Guild Wars 2

i didnt experience too much but here are things i didnt like:
-The mount was clunky at times, turning was a bit of a pain and overall i wasnt too thrilled to use the mount. at times it felt like a hindrance than anything else.

-The beta area felt like it had too little to do there were no events around that felt fun or engaging. Protecting the farmers felt more like a chore, killing the choya attacking the gate was unsatisfying and i felt like i was wasting time.

Landscape was nice on par with the rest of the game, music was good, thats about it.

Woof.8246:

This ^-^
Its not the problem of the top players/streamers , to do this

This, PVP was boring to watch at least with a MOBA i can understand the match and i know when an important objective has been taken and when some big upset happens. in gw2’s pvp if you lose a point 5 seconds later it would be capped again. if a player dies, theres very little weight behind it and considering that theres no counterplay to be heard of aside from “cleanse those condi, pop stab, heal up.”

ask yourself how do you counter a heal or a cleanse? use a CC? how can you tell as a spectator what just happened? boring to watch not too fun to play, and even with skill, Anet’a balance team made little to no effort to open up build diversity or more importantly CLASS diversity.

in short its not the community’s fault the community is what kept ESL running as long as it did, when was the last time someone from the LoL or Smite, or DoTA community talking about how they want to come to GW2 for the pvp? meanwhile Helseth went to Smite, spoke about smite, and is playing smite. dont see a big name from any mobas on our game, and promoting it in the off season do ya?

while im happy to hear that Anet’s hubris bit them in the backside and refused to let go in this case. a thought occurs to me, maybe this is because they’re losing devs to other companies?

Mike O said a while ago hes looking for a new lead dev with no announcement on finding someone new, theres been people leaving left and right, maybe they dont have the people to actually do anything about this, or fixing wvw, or producing more content for pve?

dont get me wrong, im still salty over seeing WvW being left behind in the dust and glad to see that competitive pvp not being a thing in the near future, i still think its probably due to the company being understaffed and not fully up to the task at this moment.

still my original opinion stands that at this moment, this is a good thing and bad thing for gw2. hopefully more good than bad, as much as i want gw2 to succeed in turning this around, i want them to take this lesson and actually learn from it.

there was a time when the devs listened to us and wanted our feedback and shared with us, now theyre as cold as ice with us and have turned their back so viciously that a ban or a reprimand or a thread lock is always the first thing on their minds rather than understanding and comprehending the issue thats being addressed.

Mr Godlike.6098:

-snip- Anet really wants people to stop playing pvp.

It’s complete waste of time. -snip-

fixed that for you bro, no need to thank me.

I’m a very frustrated player, and i feel as though for all the good anet has done for the game mode over the past year, its just a few drops in the bucket.

I want to say i white knighted Anet for many a year in the past, and now I’m either waking up or going insane. WvWvW has been neglected in areas that cannot be fixed unless certain things are fixed.

The most major issue in WvW is the total LACK of proper balance among the classes. this also plagues the rest of the game. For a game with such great combat and so much variety, its bogged down with so few skills that are worth using. Anet is to balancing is what DSP is to let’s playing, BAD. For years we’ve given anet our ideas on how to balance classes and push them in a good direction, and they take a hard left and expect people to adapt.

we have adapted to using skills that are just less crap than the other options. we receive no answers on feedback they asked for., and we are expected to accept that just because a skill they see as “too over powered” that it justifies its reduction without a well justified increase of another skill in its place. “sure we will nerf revenants utility in boon uptime, but in return we will also keep the traits and utilities of its other lines the same and hope everything falls into place.”

dont get me wrong there are many balances and adjustments they gave us that were well needed and for that i am grateful as are many other people in the community. the downside however is it takes such a long time for the changes to other skills to be done that the meta shifts it self into another hole and sits there waiting for the next change.

WvW is the least updated game type, and i know development time for maps and such takes such a long time and man power and money. However in 4 years Pvp and Pve have had so many maps introduced while WvW had 2, and one was a “lobby”. they are very pretty maps and very interesting however due to lack of getting from point A to B in a timely manor (like the alpine and EB maps) no one wants to play desert because its too big and there are not enough way points, along with it being confusing to traverse.

We did get changes and adjustments and love this past year, however we still have not gotten any sort of word from a WvW dev about any kind of future changes or additions that will be on the table and implemented “eventually”. I and many others understand that employees at Anet are busy and working, some of us even understand deadlines and meetings and even having the axe looming over your head if you dont deliver what is expected of you. however if a PvP dev has time to speak to the pvp forum or on reddit, a representative of the WvW team can at least be allowed 5 minutes on somewhere to type at least 1 paragraph of text.

now for suggestions because im tired of complaining. some kind of incentive to play WvW (i.e. a “legendary back piece” or WvW finishers akin to pvp.) We need the balance team to understand that STABILITY is key to ALL classes, every class needs reliable stability on demand possibly on skills that have seen little to no use. we need the WvW team to understand that SIEGE camping is not a play-style that should be encouraged, we do not need more siege we need more reliable accesses to siege clearing abilities. Finally i would like to see quaggan guards walking along side yaks, because im selfish and i wanted to see something like that for years now.

Cheers.

i dont like to complain about things in game that i dont like, but as of today im going to at least this once.

