Quite disappointed, as well. I’m not a PVP/WvW player at all and the PVP/WvW builds don’t necessarily work for PVE content as well.
I was really hoping for a PVE test, like there was for HoT. It was interesting to go to cursed shore and kick around some champ giants to see how effective classes were with makeshift builds and to hype myself up more for unlocking them in the expansion
I haven’t played the game too much recently for, well, reasons I won’t go into here. Was really hoping the elite spec beta would get me excited about the game all over again. I love the game, I really do. And I want to get back into it, but dang.
This would be the perfect time to do random crap in PvP/WvW with no consequences to your main account. PvP doesn’t have a refit cost, but WvW uses your PvE gear…. which the Beta characters can switch on a whim.
If the issue is fighting Champs…. WvW has several in each map, majority of which are outside the normal travel paths of players. They’re also considerably harder, making them a better test bed for build limits.
If you’re goal is to “hype yourself up”… then I’d honestly say not doing yourself any favors. A lot of aspects of Especs in HOT where immediately were written off because they weren’t aiding DPS…. and it wouldn’t be until raids for those aspects to start making sense. Tyrian content wasn’t designed to stress players they way later content would. So despite being gratifying that you face rolled a mob that was never designed to fight tactics employed by Especs, it doesn’t teach you anything meaningful about what the builds are really capable of.
In fact… a lot of DPS builds that looked good in HoT Beta preview got their kitten handed to them in later sections of HoT. Yet today, we’re well familiar with the strategy needed. And many raid builds, which are intentionally lacking in certain areas, can be compensated for just by playing smarter.
The choice to keep the beta players focused in a small area intentionally forces them to interact, and generate useful data as a side effect. In Open World, they’d be too spread out, and not taking on big challenges that would highlight aspects of the game play to make adjustments for. Crystal Oasis was more of a content demo then anything else (especially since we lacked especs). But this weekend you’re asked to be a contributing member of a zero-effort test group…… at least try to pretend you care enough to tolerate PvP play with other players.
The game seriously need less people to hold up in their little corners, and start interacting in friendly and encouraging manner. And if theres one thing WvW needs right now, its people to put down their ego for a couple of hours, and join in the chaos. Its like my uncle used to say….. “Riots are always more fun with more people”.
HoT’s classes hyped me because they weren’t all necessarily DPS. and when it comes to testing classes on golems with other people, it’s hard to judge how well I’m doing as an individual, or in a controlled environment with a couple friends.
Druid was what got me most excited for HoT. I love more support/healer focused builds in games and having one finally be viable in GW2 was super exciting to me. I like group content, I like to help people.
I don’t like being around random groups because of how elitist a lot of the community gets about DPS. I like to try new things, experiment, and that doesn’t really fly with a lot of randoms, ESPECIALLY usually in pvp. I’ve seen so much toxicity and hostility in competitive modes in the past that I really want no part in it. PVE is, generally, less toxic. There’s still some people that are going to ruin it for more relaxed players, but not as many.
I used to try to be friendly and interact, but a lot og the community drained me of that and I just want to hole myself up in “my own little corner” where I can actually enjoy myself with a few friends. It’s too tiring to put up with negativity al lthe time