I had to delay this a day or two just to let my fanboy syndrome die down enough to make a valid review. I had a great time, of course.
West Verdant Brink:
- Trash mobs seem dumbed down since BWE1. People were getting wrecked by snipers and smoke scales in BWE1 and new trash isn’t even a comparison.
- Wyvren fight was great, but once you learn to avoid the aoes, there’s nothing to the fight. Reduce the time between the boss attacks. Much of the fight it’s just standing still.
- Break bars seemed a non issue. The bar was zerged down quickly and not much of an issue after that.
- That huge woman with the funny head seemed bugged. Didn’t attack.
- The Lord Faren chain was great, but we need more Tarzan. I’d love to see him develop over time, swing from vines and pick it up.
- Where are you jumping puzzle(s)?
- One mastery point wasn’t marked on map. I reported this in-game. Unless you have hidden points intentionally.. :o
- All in all, it had a lot of fun, but I was able to finish the entire west in one day-night cycle. I know we’re yet to see the biomes, but I’m concerned how much total content is on the table with 4 maps. I feel like they will have to add a few maps over time through the living story just to satisfy the hunger for content. Not everyone will want to wait around for raids when raids are a once-a-week item akin to missions.
Chrono – great class, alacrity seems a little on the low side, and I know they’re still balancing it along with slow. I hope they find the optimal ground. Mesmer has so many great traits spread so far across all lines. However, I thing Dom, Insp, Chrono will shine. I’ll miss you, triple mantra GM.
Revenant – feels great, however, I feel rev’s get a short end of the stick when compared to elementalists and engineers who are our comparable counterparts as far as class mechanics. Attunement swapping is seamless and kit swapping is even faster. Stance swapping has improved a ton, but is still lacking and we get stuck with only 2. If stances worked like attunements, revenants would still be balanced by energy costs—you can only do so much at a time while on paper it’s crazy. Energy costs on weapon skills need to go. I find myself spamming a lot of autos because my energy is tied up with utilities. Remove weapon CDs or energy costs.
Herald – is exactly what Revenant was missing. I would like to see protection replaced by stability on the elite skill. Stability is so nerfed right now in this current state and using the elite signet costs all your energy pips so you can’t do anything else. Stability road is too slow for active combat like WvW. I only found it useful on stomping people. Or put that aoe stability on the Dwarf elite skill. Throw protection on the heal signet and up the cost a bit. Regen is a joke in many cases.
Herald shield – Long cooldowns, slow reactions. The heal was nice, but on a what 30s CD? A little weak for my tastes and 2s protection isn’t all that exciting. The invuln is alright but has such a long CD and NEEDS to cast faster so you can use it as a reaction. I found myself using shield mainly to boost my boon duration, honestly. And it’s nice to finally run shield on something, though I thought and hoped we were using focus.
Reaper – felt great.
Daredevil – Great concept, needs a little work for playability. See all the other DD posts.
Bers war – didn’t really speak to my soul. Torch didn’t fit in well for me, even though it had a ton of damage on that skill, I found in general, other options worked better. Bers should have gotten dual wielding daggers so he can do with fast attacks and just pillage kitten up.
I’m optimistic and I know it will be worth it to me, but I’d like to see HOT as a great success so the community will support their new expansion-centered model.
About myself: PvXer, WvW, GvG, TPvP, FoTM, 8×80, etc
(edited by Gav.1425)