WHY DOES ANET KEEP TRYING TO MAKE SHATTERSTONE A THING!?

my dead and rotting grandfather can decay faster than the time it takes for the skill to go off. Can we please get a new skill that ISN’T RELIANT ON A TARGET TO SIT THERE AND TAKE THE HIT?

please for the love of god Anet, bros and girl bros just take that skill and turn it into something useful? like an ice field? like a skill that isn’t trash?

i wanted to get that off my chest, sorry. Anyway Im really hoping that more changes will be made to Ele, it was one of my 2 main classes at launch for about a year its been sidelined because its just been hit with nerf after nerf. Its elites are all jokes Tornado is terrible in that it has no place in most content, the glyph summons a minion with crap Ai as most Ai is. FGS is the only remotely useful one to escape combat or to reach a fight, and Rebound is completely underwhelming with its small healing value not being able to save a ladybug in a strong windstorm. id just love to have fun on my ele again in WvW or in PvE again like i used to when utilities were not under powered and so bad they hurt, and elites that actually did something aside from being complete butt.

also screw shatterstone….

it’s very frustrating to me that the Dragonhunter doesn’t really mesh with the core class.
With the devs responses of “we’ll keep on working on it after launch” it doesn’t inspire too much confidence in the overall idea of the spec that was given to us.

i don’t like to be this negative and overly critical of other peoples work, i just get the feeling when this class was first pitched they had a grand idea of how things would work and an ideal role the Dragonhunter would play. Now it feels like there are so many limits placed on the spec and they’re placing themselves in a box and holding firm to their original design…

there is a massive disconnect between most of if not a majority of players that wish for the guard to branch out into something new and yet familiar and to have things the devs don’t want to or cant give us to appease us.

Sadly for a class that has been the crux of the meta and a very reliant source of support, damage, and sustain for all game modes, most if not the majority of the players must feel as frustrated as i do.

the main issues we keep addressing are common, whether or not we all agree on them they commonly appear in every thread.

1. The Traps: many players don’t feel these offer what we would like them to offer and they feel limiting in the playstyle we perceive the DH to be pursuing and have very long cooldowns. they do not offer supportive options for a class that is mainly support. the control option the devs must have thought up is very reliant on our skill and the unknown subject we are fighting.

if it is a player in a pvp / wvw setting a sharp eye will know how to spot a DH setting a trap and avoid that area. thus we the DH have to find a way around our handicap of fighting a smart opponent. that is the loss of a utility slot for unskilled/ novice players and it makes us feel like we are weak or not in a good spot.

In PvE we are totally dependent on enemy AI to purposely or forcibly walk into or be pushed into a trap. In this setting we are not rewarded for our skill or knowledge or forward planning therefore most players will not see them as rewarding to use because in essence we have just clicked a skill and its effect is just a shiny skill that appears and goes away with no help to anyone around us. Mobs in the case of most traps can give us a 50/50 shot at our effects even activating at all and they can avoid most damage by following us into melee range, or just standing there and attacking at range (test of faith, procession of blade) leaving 2 traits as useless slots.

2. The Damage: with many more build options to be available to us with the zerker meta being “dead” or “sub-optimal” we look at our numbers, the damage we can output is not equal to what other classes we can achieve due to their own class mechanics / traits / and utilities. As a core class we (the players) have been held into the position of support and “OK” damage, if we are to go full damage our level of support drops and the amount of utility we provide is slightly smaller.

We (the players) for the most part, would like to know we are doing well in a fight by being able to “burn down” a boss in a dungeon, kill a group in a WvW zerg, or successfully take down an enemy or group of enemies in PvP with the best respective set up. The Bow offers a mix of support and a perceived “mediocre” damage output, which we have no way to test properly since the expansion has not been released.

The skills we have been given on the bow are an enigma to me as to why we have them in their current form. Some think the bow is fine, others don’t. there is no clear purpose to this weapon unlike the other 2 handed weapons we have. Staff= healing, control. Great sword = Damage, control, sustain (if traited), Hammer: control, damage. What does bow give us? control? in a small way, damage? some would say that’s debatable, Support? again debatable. We’re fighting to give the bow a role in our class missing a role of its own.

3. The 25% speed increase. I have seen this argument a lot in of posts and threads. so far we have more mobility than some but they have long(ish) cooldowns. In competitive play we need a way to disengage from a fight. We may be a heavy armor class but that doesn’t mean we can live forever off of shouts and invulns and healing everything away.

4: The Traits: Simply put most of the players feel the Dragonhunter line doesn’t synergize properly with our other traits, too many traits that don’t do enough, traits that cause competition with other traits or don’t “mesh” well with some. Soaring Devastation, Bulwark, and Big Game Hunter are some examples, of traits i myself feel dont do enough to aid us. they feel boring to me and do not merit slotting in my traits due to the fact i feel that they are boring.

Pure of sight is another such trait that has been left behind as an example of how boring traits such as these were previous to the june 23rd patch where we were shown A-net’s wisdom to roll traits like this into baseline because they weren’t healthy to a trait line. again we see a situational Minor trait that has no use to players that do not run a ranged weapon.

I know this dragged on and I’m very sorry for this long post, but i had to get this off of my chest. Thank you for reading and if i had the time or brainpower left id make a TL;DR but if anyone in the community could help me i’ll give you a +1, thanks :P

i still am having a lot of issues with tempest most of which are the traits and the stability on overloads its almost impossible to finish an overload while being focused…

Main issues:

Shouts don’t have enough utility the damage they deal is negligible at best, “oh boy feel the burn does 896 base damage!” is not something i said to myself while picking this skills to use in WvW and PvE.

