Guild Wars 2

Hello all.
I am pretty sure what I am about to type is purely my own opinion, but I must give the feedback I think is deserved, concerning the new elites.

I was wondering whether to buy the Deluxe/Ultimate editions but with 2 weeks to go and the elite specs being in such a messy shape, I am considering not even buying PoF or just the normal edition.

PoF won’t have new mechanics other than the superfluous Mounts and the new elites.
The new elites haven’t had the, let’s say, best of receptions from the community (there are exceptions, such as the Holosmith). I’d say that there are quite a few that are especially bad at this moment, such as the Renegade, the Weaver (dear lord!) and probably the Mirage.
There are also serious problems with the other elites, too.

I don’t think it’s just my personal opinion when I say that both the Renegade and the Weaver are a mess, and just not fun to play with.
They feel clunky, underpowered and lack fun, interesting ideas and traits. Although some of this might also be said about the other new elites, too.

It seems as if the new elites didn’t get the time and dedication and development resources necessary to make them shine. And they should shine, since they are one of pillars of the new expansion (the other being unnecessary mounts).

Now, with 2 weeks until launch and the deafening silence and lack of communication from the Devs, it’s safe to assume that things will be launch not too diferent from what they are now. They will change some things I am sure but there’s not enough time (and skill?) for those Devs to improve the classes and make them more fun to play with AND to play against!
(which is vital for both PvE and PvP/WvW).

Don’t take this as a rant, but more as a concern. A very thoughtful, candid concern from a customer that was considering to spend more money but won’t do so now.
The new elite specs should be totally smashing, new and exciting. But they aren’t.
So, what is ANET selling us on the new expansion that’s worth our money?

Please don’t tell me it’s the story because ANET’s track record as far as story-telling goes is very, very lackluster.

All I can say is they try their best to make a cool looking and good glass and should at least give them credit that they get to offer us a new specialization

30$ every 2 years for new maps/content/specializations/story&LS is always ok to me.

Maybe they could be short on time, but i didn’t ever see a released expansion pack which was somehow balanced.

The worst case scenario would be unbalanced elites.
Not a big deal to me, though i can understand your concerns.

Renegade is a lil lacking ill agree but Weaver is fine imo, Weaver turned the ele into a swordsman, sure its dps isnt as great as tempest but it has so much more substain, watch some wvw videos you can watch weavers fight outnumbered pretty nicely, the goal for Weaver imo was to make Ele not only have a melee weapon but to not die instantly like normal, with the + vit trait from condi/power to simply getting barrier for dodging I just enjoy it both pvp and pve, raids however like I said I dont think their goal was a full on dps elite even so tempest is still better for raids.

I am not sure about the Soulbeast spec myself, I may fiddle a bit with some of the Beastskills for a while but I am prety sure I will stick with my condi trap ranger.

However I am looking forward to the new Mounts, doing the Masteries and a lot of new content to explore in this wonderful immersive game.

I am also looking forward to using the Mounts in the old world: even with all the Waypoints, I still think there is too much hoofing it in GW2. The mounts are faster, they seem to be troubled much less by mobs that aggro and cripple you and they feel good. Hoepfully I can now also get rid of the Runes that give me 25% speedboost since I felt this was the only way to get constant Speed without giving up a utility skill or use the worthless Druidspec/trait.

But yeah, could have been more exited about the Elite Spec.

Not going to lie, the only three I look forward to are Deadeye, Scourge, and Holosmith. The others…

Firebrand: Moves too slow, attacks too slow, doesn’t provide unique utility.
Soulbeast: Don’t play ranger.
Spellbreaker: Don’t play warrior.
Mirage: Nothing works, horribly flawed concept, counterintuitive mechanics.
Renegade: Wholly impotent and impractical.
Weaver: Might be fine, but not looking forward to putting in countless hours just to reach barely servicable level of familiarity with the spec.

Personally I’d say only buy the minimum spec. The Deluxe and Gold-Platter options are filled with mostly frivolous stuff. Let the whales keep the game afloat.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Renegade: Wholly impotent and impractical.

Could become a main raid class with some fixes.

Any class could be a main raid class if you double the damage of all their attacks. That said, nothing on the renegade lends itself to raiding. The shortbow is impractical and doesn’t do stellar damage, the utilities are overly expensive and unreliable, the function skills have even worse cost to damage ratio, all of the buffs are nearly useless, and the class provides no unique utility for the raid group.

As currently is, yes.
But it is my guess after some modifies it will become a must.

It was just theorycraft.

My opinion is that too many people are caught up by the negative opinions of others.

Wait till the expansion is out for a month or two before you pass judgment on the new elite specs. We have seen almost nothing of the POF content and the types of challenges it will pose, and what we have seen is outdated and had not been balanced yet.

Judgments passed with a lack of data tell us a LOT more about the people passing the judgment than the subject of their judgment.

