Guild Wars 2

So as to not hijack another person’s thread (although if it must be merged later with another I get it):

OK, so I’ve had some time to think about things.

First I want to say that while I’ve not even gone through LA just yet, I’ve heard some great things and I’m honestly very excited to tour it. Good job on that front for sure.

Also, thank you for getting the PS straightened out with new voice acting no less. Also good job.

I also want to say that I get where you are going with the skill and trait unlocking system, and although I’m not 100% on board with the implementation its not something I can get all rawr about. I will address one major issue I have with it, but its still small compared to some of my other issues that are more class specific.

I know a lot of people will be complaining about their builds being destroyed, and to be honest some builds have been completely wrecked. Completely. Other builds though, have been subtly crippled in ways that I REALLY can’t sit by and not comment on.

On engies, for instance, we now have to decide if we want to have our almost perma swiftness or survivability. This is a big problem since mobility is key for (IMO) all game modes, but to have to lose out on things like backpack regenerator and other defensive/healing buffs makes an engie WAY more squishy than they should be. Especially when other classes seemed to retain a fair mix od damage, movement, survivabilty across their trait lines. I just feel that either or scenario for the engie is a bit harsh.

Of all the classes I think Mesmers made out the best as they only seemed to get even more powerful with this update. Mark my words: purple butterflies will be EVERYWHERE. So I guess if you’re a mesmer you will be insanely happy.

Support warrior? Meh, maybe in PvE where it doesn’t matter, but I know I liked playing support with banners and shouts, and I feel a lot less effective now in that roll with my warrior. As for my Guardian…in limbo at this point and time. Neither my support boon/heal set up or my Zerk-Medi build feel viable anymore, and what builds seem like they should work, feel WAY clunky to me.

And speaking of clunky: who’s idea was it to split the active effect of steal to f2? Who said to do that? I want them in here now. This one change to muscle memory made me miss combos that almost got me killed a few times in Orr last night. I can’t even imagine how badly I would have been rolled in PvP or WvW when testing the build. This was a seriously bad idea. PLEASE change this function back to being on the F1 key. Please. I really hate it and cannot see others liking it.

I’m still testing builds out and seeing what will and won’t work moving forward, but yeah..many builds are just garbage now.

As for skill/trait line unlocking: Its bad enough that we cannot unlock skills in the order we want anymore, but if I have a toon that maybe doesn’t have enough points to unlock everything, please don’t assume which trait lines I want/should have open first. Just leave them locked and let me decide uopn logging in which ones I want to go with.

More to come later tonight once I’ve had more time in the new system.

So as to not clutter up anyone else’s post:

I’ve stated a few places already that some of my core toons’ builds are pooched. My support Guardian build is not the same, but i might be able to hobble a new one together and hope my armor stats hold for it. My DPS Guardian build seems hosed at the moment until I get new armor, which doesn’t make me very happy. Well, maybe not completely hosed, but I am now WAY WAY WAY more fragile and will melt to a stiff breeze if it blind sides me. My more power based Guardian is faring a little better, but i still need to do some more tweaks on her build as well.

I’m still really upset about my engie. She doesn’t feel right anymore for some reason. I’m going to have to come back to her later, but given how much time I’ve played her…yeah. Just feels like I’m driving someone else’s car with their seat and mirror settings for some reason.

My life siphon necro is actually MORE fun to play now, especially in PvE. Health for days and goofy amounts of “come at mew bro”.

My condi necro though…feels like slogging through mud for some reason.

My healing/support warrior: Not too sure about her. She seems like she is playing right, but I just…yeah. The build isn’t quiet the same anymore, but I just have to really put her through some other content to really see where she stands.

My DPS warrior(s) seem just fine. Not much changed for them and the things that did seem to benefit them, so yeah.

My power/crit thief doesn’t feel like she is hitting as hard for some reason, and my other thief which had 3 distinct builds…well:

Her power sword-pistol whip build i’ve not tested yet, her dual pistol build is wrecked, but her condi build is WOW, a bit OP at the moment. Fun, but yeah, a touch OP with the condi stacks. I was actually killing things faster on her than on my other thief.

I’ve yet to really get into my mesmer, but something tells me she will be like my siphon necro and be more fun now than before. Will have to test and see.

Ranger: My ranger hasn’t felt it too much (I don’t think), but i don’t play him that much either. I feel bad for my wife though as her ranger build was 86’d.

I was already planning on rebuilding my ele from the ground up with new gear before this patch dropped so she is waiting in the wings until I am ready to really test her out.

I think that’s all of them.

All in all, I’m not angry with the new set up, but more sad that only 1 or 2 of my builds really seemed to come out of this unscathed or better than they were while so many others are either broken or feel “off” and might only be fixed with new gear and time.

I think the whole idea was to shake up the playing field and make people rethink about their builds. If all the old builds worked, or even most of them, the whole exercise would have been a waste of time. MMOs are supposed to rock the boat, and most do it more often than GW2 does.

While i agree on some of that, I think they also just killed certain builds either through not realizing how those were played or literally not caring that they were putting some people behind the eight ball on certain builds.

I’m not liking the idea of having to rebuy different armor sets and having to re-earn and burn more laurels for trickets on toons that were/had solid builds just to make them viable with the new trait spreads.