Guild Wars 2

Been lurking on the Revenant forum for a bit and see one major concern pop up over and over again:
Revenant will have all the new tech and none of the other classes will.

This is Arenanet we’re talking about here; when they created the Dervish, Rit, Assassin, and Paragon in a game that was far harder to balance than this one, the new professions were played less ultimately than the core 8 and were completely balanced in the grand scheme of things.

I fully expect that Anet will utilize the tech on all base classes because they don’t want everyone to be rolling revenants if they don’t want to. So yeah necros are probably getting resistance, it’s almost guaranteed that warriors are. (besides the fact that resistance looks like it takes a LOT of energy management to keep up 100%, like I don’t get to attack ever level of energy management) The new stability will be across the board and it will adjust all skills that give stability. Guardians will probably gain some sort of reflect on their walls, though the advantage to guardian walls is that they are either set and forget or circular which does not have a very easily dodge roll around solution.

I know it’s the will of the internet for people who think they know everything to spout tripe until something is “fixed” in their eyes. But come on guys, sky’s not falling. The base classes will get an update (probably a feature pack before the expansion even launches like they do every 6 months).

The “new tech” will be applied to new skills and traits, they’ve stated that the new specialisations for the base classes will also be utilising the new tech.

No word on if old skills and traits will be changed to adapt to it, but I doubt they’ll rework the base classes at all since they’re in a relatively balanced state.

I see projectiles getting a slight buff to get in line with the Revenant 100% (but slow moving) proj. finisher on auto attack.

The concern is that will the old classes still be balanced in the new balance state with their specializations and the revenant.

Sengel.7801:

I see projectiles getting a slight buff to get in line with the Revenant 100% (but slow moving) proj. finisher on auto attack.

The concern is that will the old classes still be balanced in the new balance state with their specializations and the revenant.

I’d love to see the projectile combos getting the 100% buff, it would give using those combos in a fight more use, rather on relying on luck.

I’d imagine they would be balanced, none of the “new techs” are strictly OP. The ability to bind skills to the player characters forward direction and change the screen perspective for certain skills being the main ones they showed are mostly just new varieties of old skills (forward facing shield is just a perspective based block so it’s better for group support but worse than a standard block if you get shot from behind) and aesthetically pleasing (the skill that lets you "teleport to target and warp back and uses a new camera angle to show the skill).

they said that specializations are getting the new tech. what worries me is that the professions at the core state have all but been ignored in any official comment since they announced the trailer.

I could see them revamping a few skills on old professions to utilize some of the new tech. For example the ranger short bow 3 and the warrior longbow 3 could both be reworked in to using the Inspiring reinforcement utility skill’s method of aiming (ofc there are more skills that would benefit from this).

Edit: I ment the ranger shortbow skill 2, poison volley.

psizone.8437:

Sengel.7801:

I see projectiles getting a slight buff to get in line with the Revenant 100% (but slow moving) proj. finisher on auto attack.

The concern is that will the old classes still be balanced in the new balance state with their specializations and the revenant.

I’d love to see the projectile combos getting the 100% buff, it would give using those combos in a fight more use, rather on relying on luck.

I’d imagine they would be balanced, none of the “new techs” are strictly OP. The ability to bind skills to the player characters forward direction and change the screen perspective for certain skills being the main ones they showed are mostly just new varieties of old skills (forward facing shield is just a perspective based block so it’s better for group support but worse than a standard block if you get shot from behind) and aesthetically pleasing (the skill that lets you "teleport to target and warp back and uses a new camera angle to show the skill).

i don’t know about you, but i’d like to see cascading skills applied where they make sense, as well as those multi-finishers. character-bound skills can have applications on old skills as well, and hey, it doesn’t hurt to give the old professions some fluff.

jerkic.6319:

I could see them revamping a few skills on old professions to utilize some of the new tech. For example the ranger short bow 3 and the warrior longbow 3 could both be reworked in to using the Inspiring reinforcement utility skill’s method of aiming (ofc there are more skills that would benefit from this).

to be honest, i don’t get why they said directional skills didn’t work until now. we’ve had whirlwind attack for how long now? and then there was that halloween moba-like minigame the first year, where all your skills were directional, from projectiles to leaps.

