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What is the best designed PoF elite spec?


Ovark.2514

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I think weaver dual attunement and spellbreaker adrenaline are good designs for pvp. Weaver dual attunement gives players more flexibility, but it introduces a different way of getting attunement locked which adds a higher skill ceiling to the class. The spellbreaker adrenaline system makes combat faster paced but in a good way. It allows for better control over your adrenaline, and much more active and interesting fights.

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I'm not sure, why you posted it in PvP, but I'd say Firebrand is the best designed PoF specialization, but just due to an elimination process:Renegade uses Shortbow with weird angled shots That while looking flashy, aren't not really effective. It's designed for condi, yet most Renegade I meet play it as a power spec. or as boon support. Also, its skills are technically wells, but killable.Spellbreaker feels like a weird melee magic knight, rather than a Warrior. Paint it purple and slap it on Mesmer: suddenly it feels fitting to its profession.Soulbeast, like Renegade, got a weapon that feels like it should belong to a condi specialization, yet it's being played as a power spec. Also, you can pop some unbalanced pets like Rock Gazelle and Smokescreenscale and after that suck them in for better stats and there merge skills. In my opinion, pets should be permanently merged with that spec.Deadeye is a Sniper with insane access to stealth and other runaway tools (some of which ignore LOS). You can't get more [self-censored] than that.YHolosmith doesn't feel like Engineer at all. It feel like an completely different profession stuck onto Engineer. It feels more like it's supposed to trick people, who don't like Engineer, into playing the profession.Mirage is simply [self-censored]. It's designed to be regurgitating conditions and CC 'en masse' while evading everything.Scourge, while technically having an interesting concept, simply doesn't feel good. In a previous iteration, it's condition output via the shades was way too much, and the current iteration it feels more like a barrier generator than anything.Weaver is just another example of Shoving Elementalist, the profession with the least HP and defense, into melee range, arguably the most dangerous range. This doesn't go well: Either it has too many evades that people complain about not being able to hurt it; or people complain that's dying too fast (if Arenanet ever too away the evades.Firebrand, depending on your build, might overperform in healing and boon generation, but it's theme fits more to the profession than any other PoF specialization. It's main condition still is Burning, the tomes and Mantras reflect the 'Holy' aspect of the profession. I was happy to the tomes (albeit they are different) returning, as they are something that has been taken away from Guardians before. I don't like the axe though, I'd have preferred a right-hand Torch instead.

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@Fueki.4753 said:I'm not sure, why you posted it in PvP, but I'd say Firebrand is the best designed PoF specialization, but just due to an elimination process:Renegade uses Shortbow with weird angled shots That while looking flashy, aren't not really effective. It's designed for condi, yet most Renegade I meet play it as a power spec. or as boon support. Also, its skills are technically wells, but killable.Spellbreaker feels like a weird melee magic knight, rather than a Warrior. Paint it purple and slap it on Mesmer: suddenly it feels fitting to its profession.Soulbeast, like Renegade, got a weapon that feels like it should belong to a condi specialization, yet it's being played as a power spec. Also, you can pop some unbalanced pets like Rock Gazelle and Smokescreenscale and after that suck them in for better stats and there merge skills. In my opinion, pets should be permanently merged with that spec.Deadeye is a Sniper with insane access to stealth and other runaway tools (some of which ignore LOS). You can't get more [self-censored] than that.YHolosmith doesn't feel like Engineer at all. It feel like an completely different profession stuck onto Engineer. It feels more like it's supposed to trick people, who don't like Engineer, into playing the profession.Mirage is simply [self-censored]. It's designed to be regurgitating conditions and CC 'en masse' while evading everything.Scourge, while technically having an interesting concept, simply doesn't feel good. In a previous iteration, it's condition output via the shades was way too much, and the current iteration it feels more like a barrier generator than anything.Weaver is just another example of Shoving Elementalist, the profession with the least HP and defense, into melee range, arguably the most dangerous range. This doesn't go well: Either it has too many evades that people complain about not being able to hurt it; or people complain that's dying too fast (if Arenanet ever too away the evades.Firebrand, depending on your build, might overperform in healing and boon generation, but it's theme fits more to the profession than any other PoF specialization. It's main condition still is Burning, the tomes and Mantras reflect the 'Holy' aspect of the profession. I was happy to the tomes (albeit they are different) returning, as they are something that has been taken away from Guardians before. I don't like the axe though, I'd have preferred a right-hand Torch instead.