“Eye of the storm” needs an aura, “wash the pain away” needs to remove 1 condition per pulse to be of some relative use, “flash freeze” needs to be stronger, "Rebound"needs to heal for more i can get to 2k hp but whats to stop a reaper or a burn guard from smacking me in the face as soon as i get back up?

We need a shout reduction trait, we need to make stability a baseline minor trait because it should never EVER be an option in limiting how we play this class. I did like that imbued melodies gave us a stun break, maybe we should have it back? at least one stun break per attunement warnhorn skill? Lucid singularity is not useful in the slightest to me.

Also Scepter works kind of well with warhorn please give it an actual buff make some of the skills worthwhile and decent?

thanks once again for the beta test!

ok ill keep this as short as i can.

most of the traits are ok.

Recovery Matrix is a bit boring, i dont really see this being useful. if possible can you give it something like 3 sec of another boon to go with it? or maybe it clears a condition?

Final Salvo should give the Gyros more hp or def.

Hammer is great i like it.

Gyros do not last long enough to be of any use, too low survive ability. they also tend to fly off and do their own thing they need to prioritize the scrapper more than allies. At the moment they just don’t feel worthwhile to use as they can be killed in 2-3 hits.

Function Gyro is broken at times, its revival time and stomp times are too low and while i was in WvW i could never get it to activate properly it refused to give me the option to have it revive or stomp.

thank you for the chance to test it, good work so far on a class i wasn’t excited for at first now i cant wait to use it…as soon as the gyros are fixed…

well looks like I’m back again for more punishment with the spec i like the least.

The Good:

-Some of the issues i’ve had with the bow’s targeting were fixed i can hit mobs and players at slight elevated heights. (I still cannot attack an enemy on stairs or higher inclines my guard refused to point the bow UP, are we incapable of moving our bodies in that direction?)

-The Damage with the auto attack feels decent.

-Skill #3 on the bow is definitely an improvement.

The Bad:
(based on my time in WvW)

-Traps have no use as i run support guard using shouts, they serve no utility and in a 1v1 fight with someone standing still for any amount of time gives my opponent a free shot and in 3 single fights they were able to walk away or past my traps.

-The range on Wings of resolve really needs to be 900 minimum. In fights having the ability to disengage in a fight or fall back to regroup is key in battle, without a good hop to use as an escape or as a “chase” skill makes things harder for us to be of any use to our party and even to ourselves.

- Bow #4 symbol of energy, i’ve been debating this one, its kind of in a place where its bad and acceptable… I dont think the Vigor is that necessary honestly id rather see it clear 1-2 conditions from anyone in the symbols impact radius as a way to help the group as well as deal fire damage. Since we cannot be in the front line to clear conditions as we used to it would be great to have a range condi clear on the bow to help our party out.

- Bulwark isn’t a good trait, please give it something else to make it better? in fact some of the traits still need to have some kind of synergy with current traits…

-True shot needs to not be a root skill, reduce the damage a bit and give us the ability to run while using it.

-If dragon hunter is to be a “control” spec then please give us some more “control” options? im still confused as to what this spec is supposed to be. we aren’t damage, we aren’t healing, and we are in no way support we have a little of everything and this is a very muddled class with no clear direction as to what we are.

All of that being said i just hope to see more changes done to dragon hunter to make me love my guardian even more, thank you for giving us another beta week!

with all my hours on the dragonhunter and temptest (probably the 2 most underwhelming elite specs) i’ve been trying to think mostly about the dragonhunter’s role in combat. every elite spec seems to fit control, support, and damage, i see that dragonhunter is being pushed into the control side of the spectrum. That’s not really a bad thing, ranged control can be powerful and great in the right build and in the right hands.

the bit thats confusing to me is some of the traps we’ve received are not that great at control (if that is this specializations true nature). we seem to not have great access to control conditions either. we have cripple and a “cage” but thats only 2 skills out of the 5 on the long bow, the others are damage, support and damaging support. the traps dont really benefit too much in the heat of combat since we will be spotted trying to set them into the ground.

I’m just very confused as to how this spec is supposed to come together and work, our most valued lines and traits have been merged or gutted, and most of our utilities are kind of… poorly optimized would be the nicest way to put it.

Overall the dragonhunter line is very self limiting since we are reliant in groups as the main condition removers, partial healers, and tanks. i was truly hoping that we would be able to break from the shout meta for guards which has plagued us for so long in most game modes. will this be another 3 years of my main class being reduced to playing shouts everywhere forever?

the only thing i’d like to see fixed at the very least is the trait line that gives us some synergy in condition removal or healing so that i have a reason to use a trap or the bow as opposed to staff/GS or Staff/hammer and shouts. if the traits were more in line with the way Virtues kinda handles them it would be nice. i just hope by release this is taken care of and we have something we can see as worthwhile for another play style.

so, im running into graphics problems that are making the events unplayable for me. heres a few screenshots.

i’m not really mad as i can force my way through the issues, but its just a mess to try and focus on events when my screen is flashing the effects of aegis, retaliation, and i have an engies flamethrower in my face.

I do like how big the map is, i feel that for high population servers it’ll offer great variety.