BrunoBRS.5178:

jerkic.6319:

I could see them revamping a few skills on old professions to utilize some of the new tech. For example the ranger short bow 3 and the warrior longbow 3 could both be reworked in to using the Inspiring reinforcement utility skill’s method of aiming (ofc there are more skills that would benefit from this).

to be honest, i don’t get why they said directional skills didn’t work until now. we’ve had whirlwind attack for how long now? and then there was that halloween moba-like minigame the first year, where all your skills were directional, from projectiles to leaps.

I have no idea as well. I am almost certain I saw a ranger directionally aim the poison volley (i think it was just a normal volley though) in one of the early gameplay videos, way back before the release.

Edit: Managed to find the video, at around the 30 second mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9KRPDq47t0

there’s a difference between a directional “move character here” a la whirlwind and ride the lightning and controlling a projectile. I assume that the “pathing” algorythm takes the caster and the castee and paths between them. This type of skill has to use code from BOTH skills. Still really cool that they’re still iterating on their existing code.

psizone.8437:

The “new tech” will be applied to new skills and traits, they’ve stated that the new specialisations for the base classes will also be utilising the new tech.

No word on if old skills and traits will be changed to adapt to it, but I doubt they’ll rework the base classes at all since they’re in a relatively balanced state.

Necromancers are not balanced. Not in any sense of the word. We are an absolute mess. Completely and thoroughly. We’re too good when we’re good and horrendous when we are bad. Half our skills don’t even work properly and we have nothing we particularly excel at over another profession.

Sengel.7801:

there’s a difference between a directional “move character here” a la whirlwind and ride the lightning and controlling a projectile. I assume that the “pathing” algorythm takes the caster and the castee and paths between them. This type of skill has to use code from BOTH skills. Still really cool that they’re still iterating on their existing code.

again, we had directional projectiles on the final client during the first halloween, and probably still have in some minigames (wouldn’t know since i don’t play them)

Lily.1935:

psizone.8437:

The “new tech” will be applied to new skills and traits, they’ve stated that the new specialisations for the base classes will also be utilising the new tech.

No word on if old skills and traits will be changed to adapt to it, but I doubt they’ll rework the base classes at all since they’re in a relatively balanced state.

Necromancers are not balanced. Not in any sense of the word. We are an absolute mess. Completely and thoroughly. We’re too good when we’re good and horrendous when we are bad. Half our skills don’t even work properly and we have nothing we particularly excel at over another profession.

I did say “relatively”, the Necro has some builds that work. I personally haven’t had any issues with my Necromancer but I haven’t tried many builds with him so I couldn’t say it’s perfect.

psizone.8437:

Lily.1935:

psizone.8437:

The “new tech” will be applied to new skills and traits, they’ve stated that the new specialisations for the base classes will also be utilising the new tech.

No word on if old skills and traits will be changed to adapt to it, but I doubt they’ll rework the base classes at all since they’re in a relatively balanced state.

Necromancers are not balanced. Not in any sense of the word. We are an absolute mess. Completely and thoroughly. We’re too good when we’re good and horrendous when we are bad. Half our skills don’t even work properly and we have nothing we particularly excel at over another profession.

I did say “relatively”, the Necro has some builds that work. I personally haven’t had any issues with my Necromancer but I haven’t tried many builds with him so I couldn’t say it’s perfect.

Its my main. Minions are a pretty big issue with the profession. They are extremely buggy. Some skills don’t track properly, but that issue is shared between other professions as well.

Lily.1935:

Its my main. Minions are a pretty big issue with the profession. They are extremely buggy. Some skills don’t track properly, but that issue is shared between other professions as well.

Ah yes, I tried them once and couldn’t find a use for them in my playstyle so I didn’t look into them much. I did hear about their lack of good AI but always likened it to that of the Ranger pet (my main) but with less positional control.

