Classes
Revenant:
My main characters are mesmer, thief and elementalist, all classes with beautiful skill animations. The revenant outshines them all; it’s gorgeous. I especially like the visuals for the staff and hammer skills. Some things, like the dwarf road, might turn out to be a disadvantage in pvp, however.
I’m not someone who reads all the numbers and skill descriptions – just try a build and see how it fits. The revenant is very complex, and I don’t know if I played long enough to make a lot of solid comments. My impressions are that it’s highly versatile and has excellent potential as a strong healer (which will be very nice for dungeons). I used the Ventari stance a lot more than I thought I would. It’s nice to have a healing build with room for good dps at the same time. Shiro was disappointing. I was hoping for more focus on damage, but ended up with a focus on speed, which only equals more damage if I push buttons faster.
Also, I know there was going to be a little dialogue for the legends, but I hardly heard any. Sometimes I’d notice them say something as I switched, but I was hoping to hear more comments as I was fighting, or just running around Tyria. Maybe I simply need to adjust my volume settings.
Overall, the revenant looks like a lot of fun and incorporates elements of my favorite classes. I’m looking forward to having more time to figure it out.
Chronomancer:
I love it! I spent most of my beta time here. The #5 shield is a nice multiple target skill, a good addition to a lot of single-target options already available. #4 can seem long if I mainly want the illusion, but the defense comes in handy in verdant brink. I would prefer it a little shorter, since I can already use it twice if it’s actually blocking something. I spent a bit more time looking at traits and stumbled upon an illusions/inspiration/chronomancer build I like better than what I’m currently using. I had enough bonuses on shatter that I didn’t feel like I was sacrificing my defenses (I usually don’t touch the shatter skills and keep phantasms up as long as I can) and had a lot of fun with that f5 skill. It definitely felt different than a regular mesmer, and I see a lot of potential for finding clever timing for it.
I like the idea of the wells, but got the icons mixed up a little, and it was hard to keep track of all the different effects they were having. The elite is good though. The existing mesmer elites aren’t very useful in pve (I stick with a 7-series golem), and I’m looking forward to another option.
Dragonhunter:
Didn’t play much, but enjoyed what I did play. No complaints that I can recall!
Tempest:
Probably the most disappointing aspect of beta for me. It just wasn’t that interesting; very similar to the ele now, and the overloads had too long a cast time to be very practical. I like the idea of an ele with a warhorn, but, aside from the fire skills, it doesn’t match the staff or offhand dagger. Smaller AoEs and they don’t last very long. I would suggest tweaking cooldowns and damage to make the new skills more effective, and maybe adding boons that apply the longer you stay on an attunement. Right now the overload is the only reason to stay, and we already have good traits that encourage switching as much as possible. But maybe there are new traits that fix that – I didn’t experiment with my build much.
(Don’t play necro, so I didn’t try the reaper)
World
Map:
Verdant brink was a little confusing on entering. Lots of tough mobs, cliffs all over the place, and events that can change quickly. Excellent! Fits the mood of the destruction of the fleet, and engaging to play. Pocket Raptors are surprisingly tricky, especially playing mesmer, as illusions only stick around for one kill. I found night a bit more enjoyable, as it was very clear just what was available to do. The daytime event I participated in was scaled up massively due to a lot of participation, and seemed a bit complicated for such a large group. We were clearing a path for Laranthir by killing vinetenders, then their vines. First one seemed to take half of the day cycle, because not everyone realized we had to kill the vinetenders at the same time and they kept respawning. Once everyone cooperated it was a lot of fun, though – I think the event instructions just need to be more obvious or the event could get really frustrating (and easily trollable)
Masteries:
Took me longer to get gliding than I expected, but time was very reasonable when the mastery unlocks for all characters. After I got it I basically stopped trying to get the next tier and just had fun gliding around and discovering new areas. Endurance timing is good; provides mobility but keeps it challenging. I would love to see a jumping puzzle incorporating gliding.
Like I said, I didn’t take the time to earn more masteries, though I couldn’t figure out how to switch to the legendary track or I might have tried that. It’s nice to have something new to do at the level cap with a concrete way to see I’m accomplishing something even if I’ve stopped leveling.
Adventures:
I never found one that was active, or what I was supposed to do to activate them.
Defiance bar on bosses:
Yes, easier to see what is going on as a group of players adds conditions. Fun to watch it suddenly drop as I shatter my illusions.
Story:
I do like hearing my character talk, and the new style allows for more dynamic scenes between multiple characters. However, it’s not easily skippable like the cinematics are, and I missed seeing my characters face. I would like to see a mix of both styles, depending on the situation.
Mordremoth’s voice is great – could sylvari players hear it more, perhaps? It would be cool and a little creepy if every one in a while (not regularly enough to be annoying) he would start talking as you run around verdant brink, and npc sylvari might react, too.
I know keeping races cosmetic makes a lot of sense for pvp, but I’d like to see more differences in the story based on race. Right now race only has an effect on the very beginning of the personal story, and it’s a little sad that being an asura, for example, doesn’t make much of a difference anymore. Does they maybe have more technical solutions to problems than a sylvari? Does a human npc refuse to work with your charr character? How does this change the story? I’d like to maybe see some choices set up similarly to the racial sympathy storyline. There might be only 3 or 4 possibilities (instead of a full 5), but different races would see different combinations of them.
I haven’t had time to read a lot of others’ feedback, so I might be repeating some things, but I was very grateful to be able to participate in the beta weekend and wanted to do my part to contribute! Thanks for a great game, Anet.
in fact, we’re going to put the goons to sleep.
Meanwhile – we dig.