Guild Wars 2

Trying to be as objective as possible, all info from sPvP. None of the specs need a rework just a renumbering.

Deadeye
The traits are great, but the new skills are overtuned. A single hit from death’s judgement can one shot a warrior that doesn’t notice you. With the thieves ability to teleport easily they can kite and shoot to a frustrating level, but ironically I don’t think it will be good in PvP due to the scrapper. I haven’t seen any but with all of the reflects from scrapper, deadeye isn’t going to be as strong as it seems. In PvE however, it’s going to have unmatchable dps on bosses, so it’s going to be a must pick with it’s current damage.

Firebrand
Not perfect. The axe feels wonky to use and the mantras do too. The tome skills however don’t. They’re strong and fun to use with a lot of diverse usage of it. The traits have two viable paths, tomes and quickness; the other line sucks. Tomes are also hard to use in the sense that when you need them you do not have them, but this is probably more me not being used to it. I’ve seen firebrands dominate but I can’t.

Holosmith
I love the idea but I can’t get a read on the balance of it. It’s a risk/reward class, unlike scrapper, and most holosmiths I see haven’t been able to walk that line. The new utilities don’t seem that good if you’re under 50% heat and when you’re above it, they’re still not that good. I fear that this won’t be taken over scrapper but that may be more of a problem with scrapper than holosmith.

Mirage
Without question it is strong. The new dodge mechanic makes mesmer a nightmare to deal with, especially with the stunbreak trait. The deception skills (most notably Mirage Advance) are incredibly strong and the new elite is almost a must pick. The sword ambush is also stupid powerful with the daze, but the greatsword’s is almost useless. Also there are no strong ambush skills for PvE which is where mesmer needs the buff the most. It may need to be toned down in PvP since being able to reliably res/stomp with mirage cloak is something a bit too strong especially when you play mirage as a tank. Also the heal skill is still weaker than Ether feast but they all are.

Renegade
Renegade is underpowered. I don’t think there’s anyone on the other side of this. The shortbow skills are all pretty low on condi damage, even when you take the range into factor, and doubly so without a defensive skill (only mace lacks a defensive ability). On top of low damage, the skills are also unreliable and miss easily when the target is moving slowly. Any other weapon is stronger. Kalla is also a weak legend. First of all the heal is a stunbreaker so if it gets interrupted it goes on a full cooldown which is awful. Razorclaw’s Rage is also extremely weak even if you get 5 people in the radius for 10s (50 stacks of 2s of bleed = 15k at very high condition damage for all 5 player). The other skills are okay but the elite has a long cast time and feels off that it can be killed or canceled. All of Kalla’s problems are linked to the old energy/cd issue. The skills require a lot of both (12-15s cds and 20-35 energy) and I do not see why the cooldowns need to exist at that degree. The f skills are almost impossible to manage if you run kalla as you’ll never have the energy for them but other than that they’re good. Traits are awesome though.

Scourge
I don’t think anyone thinks this is good in PvP at the moment. I can see it being a Raid meta for the insane condi dmg output but it’s so squishy and easy to avoid in PvP there’s little chance it will be used at high levels. At low levels its a hoot though, because the damage is so friggen high.

Soubeast
I don’t think soulbeast is as bad as people have been saying but it’s definitely weaker than druid. The damage is amazing in beast most from weapon skills but the beast skills are just not up to snuff. Skills that pets do ~5k will only net 1.5k when you use them and some pets are just useless due to the insane difference (like birds f1 does 600dmg). Using soulbeast as a tank with bears is fairly good though, but it’s weak to condis and how can you be bunkery in pvp if you can’t sustain conditions? Also the dagger is kinda weak to use without a lot of condis or power dmg…

Spellbreaker
I love spellbreaker, but dagger is not balanced. A dagger warrior is basically like a mobile hundred blades with an interrupt. Lowering the damage is a must do because it feels like it can out damage a zerker…

Weaver
I don’t know how to do base ele so weaver isn’t something I can even attempt but from those I’ve seen with those talents, it has unmatched condi defense and might be the strongest duelist since d/d ele. I can’t say whether or not it’s op or not but it’s really good. Unravel Hexes is the only thing I would tone down.

Hooglese.4860:

Scourge
I don’t think anyone thinks this is good in PvP at the moment. I can see it being a Raid meta for the insane condi dmg output but it’s so squishy and easy to avoid in PvP there’s little chance it will be used at high levels. At low levels its a hoot though, because the damage is so friggen high.

I do.

This is insanely strong. I handled a 1v2 vs two people playing Mirage and Firebrand, then again after they swapped to things they are VERY familiar with and did it again.

Maybe it’s just me, but Scourge knows how to survive a lot better than you’d think despite the life force not being an extra health mechanic.

I honestly think that you didn’t play the specs.

Mirage is clunky to play. The ambushes have casting times so long that they are suicidal to use.

