I didn’t join in on the fun in the first weekend, but this one I did and I did my best to answer the questions in the sticky.
Specializations
• Were they fun?
Except for Tempest which I found lackluster they were all fun in general.
My order of most fun/interesting to boring would be (so far):
Reaper, Dragon Hunter, Daredevil, Chronomancer, Herald, Berserker, Tempest
• Did they Change how you play your profession in a meaningful way?
Yes, allthough some more than others.
• Hor were the improvements to the previous Specializations? (Dragon Hunter, Tempest, Chronomancer, Reaper)
Can’t answer this – This was my first beta weekend of HoT.
• Feedback on new specializations, as well as any changes to the old
? Berserker:
The berserk icon hidden behind the burst skills obviously has to change. While I didn’t like this specialization that much it is still good and the burning it provides is really delicious and will make for a nice condition damage playstyle. However I don’t like playing warrior that much and berserker feels very close to that and doesn’t feel unique enough.
? Dragon Hunter:
I like the flavor of this one a lot, playing a holy archer aiming for DPS feels really nice. However while I personally had a blast there are several mechanical issues: The traps except for he elite feel impractical and counterproductive: I want to stay far away so I’d rather use the regular guardian skills like sigils or shouts to increase my damage making sure people don’t come close to me than waiting for them to walk in my traps. I could just play melee guardian of course – but why would I then use traps and not the other utilities? The virtues are really nice and were fun to use. As for concrete ideas for improvements I can only think of two: Make traps throwable (like the old ranger trait). This would also make them a bit different from the known trap skills and for example could give you breathing room before enemies get to you. Also please at least change the sound effect of longbow 5 so it sounds more like arrows of light raining down, right now it feels WAY too recycled.
? Herald:
Oh boy, I don’t know if that’s but me but this has potential to be incredibly broken. The concept itself is very sweet, an aura supporter was a niche not filled by any class and the combination of active and passive effects allows for a diverse playstyle requiring he player to manage cooldowns, energy and be able to judge a siuation correctly.
However right now you need only 2 heralds (or 3 if you want to go crazy on the other boons as well) to provide permanent fury and full might stacks at all times to you and your party while doing nothing for it. Combined with the fury effectivity trait you can achieve a crit rate of 100% or build tanky while still achieving a good crit rate. I had the thought to introduce a different new boon which will be applied by facet of strength. Maybe a boon that increases ferocity or one with even more unique effects, like granting a sort of life steal to allies. It is probably to late to really work on this but give it a thought, I’m sick of seeing might everywhere.
? Daredevil:
Such a great concept, such a let down execution. Don’t get me wrong it was still fun to be a bouncing rubber ball. But you are a rubber ball in slow motion. Players are quite vocal and well worded about he issues with the animations so I won’t waste your time on this. Oh and I really hope the staff animations were just place holders and not just recycled and intended to stay. Especially the auto attack stolen from the revenant looks out of place and very unfitting.
The physical skills remind me a lot of he assassin in GW1 but you already have a combo-ish gameplay with he combination of iniiative and weapon swaps. And those combos don’t require your target to stand still and take the hit – which is difficult in pve and pvp. I’d like them to be smaller and for example like this: You perform a certain type of attack and if he target also suffers from a certain condition or some other trigger is met this attack will give you access to a follow up attack. Maybe a (bad) example will clarify what I mean:
„Fist of the Kirin“
Perform a well timed punch which will deal damage and apply burning to your target. If both you and your target suffer from poison gain access to „Purging Kick“.
„Purging Kick“
Perform a mystical kick attack against your target dealing high damage against it as well as removing up to x conditions from it. For each condition removed this attack deals more damage and removes a condition from you.
This is only and example what I mean could be done, please don’t take this skill at face value.
? Chronomancer:
Now that’s a specialisation, playing it I certainly feel like I have to be a specialist. But I am not a mesmer player and didn’t test this much. It has lot of potential for sick plays and is really flavorful, I just wish I would be a good mesmer, just so that I could mess around with it. Only thing I have to say from my limited testing: Please make the end effect of the wells more flashy or appealing. If it says it explodes for massive damage or hat it shreds time I want to have at least a somewhat climatic effect.
? Tempest:
Some class had to be the loser in turns of specialization so I guess we can be glad hat it’s the class that has been constantly stealing the spotlight from anyone else. The regular utiliies are just too good to warrant using he shouts except maybe he heal. The elite shout is also clunky to use and will rarely be used to full potential – please make it work on utility skills only, this way it won’t be wasted on auto attacks or random weapin skills. The traits are also too weak compared to the regular traits and while the overcharge is nice and looks great you will rarely stay long enough in one attunement to excuse using his. Maybe add a trait hat gives a growing stat bonus the longer you are staying on one element? There has been a lot said by other players about this and I am sure you are seeing he general opinions on tempest so I won’t waste more time on this – please make me use shouts and overcharge they are cool but weak.
? Reaper:
Finally my personal highlight. I love reaper. So much I will probably create a complete new character for it and make it my main. Nearly everything just feels great about this…well class. Yes, class, because that’s what it feels like to me, a new class. The shroud is awesome and looks very good, as do the greatsword skills. My only issue is that shouts are mostly uninspired and in some times too weak (like he beal). Also if tempest can have epic effects, why can’t reaper (if only at least for he elite)?
Creatures
• How is the difficulty of the new hostile mobs, and are they fun and exciting?
kitten right they are and I like how difficult they are compared to the regular easy pvp. After beta I felt invincible in regular areas. Please don’t nerf them, maybe even make hem harder – players will find a way to deal with them and maybe start thinking about more diverse builds at least for open world. But do nerf smokescale veterans, that kitten isn’t fair.
World
• With the Opening of two new outposts, we are adding in a bunch of new events. Are they fun?
It’s about half-half for me. The story line events are very sweet and made people care about what happened instead of just zerging between enemies (so many /says to Faren). But especially the night events just made me think „Here we go again, another horde of the same Mordrem“.
• Do the new events bring you more into the world?
That they definetly do. But please make the night actually dark and scary wih a lot of shadows and lights (maybe glowing plants?), right now it just feels weird. Also what the hell of a bad joke is hat explosion on he blighted tree? A level one elementalist has better firework tricks than that.
• Are the new events challenging, meaningful, and interesting?
See above, some are. However some are just the typical „Survive he waves“ events which are fine from time to time but so many of the events are of this type. Finally buff break bars, make bosses go apekitten on us!
Mastery System
• How is the progression?
It‘s fine I guess? Would be helpful id the first few masteries were a bit faster, it would be more motivating.
• How is it using the mastery abilities in the current area?
Where do I send the bill for all the pain my characters suffered after falling to death in Tyria because I was used to gliding?
They were a blast to use.
• Is the mastery system providing a meaningful area of progression?
I will wait until next beta weekend to comment on that.
• Do you care about experience and mastery points?
Masteries actually reminded me that yes, even a level 80 character has an experience bar.
• Does it provide a good framework to add more masteries in the future?
It could definetly use a better looking UI to make it feel less like an additional achievements tab.
• Do you want to learn as many masteries over time to overcome challenges later in the future?
Sure.
Stronghold PvP
• Feedback on the new UI
Not played enough.
• Feedback on Stronghold itself
See above.
Bugs
• Report and notify any and all bugs using in game system as well as boards. Take screenshots and describe as best as you can
I assume the beta version of Verdant Brink was just unfinished, there were so many floating shrubs and invisible platforms…