Guild Wars 2

• Torch: The abilities were fun to use. Mobile fire fields are awesome, not much else needs to be said about that. I definitely see myself using sword/torch instead of sword/sword on my condi warrior. Torch skill 4 is a great follow-up to savage leap.

• Rage utilities: These are far too useful on the berserker (I mean that in a good way). That extra adrenaline has proven to be a godsend for the berserker given my playstyle (more on that in a sec). Sundering leap has proven to be the most useful of the bunch. Wild blow also helped me remind other players that “Hey, stacking them up makes them easier to kill since all melee is a cleave.” Outrage has such great synergy with headbutt that it’s perfect. Shattering blow is also great for the reflect, but it was a little hard to get the timing right (maybe I just wasn’t very good with it). Headbutt is awesome! Instant full adrenaline is the best opener for this spec! Blood reckoning was surprisingly not as effective as I would have liked, but that is probably because of the difficulty getting creatures grouped up that I will mention below. I can see how it would work great as long as the player is able to maximize the number of targets they are hitting.

• Traits: Unfortunately for me, the berserker spec is not very conducive to my playstyle (I know I know, it’s not all about me). I don’t play the meta so I doubt many will be able to relate. My playstyle has me swapping between GS and axe/shield every 5 seconds and spamming burst skills to upkeep the 20% damage boost from the Berserker’s Power grandmaster trait. This combined with the might on GS crit, adrenaline in combat, adrenaline from the passive of Signet of Rage (never activate it!), bonus adrenaline on crit, and run faster while wielding melee has me nicely set up on three exclusive trait lines. My utilities (on my regular character, not beta) are two more signets for the passives, FGJ, and I use Defiant Stance for a heal. It’s not the meta, but it’s the way I have fun playing warrior. Changing out any one of these trait lines severely hinders my play style, and the berserker doesn’t lend itself to that very well. Maybe I just played myself into a corner. It makes for some VERY hard choices. Do I want to gain adrenaline faster or do I want to be able to swap weapons fast enough? I can’t have both without sacrificing might on crit and Berserker’s Power. Without fast hands I reach full adrenaline before I can use the burst again, wasting precious seconds unless I weapon swap. Headbutt is a must for that adrenaline gain. Signet of Rage’s passive adrenaline gain feels too slow to be able to enter berserk fast enough.

Throughout my time in Verdant Brink, players have proven that things either stay spread out too much or things get killed too quickly. Everyone has been ganging up on one creature at a time since each creature has like a billion health and requires everyone’s effort to bring it down in a timely manner before it downs too many of us. Their break bars make it REALLY hard to coordinate bunching up creatures. When I wasn’t in a zerg taking on a hearty foe, I found myself entering berserk when the target’s health is too low to really use berserk efficiently. When it’s me against one creature, I kill it before I can reach full adrenaline. In the event I don’t, I get full adrenaline, enter berserk, kill it with a burst, and then I just glow red for a few seconds while I let berserk die off unless I immediately run to engage another target (wasting precious seconds in berserk).

I might have just been unfortunate, but the majority of my targets ended up being isolated. Obviously Berserker was made to take on multiple foes at once, but with other players either failing to group up foes nicely (I tried to do it myself with wild blow but I can only do so much) or just killing things too fast as zergs tend to do. I found myself spamming burst skills on a single target, making the awesomeness that is the new primal bursts skills a lot less fun. Decapitate deserves more foes.

• Burst: Some of these skills got me really excited. Decapitate in particular is one I really liked (on the rare occasion foes were bunched up nicely). Some didn’t make much sense to me.

GS’s burst is the main one I didn’t get. Replacing fury gain with 2 stacks of burning feels like a nerf. Condi warriors would not use a greatsword, so why give them such a paltry amount of burning? Sure, an expanding fire field is nice and all, but there are already numerous ways to make a fire field. It kind of feels like berserker is trying to replace ele for creating fire fields. I would have preferred something like “swing so hard that you ignite the air, creating an explosion that damages nearby foes”. I want to like it, but can’t.

Axe and rifle bursts are fine as they are. The trick is getting foes bunched up to use it efficiently (player positioning and strategy, it’s a good thing).

Longbow’s wasn’t bad. Multiple fire fields are neat, I suppose, but I feel ele already has it covered. The only real way I see this being useful is in W3 when trying to buff zergs with might. Several smaller fire fields has the potential to buff more players (5 players per field, 5 fields per burst) than one huge fire field. I see the potential but it would require some player coordination.