I like your reasoning on firebrand. I do feel like FB should have only one weapon set though since it gets access to so many more skills with that spec.

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This is a difficult question to keep one's own opinion away from, but I'll bite. Just from a mechanical perspective I'm going to have to agree that Firebrand is probably the most well-realized in all departments. The influence of you playing a Firebrand well can be felt in pretty much every gamemode. You feel a Firebrand's battle presence. It's extremely effective as support or as a DPS (although DH still holds out where power DPS is desired.) The active flow of skills lets you connect with GW2's combat on a really intimate level and allows you to translate mechanical skill into the game better than a lot of the other specs allow for. About the closest I've come to playing something that lets you interact with an engagement like FB does is probably core dual-wield axe/axe mace/mace war in PvE. xD The skill flow is so nice..

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@"Ovark.2514" said:Not "what's the best" or "what you like to play most." What spec has it's mechanic, utilities, traits, weapon, and theme, most well-realized AND WHY?

I'll comment on them all:

  • Spellbreaker: I feel like this made a Warrior feel the way a Warrior should feel.

  • Firebrand: GREAT idea and implementation of mechanics, makes a support feel the way a support should feel, but just ended up being too strong.

  • Renegade: After play testing it, I had to take a shower and clean the bottom of my shoes to make sure I didn't step in any $%^&.

  • Holosmith: Reskinned Reaper. Thought it was boring. Way too powerful. People only like it because it feels like you're a Saiyan when you play it. Scrapper was a way cooler design and implementation imo. Graphical & general idea behind Holo was cool, but the mechanics added were bland imo.

  • Deadeye: Absolutely love the idea & mechanics behind this. People need to buck up & l2p and stop complaining about this well designed specialization.

  • Soulbeast: Although I main this, It added little more to Ranger other than heightened DPS and less than half of an extra kit like Holo got. I feel like the "merge" idea was cool, but it should have been an implementation where "you do not get to have a pet at your side" if you play Soulbeast, your pet is 100% merged with you at all times, and swapping pets just swaps the merged skills, sort of like Herald. This would have made a very real tradeoff for playing Soulbeast over Core Ranger or even Druid. The way things are now, Soulbeast is just plainly an upgrade in every way to Core Ranger. And no, Core Ranger is not better than Soulbeast. The good Ranger players out there know what I'm talking about.

  • Mirage: Idea sounded great, sounded good, the idea of it, terrible implementation of mechanics that broke the game in every possible way. I don't want to meme on Mirage but seriously, the class mechanics that were dropped with this are absurdly disruptive to the game's dynamic in ways that have yet to this day been able to be properly balanced. I think Mirage is the only class in any game ever, that has somehow GOTTEN STRONGER each time it gets nerfed, which is the most obnoxious and stupid thing I've ever even heard of pertaining to gaming.

  • Scourge: Eh idea was acceptable. Mechanics are fun actually. Nothing to really praise or complain about here.

  • Weaver: I like the idea, don't like playing it. I've never really been an Ele player. I don't like the idea of cycling through 4 different kits to obtain performance. I've always preferred the idea of GW1 styled "Wait and preserve skills for the proper time to use them" kind of gameplay. I do not like class/build dynamics that encourage the idea of spamming through CDs as quickly as possible to achieve numeric output, and Ele has always been the epitome of that type of play.

I'd say the top 3 best implementations were:

  1. Deadeye - This truly brought a completely new type of dynamic and viable role to the game, a sniper. Even the lore and RP aspects were spot on about it. People just complained about it too hard because they were used to "non sniper" gameplay all through core & hot. The truth is that DE has never been overpowered, was never used in any serious competitive play. People just get raged in general about a headshot, regardless of the genre of game they are playing.
  2. Firebrand - This is what we all wanted a team support to feel like. Lore was adequate. This class made a team support feel like "A TEAM SUPPORT" which is sort of the effect that DE had, in terms of introducing a new type of dynamic. But in FB's case, it was just making the support role, become like a real support role.
  3. Spellbreaker - Warrior always had a good feel to it whether you were playing as it or fighting against it, but Spellbreaker really honed in on what Warrior play should feel like, in my opinion. I think Spellbreaker is the one class in this game that best represents a class that offers a high skill ceiling, while still having a low skill entry to be able to understand. It also just "feels good" to play as or against, nothing is really too over powered in any way that denies you of counter play against it. And due to the simple implementation of Full Counter, it really has the perfect blend of defensive capability and offensive kill power. In my opinion, Spellbreaker is actually the best designed spec in the game. When considering intra-class dynamic, I think Arenanet should be balancing this game's competitive aspects around Spellbreaker.
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@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