The spec is dependant on swapping with clones. Sadly, the clones die so fast that the rest is meaningless.

The mirrors are extremely short lived and grant ambush, but then the casting times on ambush make that useless.

This spec, as it stands, is pretty much useless in PvP.

where is my thiefs movement speed — so tired of running around with chars in slow motion just because anet does not want to give every sup rune a min boon of 33% movement speed now u have to take a certain rune or trait line or weapon that u dont want just to move not in slow motion – kitten

on Mirage. you are writing about it almost theoretically. it isn’t at all practical. axe requires you to be up close pretty much melee without survivability and there’s not enough movement or long enough range gap closers to make it viable really except for maybe sacrificing a blink and axe 2. endurance for dodges is still the same so really not that spectacular. ambush has a tiny window anyone can tell when it wil happen (after a Mirage). Mirage mirrors are supposed to be the practical survivability but they disappear and there’s no way you’re rushing back to where u left them so soon and quickly, like wait a second, let me get my Mirage first, in the middle of a fight into the line of fire? they aren’t often and enough to be readily available when needed, if they are temporary then there should be many scattered, otherwise they should be permanent so u could use strategic placement and plan in advance. ambush for other weapons may be okay, but in reality it’s more of a slightly upgraded attack and doesn’t really change the tides, and the dodge I do like but Mirage as a whole just hasn’t been worth it. at the moment it can’t stand on its own, I still have to rely on traditional build skills like blinks, stealths, blocks, cond cleanse, to stay alive. our regular weapons offer us a lot more. what Mirage offers is impractical and gimmicky; good intentions and just not worth it yet at best

yep but what traits should we use on necro?
old traits buff only shroud… they dont buff scourge
Scourge is buffed only by added elite traits

Hooglese.4860:

Unravel Hexes is the only thing I would tone down.

You can’t tone down something that do not work… o_O

Must say, this is one of the more complete feedbacks that doesnt rely on resorting to extreme arguments (completely useless, noone will use this ever etc)

And instead OP just says at the starts that balance is still off but the mechanics are good enough. Which I pretty much expected from an early demo. I have yet to play a demo which was perfectly balanced. or a launch for that matter.

Would love to see more of this kind of feedback posts while I’m unable to play.

Hooglese.4860:

Spellbreaker
I love spellbreaker, but dagger is not balanced. A dagger warrior is basically like a mobile hundred blades with an interrupt. Lowering the damage is a must do because it feels like it can out damage a zerker…

This legit made me laugh. Dagger has less mobility than GS, less evade, and less damage.

If anything dagger needs a pretty massive damage buff to 1, 2, 3, and 5. As well as a range increase and evade frames on 2.

Yea unravel Hexes DOES NOT WORK.

Here’s the thing with Soulbeast. Anet made rangers do 30% less damage because we have pets. They forgot to give us those 30% back when in Beastmode. The damage sucks. Black Bear is best for its invulnerabilities and you can do a nice short burst with “Sic ’Em!” and Smokescale. The dagger has no appeal and will likely be another trash weapon nobody will use on a Ranger. Soulbeast seems like it was intended for 1v1 PvP and nothing else. Outside of that it’s very underwhelming. I’m also expecting “Sic ’Em!” to be nerfed as I’m sure Anet did not intend it to affect the player.

Dark.1823:

Here’s the thing with Soulbeast. Anet made rangers do 30% less damage because we have pets. They forgot to give us those 30% back when in Beastmode. The damage sucks. Black Bear is best for its invulnerabilities and you can do a nice short burst with “Sic ’Em!” and Smokescale. The dagger has no appeal and will likely be another trash weapon nobody will use on a Ranger. Soulbeast seems like it was intended for 1v1 PvP and nothing else. Outside of that it’s very underwhelming. I’m also expecting “Sic ’Em!” to be nerfed as I’m sure Anet did not intend it to affect the player.

This. The ranger mechanic IS the pet, and we need their damage and utility because it is split from ours. So yeah, the damage in SB is too low.

And really, if we ARE merged with a pet, “Sic ’Em!” and any other skills/traits SHOULD apply.

Side note, can other rangers access the PoF pets in WvW? I went into WvW, and all the new pets are grayed out.

rdfaye.4368:

Side note, can other rangers access the PoF pets in WvW? I went into WvW, and all the new pets are grayed out.

Yeah, I noticed that too. Sad.

Only other class I play regularly is mesmer, and I’m not getting the hang of Mirage. Axe requires in your face melee, and the mirrors disappear too fast to get to them. Or are you supposed to drop them where your allies are to buff them? The new dodge is interesting, but it won’t get you out of an aoe bomb (yes, I took some hits, forgetting my dodge no longer moves me).

I need more time with it, but it doesn’t feel as smooth as chrono did.