HOWEVER, there needs to be some kind of incentive for players to not just defend but to go on the offensive instead of just hugging a tower all night. I still think some kind of “mega-buff” spawning on the map at some point would be a great inclusion here.

other than that if the population can be increased i think it would benefit such a big map.

i haven’t seen any thread like this so mods please feel free to merge this thread with any other that happens to be same or similar.

i just wanted to make this thread to show off small things i have happened to come across while playing and a minor annoyance. the picture i provided is just a small thing nothing huge, and the bone minion things in the eternal necropolis happen to emit a kind of “face smashing on a piano” sound that is kind of an ear killer.

if anyone else notices small things that might need to be looked at, please feel free to post.

@ OP, i see where you are coming from but in the future please dont generalize “all” players. i like this map, sure its big and very open and spacious but its a nice change of pace for server boarder lands we need to have the actual map open to everyone before we hold a poll or judge.

my thoughts on the dragon hunter are simple, the casting times are really clunky, Puncture shot is very very glitchy, if my target is on a slight incline i cannot hit them even if i am right in their face it will say “obstructed” and the traps engage very slowly often times in pve this weekend mobs have walked out of dragons maw because it was too slow.

thats about all i can add really, other people have stated the issues far better than i ever could have.

I gave a few hours to tempest on friday, i specifically rushed home to get into the WvW queue to test this out and i used a few different builds i thought would work. to my sadness i found a few things that didn’t gel with me.

• the traits
  latent stamina, not really noticeable or effectual i like the extra dodges but if they worked while you were using an overload it would be better.

Unstable conduit is completely pointless since the overloads can be broken so easily

Tempestuous Aria, this trait is so bland that i hardly think it’ll see enough use. its bland like a rice cake that’s been sitting out for too long.

Earthen Proxy this is a minor trait pure and simple. i mean it doesn’t really do much compared to the “better trait in the majors” Harmonious conduit outshines these traits imho.

imbued melodies, ok… break stun and recharge warhorn skills faster, its boring but serviceable again bland rice cake.

Lucid Singularity, oh you haha, go away. if anyone is going to stop you while overloaded they will stop you because again overloads are easily broken and easily stopped it pins a giant neon “kill me!” sign on the player.

Elemental bastion, auras aren’t good they don’t give defense buffs with the exception of frost aura. they don’t offer any decent support, aside from the healing this trait is pointless.

my thoughts on the tempest line: why am i taking this line again? it doesn’t do anything special, I’m not helping anyone with it and it doesn’t keep me alive. ill just run base ele thanks.

• Warhorn

Heat sync is fine, Wildfire could stand to be faster.

tidal surge is good, Water globe, i kinda want to say it should cleanse burning maybe? is that too overpowered? it feels like it would be thematic in a way.

cyclone i have no issue with it, maybe it should block projectiles? it would seem cool maybe too overpowered. lightning orb the damage sucks i mean i don’t have anything else to say.

sand squall was this the skill that would have gotten the magnetic aura? that seems ok. dust storm is ok.

• The shouts

Wash the pain away, needs to clear conditions. if it does i might use it.

Feel the Burn, it works. i wont use it

Eye of the storm, why doesn’t this give an aura? cool down is meh. i wont ever use it.

After shock, its fine. cool down is too long, i wont use this.

Flash freeze, this is ok. might use it might not i don’t know.

Rebound, As it is this is a horrible elite. if it gets changed to what was posted i would love to use this since I’m horrible and i die so much it would also make the front line ele have much more use in group compositions.

overall, these shouts will not replace cantrips. mist form is our “oh crap!” button, lightning flash gives us the ability to re-position and escape, and armor of earth gives us that delicious stability and protection.

my advice if you want the shouts to be good, look at cantrips and make the shouts benefit the user in the same way. those skills do. Maybe have a shout that gives a little bit of self stability? (class needs more self stability I’m just sayin)

• Overloads
  they are too easily broken you are a fantastically pretty neon “KILL ME” sign

Look i don’t want to be mean here, i really don’t frankly i love the work Anet has done its a brilliant concept and i love the ideas behind them… however….

Overload fire: Being a damage and condition based skill. i find that having to turn yourself into the tornado puts the player into jeopardy as they are a big target… if possible make this a ground target skill and reduce the time it can be casted. For the Love of god please!

Overload water: this is ok being able to meditate in a water orb to follow your allies around is a great thing i would not change this except for adding a break bar to it.

Overload air: make this a ground targeted skill akin to my thoughts on overload fire, i believe it would benefit greatly.

Overload earth, i have to be honest i hate how this skill is presented, you immobilize and cripple your foes… let me get this strait. you ride a giant pillar of earth into your foes and you just cripple them and immobilize them… a giant pillar of earth… this should knock down your opponent how is it while riding something that looks like it weighs a good 500+ lbs and slam it into your foe doesn’t knock them down? is it made of dirt? does dirt immobilize? make it knock down for 5 seconds Earth attunement should be about control, one of the overloads needs to be about hard control.

in closing i find this class to be lackluster its a beautiful concept, but this isn’t the place where it should be… its not fun, its frustrating its like looking at a beautiful painting of an ocean and then someone draws a beached whale on it. i feel bad for the whale but what i can still see of the ocean is nice…

“druids better be something special”?

how about play a legitimate class? ;D (joke)

they had to leave 2 classes to the very end, why not the class that hasnt had love in forever that most people shun in most game modes and the class that is one of the least played because it isnt a normal class? be happy you can still be excited about your favorite class, im still on the fence about dragon hunter and tempest.

I believe the OP isn’t comprehending that multiple times Anet devs had said “hardcore group content will be coming with HOT” Raids, their FIRST RAID, is being released with HOT if people cannot accept that then thats too bad. Core has been out for 3 years now, and will likely not get very much “new hardcore content” added because they have just released an expansion.