I’m no sheep. I’m bring my own, totally unique, patent pending brand of negativity. But aside from that, there are two things you need to consider.

#1: Logic exists. It allows us to extrapolate from information that we have into areas that we don’t have. We can make predictions, and back up those predictions with evidence.

#2: We voice our concerns for a reason. We want PoF to be good. We want the elite specs to be good. But because so many of them currently aren’t good, we complain about it in a public forum with the intent to get them changed to be better.

The short of it is, never trust anyone who tells you not to think.

My opinions on several of the elite specs…

Weaver: just plain clunky… if they would just remove the CD on re attuning to the same element (Fire/Fire, Water/Water, Air/Air, Earth/Earth) the spec would atleast be functional… replace the Unravel skill with something else, it’s functionality is to integral to the spec to be a utility skill.

Firebrand: The spec feels great, and I’m looking forward to it to improve my Guardian’s support ability… however… the only problem I have with the spec is that the Mantra’s are short range frontal cones… Just make them 360° PBAoEs at least… some of them would be better as targeted AoEs though…

Soul Beast: Despite what others think, I actually quite like the Soul Beast spec… the only change I’d make to it would be to either allow use of pets normal F2 ability as F4 in Soul Beast form, OR allow “pet swap” while in Soul Beast form.

Mirage: I want to like the spec… but there’s just so much not right with it… The Mirage dodge mechanic is counter intuitive and will inevitably result in you taking MORE damage than if you used a normal dodge… Half of the Ambush skills are lackluster… the Mirage Mirrors are useless in their current form… and yet again Arena Net decided in all their wisdom that the best way to address issues that have been plaguing the Mesmer since beta is to lock the mechanics that SHOULD HAVE BEEN BASE FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME to yet another elite spec… First we got Chronomancer’s “fixing” the issue of shatters being to punishing to use by making it easier to resummon illusions. Now we’ve got Mirage “fixing” the issue of not being able to retarget illusions… Seriously ArenaNet this is NOT ACCEPTABLE! STOP TRYING TO “FIX” THE MESMER THROUGH ELITE SPECS AND ACTUALLY FIX THE kitten CLASS!!!

Scourge: Honestly, not seeing anything wrong with this spec… it’s exactly what I was expecting it to be and it will go nicely on my support necro build…

the rest I didn’t care about enough to try out…

I am not saying that we won’t have new story, I know we do.
But good story isn’t something ANET is known for, quite the opposite and thus we only have the new Elites and mounts as selling points for the new expansion.

Does anyone really argue for the new Elites being good and fun?
Shouldn’t that really concern ANET and Mike O’Brien?

MO wants us to spread around the good word for GW2 but we need something good to talk about.
I’d be concerned if I were the lead developer for PoF.

I’ll be honest I wasn’t that hyped about most of the elite specs in HoT. Reaper was the only one that I really wanted to play. With PoF Scourge, Deadeye and Soulbeast all get my motor running, so I’d say Anet has improved in that sense. Also on a side note Mounts look so much cooler than gliding or the other HoT masteries.

Will mounts trully keep you playing more? Were they really necessary?

They won’t change our playstyle much, instead of waypointing, we’ll use a mount. Ok.
Combat and story make most people play a game or leave.

Now, ANET’s track record is abysmal, as far as story goes. It’s convuluted, it’s a mess, it doesn’t make much sense and lacks internal cohesion. So no selling points there.

THe new elites though…most of them are lackluster (exceptions would be Holosmith and maybe Firebrand). They weren’t well received by the community and with good reason.

Wouldn’t you be concerned if you were the lead dev for PoF, or if you were the head of the marketing dep?

Bio Flame.4276:

Will mounts trully keep you playing more? Were they really necessary?

The main idea behind mounts is that they remove the need to compromise your build to include movement speed increases to get around faster. No more need to take swiftness utilities or weapons. No more need to take a movement speed signet or trait.

Kreed.2768:

Bio Flame.4276:

Will mounts trully keep you playing more? Were they really necessary?

The main idea behind mounts is that they remove the need to compromise your build to include movement speed increases to get around faster. No more need to take swiftness utilities or weapons. No more need to take a movement speed signet or trait.

Wanna bet we’ll still take swiftness and stuff?
Mounts won’t change that.
GW2 didn’t need mounts, we needed better story writers…

I forgot to say, whoever thought of giving the Renegade a Legend that most players don’t even recognize, that’s not even worthy of the status of a mildly interesting NPC, clearly needs to go back to Dev school.

With so many interesting legendary NPCs in GW mythos, the Devs go and pick a legend that’s utterly non-important, is trully abysmal design.

“Revenants channel Legends, such as Mallyx, Jali, Shiro, VEntari, Glint….and…Kala?”
??? Really?

