Guild Wars 2

God yes please. Give me something that doesn’t cover up the butt and shows more exposed torso skin especially in the back. And just sleeker overall. I love the Sunspear outfit but it had design inspiration from GW1. I hate the data mined armors because they are just so busy and bulky. I miss the town clothes simpler styles. Hey, just give me Faren’s speedo or loin cloth outfits for Halloween or Valentine’s Day…

Just a casual, open world PVEer who mains Guardian and Revenant. I dabbled with the rest and definitely enjoyed Holosmith and Deadeye of what little I played them.

Firebrand:

Beautiful animation. I like the new, more complex feel of the spec, since Guardian/Dragonhunter are pretty straightforward. Love that we’re getting a worthwhile condi spec. Wished we could change the name to Loremaster.

Biggest issue was with the small cone size on the skills (making support much less useful) and the tome cast time/cooldown (making it too unreactive and clunky) . Non-Firebrand Virtue traits were buggy with Tomes and need to be looked at. I didn’t like having to wait for one mantra to charge before charging the next one when I’m setting them up for the beginning of a battle.

Renegade:

Ugh. Let’s get started:
1) Shortbow: Damage is pretty weak. It needs to either hit harder or have some utility added to it. Also, cooldowns are a bit too long. Wish it synergized a little more with Mallyx traits. I may take it, just because it’s the only other range option for Hammer. But it’s not super fun to play.
2) Utilities: The energy usage is insane on these skills. One utility and a couple weapon skills and I have to swap legends to not just stay on auto-attack. Animation is OK, wish it was more varied. Icerazor’s Ire should have chill. Hate that it is hittable, CCable. Bugged out on spawning in WVW several times. Also wish it had better range. Maybe thinking of not even using it. (Also, could we please get some other legends for underwater!)
3) F1-3 Skills: Could barely use these since I kept running out of energy with the Utilities. (Energy is a huge design issue still with the Revenant as other have stated. It works well with Herald but with other legends, not so much. Especially with other weapon skills also using energy.)

I am so grateful that they added more mastery points with only using up one for this release. Please, keep it up.

Yes, the QOL improvements are outstanding with lots of neat stuff. I’m glad they did this to get certain things back “on track”. I also appreciate the free stuff we got (shared account and level 80 booster).

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one that thought of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man when I saw this on the human males. I tried on my Norn female, and it looked gorgeous. Seriously, if the same design was used for the male version (my main) as was used for the human female, it would have been an instant buy. Please, please, please, stop making the male versions so bulky.

I wish they would just get rid of mastery points altogether. I’m pretty much stuck on progressing because of these stupid things, and it’s not like the XP grind isn’t bad enough but it’s doable.

Gliding: Awesome
Lunar New Year: Fun. Keep the festivals coming.
Major Balance Update: Terrible*

• The biggest issue is one of communication. During the betas, there used to be a sea of red in the forums during HOT beta with DEV engagement with class issues, and that is completely and utterly gone.

Let’s take Revenant for instance. This balance patch was a sea of nerfs and nothing else. There were no bug fixes for skills/traits that have issues. Ventari and Jalis are considered to be poor legends, but there were no updates to them. Heck, three of our legends, including the Elite, don’t work under water!

There’s the presumption that, since this is the “big” balance update, that if there were no updates that then everything that remains untouched is fine. And the playerbase doesn’t think it’s fine and are trying desperately to reach out to the developers, and there has been no engagement whatsoever.

Really disappointed that there were no changes to Ventari or Jallis.

OK. I tried to start over by playing chapter 13 and then going back to 14. Now, it’s saying I need Poison Mastery again for 14.

1) Sign Cutting Stuck

I have a checkmark by Find Rox’s markers and it won’t progress. Tried zoning in and out to Lion’s Arch and nothing happened. Quit and continued again and nothing happened.

2) Lots of crashes lately.

It’s still giving me the “do this mastery” note when doing all the things listed here.

That’s good. Happy to see this.

Story is awesome. Love, love, love my glider; miss it in Central Tyria. The open world is pretty good, lots of good ambiance and scenery. The XP grind to get masteries is OK from a Zelda perspective of working to open up the world with one very noticable exception.

The big problem is the elite specialization grind. I started out with a Revenant because I fell in love with the Herald. I gave up after roadblock after roadblock. Went to my Guardian main and had more fun with Dragonhunter being more of a sidequest thing.

If I take out elite specilization grind, then I’m about 8/10.

Is there supposed to be notification icon when you’re able to train? There’s been some instances where I’ve lost out on XP since I didn’t notice it was “full” yet.