To the OP, dont play devils advocate, its not a game that benefits anyone.

Josh Davis.6015:

“Thanks, Grouch. You’re the worst!”

Edit: Also, just because this is an elementalist thread doesn’t mean we’re only looking at elementalist, and it also doesn’t mean we’re only looking at doing nerfs.

some of us dont hate you, i think youre great and you do a good job, regardless of what anyone else says.

i just think the “ele situation” is a little complicated and it has garnered a lot of hate, Cele Ele is strong and the elementalists in their respective forum has agreed on it being OP, i hate to beat a dead horse but Tempest is making a lot of us frustrated. regardless im glad a new list of “balances” will be out soon.

@ Leo G

i was not directing my comment at you in any way, i honestly liked your ideas and i really like outside the box ideas. i in no way meant you any disrespect.

i like the outfit, i wish it was armor but still i think it looks nice.

guys, i dont like to stomp on peoples suggestions, especially since there have been so many great ones id love to see implemented at some point on the ele in the future. we have so few days left until launch, we believe that this class needs all new mechanics, i dont believe thats going to happen.

the thing is i dont in my right mind believe there is enough time for the devs to re-create the entire spec or design a new mechanic. i think we should focus on what we have and offer some ideas the devs can use with all of the in-game assets we have available now.

i think the idea of support is good for whats coming in the future, id like to believe that we can use the overloads if they were fixed and acted like existing skills we have now.

I WILL SAY THAT OUR ELITE NEEDS TO BE FULLY REWORKED TO GIVE US SOMETHING USABLE AND NOT COMPLETE GARBAGE.

let us take a moment to reflect on what good support can be, let us think of what we could do and become. we can still be a grab bag of greatness, along side DPS and control, we do need mobility, we need power, and we need support. we dont need more aura sharing because it is kinda crappy (if not very crappy).

so how about we brainstorm on what we were given and find a way to help the devs take the design they have now as a template, and work with them to adjust what they have now and turn it into something special. Bigger numbers are not the answer, but a more refined concept is.

i cant be 100% sure, but i believe when they were speaking about the greatsword primal burst they mentioned that cleansing ire will only proc and cleanse 1 condition, id have to watch it again, but like i said not 100% sure.

I believe most players have overlooked one very important use of Wild Blow on the new Berserker Elite Spec…..

ASURA BOWLING!

Think about it, line up 5 asura in a triangle formation in PVP and try to score a Strike. This needs to be a game mode, Anet obviously has the tech to make this a thing!

Malchior.5732:

Zxavier Augistine.7312:

i still think the earth overload should be a pulsing knockdown or some kind of CC instead of the cripple + bleed that we have now, and the water overload should burst heal at the end.

The Earth Overload doesn’t even Bleed…that being said, I agree it should be stronger, but a pulsing Knockdown could end up as a more spammable Engi Slick Shoes and well, no one wants that.

im sorry, i meant imoba and cripple, i dont know why i said bleed. Also the duration of the skill is 5 sec if it pulses knock downs once per second i dont think its that OP, but if people agree that it is ill gladly retract my idea. :P

i still think the earth overload should be a pulsing knockdown or some kind of CC instead of the cripple + bleed that we have now, and the water overload should burst heal at the end.

the dragon hunter isnt terrible, my main problem with all of the elite specs is that we have to use the trait line to use the new weapons…

overall i feel that it really hurts builds id love to use zeal, honor, valor or zeal honor, virtues with the LB but i cant. the virtues themselves were ok aside from the glitches i had where a mordrem sniper hit through my F3 while i had it active. and the F2 not being responsive. the biggest issue i had was the traits not being great. i had trouble really noticing anything good or exciting to use with the DH line. LB #3 doesnt feel that great to me and the 4th skill could have been a bit stronger. the 5th skill worked ok but we need a way to reduce the cool down on these skills.

i really hope however that the traps have some work done to them, to make them worth taking over meditations and shouts there is no reason to take traps when these 2 skill types are so strong. :/

Adrian Guardian.9480:

Don’t equate tempest=warhorn. Overloads are what bring something new (having a reason to stay in an attunement for ~8s), and they’ve just number problems.

the problem is, we have been trained for a long time to flip through attunements like the pages of a book. theres a tool for every situation and yes staying in an attunement long enough to get a powerful skill is a positive, however in a high speed skill based class why stick to an element when it will mess up your rotation? even if staying in an attunement is their idea of a “side-grade” there arent enough benefits in using them. they dont change the battle they dont do well enough to be skills we want to use.

On top of that we have to take a trait line to use them, and we basically are stuck using 2 lines that are mandatory to be effective, water and arcane, respectively, which limits our overall build diversity. I want to branch out from being in water and arcane but they have the best traits and we have used them for 3 years with little to no change. what makes the tempest line something we MUST use? from what i played i would not pick that line because water does things better, and arcane makes the tempest line look like a gimmick.

I’m in a place where i agree with the OP about tempest not being a numbers issue, however at the same time i dont want to say its a concept issue either.

From my point of view on the elite specs i see them as a “side-grade” a step sideways as to what the classes can become. the problem i have with the elementalist is that most if not all of what tempest brings to the game is very “bland” i would say is the correct phrase?

