Guild Wars 2

The Herald’s ground effect gives me actual issues. Its strobe effect gives me a literal headache, which goes away as soon as I turn it off (as long as I haven’t left it on for too long). The problem is, the center is too shiny, and there’s too much strobe. I can’t not look at it, and thus I get a headache. Can we just have a check box to turn off the center circle? The symbols around the character don’t bother me the same way; it’s just the circle.

Omg, really?! XD Thank you. I had no idea. Problem solved! Thank you very much!

So, I’ve had some trouble with the new specializations. Unlocked Chronomancer when HoT came out, no problems. Unlocked Tempest, but didn’t equip, and no problems with it. Same with Daredevil. Unlocked Reaper and Herald, and I can’t use them. Huntsman doesn’t have enough to unlock it, so I can’t say anything there, and I don’t have a Warrior, so I can’t say anything about Berserker, either. In any case, I should be able to use Reaper and Herald, but I can’t, and I’ve got Herald almost maxed already. I think I’m bugged. I haven’t run into anyone else with this issue.

Thank you for any help! I don’t mind waiting on patches! The screenshot attached shows Herald and all traits unlocked and the mouse is where it should be to equip it, but it’s not there.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to test much this time. All I got to do was jump on the Chronomancer real quick. So, here we go.

Chronomancer

Build:
Weapons: Greatsword, Sword/Shield
Utilities: Well of Eternity (Heal), Mantra of Resolve, Blink, Well of Calamity, Gravity Well (Elite)
Trait Lines: (1 being the top chooseable trait, 3 being the bottom)
Domination 2 1 1
Dueling 2 3 3
Chronomancer 2 2 2

This is the exact same build I had for BWE1. Overall, I felt nerfed, and I was sad. T_T Still love the chronomancer and how it works, but the cooldown on Gravity Well felt a lot longer (I think it was just 60s last BWE?), as did Well of Calamity’s. It also seemed like Gravity Well got smaller in size while Calamity got a bit larger, so they appeared to be the exact same size overall.

I didn’t like that. I liked Gravity Well being this huge, terrifying circle of DOOM. O_O I felt really kitten last BWE, but this time around, I just felt average on the underpowered side, and I was running full zerker gear. The size for Well of Calamity felt correct, and the power, too. But Gravity Well was underpowered, and its cooldown felt too long. That’s my main complaint.

P.S.
Please keep in mind I am very tired today, so don’t take the feedback too harshly. All I could really notice was basic stuff, and the Gravity Well nerf bothered me. I think ya’ll got the rest balanced okay.

Just an idea for the future, but if I were to make the PERFECT weapon skill set on mesmer, I’d replace the block on shield with the focus’ speedboost. One day, if we can ever use whatever weapon we like, and whatever weapon skill we wanted, it’d be super cool.

Thank you for all of your hard work, ANet.

I couldn’t find this topic, so my apologies if it already exists. Please feel free to merge it if it does.

Let me put this straight: I don’t play support. I’m an off-tank. I even play ele like an off-tank. Which means the warhorn didn’t do much for me. If anything, I felt like it took away all of my mobility.

Typically, I run scepter/dagger, and I do combos of massive damage throughout all 4 elements. It’s tons of fun for me. I leap into the middle of mobs, toss down stuff, run away, and do it again until my enemies die (definition of off-tank?).

On warhorn, I pretty much pressed buttons, saw I did some damage, got bored, and swapped that horn back out for the dagger where I could zip around and toss down stone circles, aoes, and such. Immediately had more fun when I went back to my old weaponset. It wasn’t the same way with Chronomancer, Reaper, or even Revenant from the 1st beta to this one. On Chrono, I missed my Decoy (swapped it out for a well), and my focus skills a little, but there was enough to make up for it. On Reaper, I loved the greatsword and really saw no need to go back to axe/dagger. And on Revenant, I settled on sword/axe whereas I’d been playing mace/axe the first Revenant weekend beta. They were all improved by their elite specializations, or, for Revenant, Shiro.