Ahlen.7591:

Hooglese.4860:

Spellbreaker
I love spellbreaker, but dagger is not balanced. A dagger warrior is basically like a mobile hundred blades with an interrupt. Lowering the damage is a must do because it feels like it can out damage a zerker…

This legit made me laugh. Dagger has less mobility than GS, less evade, and less damage.

If anything dagger needs a pretty massive damage buff to 1, 2, 3, and 5. As well as a range increase and evade frames on 2.

same here. was a good laugh indeed.
Especially the “walking 100 blades part”.

Firebrand is trash. You die faster than necro and you are focused all the times because of that. Copper league warrior.

Its to soon to talk, since ANet needs after POF launch the balance path.

The new spec’s are very unbalanced since they are “new to the game”.

FB gets easilly killed with autos atacks just like i tough.. just keep far away and keep auto atacking.

You did not play Spellbreaker lol. The Daggers are very weak on their own, across the board they need damage buffs.

Hooglese.4860:

Trying to be as objective as possible, all info from sPvP. None of the specs need a rework just a renumbering.

Deadeye
The traits are great, but the new skills are overtuned. A single hit from death’s judgement can one shot a warrior that doesn’t notice you. With the thieves ability to teleport easily they can kite and shoot to a frustrating level, but ironically I don’t think it will be good in PvP due to the scrapper. I haven’t seen any but with all of the reflects from scrapper, deadeye isn’t going to be as strong as it seems. In PvE however, it’s going to have unmatchable dps on bosses, so it’s going to be a must pick with it’s current damage.

Not really, ofc it is fun to play… but it gets countered easily, just like with pew pew ranger, mirror/ reflection/ retaliation/ every wall ;o you can make him kill himself…
Also crazy dmg from judgement (insane initiative costs, red line, easy to avoid, projectile slow as hell xD) comes from malice stack, so you literally has to be marked like 10s and constantly hit Oo remember that deadeye is completely immobile to deal any dmg, and squishy as hell ~12k (1 shoted by daredevil) , almost no condi clear unless you take SA shadows embrace… there are trade-offs everywhere so it’s not op by any means

I disagree entirely with this post. I think this is muddled with your subconscious opinion of what you usually play to make it suit your experience.

We all do it without realizing sometimes, but when you review things like game mechanics and classes, you have to go through other people’s experience and embody a well-thought out consensus of not just your thoughts, but thoughts of players, AND the Designers themselves.

(This especially includes damage statistics and numbers, which is not really the feedback they need.)

This post is like “I don’t like my experience, change it so it suits me”

I gave a post about the Firebrand, looking at the design, the way its played, and observing the intricate theme closely from the developer and player perspective, and shared my suggestions and criticisms through this lends. I encourage you give it a look.

Acewako.6421:

yep but what traits should we use on necro?
old traits buff only shroud… they dont buff scourge
Scourge is buffed only by added elite traits

This is completely false. All shroud traits work for the sand shade skills.

I can only say from Mirage, but, some need a major rework, not balancing. I’ve tried to be objective and enjoy my experience but after observation, it’s really not practical, and I just can’t deny that. Like Mirage, scavenging for mirrors that are scarce and in the line of fire in the middle of a fight, while trying to melee. I think the melee dueling would be cool if there were actually enough controlled, timed mirage triggers, such that each time a Mirage is actually attacked, they get to respond, and counter attack with ambush, and then the whole deception with clones, that could’ve been the theory but it doesn’t work that way, we can’t even pursue some classes using this spec as it stands without going with more traditional builds, but then again, we already have sword 2, blocks, distortion, dodges, chrono – the current spec, doesn’t give us a better chance at anything. And like okay, some people like the new elite skill Jaunt, but it has a range of 400, yes you can balance it with an increase, but what does the core concept do? It’s a leap with confusion and condi cleanse, what does this have to do with the whole mirage/mirror concept? It’s a waste of an elite skill and doesn’t synergize with the whole thing. The clones also don’t do that much work, even with ambush attacks in a real fight. And wouldn’t deception make use of our current stealth abilities? The whole spec and its entire concept just isn’t effective or wrapped up as a whole practically. The whole thing is: Mirage evasions, counter attack with ambush, and hoping clones look more confusing bc they also do the ambush? Does that really give anything to the class from what we can already do with other builds? Mesmers actually were looking forward to Mirage but it didn’t hold up to all the hype…. I think if you read what I’m saying here, I’m not trying to hate on it, it’s about the whole concept in practical terms, it doesn’t really work.

I think with the exception of Holosmith and Spellbreakers every other spec iis tuned for PvE.

There’s a disconnect with opinions right now because many PvE ppl are PvPing with said specs without any real understanding on how PvP is played and how bursty it can be. For example no matter how much damage you give to weavers it just cannot face people in melee range in PvP because Ele just aren’t built to fight like that, unless your an auramancer, same for mesmers unless you go chronomancy with shield.