Guild Wars 2

Ok, I know.. I promised no more posts but this one is bugging me. I have been bouncing around these forums since the expac announcement just to see what the buzz is around it and the new Class Elites. WHile I myself am pretty excited to get something else to try out I must say that it looks like the majority of you all are kinda bummed?
Correct me please if I am wrong but most posts in the Professions forums are mostly “oh man, this sucks” or “I cant believe they did this!” , pretty much all negatives.
So, hopefully I am way off here and most of you are just waiting until next weekends beta to try em and/or the expac to actually drop, then get excited?
I think ANET has done a crap ton of work and while yea maybe some classes will feel worse I think generally we will all be pretty stoked with what we get. I for one can’t wait to see if Spellbreaker is going to be any good in pve/raids and if not my fallback is going to be Renegade, I hope. But either way I am pumped for some new toys!!

Rangers, Revenants are pretty happy if you ask me.
Necromancers are also happy. To burn some tiers under a-net’s hq that is

Class forums for almost any MMO are never happy. That’s because the most disenfranchised people are the ones who post the most on them.

It’s the grass is always greener on the other side syndrome. If everyone is complaining the game is balanced. lol

You’re not alone, I’m also really excited about what’s coming ! To be honest, now that HoT is symbolically over, I must say that most elite specs weren’t really fitting with my playstyle, except DH ; I’m not planning to switch to Firebrand right now. I’ll see after test. Even the last patch somehow turned me towards my old core builds !

Now, I’m really looking forward those new elite specs, and growing nice ideas on how to use them ! My only fear is they mow them to the bone in 6 months because they’d have revealed too powerful.

Wait until next weekend when people try it and then see the explosion of real opinions. What we have been shown so far was underwhelming because the specs weren’t properly shown, nor were they shown in proper environment.
Right now we don’t even have proper theorycrafting material.
If people were not happy you’d hear it much more uproar on forums. Since there isn’t really that many complaints then it means majority has been satisfied. Until next week, at least.

Imo the most are looking good and a few okayish. But till we can test them in a real pve envoirement it’s hard to say if they will working well.

As guy who is maining necro the new elite looks pretty interesting to me. My second most loved alt the Guard seem to be well too.

I main a Charrdian and a Mez. I came back from 7 months away to.. two unplayable builds for Charrdian and an almost worthless to solo Chronomancer secondary build. At least the condimez build still works, kinda. I am very concerned they are going to revamp more of their traits with the new XPac, so I cant decide whether to mess with replacement builds, or not.
The new Elites specs for them look.. Meh.. Channeling has never been my thing. The new guard Elite build seems to do it a lot, and the vid seems to feature it. The Mirage looks like a stronger version of the base mesmer, with extra steps, so.. maybe? But, seriously, is it stronger than BENDING TIME?

People tend to post to complain with things they are unhappy about, they don’t tend to post to say “I’m OK with this”.

I’m looking forward to the new specs.

I’m happy for a potentially simplified elementalist. Also excited because I’m working on The Shining Blade…

Alanar.9854:

I’m happy for a potentially simplified elementalist.

What? Weaver doesn’t look simpler than Tempest but more complex.

As for the op, I’ve been asking for an Elementalist sword for a long time so I’m really happy with the Weaver. I hope it’s a good melee weapon too

I’m super hyped for Scourge and Deadeye, but that’s about it. Not that I don’t like the others (except for Weaver – another piano playing class, no thanks), just they don’t quite get my motor running.

I’m very excited.
Ranger, revenant and necromancer are my favourite classes and they all look to be getting cool stuff (most worried about the necromancer but still going to enjoy it even if people complain about being outside “the meta” since I’ve always liked supports).
I’m interested enough in mesmer and thief that I’m actually trying to get more into those professions just to try their elite specs. Mesmer because it looks amazing (going to have to make a new character for it though) and thief because it suits the theme of my existing thief character so well.
I’ve been eagerly awaiting the return of tomes to guardian. Kind of scared to look at how they’re doing it though just because I’ve been waiting so long that almost anything will feel like a disappointment now because it won’t perfectly match my daydreamed versions.
Warrior is better looking than I could possibly have hoped for, and I can’t wait to dust off my warrior to get a taste of it.

I’m not as dissapointed by the new Engie elite spec itself, as by the fact the devs choose not to answer the pleas form the engie players, giving us a DPS focused new spec (which only accentuates what we already have covered) instead of the Support focused spec the profession needs to gain diversity.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Rangers, Revenants are pretty happy if you ask me.
Necromancers are also happy. To burn some tiers under a-net’s hq that is

I play both Ranger and Rev mainly and I am extremely happy with what the new elite specs bring for each, as they are exactly what the classes needed and many have wanted. As some people have said, this expack is looking to be a crowd pleaser and I totally agree.