@"Ovark.2514" said:Not "what's the best" or "what you like to play most." What spec has it's mechanic, utilities, traits, weapon, and theme, most well-realized AND WHY?

I'll comment on them all:
  • Soulbeast: Although I main this, It added little more to Ranger other than heightened DPS and less than half of an extra kit like Holo got. I feel like the "merge" idea was cool, but it should have been an implementation where "you do not get to have a pet at your side" if you play Soulbeast, your pet is 100% merged with you at all times, and swapping pets just swaps the merged skills, sort of like Herald. This would have made a very real tradeoff for playing Soulbeast over Core Ranger or even Druid. The way things are now, Soulbeast is just plainly an upgrade in every way to Core Ranger. And no, Core Ranger is not better than Soulbeast. The good Ranger players out there know what I'm talking about.

I've heard this idea of having soulbeasts ALWAYS merged from several people now. Seems like if so many people want this it should be a thing. There is definitely a drawback at that point. Though, I think that soulbeast is one of the most poorly designed traitlines in the game. FFS one of the GMs is: Gain 10% more damage most of the time. Another GM is essentially the same thing as what a Berserker gets as a Major trait that no one runs.
  • Mirage: Idea sounded great, sounded good, the idea of it, terrible implementation of mechanics that broke the game in every possible way. I don't want to meme on Mirage but seriously, the class mechanics that were dropped with this are absurdly disruptive to the game's dynamic in ways that have yet to this day been able to be properly balanced.
    I think Mirage is the only class in any game ever, that has somehow GOTTEN STRONGER each time it gets nerfed,
    which is the most obnoxious and stupid thing I've ever even heard of pertaining to gaming.I never thought about them getting stronger each patch, but it definitely feels that way. It's just goes to show how broken the idea of mirage was from the get-go.I'd say the top 3 best implementations were:
  1. Deadeye - This truly brought a completely new type of dynamic and viable role to the game, a sniper. Even the lore and RP aspects were spot on about it. People just complained about it too hard because they were used to "non sniper" gameplay all through core & hot. The truth is that DE has never been overpowered, was never used in any serious competitive play. People just get raged in general about a headshot, regardless of the genre of game they are playing.
  2. Firebrand - This is what we all wanted a team support to feel like. Lore was adequate. This class made a team support feel like "A TEAM SUPPORT" which is sort of the effect that DE had, in terms of introducing a new type of dynamic. But in FB's case, it was just making the support role, become like a real support role.
  3. Spellbreaker - Warrior always had a good feel to it whether you were playing as it or fighting against it, but Spellbreaker really honed in on what Warrior play should feel like, in my opinion. I think Spellbreaker is the one class in this game that best represents a class that offers a high skill ceiling, while still having a low skill entry to be able to understand. It also just "feels good" to play as or against, nothing is really too over powered in any way that denies you of counter play against it. And due to the simple implementation of Full Counter, it really has the perfect blend of defensive capability and offensive kill power. In my opinion, Spellbreaker is actually the best designed spec in the game. When considering intra-class dynamic, I think Arenanet should be balancing this game's competitive aspects around Spellbreaker.

I definitely don't enjoy fighting spellbreakers. being able to constantly evade or block while dealing massive damage, CCing, and removing boons never felt fun to play against. Do you think Warrior should regain 33% or 1 adrenaline level of adrenaline when landing a burst skill as baseline?

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@Ovark.2514

I think adrenaline works fine the way it is now.

If there were an issue I'd address on Warrior, it would be Spellbreaker's Magebane Tether. I feel like if I get to the full length of the Tether, I should be able to dodge roll through the pull when it initiates and not have it effect me. When that pull can straight knock you out of a dodge, it feels a bit too cheese.

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