My review after 4 months
Balance is something that is no doubt going to take another hit once HoT comes out what with the new elite specializations, etc. They’ll be working on fine-tuning balance for a long time to come after the expansion, so I guess I’d wait to see what finally emerges a couple a months down the road or so.
So, where’s the review?
All I see is a balance complaint thread and some personal preferance explenation.
Im trying to learn the s/f fresh air ele which i think not the easiest build and seeing that doesnt reward enough for the time spent to master it… im being rly frustrated. This is just an example of what i mean in general.
Thanks for reading.
Mesmer is like this for just about every game mode. Why juggle ten steps when a warrior or a guardian just cruises and hits two buttons? Because that’s the class. You picked a tricky build.
Tarnished Coast
Balance (skill-wise to damage output) is difficult to measure in PvE considering a lot of the content is faceroll with just about anything. Apart from Fractals (and arguably Aetherpath) people asking for particular classes or builds are just to improve the flow of the dungeon. For example, a guard, ele and PS warr (and any other 2) can do most dungeons without a hitch and get through mobs particularly fast, as opposed to risking a longer run with a mish-mash party.
Risk/reward builds only really come into play with harder content, such as high level fractals and aetherpath. A zerk build is very risky- you’re likely to die frequently if you don’t know how to defend yourself from the hardest hitting attacks. I think we’ll see a very fine balance between risk/reward with the upcoming raids.
Full DPS rotation for ele or engi requires a fair amount of skill, yet aren’t OP compared to other builds. I think a lot of players feel like the skill required from heavy-rotation builds is too much for the edge it gives, but imo that’s too bad.
A-net probably wanted to have a variety when it comes to build difficulty (to keep the hardcore/veteran/“elite” players interested) but don’t want super tricky builds to have a significant edge over simpler builds. It is a casual friendly game after all- people shouldn’t be forced to play overwhelmingly difficult builds/playstyles simply because they are OP compared to others.