I am looking forward to all of the new elites. I don’t have any expectations of how much I will like or dislike them. I love Guild Wars 2 and I am simply excited to have new things to try and explore. It’ll take some time for the balancing to settle after the expansion releases.

Some other players may be disappointed because they believe the devs don’t listen to the community for their chosen profession. The complaints on forums are the vocal minority. Always have been, always will be.

Also, some players who believe there is no “good” spec for their favorite class, simply haven’t explored the class enough. Many complaints I have seen are more that the build they choose to play is not as strong as they wish it was. They don’t want to change their build to adapt to the game changes. They want the game to change and adapt to their specific build(s).

There are fun and viable builds out there for every class and I am excited to have even more builds to try out.

I am excited about the Weaver, it is actually the reason I finally leveled my Ele to 80.

On the other hand, I have been a Mesmer main since BWE 2, and I am a bit disappointed with the Mirage… I don’t think I will roll that spec, but instead save the HP for later on.

Weaver and Scourge look to be the best two for end game content. The rest may not replace the HoT counterparts. Holosmith may I guess.

Mained a necromancer, was gonna come back and try out scrouge, but then the balance patch hit and saw we still have the same problems we’ve always had, in addition to what they did with the soul reaping line.

Engine spec looks interesting, might toy with it in the beta, same with renegade. Others I’m not so interested in.

Alanar.9854:

I’m happy for a potentially simplified elementalist. Also excited because I’m working on The Shining Blade…

Weaver looks like a specialization with infinite skill ceiling.
How’s it simpler?

Weaver seems to only be good for fresh air Ele. Otherwise it seems meh..

Yes and no. Holosmith looks okay but I hate Scourge. I totally LOVE Shroud, I hate that Scourge has no Shroud and I am angry because my Power Reaper’s Shroud was nerfed because of this stupid new elite spec. I wouldn’t even care about Scourge if Anet gave my 50% slower life force decay and -30% cd on Shroud back!

I’m not interested in anything else, I only main Necro and Engi. Oops, I mean Engi only since last week.

Vayne.8563:

Class forums for almost any MMO are never happy. That’s because the most disenfranchised people are the ones who post the most on them.

True. I’m reserving judgement till I have the opportunity to play the new elites next weekend. Firebrand, what I’m most interested in, looks interesting, but has some serious issues that may break the spec. If they really have kittened up, I’ll join the chorus of people cursing incompetent devs.

They clearly only read the unimportant parts of what I wrote.

They catered to the masses instead of looking into good design for balanced and fun gameplay for everyone.

Most of the specs are more of the same.

A lot of the elites just look downright frustrating to play against, as if the PvP wasn’t already getting bad enough…

I’m told the views on the GW2 Discord are very different to the forum views on the elites. Might be worth a peruse if you have discord, since it might be more positive.

I’m excited for a couple of them for sure, although probably there are less options to suit my playstyle than HoT had, but I that might mean I am more pleasantly surprised when I unlock each one.

DeceiverX.8361:

They clearly only read the unimportant parts of what I wrote.

They catered to the masses instead of looking into good design for balanced and fun gameplay for everyone.

Most of the specs are more of the same.

A lot of the elites just look downright frustrating to play against, as if the PvP wasn’t already getting bad enough…

Your accusation is they catered to the masses instead of designing it for everyone?

First, there is no amount of tweaking and balancing that will make it fun for everyone.

Second, obviously many big additions to the game will attempt to please the “masses” since, by definition, that is the largest part of their player base.

So your complaint is that the are making changes to please a majority of players rather than the niche of players you belong to.

The complaint is they seems to be (Nobody can be sure yet) making superficial changes to please a majority of players in the first few days, instead of significative changes to please a majority of players in the long run.

Vayne.8563:

Class forums for almost any MMO are never happy. That’s because the most disenfranchised people are the ones who post the most on them.

It’s the grass is always greener on the other side syndrome. If everyone is complaining the game is balanced. lol

Truth in the words above. I would also add until we can actually play them, its very difficult to make an accurate or honest assessment.

I will wait until I actually get to experience them before deciding one way or another.

I am excited to have new builds to play.

I’m excited for Weaver and spellbreaker!!! They both look like they’ll be fun to me.

Rev elite looks miserable, they didn’t even know what to say about it on the intro video. “And the Revenant… Shoots arrows. Into portals. Yeeeah. Moving on!”

