(edited by SamTheGuardian.2938)
For those who did GW2 Raid beta
Wondering this myself as well.
first, you just faced one boss and 3 “tutorial” enemy. the boss had a timer on him, i guess it was sth about 10 min.
1) due to…reasons…i could just join it twice for a bit over a hour with different teams, but you should be able to find out and execute within one hour with your team for this guy, once you know the mechanic this should not take more than 15 min.
2) for first time I’d say its ok, but considering pugging for me it was too easy…it was just 90% mechanics.
3) so far I’d say you when you just want to beat it, play what class you want (!= HOW you like), make shure to take some condi and direct dmg and buff remove.
voice communication makes thinks easy, but don’t believe if you use it you got free win. when ppl dont listen its same like when ppl dont read chat. if all care successing, chatting is an option, only non-communication may get hard…
1) About 2 Hours with random PuGs. Got it down to 50%.
2) It was amazingly well designed, challenging and very fun! Seeing how you improve after each death felt amazing!
3) 8 – 9 I think you are not forced into using set professions, however you are set into roles, you wanted to have a tank, a healer and as much DPS as possible (Condi & Power).
4) 10 I think it is impossible without voice communication. One guy makes a mistake, everyone dies.
1) Raided for 3 Hours with PuGs. Got it to 66%
2) Really good designed. More Mechanics than the entire HotW combined and Mechanics are punishing but also fun. You learn from your deaths which is good.
3) 8-9. Configuration is important. But not Class configuration, its the Role Config thats important. You need Condis, a Heal Supporter, CC, Boon Strips, and a tanky Char. ( tanked with a Reaper, was awesome ) and I think later Bosses need more of this Stuff.
4) First Boss. I think you can down it with a PuG and without Voice Chat. The PuG Groups I tried with got better and better….. until Ppl left.^^
Honest, the opinion is everywhere because there was very limited time and the experience was different with the type of Builds/Elite Specs we had to use. The access to stats changed things as well, I personally crafted Ventari’s medium armor and took my Ventari’s Trinkets into beta. Placed it on Druid. I played something entirely different from everyone else, my mind was everywhere supporting my allies and being able to take a bigger hit than anyone else. I easily played Druid to the max potential. The group I joined were very organized and knew the different mechanics. The old version of Druid’s CA worked better with the Raiding concept, you need that spam you need that forum to properly support your allies, the staff needed better skills but staff 3 was completely brilliant for getting to your allies and 33% movement is a bigger deal for Druid than people realize. When people finally can do raids you will notice your casual skill level is not enough and the major flaws of lesser professions will become a eye-sore to those that know another Profession & Elite Spec will be much more optimal. I will say it! DragonHunter should not be favored over the base profession, Guardian, will give better optimal builds. But people need to understand that Arenanet made a terrible choice to make something like Druid a One-Line Elite Specialization, It would of been a more optimal tool if it were a full “Elite Profession” (Profession(s) on top of the same themed Profession) Everything Arenanet has done will affect raiding experience drastically, they do not know how to make their One-Line Elite Specializations work properly with Game-Play & Play-Style of Base Professions.
I will give you further reading into what i’m trying to explain, here: Confessor Elite Specialization. That post gives a great example of being restricted to the base traits yet completely adds new game-play to the overall profession mechanics.
Raids will be long and you will fail multiple times, every player has to know their profession inside and out, you cannot sit there and just spam all over. You cannot go in without any support or heals, you need specific rolls. You will depend on others to make it through a fight. You cannot sustain yourself as a damage roll without help from Druid/Revenant&Herald/Guardian support/heal roll class/build specific.
Arenanet doesn’t have the skills to balance and create One-Line Elite Specializations, it will kill the game if they don’t get very skilled developers willing to put in the ideas and hours of work into creating original play styles specific to GuildWars2. Also, most of all fix the base professions rework their trait system completely to not be Casual-Based. Otherwise everything will fail at some point and they will be so deep into the problem they created it will take a minimum of 2 years to fix it. (Maybe more?)
I’m sorry my answer to this post expands into a different subject but it is completely relevant to how we will play Raids. At this point I question the ability’s of Arenanet Developers. They will kill their creation going down this path, there is no clear direction in the game. And I hate that Arenanet gives another profession what another profession originally needed, every profession feels broken since they hardly have a clear direction. To me.
Yeah I hate the game but I still stride to help save it in some way.
Q&A1: We spent quite a while on the raid but we could of spent many more hours failing.
Q&A2: I completely enjoyed my Druid’s roll in the fight, I played a nearly amazing and very difficult support class since are healing methods + players always moving was one of the most difficult parts. I also got so lost in supporting/healing I completely forgot I had a pet! Being a healer is very hard in the current state and in the old but the current state is useless, Druid needs to be remade as a whole Elite Profession to properly function in any way…
Q&A3: Coordination, being Cooperative, is extremely important. You should not have lazy Skill Play or lazy Armor-Stats Trait/Build(s) at all. You will need to bring specific skills and I wouldn’t be surprised if people had to change to another profession and another build. At least have full Ascended trinkets, but you should have full ascended armor as well. If you are a DPS roll and are still alive, your Druid is doing everything right. You will need TS, Vent, Mumble, or other voice chat (or all in the same room) to complete Raids. You need to be on the same page and have your dedicated roll in the Raid. Having players that know their roll and profession also having a high-personal-skill-play will be needed. Typing to each other during a fight will destroy you.
“I don’t take insults from a tree! Have at you, leafy!”