The warhorn skills do not do enough for what they are and no chance to reduce the cool down on them their effects dont give me as a player anything that i want to rush out into using and the overloads while visually nice to look at, they dont do enough for what they are. yes the argument can be made that they don’t follow what the play style of the ele is flipping through elements based on the need at the time. i can even agree that the aura sharing and boon sharing idea can be done better by d/d ele.

the problem is i dont think they need to go back to the drawing board on the tempest and i dont think they should give us the sword and call it a day its not a fix its more of a band aid on a wound. i believe that the warhorn skills should be more like point blank AoE skills that give some more damage or control to the class, or give them utility that rivals the Cantrips that most if not all people use and free up slots for more build diversity.

i think the team is in a rough spot with ele since it can do everything, but its not supposed to be dominate at everything because it makes it too powerful and invalidates other classes. the Tempest should have been the last class to be revealed and had more work done on it rather than have it shown off to us in the state that it is currently in simply because they need time to come up with a concept that the ele can slide into that would be its logical side-grade.

from what i played of the elementalist i found tempest to be… depressing. i have no use for this elite spec the warhorn skills don’t do enough to justify its use.

Fire 4 doesn’t do enough for me in fights i forget it even exists at times just like water 4 air 4 and earth 4 these skills as a whole are “ok” just they are very ineffectual to me as a player and they don’t offer any interesting combat elements. fire 5 is too long of a cool down but is ok on its own.

water 5 doesn’t heal enough and should be slowed down so i can actually blast it for heals.

Lightning Orb oh sweet baby Jesus this skill is so buggy on an incline. multiple times on stairs i have gotten an invalid path error why can this skill not travel up an incline? can this ever be fixed if i can climb stairs why can’t an elemental ball of lightning not just reverse slinky its way up them this also needs to do more damage its much too weak.

Earth 5 again its “ok” i have nothing good or bad to say about it its a skill ill probably not use if i ever decide to use the warhorn.

the over load skills as they stand need some work. Fire is good i can use fire no problem there should be an indicator on the skill that lets us double tap it to leave the tornado where you stand on the tool tip. water overload NEEDS TO HEAL MORE this is absolutely trash as it is (imho) as an overload it should give you a distinct reward for losing access to the attunement at least when the skill ends it should burst heal for a large amount. 2k~2.5k at the least. Air needs more damage as it is its respectable. Earth has got to be a pulsing knock down and not a cripple or some crappy condition skill please make this a 1 sec knock back.

Traits need work we need to have some kind of damage modifier like 2%~5% damage for each aura you have applied to yourself and allies. the current traits dont make me want to take the Tempest line over the current lines we have. i dont want to say every elementalist but a good amount of them use 2 major lines Water and Arcane and have only used them from the first year of the game until now since these lines offer defensive options and sustaining options and damaging options without having to branch out into too many other lines.

The shouts are “ok” they wont replace Cantrips in the slightest. wash the pain away isn’t anything i would use over our signet heal, or Ether renewal. the elite shout is a complete waste of my time this elite falls into the unfortunate pile of things i will NEVER use. i long for a day when elementalists have an elite skill that doesn’t make me wish for another utility skill on my bar.

that’s my two cents on the elementalist. overall id say pass on everything this elite spec, it doesn’t give the elementalist enough that would make you take the tempest over other better trait lines. i hope that there is a dev reading our posts otherwise if this ships as is i fear we’ll have to wait for a feature pack in HoT to bring this spec up to par with everything else i have seen so far.

im kind of bored with this beta with the event chains being bugged and progress halted its hard to give constructive feedback. that being said the little i have played is very engaging.

the ai of the mobs is finally at a point where its fun, i like the idea that mobs are dangerous they can kill us and will if we screw around and toy with them, i just wish some mobs had a higher aggro radius and had some sort of limitation on them so you dont get overwhelmed. all of the mobs aside from the boars are in a good place at the moment i wouldn’t make them easier or nerf them in the slightest.

there are some events that over stay their welcome in small groups defeating the large vines takes way too long, defending the upper terrace with the rifles while npc’s plant explosives was good, but it doesnt need to take any longer than 5-10min its a very long and drawn out event and i get so bored half way though asking people “is this done yet?”

overall from what i’ve gotten to play and experienced i like this it would be great if i could play more of the events to their full extent instead of being blocked by a progress halting glitch,but for now this was an ok weekend i am happy i had access to it.

I’m not normally a necromancer main, i have one i like him and hes fun when i want to play him.

that being said wow, the reaper is so slow i get the great sword having to be a heavy weighty option for the class, but holy crap i could run to the fridge grab a soda and come back to my pc and my auto attack still would not be done casting. if it could be sped up just a bit id be fine. i came into playing reaper thinking it’ll be like holding a hammer on a guardian but its as if the reaper took a look at a hammer guard and thought “woah slow down speed racer!” and decided to take his time to pantomime his attacks before doing them then stopping to reflect on what he just did with a very long after cast.

the chill traits are very inconsequential and i have no reason to use them, and i think the healing shout is so underpowered that i might as well just keep consume conditions. “Rise” needs to be re-worked because i have no reason to use minions and its a wasted utility absolutely not worth my time. “chilled to the bone” this i like this i can keep, might need some work on the cast time but ill take it at this point.