Warrior’s Spellbreaker looks like fun though!

I’m excited to check several of the new elites out.

I don’t know how anyone can claim to be ‘happy’ or ‘unhappy’ with something we haven’t gotten our hands on yet. I can understand the general ‘I don’t think I’ll like it’ or ‘It doesn’t look like it’ll suit my playstyle’ thought lines, but until people start using them (for more than just a preview weekend) it’s hard to tell if they are ‘good’ or not.

Pretty much all negatives?
Everyone in-game is euphoric

Then again, few people voice praise on the forum, most people just come here to voice disdain.
So the forum alone isn’t exactly representative on polling peoples ideals

I’m excited for my Ele… even though I main a thief. :p Weaver… drools

The deadeye looks good for making my thief a true assassin… but people will probably expect me to carry a rifle. That’s not… my character. Yes, I have a thematic character, who I also try to optimize. She’s currently a daredevil, but doesn’t use staff at all. She’s been pretty effective in PvE.

It just seems like people don’t expect or require daredevils to use the staff, but I have a feeling they will want/require deadeyes to use the rifle.

I was quite excited about Weaver. Then the balance patch hit and the prospect of choosing which gameplay I like more and settling for it turned to a prospect of forced change. Not remotely as exciting.

I’ll be sad till condi Thief dual torch Arsonist with Shadow Form for steal happens but for now I can’t fully judge till I play them.
I can however say I’m disappointed to see that they haven’t returned Ricochet for Pistol/Pistol because I’d like to use P/P + Rifle without having terrible aoe or feel like they’re too similar. I rather have 2 viable weapon sets than have Rifle completely replace it.

Necromancer one looks a lot more fun than Reaper to me but not sure how much I like the wraith design. Coulda been a sandy skeleton mage or something with an actual form.

Revenant I am pretty happy with overall. I’m glad another class finally gets SB. I feel like it shoulda got that for it’s base class though since they released Rev with no condi range weapon but I guess this is how they fix it.

Ranger I looked forward to the most but I’m very unsatisfied with how dull the “merger” looked in the video. I love daggers though so can’t complain further than that.

Weaver looks fun~ Tempest was already the best Elite spec, I wonder how this will compare.

Everything else I don’t play as much but they look fine, I’d need to mess around with them to say further.

I loved the look of Firebrand, it seemed to do everything I wanted it to do. Then once reading the skills more closely, it seems that all of the mantras are cones. This makes the buffing ones totally useless and has destroyed my hope for this elite spec.

No absolutely no one is happy

Can’t say if I’m happy or not until I can actually try them, or at least read others’ take on them. Since I don’t and won’t play PvP or WvW, looks like reading about them is all I’ll get out of the upcoming weekend. Not happy at all about that, that we can’t test them in a PvE setting. That being said, I am so far most looking forward to Deadeye. Love my Thief, and the one thing it’s lacked is far ranged capabilities.

All of them look cool, though I am most excited for the Holosmith, Mirage, and Soulbeast. I’ve never really found Mesmer or Ranger play styles that clicked with me, so I’m looking forward to more options, especially a ‘petless’ Ranger option. And Holosmith just seems like such a cool idea I can’t wait to try it Deadeye looks cool, but Daredevil is almost perfect for how I play Thief, so I am less interested.

I’m looking forward to Soulbeast and Weaver personally.

I’m eager to try several of the new specs. It’s difficult to say how well I will like them before I can test them, so at this point I am cautiously optimistic.

IMO… Scourge’s mechanics will bring something entirely new and I want to try it! Weaver is bound to be good. Holosmith looks interesting but I’m not sure if it’s for me. Firebrand has the potential to win me over, especially since I hated the theme for guardian’s first elite spec; even its horrible name has become defunct. I may not want to give up Chrono for Mirage, but I’m willing to give it a try. Renegade seems very charr-focused, which turns me off, but it may bring an interesting playstyle to rev. Deadeye and Soulbeast don’t really interest me but I’m sure many will find them fun. Spellbreaker… if it’s more than pressing 1 or 2 keys, I may actually play warrior.

Funny that you’ve seen a lot of negatives. Talking with guildies, we’re all pretty excited. Youtubers, too, sound excited about several specs and as far as I’ve heard, no one has predicted that a spec will be across-the-board bad. Some specs will have niches, or will probably be best for a certain type of gameplay (PvE, PvP, or WvW) but I think each one offers something.

Screw all that i just want the lightsaber holosmiths get so I can Mace Windu/Obi Wan/Yoda people.

I’m super excited, for more than mesmer for once.

