Guild Wars 2

Some of the elite specs feel real good like reaper, thief and chronomancer. But then some others feel sort of “meh”. Not necessarily bad but just that I like the core profession better. Like… dragon hunter traps are really strong and such but the virtues just feel kinda meh to me. And druid staff is great for healing others but I feel like I’m tickling things to death. Whereas I’d rather forego the extra heals for more damage.

I’m sure some feel as you do, though there are many posts/threads about how the Elites are must-have for every profession.

My main is Ranger, and I don’t use Druid on any of my Ranger characters. It’s just not my thing. I do like some of the Berserker parts. Use a regular Guardian. I use some Reaper parts; the animations are cool.

I’m sure many players pick and choose for their own preferences, and others follow the ‘meta’.

You don’t have to use the complete spec. You can choose the traits if you like them but not use the weapon. If you’re in general PvE it hardly matters. Specs like Druid with staff are specialized for group play where healing others is useful.

circuitnerd.5863:

Some of the elite specs feel real good like reaper, thief and chronomancer. But then some others feel sort of “meh”. Not necessarily bad but just that I like the core profession better. Like… dragon hunter traps are really strong and such but the virtues just feel kinda meh to me. And druid staff is great for healing others but I feel like I’m tickling things to death. Whereas I’d rather forego the extra heals for more damage.

I think that the Ranger/Druid case is … well, I’m pretty confident the next xpac brings a new elite spec for them that is DPS oriented, not healing/support oriented. Someone else might draw the short straw.

The more common case of complaint I’ve seen is that, eg, tempest feels like what core ele should have been. I can’t entirely disagree with that myself in some ways, though I do think it is because the glass cannon build “meta” means that healing and self-support are not that worthwhile because nobody has the stats to support them.

To the broader question, I’m just gonna throw in one extra observation: I want to love Guardians. Both core, and elite, are things that I really, really like the idea of. They are also a collection of things — heavy armor, self-healing and blocking oriented, active defense — that I love to bits in other games.

I just don’t like them. It doesn’t work for me. They feel meh to play. OTOH, I <3 thief and core ranger, which is not how I feel in some other games. So… yeah.

Does that mean that those classes are meh? Nope. It means they don’t play the way that /I/ enjoy playing, which is one hundred percent cool and fine. Other people do enjoy them.

In the same vein, I’m certain there are people who love druid to bits, etc, where you don’t.

I’m not too keen on the state mesmers are in right now, and I love playing my mesmer. I’m not the best mesmer, but our damage is meh right now. I think that’s why they are relegated to buffing (or in some cases, tanking), but otherwise I don’t see people crying out for mes dps.

I also get that not every class is equal, and some are better at damage than others, and some are more support. But I dunno, I feel like the dps is pretty bad :S

If I’m wrong, lemme know

P.S. I would love to see a more dps focused elite spec, whatever form that might be