I’m not a typical Elementalist. I did like the utilities that came with Tempest, and the trait line didn’t seem bad. I probably needed more time understanding how to use the overload mechanic a little better. I’m not all that sure what it did for me, just that it was there. Overall, my ele essentially remained unchanged. Rebound was interesting, but I couldn’t tell if I felt the effects of it or not. I’d change back to fiery greatsword at this point in time.

So I guess my first impression of Tempest is a little confused. Some people are really happy with it, some people seem to really hate it, and I’m, overall, pretty impartial. Ele’s not my main class, but I hope this helps out.

Guardians were never my favorite class due to their simplicity, but becoming a Dragonhunter actually improved things for me. The bow and new utilities gave me more to think about, and actually gave me something to place. Never really thought about it before, but guardians never really had much aoe, did they?

I’ll have to agree on the longbow #2. Standing still = death.

As far as the utilities go, though, love the animations! Visually, they’re really appealing. I had fun playing Dragonhunter. It was a nice change. Not as much fun as playing Chronomancer, Revenant, or Reaper, though, but I’m an off-tank. Consider me biased.

Reaper. Is. AWESOME!!! I’ve now tried Chronomancer (OMG, I can’t wait to really be one!), Revenant (covered elsewhere), and now it’s time for the Reaper! I pretty much took the stock trait build. Zerker armor on all classes. Staff/gs weaponset.

Ya’ll nailed the slow death on the head. In a really good way. Each hit does lots of damage, and the sounds for all the greatsword skills are just eerie. Chilling. THEN you transform in to a reaper with a scythe, and suddenly, just start destroying everything! It’s great. Love it. I don’t know why I would use any other weapons now, though. I feel like the shouts are going to work really well together with the wells out in WvW.

I’ve got nothing bad to say about this class. Simply put, I wouldn’t want to get in close combat with Reaper. That’s a bad idea. I’d range it first. They’re really quite frightening up close. I know that’s what ya’ll were aiming for. Ya’ll did great!

(Yes, I had tons of fun playing this reaper.)

Since it’s a new class, I’ve not mastered Revenant like I have Mesmer, but I’ll give you the best feedback I can. I went with the stock trait line you spawn in with, and ended up using Hammer, Sword/Axe, and Shiro and Jalis.

The damage this time around was much better. I was very happy with the hammer’s damage. And with all the aoe in the story, I really ended up needing it, too, and the range it came with. Hammer’s great! Love it!

Duel swords ended up being, surprisingly, too slow. I also prefer to shadowstep to my enemies rather than pull them to me, so the second sword just didn’t fit my playstyle. That’s why I swapped to axe. I like its immediate shadowstep-to-enemy, and the damage it does on its last skill. In the end, my sword/axe combo did more damage more quickly, and I immediately started having more fun.

Since I was learning Shiro, I didn’t swap stances; I stayed on Shiro, still survived well, and knew Jalis was there if I needed to tank a lot better.

Melee damage was good. Running Revenant this beta weekend felt a lot better than the first. I know I still need more time on it to finish forming a complete opinion, but I hope that helps! But I still have to say, I enjoyed Chronomancer more, though I could be biased. Revenant’s gonna make it into my top 3 favorites, where mesmer is 1 and thief is 2. It hasn’t placed itself quite yet. Need more time to master.

I’m just gonna say, you can release Chronomancer whenever you’re ready. Mesmer’s my main class, so I’m a harsh critic. I set up my builds for soloability, AKA builds for defeating Liadri. Here’s what I finally settled on with the Chronomancer being introduced:

Weapons: Greatsword, Sword/Shield
Utilities: Well of Eternity (Heal), Mantra of Resolve, Blink, Well of Calamity, Gravity Well (Elite)
Trait Lines: (1 being the top chooseable trait, 3 being the bottom)
Domination 2 1 1
Dueling 2 3 3
Chronomancer 2 2 2

It was just flat-out awesome! I felt like a boss and started laughing at enemies as I dropped a well, shattered illusions, tossed down my elite, and watched them melt. It was great. Only vets needed a second round (in Verdant Brink). I did miss my decoy and have a few seconds of stealth at the click of a button. The 25% increase in speed from Chronomancer helped make up for not having my usual focus, and the last skill on the shield was magnificent. All the damage! The first shield skill, had I not been able to move while blocking, would have been a problem, but since I could, it was like casting an illusion with the bonus of blocking.