Mace’s is a very nice alternative to the long stun. Long stuns are great, but the added versatility with the 4 conditions (plus 1 second daze) is like a breath of fresh air for condi warriors. Options are nice.

Sword has great synergy for condi warriors that use longbow as second weapon. The more burning the better since moderate burning stacks do more damage than high stacks of bleeding. Definitely going to need a way to have longer burn duration, though, because I couldn’t seem to get to 8 stacks of burning with the skill. It stayed at 4 stacks even though the skill says 8. Maybe it’s a bug.

Hammer is also great. It’s just plain an extra (and viable) option. Do I want to stun my foes, or do I want to play a little more defensive and knock everything back while I heal or revive an ally? Options are good

Spear was also a little underwhelming like GS. The pull is too short of a range to really be as useful as it can be. When I think of a berserking brute with the spear underwater, I imagine creating a burning maelstrom that pulls things in every second while you lay waste to it, not a sad 300 range pull with some mild burning. I’ll stick to the aoe stun of non-primal, especially since NONE of the rage skills can be used underwater. Adrenaline gain feels even slower in underwater combat because of this.

Harpoon Gun’s immobilize is useful, but the burning is negligible. How about an explosion that blinds or has a host of other conditions in addition to burning? Considering the primal bursts are the only real way for a warrior to actually apply burning underwater, it would make sense that they were to cause a more substantial burn. Maybe it’s just me, but I say increase the burning or scrap it in favor of more damage options or control options.

• Physical: Physical skills are awesome! The options really lend themselves to the spec. I feel Channeled Vigor is a great heal for the spec. With either a better heal or more endurance gain, it makes for some strategic use. I do my best to avoid unnecessary dodging to make sure I always get the benefit of the big heal. Plus it forces me to learn to play better while I dodge less. I know I know, the spec is all about dodging, but I have a feeling that the PvP community’s feedback is going to nerf it somehow because apparently it dodges TOO well. We’ll see. Bandit’s defense saved me from a bad situation many times. Great skill overall. Fist Flurry is such a great opener for engaging a target adjacent to the one I just killed, and it leaves Palm Stike ready for an opportune moment! Impairing Dagger’s slow condition made fights with Boeing 747 attacks a little less harsh, providing chances for myself and my allies to survive. The rest of the conditions are nice, too. Distracting Daggers are also very handy. I found myself really appreciating them against the Mordrem Thrashers that attack with tentacles in the ground. Sometimes it’s hard to find where it’s coming from. Impact strike is just… wow. In PvE it’s obviously great for the break bars, but PvP and W3 are where it truly shines. Proper timing makes it so an enemy player is barely in the downstate for all of maybe one second before being finished off. No mercy, no quarter, kthxdie. I love using it. I hate being the victim of it. I will definitely appreciate this skill when we encounter more creatures in PvE that need to be finished.

Staff: I had a feeling that melee staff would be a fun weapon to use, but I will be honest: I think enough professions have access to the staff. I was hoping to see one of the elite specs get rifle since it, among other weapons, see less play, but I digress. The staff’s skills are great for the spec. With a great heavy hitter, a ranged blind, an evade, weakness, and not too shabby auto attack, it’s plays quite well. I found myself using it almost exclusively. Sometimes I would switch to sword/pistol for more break bar assaulting options and lengthy blinds, but I mostly used staff. Overall the weapon feels good for the class, and I will definitely be using it. Some people complained that the animations were not “Chuck Norris” enough, but nothing ever satisfies them.

Traits: That triple dodge is so useful that, combined with the added maneuverability of the grandmaster traits, I foresee an incoming nerf of sorts. We’ll see. I LOVE it in PvE. Despite that I try not to dodge too often, I love the wiggle room this gives. Speaking of which, I’m sure it has already been brought up, but the delay of the dodge is quite noticeable. The dodge feels like a skill being used rather than an actual dodge. It needs to be immediate, and it isn’t. Unhindered combatant feels like a super short Rush, complete with the character stopping all movement for a split second to use the skill. It needs to be just WHOOSH GO! I’m not sure if it’s a limitation in programming or animation, but something makes it feel like there is a delay that shouldn’t be there. It needs to function more like Bounding dodger because that dodge’s effect is immediate despite the short channeled skill bar seen while used. Lotus training has the same delay as unhindered combatant. I’m not sure what you guys did differently with Bounding Dodger, but whatever it was do it to the other two. The remaining traits feel good, with options for more endurance, damage, or survivability. The best part is that I don’t feel like I’m being penalized for not dodging too often.