Since I only have the hero points to play this elite spec, I tried it out on the “live” environment and here’s my feedback.

Yet again, root #2 of the longbow has got to go. Like skill #1, 3 (my favorite), and 4. Skill#5 is meh by itself, but works well with virtues #3; something still feels off.

Virtue #2 and #3 were good (with the latter being too long cooldown). Virtue #1 didn’t have much impact.

Didn’t play traps/have enough points to really say much about the skills/other traits.

Yes, this system is very flawed. It’s not alt friendly whatsoever, it makes me want to chug through/resent doing the new content (which should be the highlight of the experience), and then it feels like a waste of time because what else is there to do afterwards. It’s lovely to be like “Oh, I found one… nah it’s gated… oh wait found another one… gated again…”

For some classes, I’m at the point of “oh, just forget it” because it isn’t even worth it.

Traps and virtues are better. Traits still need some work (and again, please add a movement speed trait given the range/melee hybrid nature of Dragonhunter).

As a Guardian main, Druid felt more familiar territory for me. I enjoyed the Glyphs, and there were some good traits in the more healing centric role. Celestial was nice as a light version of Necro’s shroud, but the staff felt like “oh, geez, how much healing do you really need in this spec?” You heal, you heal, and you more heal. So, it feels very niche. I could see using the spec without the staff in a more “Guardian-ish” role while still doing some DPS. But if you’re not into the healer role, than I would probably be very frustrated right now.

Traits are amazing and have good synergy with other builds.

I like the skills of the hammer (and animation) but could use a little more “oomph”.

Gyros: Cannon fodder, aka Spirit Weapons 2.0. Needs more health or something to make them more reliable. Would rather just go back to kits.

Love it. Having loads of fun.

Two really minor things:
1) Can the footfall for Herald be toned down a bit?
2) The animation seems a little intense on my computer for the Herald elite.

Longbow: #2 still shouldn’t be rooted. #5: Barrier animation should be first; feels off.

Virtues: Actives are interesting, but not worth removing passives. Should maintain passives during active use or cut cool downs even more.

Traits: Ranges from meh to a mess. No build defining traits. The majors and even grandmasters feel like minors. Missing something “build defining” (like a movement speed trait).

Traps: Even worse. The only one I liked was Procession of Blades, but moving back and forth was painfully slow between the Longbow without swiftness or movement speed as a pure “Dragonhunter”. Again, should be ground targeted and/or provide mobility to the class. I feel like these will go with “signets” and “spirit weapons” as trash utilities on a Guardian.

Overall: I played as a Herald first, and that felt more like what an Elite specialization for a Guardian should be than Dragonhunter. Trap utilities as designed are huge misstep, and none of the traits are really exciting. With Virtues not being new and different enough for me, the only reason to play Dragonhunter is really the longbow, but I found myself wanting to just go back to my current build in order to get things done in the new areas.

To recap for changes requested:
1) Add a 25% movement speed trait
2) Keep the passives up when activating virtues or cut the cooldowns in half.
3) Make traps ground targetable.
4) Unroot #2 longbow

I wish that could be disabled too.

I have my tomes and most of my gear (can’t decide on the runes I want to use), but I’m still not sure if I want to have my Rev. be an altered version of my main (Guardian) or a brand new character. I guess I’ll make him a human regardless.

Repeating myself, but have a trait that grants movement speed and make traps ground targetable. Otherwise, meh on both the traits and traps in general.

Oh, god, yes, please!

Feedback: Revenant, especially with the Herald specialization, is super fun and will probably be my next main. Good job!

Here’s what I would want to salvage the specialization:

1) Traps are ground targeted and treated as symbols.
2) Boring traits are combined and better traits (such as a 25% movement one) are added.
3) Longbow is faster, doesn’t root, and does more damage.
4) New Virtues are instacast with lower cooldown.

I completely agree. If they’re going to make a bland copy of another profession as the Guardian specialization, couldn’t they have done a DD Ele instead of a trapper ranger? It’s just not fun.

The more I play other specializations, the more lackluster the Dragonhunter seems.

The virtue changes are nowhere near as fun and different than the shroud changes on Reaper. They are just there.

The traits themselves are lackluster, with little synergy with the other traitlines on a Guardian and nothing “build defining” that makes it a “must have” vs. other traitlines.

Traps are just OK and have no synergy with the new weaponset. They seem added on to make the Dragonhunter a wannabe Ranger (seriously, is a trapper ranger setting the game on fire?).