Reaper shroud i love this please give me this now, its great.

cheers~

I’m on the fence about dragon hunter, on one hand I like the long bow despite how slow it is, but some of the traits are really poor, i dont see any reason to use the dragon hunter line over Virtues. i find that its a solid start to what the class can branch off to but with being limited to having to choose the dragon hunter to use the long bow is very limiting.

i think it would be good if we could use all the elite spec’s weapons regardless of picking the specific trait line it would open up so many possibilities for builds. As it stands i dont see myself choosing to use the line just to use the bow. id stick with all of the other weapons i have at my disposal.

i find sword 3 to be really underpowered, i think the damage may need to be increased a bit, other than that i find that the class really lacks mobility skills such as leaps and some defensive options would be nice. other than that its a decent class. thats just my opinion though.

enough to scrooge mcduck myself in all the gems i bought.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Have you tried actually using healing signet for the resistance at all?
2. Have you found any builds that are extremely distinct in playstyle from builds before the patch?
3. Have you been able to have any success with shoutbow since the patch? It’s seemed like it has been having trouble with all the burst specs going around.

1. from the time i’ve had so far in playing my warrior, i still like the passive of the healing signet but i dont feel like the active is worth it at the moment i mean its cool if im running head first into a mass of enemies or necros but i dont really think its that useful.

2. not a single build i have tried makes me feel like hes fun now. the class feels stale and for the life of me condition warrior is so boring i kinda stop caring about the class after a while and wish i was on another class.

3. Shoutbow is boring and not something i would ever pick up since there is no skill needed to play it. i kind of find it insulting that people only ever equate warriors with shoutbow instead of the damage kings they should be, if i see a warrior i want to feel threatened not bored to tears as i burn one down with my engineer or guardian in WvW.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Are you using the new elites at all? I’ve heard from a few guardians that they’re having trouble dropping Renewed Focus for the new ones because RF is just that good.
2. Any new builds besides bunker and power medi? Anyone make a spirit weapon build that’s actually good? I am well aware of your lovely burn build >_<.
3. Has anyone made a good symbols build?
4. Overall, are you happy with the build diversity that guardians have right now?

1. The symbol doesn’t feel all that useful in WvW id be nice if the heal pulse was shorter but meh in PvE its ok i suppose, the shout is decent but still living in RF’s shadow.

2. Spirit weapons are bad and have been for a while a guild member of mine made a viable build…about a year ago… as of today id encourage new players to avoid them like the plague.

3. symbols…build…? aside from finding a worthwhile build in wvw i haven’t bother touching zeal yet so, maybe in the future ill work on one if i feel the need.

4. id make a sarcastic comment here but i’ll avoid it for some real talk. As i’ve said repeatedly the honor line is BAD BAD BAD the adepts and the masters need some work, especially the adepts. Mace which i dont use in WvW (because i dont want people to laugh at me) is only good (i think) in PvP and MAYBE PvE, revival trait which i’ve tried using most of thursday night is bad, and again my arch nemesis at this point is HORRIBLE about as useful as a punch to the face (kinda feel like “i hate falling damage traits” should be my slogan at this point)

zeal looks interesting, radiance looks ok, valor its serviceable, and virtues is good. like i said though the one line that every WvW guard runs since the beginning of the game the shining star of guardian and the source of all its support, Honor, is in a bad place and i feel like no matter what i try and build it will never sit well with me because of the crappy options i have for my adepts and masters.

all in all, as a Guardian i feel very lost in what my place is since i cant disengage and escape my enemies as easily as other classes, which is fine i suppose… but not being able to be the corner stone of my party / group with my support i feel like im being forced into a heavy DPS role in using mediguard in every game mode now.

if i cant be an iron wall that people can depend on why do i have to be a glass cannon?

the adept traits in Honor need to be moved around this line is becoming stagnant and offers nothing to players but shout support the master and grandmasters have 2 maybe 3 traits that are useful but the res of the line is trash and thats a kitten shame to the most necessary line in all WvW builds since the launch of the game.

i mean its nice to see Zeal being put in a good place but did Honor need to suffer and be pushed into obscurity so soon? how are we supposed to support our party with such lackluster traits as these, in every thread i post in i hope people agree with me about these changes. :/

mace is boring and only belongs in certain builds made for PvP, in PvE they arent great when compared to sword which is high burst, GS which is good healing and damage, and staff which can tag and give might and support.

i have said this so many times that i feel like im turning blue from the rage i feel twords this trait, but, the falling damage trait NEEDS TO BE MOVED SOMEWHERE ELSE this trait is NOT TEAM SUPPORT in the TEAM SUPPORT line. get rid of it, give it a secondary effect that makes it worth using. THIS TRAIT DOES NOT BELONG HERE.

falling damage is not a prevalent thing in WvW nor in PvP, only in PvE does it matter and even then its a crappy trait. if i take Honor on tuesday i will not select any adept trait because theyre crap, give us something worthwhile!

i am still completely mad they they didnt fix the honor line, but i love the changes to the tomes. i still feel that honor has gone from essential to oh look now your group play line is crap, have fun. i also still hate the fall damage trait its pointless for that trait to be in honor and it needs to be destroyed.

i still think 10% is a much more viable option for an adept, i mean if they dont want to give guardians benevolence its really a small pat on the back for guards to have something like that as an adept.

i still like the idea of the changes to a shout and a signet, the tomes felt a little too clunky to me like most “transformations” it would be sad to see them leave since they have such a rich history with the player base, and considering i ran tome of wrath for a good year before i started using renewed focus mainly since launch, i will miss it, but times change and i think RF needs to have some competition. at this point though id love to see some change to one of my main classes. that and i dont think spirit weapons are good…. even with buffs…

i don’t really think it’ll be all that strong, it might put us on par with a healing revenant and would combo well with the backline roll they want to put us in with the DH. i mean 5-7% isnt all that strong 10-15%, maybe. still for a minor i think 10% is a good ballpark to aim for, its a nice rounded number imho.