Glint goes so well with any of the other 4 legends it’s not even funny. It allows one to wander around with Glint active while being out of combat, all the while giving themselves a lengthy boon of their choice in preparation for the next engagement. If the player is so inclined they can do two boons at once. If the boons are at a satisfying duration the player can open with the consumption of said facets and jump into the fray, laying down damage or support as needed by switching to one of the other legends. If not, the player can stay with Glint for as long as necessary for boon upkeep, then switch to the other legends as needed. From a boon standpoint, it wouldn’t make sense to not use Glint. Plus it creates further incentive to use boon strip in PvP.

Shield: Healing Phoenix, ‘nuff said. It makes for some good active support of allies similar to the dragonhunter’s F2. I like it! Crystal Hibernation (insert GW1 nostalgia squee here) would be much better if it didn’t root the player. The rooting is my only real complaint with the skill, but it’s a good skill for self-upkeep.

Facets: These boons are just fantastic. Even without Facet of Nature active, boons are plentiful. The active effects of these facets also add some nice variety as far as conditions go. Each one can make for a good opener or mid-fight condition addition. As I said, Glint just goes well with any other legends. This play on boons is very interesting, and I can’t wait to see what other players do with them. We might even need more boon strip at our disposal, who knows?

Shiro: Thanks for letting us evade with Relentless Assault. It made for a lot more survivability where it was needed. It makes a well-timed use that much more rewarding.

As apathetic I am about Faren (why is he still alive?) and the rest of the nobles (Seriously what the kitten are they doing there? They’re nothing but a liability on the pact! I get it, they are entitled, arrogant kittens that wanted front row seats to the fall of Mordremoth, but come on! They were even concerned about their kitten luggage!) the events themselves flowed naturally and progressed well. The exception is the fight with the Legendary Wyvern at the end of the chain. The boss’s break bar did not scale appropriately with the number of players attacking. The break bar would die so fast that the boss never get more than 2 wing flaps up into the air before it came back down for another burn phase. The bonus damage during this phase is nice, thanks so much for that. Now if only ALL the enemies with a break bar received more damage when their bar broke, that’d be great. If they did receive more damage, I didn’t notice a difference.

The even chain with the ruins of the Mellagan’s Valor and Shashoo felt polished with two exceptions: Blighted Diarmid and the Airship Salvage event prior to the assault on the Blighted Tree. Blighted Diarmid would sometimes not attack. It would just wander around slowly without actually doing much, if anything at all. When it didn’t bug and it actually attacked, though, holy kitten was I hurting. With my play style I am often doing a lot of damage, so much so that bosses like to focus on me. His whirling death spiral attack hurts…. a lot… no amount of dodging can save me. If Shield Stance or Defiant Stance are on cooldown, I’m kittened. The world’s deadliest game of jump rope is an interesting mechanic, though! I liked it. The airship salvage event did not scale very well with players gathering. One time it took 4 or 5 of us about 20 minutes to gather up the necessary amount of salvage. The commute back and forth would be fine if it scaled more properly given the number of players. Additionally, when more than 5 players are doing the events, the number of veterans, elites, and champions located up there with all those frogs is ridiculous. There were about 7 of us all together spread out through the event’s staging area and there were too many champions and elites to safely gather salvage without getting one-shot by an elite. (12k auto attack? Come on! We don’t have Protective Spirit in this game! Tone it down a little! Save that kitten for the raids… oh wait I bet the trash mobs in raids do like 20k auto attacks. Just tone it down a little geez) We had to frequently stop gathering salvage to gang up on the elites and champions. They were picking us off with too much ease, and it felt like they respawned too quickly. Somehow they were upscaled to lvl 84 despite our low number of players at the time. Also, THANK YOU for letting us throw the salvage at the NPC for him to collect with ground-targeting. Please make the rest of the gathering events in the game like this.

I would also like to add that as much as I hate Quaggans, you guys finally made one that was actually tolerable. Shashoo impressed me with her ability to rise, adapt, and overcome. The higher ranking folks all got killed in the crash, leaving her in charge. Trial by fire, she held her own and pulled through (with my help and the help of her team, of course). And she at least attempted to not speak in the third person, which I think is great. If more quaggans were like her and did not refer to themselves in the third person, I might actually like some of them. So yeah, more quaggans like Shashoo. No more ooooooooo ooooooooooo please.