The longbow itself is just another ranged option, but it doesn’t stand out that a scepter/torch couldn’t be used to get the job done in a similar fashion.

I’ve been playing Herald and have had a lot of fun. Their shield seems to be what Guardian’s have been begging for since launch, and the Herald Specialization just feels fun as a Guardian main.

I probably have enough points to unlock the Dragonhunter, but I doubt I’ll actually use it. It just feels poorly designed overall, and I doubt there will be many changes to it that will really change it by the October launch.

I guess the “punchline” is that number tweaks aren’t going to make that much difference with the big problem being the overall design of the specialization itself.

It is awesome. Love, love, love the shrouds. Shouts are a good alternative skills. My main issue is the lifeforce generation on the greatsword; if that was more on par with dagger, the specialization would be a slam dunk.

I stopped playing when I just couldn’t deal with all the clunky movements.

I don’t like the UI with the button being hidden behind the other button.

I’ve been playing the Herald this weekend, and I’m really enjoying it. I main a Guardian, so it feels like this is what their elite specialization should have been. I’m playing with Glint/Jalis, and hammer/sword/shield.

I like the shield skills, but #5 “feels” a little clunky for some reason. I enjoy the boon sharing bonanza of the facets, but I’m not really using the consume feature because they are all condition based. I don’t think they synergize well with the passive effects.

I really don’t like the cartoony animation at the feet when using the different facets; I’d rather they just got rid of it altogether.

Other than that, feels good.

Aorin.9168:

Movement speed, Karl. Movement speed.

This.

Good longbow changes.

For trap synergy with longbow, if you’re not going to make them ground targetable, then I’d suggest adding a mobility option in the traits. I think the knockback and cripple traits could be bundled together in the grandmaster, and then add the 25%movement speed option somewhere.

I’m really disappointed in these changes. The traps still do not synergize well with the longbow. The virtues don’t feel “new and improved”. The traits, especially 2/3 of the grandmasters, still feel like they are on the drawing board. There’s issues with targetting/rooting on the longbow.

I enjoyed trying out different things on my Guardian (my main), as well as playing a Revenant. I briefly played a Chronomancer and had fun, even though I’ve never been good with Mesmers. I like how the whole specialization system can breathe new life into a class. It was fun to play around with different builds without having to pay for gear/runes and stuff.

I love gliding and jumping mushrooms. Both feel cool and the mechanic is very Zelda-ish. I can’t wait to see what iterations of skins the gliders will have on the gem store; I’m hoping for something Superman-ish.

The part of the Maguuma jungle we’ve seen is BEAUTIFUL, and I really like the Frogy village.

I like the story, especially with the whole “can we trust” Sylvari options that it looks like we have a choice on; I hope the “branches” of the events really have an impact. I also love that the Sylvari characters can hear Mordremoth.

I like the Mastery system, since it feels like I’m aiming for something real and a bit different. I also like the map rewards feature to aim for goals for whatever you’re crafting.

There’s nothing in the direction that really I don’t like; it’s mainly just minor stuff. So, it gives me hope for the future when HOT is finally released.

I felt like I had to change my builds to add more toughness/vitality with these new mobs. Which isn’t a bad thing necessarily. Some of the fights were endless, but I don’t know if that was the real mechanic (like bombing the wall event) or just the bugs where it doesn’t work. There’s a lot of this boss is unvunerable unless you kill whatever that is not very clear at all.

When there are creatures that give no damage when X happens, they should say so on the tooltips to explain the big “0” on the screen.

Playing with it some more:
1) Traps should be ground targetable, because it doesn’t synergize well with the longbow if it doesn’t.
2) Virtues need a cooldown reduction.
3) Traits are lackluster.
4) Longbow needs one less skill that makes you rootable.

I felt like I had to change my gear in the Maguuma jungle to my soldier gear instead of Berserker because of the enemies.

The AI is a little awkward. It’s a little unclear how you spend the points but then have to “charge” it with experience.

Dragonhunter is a different range choice, but other than that, it’s just there. I don’t like how the longbow roots you, and the skills themselves are a little meh. The spear of Justice was fun, but the virtues overall have too long of cooldown for this more active play. Traps were different, but I pretty much gave it a shot and went back to my old build.

The shroud is fun, but the shouts and greatsword are terrible. Everything is far too weak for too long of cast-time.

I’m really excited about these changes. They are some great options, since I never liked using Tomes.

I liked it. I got my Necro alt from 30 to 80 playing/crafting.

I’m really hoping for a “magical” longbow.