squishy, b) I think movable spirits should be much, MUCH easier to spec for since this entire game is about fast paced movement and c) they just look awesome but appear a little… special needs when they just stand there and take damage until they die.

I love the idea of a spirit build. But I’d also like to know what they do and when they do it. So how about adding something that lets me and the party know that it was the spirits that helped them out?

Right now, I’m in a weird spot. I intuitively know that running a spirit build helps my groups survive. I just can’t prove it. I have no idea when a party member gets a buff from one. I just “sense” that we do better when I’m running spirits.

That’s not very satisfying or motivating.

I’d also like to see either multiple “skills” per spirit, or a broadened selection so I can pull out the ones that add dps, add cc, or add defense/health as necessary. Right now they’re just… dps oriented mostly. And that’s a bit depressing. Sure there’s the protection one, but otherwise, lightning, swiftness, fire, cold…

They need more variety, more power (because a 20% chance to cause lightning does… what exactly? I mean I can’t even tell when it happens, much less if it’s actually doing anything useful). How about regen? Condition removal? Health bombs? AoE damage on their own? Something like AI that lets them actually help, rather than just being,… there.

Good topic.