Showing Posts For Diruuo.6314:
DISCLAIMER: I am writing this between 2 and 5 AM because I want to get the feedback posted while everything is still fresh in my mind. [Yes it took me that long to type and edit everything!] This means that despite my attempts to avoid inconsistencies in the naming of everything, there are likely still many mistakes and oddities in my post. I’ll read it again tomorrow and edit it to remove any glaring mistakes. I am also not a native English speaker so I apologize for any odd choice of words or mistakes that might be present.
I’ll detail my observations of the druid focusing on each aspect of the Elite Specialization. It might sound overly pessimistic or negative but it is not, I simply try to provide as detailed feedback as I can. I am absolutely in love with the theme of the Druid and the potential of Hybrid builds coming with HoT. I spent 200 gold on a Zealot’s set just to be ready for this beta!
Quick note before anything else – the druid looks and sounds absolutely stunning! I am especially attached to the sound effects – crisp, distinct and very powerful.
Now, onto the feedback!
Staff observations:
General
- Idle animation needs to be swapped to the default caster staff idle animation. The transition between the “hammer idle animation” and then auto attack is very awkward. The same transition exists for casters, skill 2 on Air Attunement transitions from the idle, or the auto to the cast then back to auto or idle. Skill 4 on the staff [on druid] looks like the auto attack of Elementalists on Staff which would also transition more smoothly from the default staff idle;
- The staff feels slow in a bad, clunky kind of way. Aftercasts feel very long, I seem to be stuck doing nothing despite spamming skills;
- Staff doesn’t work with Quick Draw;
- The weapon has no way of tagging or doing any damage. It has no AoE other then 4 and the rather wonky 1.
- More Bifrost effects please! O_O
- The projectile on 2 flies rather slowly;
- I am not sure how 1 decides what to hit, what to heal and what to pierce through. I’d rather this do high damage and pierce properly then it healing as well. Gives more control to the player that way;
- I think 2 should do damage while circling; (Should apply to the Grandmaster trait as well);
- I also think 3 should do damage on impact;
- 3 doesn’t give control of the character immediately upon reaching the target destination. This makes its use rather clunky in general. Also doesn’t seem to travel the full 1200 distance;
* Tying the Staff cooldown trait to a trait that does CC is not pleasant for general PvE, especially a CC with this large of a radius, they should be split somehow; - 5 is fine but needs to be labeled as a Water field (if this is intended functionality). Seems to block (convert?) some projectiles that players usually can’t interact with. Is this intended? Example: Old Tom’s poison spin; Seems like a great concept, I love the fact that the resulting healing bolts produce Bifrost projectiles if you have the staff equipped;
- EDIT – To add to the Staff Cooldown trait point – the Daze is almost unusable as such. You would rather simply weapon swap for the actual weapon (or maybe your Celestial bar ran out), this makes the daze unusable as such since you have no real way of timing it. You can’t prolong Celestial form while in it, and you can’t hold off swapping weapons just for that Daze. Make it so that 4 also dazes + the base functionality (or just make it a stun without all the added conditions) when the trait is picked. That would resolve the issue below with 4 feeling rather unrewarding, although it does tinker with the theme, roots well… root, they don’t stun. I really don’t know what to suggest in regards to a fix, I just know that the Daze when swapping is misplaced in a major way, since you can never reliably or intentionally use it as a Daze and it applies defiance in general PvE;
- EDIT – Staff 4 seems to be very unrewarding for how difficult it is to hit. It’s rather slow in it’s travel time and even if you hit it the effect is underwhelming. If the difficulty to hit stays (it should) then the effects should be increased. Immobilize should go up, base damage should probably go up as well. Cleanse is fine as is I believe.