But if I may nitpick slightly, just because one part of the Necromancer doesn’t work well and is buggy, doesn’t mean they’re in a bad place balance-wise. I play WvW a lot and regularly see both condition and power Necromancers hold their own and completely overwhelm opponents of various other classes.

I’m not saying they’re perfect or that they can’t be improved a lot, but for balance as a whole, they’re not bad.

psizone.8437:

Lily.1935:

Its my main. Minions are a pretty big issue with the profession. They are extremely buggy. Some skills don’t track properly, but that issue is shared between other professions as well.

Ah yes, I tried them once and couldn’t find a use for them in my playstyle so I didn’t look into them much. I did hear about their lack of good AI but always likened it to that of the Ranger pet (my main) but with less positional control.

But if I may nitpick slightly, just because one part of the Necromancer doesn’t work well and is buggy, doesn’t mean they’re in a bad place balance-wise. I play WvW a lot and regularly see both condition and power Necromancers hold their own and completely overwhelm opponents of various other classes.

I’m not saying they’re perfect or that they can’t be improved a lot, but for balance as a whole, they’re not bad.

WvW is really the only place necromancers preform well in. In PvE they are literally in 8th place. And in PvP they don’t see wide spread play on the higher end of things. Mainly because they have a gaping hole in their defenses that makes them need a babysitter at all times in order to be effective.

psizone.8437:

Lily.1935:

Its my main. Minions are a pretty big issue with the profession. They are extremely buggy. Some skills don’t track properly, but that issue is shared between other professions as well.

Ah yes, I tried them once and couldn’t find a use for them in my playstyle so I didn’t look into them much. I did hear about their lack of good AI but always likened it to that of the Ranger pet (my main) but with less positional control.

But if I may nitpick slightly, just because one part of the Necromancer doesn’t work well and is buggy, doesn’t mean they’re in a bad place balance-wise. I play WvW a lot and regularly see both condition and power Necromancers hold their own and completely overwhelm opponents of various other classes.

I’m not saying they’re perfect or that they can’t be improved a lot, but for balance as a whole, they’re not bad.

Actually that is exactly what he touched upon: of course, Necros in WvW rock. That was the “a little too good” part. And then there is PvP, in which we are a horrendous mess, so much that I’ve seen “No Necro” LFG-groups from time to time, or ones that simply instant-kick any Necro. I still have hopes that the Specialization will fix that. In which case most people would abandon Necro for it (i know it can be changed at will, but why Necro if Spec works, looks and feels better), and with that we came full circle.

Lily.1935:

psizone.8437:

Lily.1935:

Its my main. Minions are a pretty big issue with the profession. They are extremely buggy. Some skills don’t track properly, but that issue is shared between other professions as well.

Ah yes, I tried them once and couldn’t find a use for them in my playstyle so I didn’t look into them much. I did hear about their lack of good AI but always likened it to that of the Ranger pet (my main) but with less positional control.

But if I may nitpick slightly, just because one part of the Necromancer doesn’t work well and is buggy, doesn’t mean they’re in a bad place balance-wise. I play WvW a lot and regularly see both condition and power Necromancers hold their own and completely overwhelm opponents of various other classes.

I’m not saying they’re perfect or that they can’t be improved a lot, but for balance as a whole, they’re not bad.

WvW is really the only place necromancers preform well in. In PvE they are literally in 8th place. And in PvP they don’t see wide spread play on the higher end of things. Mainly because they have a gaping hole in their defenses that makes them need a babysitter at all times in order to be effective.

the world’s best PvP team right now uses a necro…

necros are pretty viable in PvP right now. they aren’t 1v1 machines like cele eles, but with a good team, they more than pull their weight.

psizone.8437:

The “new tech” will be applied to new skills and traits, they’ve stated that the new specialisations for the base classes will also be utilising the new tech.

Sadly this is not enough. There are literally dozens of worthless utilities and traits, and a dozen completely useless weapons across all professions. I really hope they take this opportunity to completely refresh all the profs from the ground up, otherwise no one will touch the old stuff.