Mikau.6920:

They need to put another effect on Protector’s Impact. And all falling traits that doesn’t have a secondary effect. This applies to Elementalist, Mesmer, Ranger, Warrior and Engineer.

Thief and Necro already have secondary effects. In this way won’t be a wasted slot.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Why not just get rid of it and create a truly useful trait.

For instance

“Protectors Compassion” X% of all healing received is shared with nearby allies. (400 unit range)

Could be 5-7% since its an adept. Or they could put it in a master slot and bump empowering might down a row.

Or they could just tie elusive power into it like jax says.

They could add this effect in the Protector’s Impact. 5% is really very little. But would make this trait very interesting. But in a 240 radius, so they can’t say that is too powerful.

I also second this, even though i hate all the falling damage traits…

i like both of the ideas Ragnar and Jaxom posted. they sound like they fit right at home with the line. im not sure if the devs are reading this thread but they should put some serious consideration into these changes before the release of the trait changes.

I agree that its strong but i feel that it should have an ICD of some kind to act as a limiter or use the same mechanic that the reaper has where the ability can only proc 2 or 3 times in 10 seconds. To answer your other question i think a way to further limit it would be to make it affect boons you apply to yourself if the ICD idea doesn’t work.

Slayer i was reading your comment at work and i took most of my day thinking about how best to respond, you can probably tell i was very productive, and i can say that swiftness and vigor on crits is much too insane i mean no way should we have access to that.

I was thinking what if we take my most hated trait and we add a secondary effect to it? fall damage is reduced AND if we are hit below a health threshold we and up to 5 people around us gain a light aura for 3 seconds? Or if that is too much, how about falling damage reduction and when below a certain HP you gain 1 random boon?

Really i want there to be more diversity in our builds, and i dont think ALL of Honor is bad i just think that the traits need to have more Oomph something that makes you think and kill yourself to choose between 2 traits to use. already if these traits ship today and i had to run a shout build in WvW, id have to take falling damage reduction, staff mastery, shouts. if i ran another build that follows our “current day” meta in WvW, its shouts using the same set up. Honor is the shout line to many people and it shouldnt have to be that way. it should have more accesses to support than just shouts. what if it used other means to support your party?

off the top of my head what if there was a trait that shared the boons you have active, but only a limited amount of that boon. So you run meditations and you gain might from a meditation let’s say 3 stacks of might you have a trait that copies 1 might and gives it to an ally? I know guards do that now, to some extent, but how about a trait that amplifies that effect?

(also sorry for my constant long posts)

SlayerSixx.5763:

I’ll agree that the adept Honor traits are pretty slim in terms of the pickings and need to be looked at but non-mace users can pick protective reviver which, on its own without any valor/DH trait synergy, is already amazing in terms of support.

my dude i agree with what you’re saying but let me just give you a hypothetical situation with all respect.

you’re in SW trying to do the lanes, would you really use mace? probably, more than likely not so you really wouldn’t need the mace trait. would you stop to revive someone who is fully down at one of the champions and risk failing the event? I mean honestly i would revive them because im a good person but lets say they need 5% more before the boss is dead would you risk losing the boss reviving or would you attack the crap out of the champion? finally… where are you falling from in the final champion assault…?

do you see how only 1 of those 3 traits is even remotely useful? and even then if you are running the Honor line for the shouts the staff buff to support. do you see how the mace trait isnt a good choice in this situation? do you see how falling damage reduction would help you? every other trait line has a trait that helps you in every situation… Honors adepts don’t, they’re all situational. if someone doesn’t die around you in a dungeon (i know its very very rare but im trying to prove a point) how does revival help you in combat? how does reduced falling damage help?

the point im trying to make is Honor needs to be looked at and 1 of those 3 traits needs to be merged or moved in favor of bringing in something that works for any situation. Balancing around the PvP side is fine but like i said before some of these traits just don’t work and aren’t even remotely worth most peoples time (specifically the fall damage trait which i hate seeing in an adept line, im sorry but i think that trait should burn and rot).

Bottom line Honor needs to be looked into and things need to be moved around to make the adept and master lines aren’t great and if these changes shipped tomorrow i dont think Honor would be used, if it was it would be reluctantly and only because shouts are the meta. anyway that’s my two cents.

i dont really think protective reviver is bad, but look at the adepts. you have a buff to mace for healing power to yourself, you have the ability to revive an ally and give boons (group support) and then you have falling damage reduction… how does this help anyone? the mace trait is only a personal buff, reviver is more for group help, but the final choice helps no one but yourself (some times, in rare cases).

like i said in my post, in WvW how do these adepts help anyone including yourself? the mace in WvW zergs is not used reviving is pointless since if you stay in one spot for too long you’ll die, and falling off cliffs is suicide or a short cut and you’re out of combat most of the time and you heal back to full in seconds. the Adept line in one of the most crucial build lines for WvW has been made bad.

in Pvp ill concede the PR (protective reviver) is good and maybe the mace trait, but you never fall from a great height in pvp maps. i think the falling damage trait should be merged or moved to a different line so that honor has a mix of traits that benefit all modes. Hardly any one uses it for 100% of ALL game modes.

i appreciate what the devs are doing to open up more builds but in this case theyre giving us the choice between two “ok” traits and filler.

thoughts?