Like a lot of folks, I’ve spent a good portion of my PvP since the close of the season experimenting with builds to determine what will work best. Unfortunately, the only venue to which we have access is Unranked, which seems to draw from a very large pool — selecting a broad range of talent — in order to speed up queues. Some games I get pro team players. Some games I get people who don’t know what “home” means. The upshot is we’re never quite certain if something is working because it’s good, or because the people we’re fighting would lose to a pack dolyak.
Standard Caveat: I play all professions. Anything said about your favorite profession is not an insult. You are not your profession; you are a player in a game.
Some thoughts about minor (and not-so-minor) adjustments that could improve play. Let me know if I’m operating from mistaken impressions or conclusions.
My greatest number of games are on Necro. I think that Necromancer is currently a bit over-tuned. If I had to narrow it down to a tweak, I’d suggest that it’s the boon corruption on Putrid Curse (Sc 3rd AA). That might be just a tad too strong. Then again, since almost everyone seems to be a condi-bomber or a boon-spewer, it may be necessary for the current game.
The “bunker meta” didn’t quite go away; it’s just been shifted. Don’t get me wrong; so far this is way better than the season and it’s refreshing to be able to get off a stomp and have midpoint change hands at some time in a match. Still, a number of specs retain ludicrously high sustain (though admittedly not all share it with the team). Put a Druid and a Tempest next to one another and it’s a hell of a deal to dislodge ’em.
The issue that remains is that the breed of bunkers that appeared with HoT don’t have the weaknesses of traditional bunkers: They deal a lot of damage and they’re highly mobile. Once people get a hang of builds and play with the new amulets, I expect we’re going to see a lot more grinding against brick walls.
The other offspring of HoT that hasn’t disappeared is the amount of AoE, and especially AoE cc. The trick to killing someone in a team fight isn’t careful focus, but stunlocking him in a corner and dropping circles all over. This is highlighted by a prevalence of condition builds of the new mode. Where once condition builds had to play attentively, most now just throw conditions everywhere without much thought.
Condi Mes play is a prime example: Push a button, any button. Was it a skill? Good, you just applied multiple conditions in a circle. You don’t even have to see your target. Reaper, Ranger, others are in the same boat. I’ve played a lot of condi Necro, and I despise how simpleminded the condi Reaper build is. There’s no easy fix here, but it’s a disappointing direction for things to have gone and we’d do well to be mindful of it moving forward.
Unless we see notable changes before the next season, I don’t see Warrior having a place in it. I’ve been playing Warrior a good deal this offseason and watching others. I’ve done very well with certain builds, but in every case I’ve been conscious of my kit’s inferiority, especially in sustain and damage output. I’ve found Warrior to be most effective as support pressure in small skirmishes (2 or 3 a side). That’s a crappy role to have.
Warrior’s sustain arguably used to be too good, and it was adjusted accordingly. Then came HoT, when everyone’s damage went up, and suddenly Warrior was on its back foot. With Warrior’s once stellar support abilities also diminished, of course there was no seat for it on the team. Warrior is locked to two trait lines — realistically three, since most will take the elite as well. I hate power creep as much as the next person, but it may be that some abilities need improvement — not in a tacked-on functionality fashion like Shattering Blow, but in a real look at some core utilities.
Mesmer’s chances of staying in the top tier are also looking fairly grim. Bunker Mesmer can still be played, but it’s a shell of its former self. Sure, it was bland to play and silly to fight, but it was a role for Mesmer. In light of the changes, its shortcomings as a bunker (selfish condi-clear and healing) glare that much brighter for the losses of Alacrity effectiveness and Quickness stomps/rezzes.
Shatter Mesmer still suffers from being Shatter Mesmer. I’ll probably repeat myself here, but anyone that does what a Thief does but not as well as Thief is going to be inferior to Thief. Thief is the ideal backcap/+1. The only advantage Mes had over Thief was the ability to do a lot of damage from further away (though this was not maximizing damage). Condi Mes can be a pain to deal with in a teamfight, but they still can’t contest a point.
The range on “Search and Rescue!” is probably a bit too great. Hey, I’ve been saved by it when I thought all was lost and it’s neat, but the fact that someone in mid-stomp can lose track of the victim because it was teleported halfway to the next node is a bit extreme. This isn’t in the same league as Quickness rezzing, but it could stand to be toned down slightly.