I mean of course, Mirage is going to be the coolest and most awesome by far but I’m excited to play Spellbreaker, Weaver (never thought I’d be interested in an ele elite spec but this looks too cool), Soulbeast and Holosmith, and even Renegade looks pretty cool! For the first time I actually want to make serious alts for some of these elite specs.

The only three I don’t really give a kitten about are Scourge (because I dislike all necro thematically), Deadeye (because I’d rather play an fps/tps) and Firebrand (because Guardian bores me).

I’ll decide if I like any of ‘em once I get to try them out. Till then, I reserve my critiques on any of ’em. Tryin to stay optimistic that the classes I’m interested in going for are well made though.

It does leave a sour taste that pvp and wvw are the only two ways to test them out though. >_> Like many people I detest pvp, I don’t mind wvw, but roaming solo is usually a death sentence.

mXz.4512:

I’ll decide if I like any of ‘em once I get to try them out. Till then, I reserve my critiques on any of ’em. Tryin to stay optimistic that the classes I’m interested in going for are well made though.

It does leave a sour taste that pvp and wvw are the only two ways to test them out though. >_> Like many people I detest pvp, I don’t mind wvw, but roaming solo is usually a death sentence.

Unless you have the right gear to roam with the right build, it’s likely better to stick to the pvp npc training area.

Will probably learn more that way by experimenting against the various class npcs, svanir/chieftain and lord, and then dipping into some hotjoin games to try things out once feeling more comfortable with a spec.

Wvw you’ll just be free bags for gankers who just want to ruin your day, and on the flipside in medium/large scale zergs you won’t be able to test the elite specs properly anyway.

I will likely try roaming a bit with Mirage having planned out and already got gear/food/utility ready, but will not be until having done heavy experimentation in the pvp training area.

Vayne.8563:

Class forums for almost any MMO are never happy. That’s because the most disenfranchised people are the ones who post the most on them.

It’s the grass is always greener on the other side syndrome. If everyone is complaining the game is balanced. lol

Yep! A good compromise leaves everyone angry.

Wolfheart.7483:

DeceiverX.8361:

They clearly only read the unimportant parts of what I wrote.

They catered to the masses instead of looking into good design for balanced and fun gameplay for everyone.

Most of the specs are more of the same.

A lot of the elites just look downright frustrating to play against, as if the PvP wasn’t already getting bad enough…

Your accusation is they catered to the masses instead of designing it for everyone?

First, there is no amount of tweaking and balancing that will make it fun for everyone.

Second, obviously many big additions to the game will attempt to please the “masses” since, by definition, that is the largest part of their player base.

So your complaint is that the are making changes to please a majority of players rather than the niche of players you belong to.

I should have specified they catered to the demands of the masses of the thief community which made elite spec suggestions rather than instead of looking into good design for balanced and fun gameplay for all GW2 players including those not in the thief community to preserve fun and balanced gameplay.

The overall game-state is better off without this kind of design, which is a superset of the thief community, which is also a further superset of the community which thinks the idea is a good idea.

As important as it is to take player feedback into account, just because players want something doesn’t make that something a good idea for the general well-being of the game. This includes in scope what I proposed, but I can say with absolute certainty it’s healthier for the game overall than what the PoF DE will bring.

Whether or not my idea is better or which group I belong in regards to game’s health is irrelevant – I could be just as wrong in my proposal as the sniper concept – it’s that ANet’s choice isn’t aligned with what’s good for the game, and I’m not the only person to voice this concern or have voiced it before the concept was announced.

Considering we have not played the new elite specs I find it difficult to complain about them, or praise them. The basic concept of them is all I can look at, and at least half seem cool enough to me. I kind of doubt every spec that comes out will make every single person say wow about each one, and expecting that is not very realistic.

Egg Shennn.6240:

Considering we have not played the new elite specs I find it difficult to complain about them, or praise them. The basic concept of them is all I can look at, and at least half seem cool enough to me. I kind of doubt every spec that comes out will make every single person say wow about each one, and expecting that is not very realistic.

This is a good point, especially on the subject of diversity and allowing players to find their niche and preference.

As more elite specs get added (assuming there will be at least 3-4 elite specs per class at some point, or maybe more, taking into account further expansions) it makes sense that not everyone is going to prefer newer specs to older ones and tbh I’d hope that they don’t.

For some players maybe even after 3 or more expansions, say Dragonhunter will remain their favourite guardian spec. That’s great as it means those specs will continue to be played, given usually playstyle and theme is as big a motivator, if not more, than pure efficiency in gameplay.