Tyncale.1629:

I am not sure about the Soulbeast spec myself, I may fiddle a bit with some of the Beastskills for a while but I am prety sure I will stick with my condi trap ranger.

However I am looking forward to the new Mounts, doing the Masteries and a lot of new content to explore in this wonderful immersive game.

I am also looking forward to using the Mounts in the old world: even with all the Waypoints, I still think there is too much hoofing it in GW2. The mounts are faster, they seem to be troubled much less by mobs that aggro and cripple you and they feel good. Hoepfully I can now also get rid of the Runes that give me 25% speedboost since I felt this was the only way to get constant Speed without giving up a utility skill or use the worthless Druidspec/trait.

But yeah, could have been more exited about the Elite Spec.

I thought they said the mounts are only usable in the PoF maps?

I dont know about the design of elite specs gameplay-wise though, I was truly dissapointed when I saw that the devs camouflaged the lack of new animations with the overly flashy particle effects.

lothefallen.7081:

I thought they said the mounts are only usable in the PoF maps?

They never said that. They stated the exact opposite

What do we care about mounts in the old maps anyway? We have waypoints.

But the new elite specs are still very lackluster and I don’t think there is enough time for the Devs to change some of the horrendous specs until launch….

looking at you Weaver and Renegade

Bio Flame.4276:

I forgot to say, whoever thought of giving the Renegade a Legend that most players don’t even recognize, that’s not even worthy of the status of a mildly interesting NPC, clearly needs to go back to Dev school.

With so many interesting legendary NPCs in GW mythos, the Devs go and pick a legend that’s utterly non-important, is trully abysmal design.

“Revenants channel Legends, such as Mallyx, Jali, Shiro, VEntari, Glint….and…Kala?”
??? Really?

Yea… they probably should have gone with her grandsire Pyre Fierceshot instead… at least he’s recognizable as a legend… and hey just like Kalla he too was a Ranger and a Renegade… granted his abilities would have been significantly different from Kala’s since he had no warband…

Super Bullet Point Mode:

Soulbeast: Only viable if playing core ranger loadout with ability to merge on occasion. New weapon and utilities are a joke as of right now.
Weaver: Might be really good, but learning curve that incorporates the need to unlearn 4+ years of muscle memory might kill the spec.
Renegade: I have no idea why anyone would play this spec over glint.
Scourge: Will be a beast on tight PvP maps. Until boons get stripped. Still can be a force with barrier.
Yolosmith: Textbook definition of what a glass cannon is to be honest.
Mirage: Whole premise is build around PvP. See no reason to run it in PvE since its basically core Mesmer for the most part, but more complicated.
Deadeye: Another one that will take getting used to, but in the right hands will be devastating and can find a place in all game modes.
Firebrand: Pointless when compared to core Guardian or DH. Just too slow and bleh. I guess play for variety and if you want to give out lots of aegis. Until its stripped.
Spellbreaker: Hope you weren’t planning on popping boons near them. Or using a skill. Or not using a skill.

Yeah, see most of the new stuff is balanced around or meant to have more impact on PvP. Ultimately it won’t seem to matter a bit what you run in PvE this time around. Unless Anet has a whole mess of easily fooled NPC enemies with tons of boons on them in PvE of PoF.

Panda.1967:

Bio Flame.4276:

I forgot to say, whoever thought of giving the Renegade a Legend that most players don’t even recognize, that’s not even worthy of the status of a mildly interesting NPC, clearly needs to go back to Dev school.

With so many interesting legendary NPCs in GW mythos, the Devs go and pick a legend that’s utterly non-important, is trully abysmal design.

“Revenants channel Legends, such as Mallyx, Jali, Shiro, VEntari, Glint….and…Kala?”
??? Really?

Yea… they probably should have gone with her grandsire Pyre Fierceshot instead… at least he’s recognizable as a legend… and hey just like Kalla he too was a Ranger and a Renegade… granted his abilities would have been significantly different from Kala’s since he had no warband…

Pretty sure it’s Kala over Pyre to help with the female to male ratio.

Bio Flame.4276:

What do we care about mounts in the old maps anyway? We have waypoints.

…waypoints that are sometimes far away, and then – like all – you will use speed buff items which use up trait or utility slots. Finally we can get rid of it due to mounts.

Are you long QA for Anet? If not you had not enough time to test the new Elite specs…

At some point early on a dev mentioned one or two of the new specs they wanted to do for awhile (I think it was soulbeast). I just am not seeing it. To me the whole point of playing a ranger IS to have a pet. If you do not want the pet play another profession or absorb your pet skills when you stow them. Including the one with the expansion I bought 3 slots since slots were on sale but I am not wild about any of the elites as they exist now. The only 2 I am at all interested in (holosmith and scourge) are 2 characters I was planning to respec from existing characters. I really hope anet does a serious look at these new elites in the balance/release because most of them are ‘meh’ as they exist right now.