Celestial Avatar observations:
General
- Biggest gripe is the complete lack of damage. What happens in practice right now is this:
- You go into Celestial Avatar to heal;
- You use 3 since it’s quick and it’s a huge chunk of health;
- [3 appears to be off cooldown due to some strange delay in the bar/casting/animation, it casts only once];
- You [try to] use 3 again because of Quick Draw, another huge chunk of health
- You use 4 to top off everyone else;
- Everyone is full health and you still have over half of your Celestial bar to use, with nothing to use it on. There is no damage, leaving Celestial form depletes your entire bar, and you simply have nothing to use it on if your group is full health due to the shear amount of healing available;
- 1 needs to do damage on each hit, not high damage, just moderate damage, could also be faster. I find that I miss it a lot with the constant mobility of my team mates. Same deal as with Staff 1, I’d rather have it not heal at all and instead simply do damage. There is plenty of healing elsewhere, especially if Quick Draw is fixed;
- 2 needs to have some “token damage” as well for tagging purposes, also needs a bit less delay i feel, seems to also miss if anyone is in motion;
- 3 on the other hand needs a bit of a delay so you can combo it with 4, or 4 needs to be an activate-able ability rather then a channel. You should be able to use the blast on 3 to blast into your own water field, it makes thematic sense and it provides synergy. Having 4 as a channel severely limits your options;
- 5 feels a bit underwhelming in its effects for some reason. Damage numbers seem to be low, the effects seem a bit lack luster… Some combination between the Glyph that pulls enemies in and this would be great, as it stands you channel it in Astral Form because you have nothing else to do if your allies are full health and that is disappointing in every way;
- Quick Draw doesn’t work with Celestial Avatar (the buff appears, no cooldowns get decreased, I imagine this is a bug. If not this severely limits the options of a Ranger when choosing Specializations and Traits. Quick Draw is there to be used, and it’s fun for the player to use, it simply should work with both Staff and Celestial Avatar);
- On a more positive note, 4 seems wonderful. It feels like it’s just the right amount of healing, and even though I can’t blast it myself other then with a pet swap my allies regularly used the field itself to either leap through or blast for extra healing;
Glyph observations:
General
- It’s great that we have a Glyph cooldown trait with an extra effect, but as it stands that extra effect is 1) not needed and 2) thematically inconsistent. I wish there was something more interesting here;
- Celestial form takes long to build up with damage, Celestial bar is fully depleted upon exiting the form and the Glyphs sharing cooldown between Celestial and non-Celestial versions means ALL of the Celestial versions of the Glyphs are absolutely unusable. They seem to be designed to be used reflexively. Either a quick condi cleanse or a quick stun break for my allies as rough examples. The way the form works right now those can almost never be used in that way. This seems to be the biggest flaw in the way they are designed. Simple split of the cooldowns will fix this issue to some extent;
- Tooltips seem unfinished, upon mousing over them only rough descriptions of the two glyphs appear, upon equipping them and mousing over them only the non-Celestial description appears and you need to be in Celestial form to see the proper tooltip;
- Using/triggering of Glyphs seems to be incredibly slow. I’m not sure if the reason is long aftercasts of other skills or what exactly, but I find myself having to repeatedly mash my Glyph key so that it finally casts and gives the AoE damage modifier to my allies;
- Glyph of Rejuvenation should have a pet heal component regardless of where the pet is, akin to the other heals that the Ranger has access to;
- Glyph of Alignment feels as if it has a delay in the non-Celestial form and no delay in the Celestial form, should be without a delay in both forms, maybe it’s just the animation that makes me feel like it’s delayed. Maybe it’s aftercasts…? It’s alright, not sure why I’d ever use it over survival skills in PvP and WvW or in PvE not sure why I’d use it over the various other damaging or utility-based utilities I have;
- Glyph of Equality feels as if it’s only made to be used with the interrupt Moment of Clarity build. As I said above it literally never sees use as an AoE stun break and the AoE daze, while nice, doesn’t serve much purpose other then for that one specific build;
- Glyph of Empowerment is great [in the non-Celestial form]. On demand damage modifier for you and your team mates is great for all PvE, and is awesome for setting up bursts in PvP or WvW. That said it’s literally never, ever, up in Celestial form due to how useful it is in non-Celestial. A cooldown split can resolve this issue;
- Glyph of Tides should be reversed. You want people closer in Druid form and you want people away when you’re in Celestial preparing to heal others. I can see how you’d want to setup the AoE daze but with it being as large as it is and with it being as long range as it is I’d rather have this function opposite to what it does now. Pull in non-Celestial form, push in Celestial form. Personal opinion, not sure which is better;