Final opinion: It’s awesome! I love it! You guys did an awesome job! The only thing that could make it better is a 4th utility slot. But, then, even base mesmer needs a 4th utility slot because of all the utility they have in general. I’m really looking forward to when it’s put out. My favorite class just got better.

(feedback continued)
Other Comments:
I compared it to my mesmer running gs, sword/focus on some marsh drakes in Bloodtide Coast just outside the Lion’s Arch warp. General observances were: it took 16-18 hits using #1 auto attack on Rev’s mace to kill a drake. On mesmer, it took 13-15. Rev hammer took ~17, and was slower between attacks, and staff was about the same as the hammer

I couldn’t imagine doing map completion this way; it’d take forever. I run too slow, and things don’t die quickly enough. Even using all 5 attacks with mace/axe didn’t match my mesmer’s dps, and she’s running about the same gear, ruby orbs instead of runes, not even full exotic accessories, and currently 1 ascended ring w/the amulet and other ring slot empty. The utilities on Rev helped quite a bit. I used Legendary Demon Stance to kill things faster. But EVEN THEN, it just didn’t even come close to the speed at which you can kill things on mesmer. Just drop the focus #5, then sword #2, and your creature is dead. On Rev, it took all 5 skills and utilities to get anywhere close to matching the speed my mesmer could kill stuff (still drakes, in this case).

But, despite all of this, I’ve still had a ton of fun playing Revenant this weekend. My first impression when I loaded in with my hammer was, “OMG, I LOVE THIS!!!” And I do. Even if they’re slow, I love the variety of the basic weapon skills. This class felt brand new, shiny, and the art and flashiness of the attacks made other classes look duller in comparison. I was surprised by the shadow step on axe, and quite pleased with the range on mace. Art-wise, the hammer had my favorite skills, so I was sad when I realized I couldn’t weapon swap, as I would have chosen it for my range. I do understand why there’s no weapon swap: you already get to swap between 2 sets of utilities, but as I explained above, having no long range really hurt in WvW play. If it remains without weaponswap, I’d either need some swiftness to make me a full-on melee brawler (the shadow step really hopes close that gap), or I’d need a more viable hammer build that lets me do good dps. As things are now, the mace/axe seems more likely and more usable.

I finally came to the conclusion that, if you’re not frequently using your utilities on your Rev, you’re not playing it right. In the end, it felt like this class came with 8 base attacks, and the only way to get results was to use your normal weapon attacks with utilities. If you just used your weapon, at least in WvW, you were gonna die. But on other classes, you can get away with just using your weapon, and calling upon your utilities only when you need them: to remove condis, go invisible, use a portal, etc. The Revenant brings a whole different perspective to utilities, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It was a fresh, new way to play the game. I could spam the utilities, and not feel bad about it whereas I’m punished with long cool-downs on other classes. And if I needed different utilities for different situations, I could swap them out. I almost never couldn’t use a utility.

I know that was a SUPER long post, but I hope this helps with finishing the class. I’m really looking forward to making my own Revenant when it’s officially released. But now that you’ve given us such cool, flashy weapon skills, the other classes have some catching up to do in that regard. =P I’ve had a lot of fun trying this class out. I think it’s going to end up being one of my favorites. Oh, and I love the armor and hammer skin. <3 Thanks for letting us try it out!