- Glyph of Unity I simply do not understand. I was unable to make it work once for me. It feels absolutely and utterly useless. In raids/high level fractals I am either not taking enough damage for it to do anything or I’m taking too much damage and I’m downed/dead. The Celestial version feels even less useful then this. I already have a ton of healing, making it so that healing myself heals my allies is redundant. The elite as it stands feels redundant. If a stronger version of the Empowerment glyph was the Elite and this was a utility I’d still advocate against having it at all, it’s just mechanically useless in my mind;
Traits
General
- The trait line feels pretty solid in general but there are a few pretty major (in my eyes) downsides;
- As it stands the trait line barely has anything to do with pets. Rangers are still a pet class, this feels rather strange;
- Live Vicariously is boring, bland and uninteresting. It also has no interesting impact on gameplay. I think adding some sort of daze/stun resistance as a minor is a good way to enhance the trait line while making it still more interesting and thematic. Or maybe some equivalent of Fortifying Bond…? I just wish there was something pet related in the trait line;
- Ancient Seeds feels completely out of place. It’s a Power/Healing/Interrupt trait line, why is there Bleeding and Immobilize there? I see that you want the Daze build to work, I just don’t think that’s the right way to do it. Maybe incorporate some resistance to dazes/stuns in the minor? Maybe add a damage modifier to Stunned/Dazed foes as the new Grandmaster? Anything along those lines would be more useful, more interesting, and more thematically accurate;
- As mentioned earlier the added effect of Verdant Etching is not really needed and it’s rather boring. I know it’s great for condi cleanse but I feel it could have been something more interesting/cool;
- If the wisp that Staff 2 summons starts doing damage, the wisp that Lingering Light summons should also do damage. Provides some much needed AoE damage to the Ranger while also staying true to the theme;
- The Celestial form traits all seem alright, I feel like the range is way too low for them to be useful though. A bump to 600 would be the best outcome I feel, if that is not achievable due to balance reasons at least 360 would be far better then the mere 300 it is right now. That said I don’t think I’ll ever really run the Celestial Avatar traits, the others just seem more useful and fun;
- In the same vein Cultivated Synergy is too low of a radius for it to be any useful at all, especially with the limited control we have over our pet’s position;
- Natural Stride is pretty awesome, maybe it should have some effect to signify WHY exactly is that Druid so much faster then almost anything else when out of combat and without those conditions? I still wish movement speed was reworked somehow so different sources stacked but alas, probably will never happen due to balance reasons. Trait is fun, I like it!
New pets
General
- ABSOLUTELY FREAKING ADORABLE!
- They seem to have strange stats and inconsistencies as pointed out in the thread already;
- I think the Bristleback gets a tiny bit too big with Signet of the Wild…
- Why are all of our ranged pets condi based? Can’t we have a power based Ranged pet? Even with that said I still absolutely adore the Bristleback! [really, though, can’t it just be a power based pet? ;(]
- Smokescale definitely feels a bit strong. It’s as tanky as a bear and almost as damaging as a cat; [I’m exaggerating a bit]
- Tiger is cool, I’m happy we have a cat to apply Fury now, makes the Moa a bit redundant, though. I guess easier to keep Fury up 100% of the time that way if you run both. Looks awesome, it’s useful, I like it;
- The Wyverns I don’t like as much as the other 3. The F2 on the Fire Wyvern feels very unresponsive and sort of casts where it wants. If it casts where I need it to it’s alright. The lightning one I can see being useful in PvP but I haven’t dabbled too much into that just yet;
* EDIT – I seem to have completely lost my pet somehow? I only have pets (and the pet panel) active in PvP. If I go in PvE my pet is permanently stowed and I can’t get it to show in any way. Pet panel (default K) also doesn’t work. I know people love shouting that they’d love Rangers without pets but I am quite the opposite. Can anyone provide a bandaid fix for this issue during the beta?- Going underwater and requipping land pets resolves the issue. The new pets are inactive in PvP so if you try to leave PvP with them set they just get cleared from your pet panel and there’s no pet for you to switch to. Go underwater [in PvE], open pet panel, reequip land pets (including the new ones) and continue testing your Druid happily!
I think that’s all that comes to mind so far. I apologize for any possible mistakes or inconsistencies there are in the post. I’ll re-read it tomorrow morning and edit anything that’s wrong. I hope my feedback is of some use!
(edited by Diruuo.6314)