Here’s my Rev’s build:
(Numbers indicate selectable traits with 1 being the top and 3 being the bottom)
Corruption – 1 1 3
Retribution – 2 2 3
Invocation – 2 1 3

Armor is full Berserker’s with Superior Runes of Hoelbrak.
Accessories are Berserkers with the stock Exquisite Charged Jewels.
Main weapons are Berserker mace/axe with Superior Sigil of Bloodlust and Superior Sigil of Leeching.

Main Goal of this Beta Revenant:
To create something I’d actually play in-game assuming this is how the Revenant came.

Overall Opinion:
Underpowered base weapon 1-5 skills, strong utilities, and flippin’ tanky even in full Zerker. The mace/axe were the strongest weapons overall, which is why they became my main weaponset. The hammer was next in line in terms of strength. And the staff came in dead last. Its #5 skill did the most damage on it, but it’s clearly meant for a heal/support build, which I don’t run, so I stopped using it fairly quickly.

WvW Testing:
So that’s the build and weaponset I took into WvW, which is where I truly test out new builds for classes. If I can play the build/class in WvW well (I don’t have any set standards, but I expect to be able to fight 1-on-1, keep up with the zerg, and overall feel useful), it solidifies the build, and I often write it down to save it.

Revenant did not pass. The dps on even the mace/axe were too low, and the lack of weapon swapping and swiftness, or any sort of increased running speed, were detrimental. I spent most of my time trying to keep up with the zerg, often came late to claim towers, and in 1-on-1, even my tankiness and utilities couldn’t save me. It felt a lot like running a nub character.

What did work well was Jorin’s Inspiring Reinforcement (the stone road), and Forced Engagement (the chain). Even though I was slow and did little damage, in the midst of a thousand circles, Inspiring Reinforcement helped my allies push forward, and enemies that were running away were chained down by Forced Engagement so that my faster allies could finish them off. So even though I was slow, had low dps, and got downed frequently, I at least didn’t feel completely useless.

That said, I really, REALLY needed that weapon swap, especially when attacking things on walls, like oil. Mace/axe just doesn’t go that high. I suppose I COULD have manually swapped to hammer, but quite often, an enemy zerg would come upon us, and that would have spelled my immediate death as I didn’t have the time to ooc and get my mace/axe back. As Revenant is now, I just don’t have a viable WvW build for it.

(continued in following post)

It’s happening for me, too. Had audio before 9/9, now it barely has a second.

So I’ve been spamming the pavilion for. . . .several days now. I run into one main problem: people will not split up into groups. So, today, I attempted to encourage them, in any way I could, to do so. And it worked, to some degree. What started as 1 zerg finally split into 3 zergs, and rather than taking 45 minutes to complete the pavilion for Bronze, it took 30. Improvement, but it only worked for one round. =\ After that, it was down to 2 zergs, and then 1 again. And I’ve been on gold servers before (mega-spawned-server that gets gold in pavilion repeatedly), and always thought to myself after I die, “Where do I need to be?” Because that one boss that just WON’T die can change that gold reward to a silver, and really frustrates players. That’s the boss I want to be able to know I need to go to.

And thus, I ended up on Reddit, and found this part of a post from lapiz-es-azul, linked HERE. So here’s the important part:

There needs to be some kind of internal cue to indicate to players what they should be doing. Even just an area-wide ticker showing the number of people in each sixth of the map would be a huge, huge help. It would allow for new people in the map to easily see where they’re needed, and would provide a subtle hint that the numbers should perhaps be equal (otherwise, you know, why show them all?)

:End Important Part

So, yea, having anything at all on the map to indicate the number of people in a champ zone would be super helpful, and help the super casuals get the general idea of what they should be doing. =3 Now I know you can run around the grassy circle of the middle and hope a champ’s close enough to get a look at its health, but that takes time, and in this case, time really does matter. If a GENERAL health bar, PLUS that number-of-people indicator could be on the map, it would make the pavilion far more possible, and easier to organize.

And that’s the answer from Reddit I wanted to share! Constructive responses only, please. That’s the entire point of this post: to help make the game better. Please note that constructive criticism is constructive, too, so if you find flaws, please point them out!